Once upon a time, not so long ago, entire villages of families were taken from their homes and transported to new quarters, where the men and women were separated, their children taken from them, and all were made to work until sent to their deaths.

It wasn’t a fairy tale.

And Author Susan Goldman Rubin says, “It could have been me.”

Having written more than 25 books, the Sycamore Canyon resident says, “As a Jew, and as a children’s book writer and as an artist, I had always wanted to make some contribution to the body of holocaust literature geared toward children. Children should know, so this kind of thing doesn’t happen again, to anyone.”

She researched intensively at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, where she first learned of Terezin, a ghetto/concentration camp in what was then Czechoslovakia, which imprisoned many artists and musicians. The Nazis forbade education of the Jews, so it was carried on in secret. The children wanted to learn, wanted to be in school, Rubin notes. Despite the sickness, overcrowding and starvation, the children of the camp were encouraged by the artists to write poetry, perform music, act, and paint and draw. A Bauhaus-trained applied artist, Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, gave art lessons to the children, saving their works in suitcases that she hid each night.

When the Nazis gave orders for Jews to pack and leave for the camps, they permitted only 110 pounds of belongings per person, says Rubin. Instead of packing personal items, Dicker-Brandeis, already an art therapist and a teacher, brought art supplies. The Nazis gave Jews a number to dehumanize them, says Rubin, but Dicker-Brandeis kept them humanized by encouraging art and having the children sign their works.

Of the 15,000 children who passed through Terezin, only about 100 survived. “Just the numbers are staggering,” she says. “The Nazis established Terezin as a hoax. It was supposed to be a model camp, so people thought it would be safe there, but it was a way station to Auschwitz.” One of the transports, carrying 1,000 Jews, took Dicker-Brandeis and 30 of her students to Auschwitz-Birkenau and murdered them.

So Rubin, who has written other biographies for young people, including ones on Frank Lloyd Wright and Margaret Bourke-White, chose to focus her book on Dicker-Brandeis, depicting the story accurately but inspiring hope. Titled “Fireflies in the Dark,” the 48-page book, designed for children ages 8-12, includes photographs and reproductions of the artwork of Dicker-Brandeis, her colleagues and her students at Terezin.

Rubin and her husband, Michael, had been planning a special holiday in Brittany and Normandy, a romantic trip, she says. But the publisher, Holiday House, immediately offered her a contract. Rubin asked her husband if he would mind the detour. She continued her research at the Wiesenthal Center, requesting letters of introduction so she could begin interviewing survivors.

In Prague, they met Dana Liebl, now a professor of foreign languages and director of the Terezin Initiative, an association of survivors. “It was a life-changing experience,” Rubin says.

The Rubins toured Terezin, assisted by an Austrian intern, who worked there in lieu of military service. She says the camp is visited by hundreds of schoolchildren from all over the world.

Rubin also contacted another survivor, Ela Weissberger, living in New York, who had sung in every performance of “Brundibar,” a children’s opera composed by one of the prisoners at Terezin.

At the launch and book signing of “Fireflies in the Dark” Sunday at the Wiesenthal Center, children from Opera Pacific will be singing excerpts from Brundibar, and Weissberger will be present. It’s a family program, Rubin emphasizes.

Rubin is planning a second book on the survivors. “My research certainly doesn’t end with the publication of this book.” She is continuing that research at the Wiesenthal Center Library. “It’s a marvelous library, dedicated to educating in the spirit of preventing any kind of evils happening anywhere in the world again.”

The national launch and book signing for “Fireflies in the Dark” begins with a family program May 7, 3:30-4:30 p.m., Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance, by reservation only, free admission, telephone 772.2526.

Just a short note to thank you for your article on the Coastal Commission and Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy meeting to get a permit to commercialize Ramirez Canyon Road. The meeting was held on the Queen Mary in Long Beach on April 12th. My husband and I along with many neighbors attended the meeting.

It was so one sided and rude of the Coastal Commission who did not even have the courtesy to give their attention to the Ramirez Canyon speakers, including the Malibu City Attorney. The meeting was a total sham.

No wonder people get so discouraged and disgusted with some government officials who appear to have double standards when it suits them.

Once again what you wrote about Joe Edmiston and the Coastal Commission was so true. Thank You!

Jean and Lance Anderson

Malibu’s first fundraiser for Domestic Violence on April 12th was a huge success.

