American Nobel laureate: salvation during the Holocaust in Ukraine

Roald Hoffman is a unique scholar, poet and playwright. He is the only Nobel laureate in the world who was born in Ukraine and was saved there in the fire of the Holocaust during the Second World War and moved to the USA.

Roald Hoffman was born in July 1937 in the city of Zolochev, now the Lviv region of Ukraine. In 1943-1944, the Ukrainian teacher Mykola Duke from the neighboring village of Univ, famous for its Greek Catholic monastery, hid part of the family of 6-year-old Roald in the attic of the school building. Roald's father, Hillel Safran, one of the leaders of the Jewish underground group in the forced labor camp, was shot by the Nazis.

Only in 1949 did Roald Hoffman and his mother move to the United States, and at the age of 25 he defended his doctorate in chemistry at Harvard University, and at the age of 44 he received the Nobel Prize in this science for 1981 - “for developing the theory of chemical reactions.” Now Roald Hoffman is a professor at Cornell University in the USA, New York.

Nobel laureate Professor Hoffman rarely gives interviews.but he made an exception for ForumDaily. He recently visited Western Ukraine, where he introduced children and grandchildren to the family of his Ukrainian saviors. On the eve of the 75 anniversary of the tragedy of Babi Yar, we are talking to an eminent scientist about his experiences, lessons in history and contemporary problems.

Roald Hoffman. Photo: from the private archive of Roald Hoffman

— Roald, how do you feel when you come to Zolochev? Are pictures from the past presented? Is this region for you a place of the most terrible horrors or a place of happy salvation?

- Both, and much more. Zoloczow, then Złoczów, was my family's home. This is the place where I, my parents and grandparents were born, where they flourished despite major political upheavals and displacements (borders). A city with a Polish, mainly culture, but still with a large Ukrainian population.

Zolochev is my hometown, where I took my first steps. The house in which I was born in 1937 with the help of a midwife still stands. The balcony where I played is there. This is the same house where my grandfather Wolf was killed in July 1941. From the same place, my father's parents and sister were sent to the Belzec extermination camp. And somewhere in Zolochev my father, killed by the Nazis in June 1943, is buried. But I don't know where..

Roald's family house in Zolochev - in the 21st and 20th centuries. Photo: from the private archive of Roald Hoffman

And outside the city, in the village of Univ, then Uniow, five of us were saved by the good Ukrainian family Mykola and Maria Duke. They chose Good, with great risk to their own family.

Remark from the author: сYel's teacher Mykola Duke knew Roald's father, a bridge engineer, before the war. Mykola and Maria hid Roald with his mother and uncles in the attic of the school building, and fed them for a year and a half. The Nobel laureate asked his children and grandchildren to always maintain contact with the descendants of the Duke family and always remember how their ancestors saved the Jewish family.

Roald said that he looked through a small window at the Ukrainian children playing below and envied them, because he could not leave the shelter. After decades, it turned out that among those children there were several Jews who were hidden in the same Univa monks by order of Metropolitan Sheptytsky. One of those saved in the Univsky Monastery was a Jewish boy. Adam Rotfeld - future head of the Polish Foreign Ministry.

Roald Hoffman looks out again from the window of the secret refuge of his family in the village of Univ. Photo: from his private archive

— Historians say that pogrom of the Jews Zolocheva in July 1941 was initiated by local Ukrainian nationalists. At the same time, you and your relatives were subsequently saved by the Ukrainian teacher and his wife. What is your personal attitude to the Ukrainians after all that you have experienced?

— I did not know about the degree of persecution of Ukrainians who suffered under the Soviet occupation of 1939-1941. I did not know about the murder of hundreds of Ukrainians at the hands of the NKVD in the Zolochiv Castle prison, a few days before the Nazi occupation of the city. I learned about this from a Ukrainian poet and historian Marco Tsarynnyka from Canada. From the words of some survivors in my family, I learned about the terrible role of the Ukrainian police and individuals in the murders of Jews in the first week of July 1941, in escorting Jews, including my grandfather Wolf and my uncle Abraham, to the place of murder by the SS in the Castle.

The degree of Ukrainian collaboration with the Nazis during the war was, in my opinion, high. And the “heroic” structures of Western Ukrainian nationalists, such as the OUN and UPA, behaved terribly, killing many Jews. Yet at that time some good people made the decision to save the Jews. AND Mykola Duke was such a man.

