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SALVADORES DESCONOCIDOS
HIRAM BINGHAM IVSalvador honrado con un sello postal
Se acaba de emitir un sello postal en los Estados Unidos en honor de un salvador. He aquí el relato de quién fue y a quiénes colaboró en salvar contado por Rosian Zerner de la International Federation of Jewish Child Survivors of the Holocaust. Como con muchos otros, en vida nadie supo de su conducta, sólo fue descubierta después de su muerte cuando un hijo encontró papeles que así lo atestiguaban. Un verdadero salvador.
I want to share with you an extraordinary event and experience. I am privileged to have been able to support the successful U.S. postage stamp drive for Hiram Bingham IV on behalf of Holocaust survivors, descendants and others with the backing of the World Federation of Jewish Child Survivors of the Holocaust. It gave me the opportunity to thank him for helping save probably over 2000 lives. That means that about one million individuals are alive today because of his acts of moral courage and what has been called "constructive dissent. My son Langdon created an online petition and I worked tirelessly to collect names on and off the web that were then presented to Robert Bingham the stamp drive coordinator.
I did this simply out of gratitude. Gratitude for Hiram Bingham, gratitude for my rescuers, for all the rescuers who were not thanked or thanked enough for many reasons. The petition also gave other Holocaust survivors the opportunity to do the same by adding their name to the request for a U.S. Stamp.
Yesterday I was in Washington at a celebration in Honor of the Hiram Bingham IV U.S. Postage Stamp in the Gold Room, Rayburn Building, the Capitol. This was sponsored by the David S.Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, Wally Findlay Galleries International and in cooperation with Hon. Tom Lantos, who was one of the speakers. Other speakers included the Hon. Joseph Lieberman, Hon., Franz Leicher, Hon. Rob Simmons, Robert Bingham, Rafael Meadoff, Sara Bloomfield and Bella Meyer, granddaughter of Marc Chagall who was helped by Harry Bingham. I was acknowledged twice from the podium, many of the 11 children and descendants of Hiram Bingham were present and it was truly a wonderful, meaningful and moving celebration.
Part of a prominent N.E. family, Hiram's father was a Senator and Governor of Connecticut and the discoverer of Macchu Picchu, that some say inspired Spielberg's Indiana Jones series. His mother was the granddaughter of Charles Tiffany, founder of the Tiffany jewelry dynasty. He worked closely with Varian Fry and among the refugees for whom he issues visas and shielded in his home were famous artists like Marc Chagall, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst and Jacques Lipschitz, Andre Breton, founder of surrealism and architect Walter Gropius. He helped writers Lion Feuchtwanger, Franz Werfel, Arthur Koestler and the philosopher Hannah Arendt. Golo Mann (Thomas Mann Jr.) and Nobel Prize-winning scientist Otto Meyrhof were also among those he helped to rescue.
Only after his death in 1988, when William Bingham found a box of his father's papers, did the family learn about Hiram's rescue activities. The stamp that honors him this week as the only known U.S. diplomat who saved lives is a good- news-story with a happy ending for all who respect not only what he did but what he represents.
If you wish to learn more about Hiram Bingham IV (Harry) check out Robert Bingham's website or the article in today's Washington Post.
I am still elated by the extraordinary event and experience and am proud that through my effort there has been a Holocaust survivor/Jewish presence in helping make this stamp happen. I want to thank and applaud all of you who signed the petition!
Rosian
