Fundraiser launch, Schindler’s list, and the 200th portrait.

The Necessary War has a GoFundMe Page

Hello to all the wonderful supporters of the Necessary War educational photo project and book. The time has finally come for the large fundraiser to be launched. For now, it will be a GoFundMe page. If you are comfortable donating by other means such as Venmo or check, so that fees aren’t taken out, please contact me directly. The goal right now is $90,000. Why so much you might ask? An incredible amount of funds out of my own pocket have been spent traveling across North America and the World to document these amazing men and women who both served and survived. An incredible amount of money has been spent traveling the world to photograph essential locations that tell the stories of World War II and the Holocaust. Lastly, and incredible amount of money is going to be needed to complete the project. There are a number of Survivors and Veterans around the world whose story needs to be added to the pages of this book and project. The project needs funding in order to be able to document more of the concentration camps and battlefields in Europe where many of the Veterans and Survivors suffered. Most importantly, funding is needed for the enormously expensive trip of photographing the vast Pacific Theater. Your funding is essential to completing the project. Your donations will be used to purchase airfare, accommodations, travel such as car, train and ferry costs and guides in places like Iwo Jima, Pearl Harbor, and the Philippines. In Europe, the project still needs to document concentration camps such as Bergen-Belsen (where Anne Frank perished), Buchenwald, Stutthof, Treblinka and Mauthausen. The Italian front including the two cemeteries, Anzio, Monte-Cassino, and the Gothic line should be included. In the Pacific, Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Saipan, Guam, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki are essential to telling the full story in photographs to all future generations. Please help by donating whatever you can. No donation is too small or too large. Please include your name with your donation so that you can be listed inside the book as a supporter. Additional information about the fundraiser can be found on the GoFundMe page. More importantly, if you are willing, please share this fundraiser link on your social media pages and with friends and family. This project needs all the support it can get financially so that we can teach countless generations to come about the sacrifice and heroics by our veterans and survivors and the real price of Freedom!

Project Updates

Line #548

#548 was the number on Schindler’s List of 1,100 Jews, that read: “Goldberger, Roman, 10.8.22 Autoklempnergeselle” (His name was later changed to Lesniak). The ink on that paper saved him from an almost certain death sentence at the hands of the S.S. The movie “Schindler’s List”, released in 1993 was nominated for twelve Oscars at the 66th Academy Awards, and won seven, including Best Picture and Best Director (for Spielberg). 30 years later, it is still the most recognized film about the Holocaust ever produced. It was important to me to that this important work was represented by one of its survivors. It is a monumental story both because of what was done to save 1,100 Jews from the gas chambers of Auschwitz, and the importance of the film in our culture. The challenge of arranging a meeting with a survivor from the list of Jews saved by Oscar Schindler and his wife, is that only 4 still live today, with Roman being the only survivor living in North America. Roman no longer gives interviews at age 101 but allowed me to visit with the condition that I would not conduct an interview.

Roman began working in his father’s factories and going to trade school as a young boy. Roman just turned 17 when the Germans invaded Poland and seized all Jewish busines. His family lost everything and soon found themselves living in the horrific conditions of the Krakow Ghetto. One by one he lost countless family members at the hands of the Nazis. His Father was murdered when he joined the resistance. During the Ghetto liquidation on March 13, 1943, his mother was killed, and later his sister died in Auschwitz at the hands of Dr. Mengele. Due to his experience in the factory, Roman was able be included on Schindler’s list and survived the Holocaust along with his brother. He went on to join the Israeli Army and was wounded twice in the subsequent wars of the 1940’s.

To Mr. Lesniak, I was likely just another historian trying to capture his incredible survival story, but to me, it meant the world. I appreciate every single veteran and survivor who takes the time to speak with me but being able meet with Mr. Lesniak this past weekend was an emotional experience. With world events going on now, it is more important than ever to learn from the past about what hate can do to humanity.

Portrait #200

A little less than 4 years ago, I had done a portrait and interview with one World War II veteran, the amazing Al Mampre, and no Holocaust survivors. I never would’ve imagined in the time since, including 18 months of no meetings due to COVID, I would have the honor of having 200 of these heroes sit for their portrait for this project. Even more incredible that in one weekend in Montreal, I was able to include 4 more Holocaust survivors, 4 Soviet survivors from the siege of Leningrad, and 2 veterans of the Soviet Army. It continues to be important to document a wide range of stories from all sides of this horrific period of time in human history. The 200th participant in this project was Holocaust Survivor Tibor “Ted” Bolgar. Despite being legally blind and nearly deaf at age 99, he still continues to speak out against hate and gives talks about his experiences in a number of concentration camps including Auschwitz and Dachau.

I am dedicated to sharing as many of these men and women’s stories as possible. When this started, I was wondering how the hell I was going to find five veterans and survivors, never mind 200. The more I learn from these people the more I want to make sure the stories are preserved forever and that their face can live on forever alongside their story. That is why this project has grown so large and why I need your help more than ever.

Please join the team as a supporter. Donate on the GoFundMe Page, like, follow and subscribe on the Facebook and Instagram pages, and most importantly, spread the word amongst family and friends asking for their support as well.

Hamas’s terrorist attacks on Israel and the subsequent war

I do not, by any means, claim to be well informed about the history of the state of Israel and its Middle East relations, but I felt it would be wrong not to say something about the current events in this email based on how horrified the Holocaust survivors I know feel right now. What I do know, is that Hamas conducted unspeakable atrocities during their terrorist attacks against Israel on October 7th, 2023, with the goal, as per usual, of annihilating the Jewish race and the state of Israel. What has since resulted is suffering by the populations of both Gaza and Israel. Terrorist attacks and the atrocities committed by Hamas have no place in this world and should never be justified for any reason. The state of Israel must be protected.

What these attacks have led to, and what I now see on the news and in photographs is horrific human suffering in both Israel and Gaza by innocent civilians, much like what we saw in World War II.

This leads me to a major point, and why I am so dead set on completing this project and using it to teach people for generations to come. I don’t pretend to believe the amount of hate in this world can ever be eradicated, but I will use this project as a platform for the rest of my life to speak out against human suffering that results from this terrible hate that exists across the world, that can lead humans to conduct such horrible acts such as those by Hamas. Through education, we can teach tolerance, and maybe reduce such endless suffering across the world and that is what I am dedicated to doing. Black, white, brown, gay, straight, Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Liberal, Conservative, the list goes on. We don’t have to agree with these beliefs and the people that are different from us, but we must learn to be more tolerant. We are one people! One human race! One species! We share the planet with 8 billion others. Let’s all learn the lessons from World War II, where humanity was determined to destroy itself, and let’s work to be more accepting of those different then ourselves so we can try to avoid disasters such as those in Israel and Gaza right now.

How can you help:

Please support this project. It is more important than ever to teach the history of World War II and the Holocaust.

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