My personal attitude is that this is where I was born. As a person, I (inside yourself) I do not always have easy “negotiations” for connecting what I consider to be the dominant and insufficiently recognized Ukrainian cooperation with the Nazis, and the personal excellence of some Ukrainians - with their almost incredible bravery.

— Do you have the feeling that some local residents do not want to remember tragedy of the Jewish neighbors? For example, in the museum of Zolochiv castle there is no exposure about the Holocaust, no one wants to talk about the 3-5 pogrom of July 1941, in which 3000 local Jews were killed.

— The primary structure of the castle museum, the National Gallery in Lviv, has taken some steps to recall the Jewish heritage. The recent exhibition of antique Jewish ketubot wedding contracts and accompanying lectures were a wonderful example of this.

Zolochevsky castle is an art museum with a partial deviation to the modern era. But there is a definite need, in my opinion, to remember the bright Jewish life of the past centuries. And not only in Zolochiv, but in every city of Ukraine, where there was such a life. If there is a museum that shows Ukrainian life in the past, Polish and Jewish life should also be shown there.

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church played a positive role in personal actions during the war, and now the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv turns to Jewish history and culture in its educational programs.

— Speaking about the Ukrainian church during the war, how do you see the role of its leader?

— The actions of Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky deserve to be awarded the title “Righteous Among the Nations” on behalf of Yad Vashem (Israeli Institute for Holocaust and Heroism - Sh. B.). Sheptytsky was one of the very few church leaders who spoke out against the Nazi murders. His religious institutions saved hundreds of Jewish children by protecting them from the Nazis.

Photos of Mykola and Maria Duke - during the meeting of the Roald Hoffman family with the descendants of their saviors in the village of Univ. Photo: from the personal archive of Roald Hoffman

— What do Ukrainians and Jews need to do to build mutual understanding and “work through” the painful issues of the Holocaust? Is such a dialogue between two peoples possible and necessary?

— Such dialogue is important and possible. Ukraine can use Germany's experience in educational programs about the Holocaust. A balanced picture of Ukrainian actions in World War II must be recognized, including widespread collaboration with the Nazis, and the participation of Ukrainian structures such as the OUN and UPA in the murder of Poles and Jews. We must remember this and not hide it. From memory grows the possibility of forgiveness.

I wrote a play about mother and about myself, about Ukrainian-Jewish relations in the period of our survival and about the struggle of one family for the memory and understanding of what happened. And some moments are written in order to perhaps forgive.

Information from the Israeli Institute Yad Vashem: “Already in the United States, Clara Safran-Hoffman resumed contacts with the Duke family, and supported them for several years, sending letters and parcels. And one day the Hoffmans also received a package from Ukraine: it contained a shirt embroidered by Maria Duke in the traditional Ukrainian style, with threads previously sent to her by Clara.”

The son of the saved and the son of the savior: American Hillel Hoffman, named after the grandfather killed by the Nazis, and the Ukrainian Igor Dyuk near the house in the village of Univ. Photo: from the personal archive of R. Hoffman.

— How did you and your mother manage to leave the USSR for the USA after the war?

— At the end of 1944, when it became clear that part of Poland would be taken by the Soviets, we moved to Przemysl for several months. Then, following the Red Army, in 1945 we came to Krakow. We stayed there for a year, my mother remarried, and I went to a Polish Catholic school. At the beginning of 1946, we semi-legally moved to Czechoslovakia, which was then still a free country. There we became stateless refugees.

— Having started school with a delay due to the war, how did you manage to get ahead of others in research and become such a young doctor of science and Nobel Prize laureate?

— It was only a year delay! But language changes—English was my sixth language—slowed me down. We came to New York when I was 11,5 years old. I graduated from high school in the USA, being a year older than my friends. But I got my bachelor's degree in 3 years and caught up! I was really smart back then; I still have university notes where I solved problems that I simply could not approach today.

— Was there a connection between the hardships you suffered in childhood and your desire to achieve the greatest results in science?

- I don't think so. Immigrants are very grateful for the opportunities afforded them that were denied elsewhere—opportunities that reflect the freedom and mobility of this country. This is why immigrants succeed. And this is happening today among Asian immigrants, just as it was among the Jewish immigrants of my time. We survived - my mother, 3 uncles, aunt and grandmother. We didn't become better people just because we survived. But we have taken every advantage of the educational system of this great country.

