Today (Thursday, Sept. 22) is Ann and Isak Federman’s 65th wedding anniversary. The two moved to Kansas City only months before they married. Coming to the center of the Midwestern United States is still one of Ann’s most treasured memories of their 65-plus years together.
“Coming here and being free after the horrors of the Holocaust was absolutely wonderful,” she said recently from their home in Prairie Village.
Ann and Isak credit respect for one another as just one of the many reasons they’ve lived a happy life together. She said the warm welcome they received from the Jewish community when they arrived helped get them started on the right track.
“We were on the second ship out of Germany,” she recalled. “We didn’t know what we were doing or where we were going to go and after we got to New York, they sent us to Kansas City.”
“The Jewish Federation, HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) and all the agencies that were responsible for us, and the entire Kansas City Jewish community, outdid themselves taking care of us.”
Their story
Ann Warszawski Federman is from Bendzin, Poland. In 1942 she was sent to a labor camp in Czechoslovakia along with her sisters, Gertrude and Lola. Ann was 20 when she was liberated in 1945.
Isak hails from Wolbrom, Poland. During the war he was imprisoned in 17 different concentration camps, including Bergen-Belsen. Sick and weighing only 80 pounds, Isak left Bergen-Belsen following the liberation.
A Jewish doctor in the British army took Isak under his wing. After spending a couple of months in a British hospital, Isak decided to return to Bergen-Belsen.
Following the war, Ann, Gertrude and their brother, John Warszawski, also went to the Bergen-Belsen Displaced Persons Camp to search for other family members. (Lola did not survive the Holocaust. Both of Ann’s parents died shortly before the Holocaust.) Isak and John had met during the Holocaust, and found each other again at the DP camp. It was through John that Isak met his beloved Ann.
“We became acquainted, and I think we sort of liked each other,” Ann said.
It was Isak’s idea to come to the United States. Ann, on the other hand, thought they were going to go to Palestine.
“We didn’t think anyone wanted us. After all, we went through hell,” she said.
Isak, Ann and their traveling party — totaling 10 people — were on the second ship to the United States after the war. The voyage took about 10 days. HIAS and the Joint Distribution Committee welcomed them when they arrived in New York.
“They took the 10 of us to a hotel, and they told us that we were going to Kansas City because Kansas City is a nice place,” Isak said.
“They felt the community would be really welcoming to us, and I have to say they turned out to be just wonderful,” Ann said. “The Jewish community was very helpful with housing and with jobs and everything that was necessary.”
In fact the Jewish community helped find Isak a job in the furniture business. Eventually he opened his own business, Superior Upholstery Furniture Co. He sold it several years ago and is now retired.
“We came here in June 1946 with gornisht (nothing),” Isak explained. “We were taken care of so beautifully.”
The wedding
Soon after they arrived in Kansas City, Isak became friendly with Rabbi Tibor H. Stern of Kerem Israel Synagogue. (Kerem Israel eventually merged into Kehilath Israel.) Within a couple of months, the rabbi suggested to Isak that it was time to marry Ann.
As Ann remembers it, it was the rabbi who actually proposed to her.
“He called me and asked me when is a good time to get married. I said anytime. So we did,” Ann said.
Because they were set to be the first Holocaust survivors to marry in Kansas City, the entire Jewish community was invited to the wedding. More than 500 people attended the ceremony on Sept. 22, 1946, three months after they arrived here. Ann was 21 years old; Isak was 24.
“So it’s our special privilege to invite the community to celebrate this special anniversary of our wedding with our family,” said Ann, referring to the Kiddush luncheon the family is sponsoring in honor of their anniversary at KI on Saturday morning, Oct. 1.
The ceremony itself wasn’t as joyous as the couple had hoped. In fact, Ann doesn’t even like looking at her wedding photo, because she always remembers people were crying tears of sadness at the wedding. That’s because Rabbi Stern chose to focus his speech on the horrors of the Holocaust, not the happiness of the day or the happy times that would be ahead for the couple.
“The rabbi gave a eulogy at our wedding,” Ann said.
Their past was indeed horrendous. All of Isak’s immediate family — two sisters, one brother, his mother and his stepfather — perished in the Holocaust. Several members of Ann’s family did survive the Holocaust and eventually two brothers and a sister — John (whose wife, Sonia, still lives and works in Kansas City), Aron (who changed his name to Warren) and Gertrude (who married and became Wolowski), moved to Kansas City. All of Ann’s siblings are now deceased.
Together Ann and Isak had three children. Arthur and his wife, Diane, live in Kansas City. Rachel, who is married to Avrom Altman, and Lorie live out of town. Their children have blessed them with five grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.
As an effort to give back some of what they received, the Federmans became hard-working volunteers in the Jewish community. Isak co-founded the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education in 1993, along with his friend Jack Mandelbaum, who traveled with him to Kansas City some 65 years before.
Among those organizations that benefitted from the Federmans’ devotion were Kehilath Israel Synagogue and the Jewish Federation.
“The Federmans have been a wonderful addition to the Jewish community of Kansas City these past 65 years. Both Isak and Ann have been leaders at Kehilath Israel Synagogue,” noted Rabbi Herbert Mandl.
Isak said it’s been wonderful being married 65 years and it’s been especially joyous raising a beautiful family.
Together, Isak and Ann built a beautiful life in Kansas City and they are grateful to the Kansas City Jewish community for it.
“We are grateful for so many here for their friendship and support in the years since we arrived,” Ann said. “Coming to Kansas City turned out to be the best thing to ever happen to us.”
