Holocaust Survivor Lillian Riess Widess left Europe behind
just two years before becoming an entrant in the 1948 Queen of the Palestine
Emergency Show pageant. Both her parents were murdered in the Holocaust along with her
older brother Alfred. The story goes that they were murdered in the streets
during a Nazi-sponsored pogrom in Taurogge, Lithuania. Of the other members of
the family, only Lillian’s sister Hilda escaped death, having married and moved
to South America with her husband’s family in 1933.
Lillian, my husband’s paternal first cousin once removed, survived
the Kovno Ghetto and two labor camps, before landing in a DP camp south of
Munich, in Landsberg. In 1946, sponsored by her aunt and uncle, she was at last
able to leave the blood-soaked ground of Europe for Chicago. She came with
nothing—bereft even of the comfort of a family photo. Surviving relatives and
friends embraced Lillian by gathering up and sending her all the pre-war family
photos they could find. Because of this, Lillian was at least in part, able to
recover a portion of her collection: faces to go with the memories of loved
ones stolen by Hitler.
Lillian was a beauty. Even the war had not robbed her of
that. No one knows how she ended up a contestant in the Queen of the Palestine
Emergency Show pageant or even whether she won. But everyone acknowledges that she had
what it took to compete.
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| Lillian Riess, circa 1946-1948, Chicago |
Little could be found by this writer of the Palestine Emergency Show that featured the beauty pageant. The competition for "queen" was an obvious draw for residents of local Jewish neighborhoods, a way to encourage attendance at the rally, to be held in Chicago Stadium. Lillian Riess competed as a representative of the Southwest Side of Chicago.
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| Lillian Riess, at bottom right |
What did the new Jewish State mean to someone like Lily
Riess, who was caught and treated like vermin to be crushed, her family
murdered in the streets, only because they were Jews? Was her participation in the pageant a
statement of survival against all odds--her contribution to ensuring that her
people could and would be restored to their homeland, never to be at the mercy
of evil again? From this distance, we can only guess at Lillian's reasons for
taking part in a 1948 beauty contest in Chicago. But there is no doubt that she once
again felt a part of a community, and was glad to play an active role in local
Jewish life.
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| After the tragedy in Europe, Lillian went on to have a full life in America. On her honeymoon in Carmel, 1948 |
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| Lillian, 1956 |
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| Late 1960s |
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| At home with her daughter Karen, circa 1972. |
As we can see in this full page ad from the Chicago Sentinel, the rally was definitely a big deal, with a slated appearance by renowned tenor Jan Pierce, a “gigantic” symphony orchestra, and not less than 50 cantors “in ceremonial dress.” The purpose of the event? Among other things, to protest against Britain’s furnishing of arms to the Arabs in their war of aggression against the Jews; to force the US to lift its embargo on supplying munitions to Israel; to raise funds for “the defense of the new Jewish State,” and to “unmask the sinister underlings in the State Department who defy the will of the American people."
The advertisement for the event refers to “Palestine” rather
than Israel, possibly out of long habit and perhaps to ensure that prospective
attendees understood what the demonstration was all about. Headed by a most
frightening prediction, “A massacre is coming—unless . . ” followed by a list
of dire possibilities threatening the fledgling nation state of the Jewish people, the
advertisement could not fail to catch the eye. It was expected that tens of
thousands would attend.
Did the event live up to the hype? It is difficult to say. I
could find nothing more in the Sentinel archives,
and nothing in the Chicago Tribune—nothing about the number of attendees, the
amount of money raised, or who won the beauty pageant.* But there are still facts to be
gleaned from an old newspaper clipping about a beauty pageant and a full-page
ad for a rally held just one month before the end of Israel’s War of
Independence, when things did not look so good for the Jews or their state:
Fact one: American Jews understood the ominous threat to the
Jewish State and felt a deep kinship to their brethren there, to the point they
were willing to go to bat for them against the State Department,
Britain, Bevin, the Mufti, and anyone else who stood in their way.
Fact two: American Jews understood that Palestine was really Israel, indigenous Jewish territory; that the Jews had a right to self-determination in
their homeland; and that the Arabs, and not the Jews, were the occupiers and aggressors.
Fact three: The Jews of Chicagoland didn’t just talk the
talk but proved their devotion to their people through
action, organizing a massive, logistically complicated, and likely expensive
demonstration in Chicago Stadium.
Fact four: The organizers of the Palestine Emergency Show
fully believed they could easily draw tens of thousands of attendees who cared
enough about Israel and the Jews who were living and dying there, to buy a
ticket and represent.
It could never happen today.
*Hoping my readers will uncover further details
In memory of Lillian Widess, 1927-2005. Her birthday would have been this week.
(All photos courtesy of Karen Widess)
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