Roald Hoffman receives the Nobel Prize from the King of Sweden in 1981. Photo: from the personal archive of R. Hoffman

— What impression did the USSR make on you during your studies in the 1960s? What do you think about Putin's modern Russia?

— Yes, in 1960-61, my wife and I came to the Soviet Union for an internship. I was not a communist - this was an official exchange of graduate students. For a year we lived in the “E zone” of Moscow State University, and I worked with a physicist - by the way, a Ukrainian, Alexander Sergeyevich Davydov. It was a great cultural year.

Then I worked very hard to keep the window open to the world for Soviet scientists between 1961 and Perestroika. I often went there, gave lectures, and Soviet scientists came to work with me, although it was not easy to agree on this. Later, I helped Russian scientists in 1990-2000's difficult times.

My personal and cultural ties with Russia are very strong. But the current government seems to me, like other observers who sympathize with Russia, autocratic. Worse, the government I saw visiting Russia in 2015 uses frightening flashes of nationalism to “light up” Russians. The strong structures of Russian science, especially the remarkable Academy of Sciences of Russia, are in danger. Aggression against Ukraine is just awful.

— What worries you most about the upcoming 2016 presidential elections in the United States?

— I am a staunch supporter of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Mr. Trump plays to the naive nationalistic “strings” that move many Americans, but I think they are not shared by the majority. His bullying, reckless attack on America's phantom enemies is not what the country needs right now.

— What is Israel for you? How would you like to see Israel on its 70th anniversary in 2018?

“Israel was my parents’ Zionist dream. And the creation of the State of Israel was the embodiment of such a 2000-year-old dream. I have relatives there, I have students and friends in Israel. We, who have decided not to live there, continue to need Israel to be strong, vibrant, and democratic. Just coexistence with the Palestinians must develop—and it will, in our lifetime. I believe in it.

Roald with his father, 1937 year, Zolochiv. Photo: from the personal archive of R. Hoffman

Roald after his release from secret refuge and departure to Poland, 1944-1945 Photo: from the personal archive of R. Hoffman

At the tomb of the rescuers in the village of Univ. Photo: from the personal archive of R. Hoffman

The Nobel laureate in the chemistry classroom at the school in the village of Univ - right above this office there was a secret shelter in which he and his family hid for 15 months. Photo: from the personal archive of R. Hoffman

Memorial plaques in memory of the victims of Soviet terror and the Nazi Holocaust, installed in the courtyard of the Zolochev Castle by citizens of the United States and Israel - descendants of the Jews of Zolochev. Photo: from the personal archive of R. Hoffman

Help ForumDaily: Jews are Nobel Prize winners

As of the end of 2015, since the creation of the Nobel Prize, 194 Jews out of 850 awarded (22% of all awards) have become its laureates. Of the Americans who have received the Nobel Prize, 36% are Jewish. Among women laureates in four scientific fields of research, the “Jewish share” makes up 33% of these prestigious awards in all countries of the world, and 50% among American women awarded. Note that Jews currently make up approximately 0,2% of the world population and about 2,5% of the US population.

Nobel laureates in terms of scientific nominations:

• Chemistry (36 winners, 21% of the global number of awards, 31% of American winners).
• Economy (29 winners, 38% of the world total, 49% of American winners).
• Literature (14 winners, 13% of world total, 27% of American winners).
• World (9 winners, 9% of the world's total, 10% of American winners).
• Physics (51 winner, 26% of world total, 36% of American winners).
• Physiology or Medicine (55 winners, 26% of the world's total, 39% of American laureates).

Instead of an afterword - a quote from the speech of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel at a ceremony commemorating the victims of the Holocaust in 2000:

“If humanity does not yet have a cure for cancer, if it does not master Mars yet, if it is still unable to overcome hunger and find new sources of energy, it is only because those Jewish geniuses who were to make all these discoveries, burned in the furnaces of Auschwitz. "

Read also on ForumDaily:

Eli Wiesel: Searching for God in a concentration camp

Dissident Sharansky: America is the most dangerous country for the Jews in the world

Six-day war and late love of Vinnitsa Jew

Jewish treasures of Ukraine: unique artifact found

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