Thank you to everyone who participated in our event. Due to many contributions, we were able to raise money for the Nicole Brown Charitable Foundation. Special thanks to Beverly Taki, Prescott Krysler and the entire staff at Duke’s Restaurant, Gail Lowe, Mary Bush, Kim Collen-Ross, Coldwell Banker Realtors, Michael Novotny and Fred Sands Realtors, Stan Bush, Jeff Schermer, Ron Di Buccio, Holger Fath, David and Lorraine Paich, Jon Lindstrom and Eileen Davidsen, Marvin and Marcella Mitchelson, Bernard from Clarrise, Laurie from Planet Blue, Sir Richard’s House of Curry, Faith Valentine, Anne Parks, The Malibu Times, the Malibu Surfside News, Joseph Marion, Stella Plunket, Denise Brown, Lou and Juditha Brown, Errol Rappaport and Glen Lipton for his fabulous photos.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Carol Casey and Lydia Simon

co-chair

Like a Guardian Angel she flew into our midst, alighted on a branch of an ancient Redwood Tree and told us her prophecy that Love must overwhelm the World. Her name is Julia”Butterfly” Hill and she spent two arduous years living on a tiny wooden platform near the top of a giant Coastal Redwood in protest of the logging of the old growth forest. While in her aerie she was transformed and from that hazardous perch she began to tell the world of the sacred nature of these ancient trees, how they represent the divinity of the planet and why we must not destroy them. At 23 years of age “Butterfly” had emerged from her cocoon to broadcast to Mankind how important it is to love this Earth and each other. This young woman is an Oracle of the highest order and her intelligence and insight would have been well suited for the Temple of Apollo at Delphi in the Golden Age of Greece.

How fortunate we were to be in her presence and hear her speak. Like the sounds of wind chimes, her words drifted into our spirits and gave us all new and positive perspectives as Earthlings. Such a gift, and it happened in Malibu at Earth Trust’s enclave for Justice. Thanks to Valerie Sklarevsky, who arranged for Julia to speak, Malibu was honored by her presence.

Pacific Lumber Company officials, who sought to drive Julia out of the giant tree, threatened her life with attacks by MAXXAM Corporation helicopters and trees felled almost on top of her by logger’s chainsaws. The Corporation did not persuade her into descending from the Tree. No logger had the courage to climb up there (as she had) and force her to the ground. Julia’s amazing spirit sustained her and helped change destructive logging practices by Pacific Lumber. Though much of the Old Growth Forest is still threatened, “Butterfly’s” courageous example and message is being broadcast throughout the World. It will, I am certain, give needed CPR (Conservation, Preservation and Restoration) to an Earth that struggles to breathe.

Mystically, the Tree radiated deeply into Julia’s Spirit and touched her heart. Far from being bitter and angry with the despoilers of Nature, Julia’s message has become one of Love. She believes that Love will inspire others, even one’s supposed enemies, to recognize the Earth’s sacred places and beings that we must revere. Malibu could learn a lot from this devoted young woman. We still have a “Geography of Hope” here and should act in good conscience to protect it.

Ronn Hayes

Try to visualize a situation where a divorced couple, living in New York City, share joint custody of their 6-year-old child, who resides with the father but sees the mother regularly.

Suddenly one day, the father, who is a very liberal, born-again progressive Democrat, decides there are two many Republicans living on Sutton Place on the upper eastside of Manhattan, where his child is being raised. To save the child from any further corruption, he’s going to move to the more liberal shores of Santa Monica, California, a place notoriously uncorrupted by any hints of Republicanism. So he packs his son and all of his worldly goods into his appropriately progressive Volvo, neglects to tell his ex-wife and heads west into the setting sun.

Several days later tragedy strikes. Their Volvo is involved in a tragic accident on the Santa Monica Freeway and the father is killed but the boy, who is asleep in the back seat, miraculously escapes harm. The CHP finds the father, trapped in the car, dying, holding a blood stained letter in his hand from his Santa Monica relatives inviting them to stay with them in Santa Monica. His dying words to the CHP are, “Take my boy to his cousins in Santa Monica.”

Figuring that the kid had been through enough already, the CHP temporarily turns the little boy over to his aunts and uncles and cousins rather than taking him to foster care. Then they call the mother in New York City to tell her what happened.

The mother collapses. A short time later, the Santa Monica relatives call the mother back in New York, extend their condolences, and then advise her that they’re not going to return the child because, in their opinion, her unbridled Republicanism, and the rank, outrageous Republicanism of New York City which has kept Rudy Giuliani in power, an obvious disciple of the dark side, is both corrupting and destroying the child. They know it’s in the best interest of the boy, whom they assure her is very happy, that he remain in Santa Monica where the political climate is more conducive to the healthy rearing of an impressionable young boy. Not only that, but they are raising money to hire lawyers to defend the boy if the mother tries to get him back.

