Holocaust survivors share family recipes

Peri Hirsch remembers her mother cooking and baking in preparation for the Jewish Sabbath. "I loved to watch her," says Hirsch, 81, who lived with her parents, eight siblings and grandparents in Transylvania, Romania, before World War II. "She would make soups, challah, sponge cake, strudel -- she was a great cook."

In 1944, when she was 14, the Germans took Hirsch and her family to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Sent to a forced labor camp, she survived an Allied bombing raid in which two of her sisters were killed, before being liberated by Allied forces in April 1945. "We were nine children, three of us survived -- two older brothers and me," she says.

Hirsch's story is detailed in a book by June Feiss Hersh, "Recipes Remembered: A Celebration of Survival" (Ruder Finn Press, $36). It is a compilation of Holocaust survivor stories, food memories and recipes that honor family members who perished during the genocide.

Hirsh, a former Manhasset resident who now lives in Floral Park, is among several survivors with Long Island roots who contributed to the more than 80 stories and 170 recipes in the book. She shared her mother's recipe for walnut cookies and rugelach pastries.

For those who couldn't remember their family recipes, Hersh enlisted food professionals including Daniel Boulud, Arthur Schwartz and Ina Garten to help recreate favorite dishes. Proceeds will be donated to The Museum of Jewish Heritage -- A Living Memorial to The Holocaust.

The survivors all suffered the loss of loved ones. What they also have in common are warm memories of the foods they shared with their families before they were torn apart. "For the survivors," Hersh says, "food was the thread that cemented the two parts of their lives; that part before the Holocaust and how they picked up after."

Their memories of certain dishes sustained them even when they had so little. "People always talked about what their mothers made, or holiday specialties," recalls Raymond Fishler, 86, a former Rockville Centre resident who now lives in Wayne, N.J. Fishler was interned in the Plaszow concentration camp. One of six children, he and his father were the only family members to survive.

Fishler's wife, Rhoda, 80, says being married to a Holocaust survivor "comes with extra baggage," because of all of the painful memories. "It means walking a fine line between the present and the past," she says. Fishler couldn't remember any family recipes from his childhood, so his wife contributed her recipe for meringue nut cookies, which has become their family tradition at Passover seders. She says she cooks Eastern European cuisine because "it brings a sense of continuity and is important for the next generation."

Melly Resnicow's love for baking began as a child in Germany, helping her mother. "I'm known as the caterer," says Resnicow, 85, of East Williston. "My chocolate roll cake recipe [her contribution to the book] has become a trademark for me, and I bake challah for every wedding and bar mitzvah." She continues the family tradition by baking with her 8-year-old granddaughter, Kyra.

"I lost a lot of family during the Holocaust," she says. "It was my goal to have a family again." Resnicow and her husband Herbert, who have been married for 52 years, raised four children, and are the grandparents of six.

Resnicow and her family emigrated to America from Munich, Germany in 1938. She had to become the breadwinner after her father, who had been a prisoner in the Dachau concentration camp, died of a massive stroke after coming to this country.

In the book, Jay Bielski, 64, of North Woodmere, and his brother, Zvi Bielski, 58, of Midwood, Brooklyn recount the savory meals enjoyed during weekend gatherings at the homes of their parents and uncles. During the war, their father Zus, and uncles Tuvia and Asael formed a partisan unit in the forests of western Belarus and helped save 1,200 lives.

After the war, the Bielski family settled in Brooklyn and people would come to their home from all over to socialize, drink vodka and recall the partisan days. In the big kitchen, their mother Sonia, now 89, of Midwood, would make cholent -- a slow-cooked stew -- in a giant pot. But the starring dish was kishke, made from a cow's intestine stuffed with mincemeat and flour. "I can taste it now," Jay says. From the original 1,200 people who were saved, there are 20,000 descendants he says. "The bond never leaves. The partisans became lifelong friends and their children, too."

Sonia Bielski suffers from dementia, but when her sons were interviewed for the book, they remembered that after coming to this country, she enjoyed going out for Chinese food on Sunday. In her honor, Susie Fishbein, author of the "Kosher by Design" cookbook series, contributed two of her own recipes to "Recipes Remembered" -- mandarin chicken salad and sesame beef and broccoli over ramen noodles.

For Celia Kener, 75, a former Roslyn resident who now lives in Floral Park, cooking for her husband Paul, three grown children and seven grandchildren is her greatest joy. "Eating together as a family is a very special time," she says. "A homemade meal is special. If it tingles your tongue with a special taste, you will remember that meal."

She recalls when she was a child, hiding in the Lvov ghetto in Poland. During a German raid, her aunt was being taken away and called out to her: "Celia, survive and tell our story." A courageous Christian woman risked the lives of her own family to save Kener and her mother by hiding them for 18 months in a barn.

For the cookbook, Kener contributed two recipes, one for stuffed cabbage she makes by cooking shredded cabbage and meat together. "It's less work -- you don't have to roll it," she explains. The second recipe is for citrus rice pudding, a variation of the dessert her mother used to make.

"I'm flattered that my family thinks of me [as a good cook], and hopefully these dishes will bring back good thoughts of me," says Kener, who is called "Gigi" by her grandchildren. "Like the scent of the perfume I always wear, the foods I prepare should be something that when they taste it, or recall the love with which it was made by me, or the times we shared it together . . . that is my legacy to them. That is what gives me happiness."

A sample recipe

Celia Kener's holishkes
shortcut unstuffed cabbage
(From "Recipes Remembered A Celebration of Survival")

For the sauce
1 large green cabbage (2 to 2½ pounds), cored and sliced

24 ounces ginger ale

2 tablespoons brown sugar

4 tablespoons honey

For the meatballs
1½ pounds ground beef

1½ teaspoons kosher salt

3 tablespoons ketchup

¼ cup seasoned bread crumbs

1 egg

5 tablespoons uncooked long grain rice

1. To prepare the sauce, combine the cabbage, ginger ale, brown sugar and honey in a large Dutch oven. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to low.

2. To make the meatballs, mix ground beef, salt, ketchup, bread crumbs, egg and rice. (Nothing works better than your two hands.) Add more bread crumbs if meat does not hold together. Form mixture into 1-inch diameter meatballs.

3. Place the meatballs in the pot of cabbage and gently stir so they incorporate with the sauce. Cover and cook on low heat for 2 hours, until the cabbage is tender and the meatballs are firm but cooked through.

(Note: For a stronger tomato flavor, add a 14-ounce can of tomato sauce to the pot while the cabbage cooks. If you like it sour, add lemon juice, white vinegar or a little sour salt to achieve the perfect pucker.) Serves 4 to 6 as a main course; 6 to 8 as a starter.