Martin Bloch is alive today only because his mother knew before many others the genocidal horrors that the Nazis would inflict during World War II.
Bloch’s mother knew being rounded up and place the Ivje Ghetto in Belarus in 1941 was a death sentence, so in December she and her two young sons escaped through barbed wire to a Christian farmer she knew. Days later the remaining Jews in Ivje were killed. Bloch’s father had been killed by the Germans in August.
Bloch, now 89, will be the guest speaker at Bayonne’s annual Holocaust Remembrance Service Monday in the Dorothy Harrington City Council Chambers (630 Avenue C). The event, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the United Jewish Appeal (UJA) Federation of Bayonne and the Bayonne Interfaith Clergy, and is hosted by the city of Bayonne.
Monday is the national Holocaust Remembrance Day.
“From the age of five until nine and a half, I was in survival mode,” Bloch, who was born in Poland, said in a 2018 interview. “We hid at the home of a righteous Christian friend my mom had for the first six months, and then joined the Jewish Partisan group called the Bielski Artrad.
“During those three and a half years, we were continuously on the move to escape from the Germans ... There was no time or place for idle activities.”
The 2008 feature film ”Defiance,” which starred Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber, was based on the wartime activities of the Bielski Brothers, a Jewish partisan group.
In 1952, Mr. Bloch emigrated to the United States and in 1961, he founded Frequency Electronics.
The event will include a candle-lighting ceremony to remember the victims of the Holocaust. The service will also feature brief remarks from Mayor Jimmy Davis and other elected officials offer brief remarks, along with the presentation of proclamations, resolutions and citations.
Clergy from various faiths will offer prayers and reflections and members of Bayonne’s veterans’ groups will carry the colors and the banners of their posts. Bayonne students will also participate in the processional. The Bees Knees choral group from Bayonne High School will sing the Jewish Partisan Song from World War II.
Hara L. Benjamin-Garritano, a cantorial singer, will lead the singing of Hatikvah. Alan Gordon Smulen, a cantorial singer from Temple Emanu-El, will lead the singing of the Star-Spangled Banner. Miguel Garcia will be the accompanist.
The winners of the Holocaust writing contest at Bayonne High School will read from the winning essay and poem. The students will receive an award sponsored by the Preminger and Epstein families.
Helene Kessel Nagiar and Joseph E. Ryan are co-chairs of the service.
