THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 20, 1996 TAG: 9603190066
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY JOAN C. STANUS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 147 lines
THERE IS THE GRIN of Esther Pincus, a feisty Norfolk career woman, who broke records selling World War II bonds, mugging for the camera, dressed in baggy Army fatigues with her arm wrapped around her only son, Harry.
Just before the shutter snapped some 50 years ago, she had emerged from an Army storage shed full of dynamite, where Harry had hidden her from his superiors after his mother had sneaked onto a training field to visit him.
There are the pictures taken by Sam Gollub, a retired pediatrician from Virginia Beach, who was part of the U.S. liberating forces that happened on the Dachau concentration camp. With shaking hands, Gollub aimed his camera at the row of boxcars, lined one after another along the railroad tracks, spilling over with unimaginable human carnage, to capture the devastation.
There are the newspaper articles chronicling the legal saga undertaken by Jacob and Sallie Marewitz, a married couple who both practiced law on the Peninsula. The Marewitzs helped a shipload of Jews fleeing Nazi Germany secure U.S. visas so they could disembark at a Hampton Roads port.
There is Dudley Cooper and the pictures of his legendary Ocean View Amusement Park. The Norfolk man opened the park during the war, partly at the urging of local officials, to give the burgeoning numbers of servicemen flooding into Hampton Roads a wholesome alternative to the Main Street brothels.
Ironically, within a year of the amusement park's opening, the local troops saw a significant decline in cases of venereal disease.
There is the crisp Grey Lady uniform, once belonging to Norfolk matriarch Elise Margolis, a woman who spent hour after hour in the basement of Norfolk's main old post office and court building, plotting and mapping enemy planes flying along the coast.
There is a local radio interview with a Norfolk soldier, Louis Freidman, taped on a European battlefield.
There are medals, ration tokens, military uniforms, maps, a scrapbook and such spoils of war as the ornamental German officer's sword and a Japanese regimental flag.
And there is the Yahrzeit List of the 20 local Jewish boys who died fighting in World War II.
Ohef Sholom Temple's latest historical exhibit, ``World War II and the Jewish Community of Tidewater: Heroes at Home, Heroes Abroad,'' is a collection of artifacts, textiles, photographs and newspaper articles that tells not only the story of a group of people who did their part during wartime but also chronicles the tale of their community.
``Because we are the oldest Jewish congregation in Norfolk, so much of our history represents the rise of Norfolk,'' said Jennifer Priest, the exhibit's archivist. ``Our history is Norfolk's history. And over the years, we have collected some really neat stuff.''
The project's coordinator of the project, Minette Cooper, added: ``We really wanted to rekindle people's interest in the war, its problems and its solutions. And we're hoping that once they see this exhibition, it will open a dialogue among a whole variety of people.''
The exhibit opens at 7 p.m. March 27 at the temple, located on Stockley Gardens at Raleigh Avenue. The exhibit will remain open to the public weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through June.
The temple's archive committee began working on the exhibit about a year ago. It is the group's second historical retrospective. Two years ago, members assembled an exhibit commemorating the congregation's 150 years of existence.
``That exhibition led to some very interesting discussions about anti-Semitism in this community,'' Cooper said. ``It really sensitized people to issues they never thought about before.''
That first showing was so successful among the public, and drew such a warm response and wealth of artifacts from congregants, the committee decided to tackle the subject of World War II for its next showing.
``We felt like now was the time to get schmaltzy and nostalgic about what people did 50 years ago, before we closed out this century and a lot of these people died,'' Priest explained. ``Sometimes, we tend to forget what really happened during that period of our history.''
Cooper added: ``We wanted to collect their memories for our sakes.''
As they did for the first exhibit, the committee asked the 800 families in the temple to comb through boxes hidden in their attics, scrapbooks and personal records for memorabilia that would be representative of the era. They ended up with far more than they could catalog.
The resulting exhibit, assembled by the committee and then put together by a professional production team at the Newport News-based Beyond Exhibits, is divided into several topic areas. Panels explore ``Heroines on the Homefront,'' ``Coping,'' ``Good Deeds in the Community'' and that Yahrzeit list of the dead. Display boxes include samples of military and volunteer group medals - including some bronze stars and purple hearts - Red Cross headpieces, uniforms and other artifacts.
To the side of the panels and display boxes, a table is set with period linens, holding a scrapbook of some of the 200 local Jewish men who served during World War II and a collection of newspaper clippings announcing military commissionings. The radio interview with a local reporter will be continuously ``broadcast'' from a vintage radio as browsers walk through the exhibit.
Committee members had a difficult time limiting the focus of the exhibit. Including information about the Holocaust was particularly ``problematic,'' Priest said. In the end, they decided to display some of Gollub's ``less-graphic'' images.
Priest explained: ``The Holocaust really has a life of its own. We could not omit it, but we had to be very careful of the treatment, otherwise it would overwhelm everything else that we were trying to do . . . and that was to show what the overall local Jewish community did, rather than the unconscionable horrors of the war.''
As a result, the temple's exhibit gives a decidedly local flavor to a powerful international event. For those interested in the history of Hampton Roads, it is a rare glimpse into a bygone era. MEMO: This story also appeared in the Norfolk Compass, Thursday, March 21,
1996.
AT A GLANCE
What: Historical exhibit, ``World War II and the Jewish Community of
Tidewater: Heroes at Home, Heroes Abroad.''
When: Exhibit opens at 7 p.m. March 27 and will remain open to the
public weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through June.
Where: Ohef Sholom Temple, Stockley Gardens at Raleigh Avenue,
Norfolk.
ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos, including color photo on cover, by JIM WALKER
The ``Heroes'' exhibit includes medals, military uniforms and
weapons.
1966 file photo
Dudley Cooper opened Ocean View Amusement Park to help entertain
WWII servicemen.
Photo courtesy of LOUIS FRIEDMAN
A 1940s photo taken in Germany captures a smiling Louis Friedman,
right, and a comrade.
Photo
Harry ``Hap'' Harrison Jr. stands on the bridge of the USS Chicadee,
where he was stationed during part of World War II.
Photo
Esther Pincus, right, a feisty Norfolk career woman, sneaked onto a
training field to visit her son Harry.
``Heroes'' focuses on the war efforts of Jewish men and women,
rather than the Holocaust.
Virginia Beach resident Sam Gollub posed with Arab children while
stationed in North Africa.
by CNB