Also, the Mayor of Santa Monica and the Chief of the Santa Monica Police Department have publicly assured the Santa Monica relatives and their supporters from the Santa Monica Renters Rights organization that they would never permit the child to be taken from them by any fascist lackeys of Rudy Giuliani and his ilk.

That, to my mind, is the case of 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez. Now, what do you think would happen?

Would the Democratic leader of the U.S. Senate jump in to berate the out-of-control Republicanism of the upper eastside of Manhattan?

Would the Democratic candidate for the Presidency stay hiding in his abode in Tennessee, or would he be out taking polls to find out what moral position to take?

Would Rudy Giuliani point to the little boy and explain that this is all due to moral deterioration of our culture, in no small part, to dirty pictures in the Brooklyn Museum and the fact that Hillary was going to bob her hair?

Or would the Santa Monica police show up at the relatives’ door with the mother in tow, and announce very clearly that, unless they produce the child within the next 15 seconds they are going to arrest every relative in the house, and probably the family dog, and charge them all with kidnapping?

And then it would all be over, and the U.S . Senate or House wouldn’t even have to get involved.

That’s all, folks!

Student’s Lament

TV is full of artful junk

I was wrong to ever doubt it,

Because of it I’m going to flunk

But I cannot live without it

Stop and Go

Interminable red lights I have seen

Where I could take a nap.

But all red lights turn quickly green

When I unfold a map.

Deep Thinker

I ponder life’s most profound questions,

Like “What makes the universe go?”

And, “Are her legs above the hemline,

As nice as they are below?”

Bill Dowey

Here is an opportunity for investigative journalism on your part which can help clarify the atmosphere as the new City Council majority takes over.

A friend of mine who is a strong Keller-Van Horn supporter claims that the City of Malibu has lost its fair share of the parking tax collected by the County, particularly at Zuma Beach. He says Jeff Jennings negotiated an arrangement with Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky whereby the City would receive 10% of the parking revenue. Walt Keller at the time (between 1994-98, when Jennings was on the Council) insisted on the City receiving 20%. (My friend says other cities get 20%) When Yaroslavsky wouldn’t agree to 20%, Keller, Van Horn and a third Councilmember voted to place the 20% tax on the ballot. The measure failed to get the necessary 2/3 endorsement required. My friend blames this on Jennings.

Another informed source tells me it was Keller who insisted on the 20%, whereupon Yaroslavsky said the County would oppose it and take it to Court. The Council majority of 3 put the 20% measure to the Malibu voters, and it failed. Who, if anyone, was at fault? Did the City ever get any share of the parking until the 10% parking tax measure which passed on April 11th of this year.

I am told that Zuma Beach receipts from visitor parking gross approximately $1,200,000 a year. Ten percent would net the City approximately $120,000 a year, and 20% twice that sum. Does the City have a claim to back revenue based on whatever fair share ratio applies to other cities?

Zane Meckler

Our faculty and staff is very grateful for the strong community support of our local public schools. We are particularly pleased at the unanimous vote of our Malibu City Council to validate our programs with needed funding.

The Point Dume School Staff

Given the recent articles about the Malibu schools and as a mother of two young children, I wanted to write about my latest visit to their school. I attended a play produced by Jennifer Douglas, the child care provider in the after-school care program at Pt. Dume Elementary School.

Much to my amazement I was pleasantly surprised by the caliber of the performances Ms. Douglas was able to achieve with fourteen of her kindergartners. Each child was actively engaged and sustained their concentration throughout the entire play – no small feat with such a large group of five-year-olds. They changed characters and costumes smoothly, sang songs and moved rhythmically through the scenes in the school yard. They also participated in making their own costumes.

I later found out that such a sucess was no accident. Ms. Douglas, with the help of her assistant, Mr. Louis Diaz, has been working with them the past month, preparing them for the performance. I always thought that the after-care program consisted mainly of indoor/outdoor playtime, snack time and homework supervision. Ms. Douglas, however, takes her job seriously and provides much more than standard “baby-sitting.”

She has a degree from Juilliard in NYC, one of our country’s premier creative arts schools. She also has certification from UCLA to work with preschool and school age children and has had fifteen years of career experience at Malibu’s Juan Cabrillo school and Caltech’s Children Center in Pasadena.

As a working professional I have seen that training and experience count. If we, as a society, are to value the education we give our children then we have to find a way to support a professional class to work with them. Even after-school care benefits from appropriate leadership. Suggested casual labor will not provide the same stimulation.

Candace L. Bowes