Many European Jews who were saved from the Nazis avoided speaking about their horrific experiences and family losses in the Holocaust. But longtime Jerusalem Post journalist Ernie Meyer – who was sent to England in 1939 in the Kindertransport, after being interned in a camp as a suspected German spy – always avidly wrote about that era.
Meyer, who died at age 92 in 2015, was a talented artist even as a teen. His artworks depict scenes and people from his childhood, various still lifes, and religious objects. At 16, he painted a colorful picture called The Last Goodbye, in which he commemorated the moment of farewell from his mother at the Cologne, Germany, railway station, when he was fortunate enough to be sent to safety with his younger sister Eva.
When he produced the painting, he didn’t imagine that he would never see his parents again. His parents – a cattle wholesaler and a housewife – perished in the concentration camps.
The painting is part of the touching, small-scale exhibition “Forgotten Childhoods” at Yad Vashem’s Museum of Art, marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp. The exhibition will be on display for the next six months.
An exhibit on the childhoods lost to the Holocaust
In addition to Meyer’s painting, six other artworks by Michael Falk, who eventually came to Israel, depict childhood memories from Germany during the Holocaust. Falk’s paintings include a scene in which a child is being abused in the schoolyard as the teacher looks on, pretending not to acknowledge what is happening.
Yair Noam, born in Germany in 1922, came to Israel in 1938. His parents were murdered by the Nazis. His drawing, donated by his children, envisions what it would look like if his family had been reunited in Israel, with the images symbolizing the dreams of children.
Meyer, who launched his Jerusalem Post career in 1967 translating advertisements, went on to become a celebrated reporter. He would joke that when he started working at the newspaper, all he knew about journalism was that “newspapers were good for wrapping fish.”
He eventually settled in Canada, graduated from the University of Toronto, and taught religion in an afternoon Jewish school. Dissatisfied with teaching, he left the school to become a partner in a used car business. At age 38, he married Naomi, who insisted they make aliyah and live in Jerusalem – for which Meyer was eternally grateful. They raised their five children in Bayit Vagan, producing a tribe that now includes dozens of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Meyer initially covered transportation but went on to specialize in education and Holocaust subjects until his retirement in 1993. He was most proud of his intensive, award-winning coverage of the trial of suspected Nazi murderer John Demanjuk. He also reported on the activities of Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal, and he frequently interviewed Franco-German journalist and Nazi hunter Beate Klarsfeld and her French husband, Serge.
In retirement, he spent time at Yad Vashem and attended art and Torah classes. On his 90th birthday party, he said: “All in all, I led a good and meaningful life, and I am grateful for all the good that God has blessed me.”
