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Religion

Amid painful stories, an inspiring one

On Holocaust Remembrance Day, a man who spared about a dozen Jews is honored.

By EILEEN SCHULTE
Published May 7, 2005

PALM HARBOR - The old man sat in the second row of the temple wearing an oversized brown jacket, his eyelids half closed.

He wore a brightly colored yarmulke and a hearing aid. A cane rested by his side.

Like the others in the audience, Walter Ukalo was at Temple Ahavat Shalom on a rainy Wednesday night for Yom HaShoah, a ceremony to remember the 6-million Jews who died during the Holocaust.

But he is not Jewish.

Perhaps the only Christian in the temple that night, he was the honored guest.

At times during the service, the 90-year-old Sarasota man clenched his fist.

He had been to a hell that others can only imagine. He had dared them to kill him, yet they didn't, and here he sat in 2005, watching a handful of survivors lighting six candles for those who perished during Adolf Hitler's reign. After a prayer, Ukalo's grandson, Jonathan Zimmer, steeled himself at the podium and recounted what his grandfather did six decades ago.

Some, but not all, in the Tampa Bay area are familiar with the story.

Zimmer told them that in 1921, Ukalo's family moved in next door to the Roth family in the industrial city of Brody in Poland.

Ukalo fell in love with one of the Roth girls, Dorothy, who was Jewish.

When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Dorothy, who had married another man, found herself alone after her husband fled in fear.

Under the threat of death, Ukalo decided to protect Dorothy, her sister Gina and Gina's infant, Sabina, hiding them near a forest with a Ukrainian peasant.

But sensing danger, the peasant decided to let only Gina stay, so Ukalo, who had joined an underground organization that helped Jews, obtained false papers identifying himself, Dorothy and Sabina as a family and moved them around while rescuing other Jews at the same time.

"He traveled to the ghettos where Germans had herded the Jews, and told guards they had improperly restrained members of his own family," Zimmer said. "He pointed to Jewish women saying, "That's my sister.' "

Ukalo's efforts during the war saved perhaps a dozen Jews.

In 1979, he was honored by the Holocaust Martyrs and Heros Remembrance Authority in Israel as "Righteous Among Nations."

"My Grandma Dorothy, the love of my grandpa's life, passed away in 1992," Zimmer said. "During the Holocaust, my grandpa's most important priority was protecting her life, at any cost. To quote my grandfather, "I was not afraid. I was anxious to be killed together with Dorothy. Whatever happened to her happened to me.' "

After Zimmer finished his speech, he asked Ukalo to stand. He rose unsteadily to his feet and waved.

"My grandpa's actions have strengthened my relationship with God," said Zimmer, 29, a Tampa resident and manager of a medical supply company. "While others understandably ask, where was God during the Holocaust, my question is, where was man? How come more of our fellow men didn't act like my grandpa? How come mankind did not refuse to take part in the regime of Hitler? How can man be so selfish, evil and full of hatred?"

The program continued with local rabbis reading poems, stories and other writings inspired by the Holocaust.

Rabbi Danielle Upbin of Temple Beth Shalom in Clearwater read a piece by Elie Wiesel, 1986 Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust survivor.

"This is what I think we are trying to prove to ourselves, desperately, because it is desperately needed: in a world of absurdity, we must invent reason; we must create beauty out of nothingness. And because there is murder in this world - and we are the first ones to know it - and we know how hopeless our battle may appear, we have to fight murder and absurdity and give meaning to the battle, if not to our hope."

After the rabbis were done, the names of every concentration camp were recited first in Hebrew and then in English. The program ended with traditional songs by Colman Reboi, Yaacov Ephron and David Sislen.

"The Holocaust was an example of the depths to which people can sink," said Rabbi Gary Klein of Temple Ahavat Shalom. "We gather to express our gratitude for courage of the victims who perished and those who survived. We gather to make sure that nothing that resembles a Holocaust ever happens again."

[Last modified May 7, 2005, 01:02:18]