last word
FORMER INQUIRER REPORTER
Andrew Cassel
Jarrad Saffren | Staff Writer
I n 2015, Andrew Cassel retired
from his career as a newspaper-
man after 35 years, including 23
at The Philadelphia Inquirer. But the
longtime business reporter was not
ready to just kick back. He became a
visiting professor of business journal-
ism at Penn State University. Then,
two years later, he entered a master’s
program in liberal arts at the University
of Pennsylvania.

But it was not until 2018 that Cassel
found his retirement project.

He was on a Google journey into the
story of Dr. Aharon Pick, a Jewish doctor
who lived in Lithuania's Jewish ghetto
under German occupation during World
War II. Cassel knew about Pick because his
grandfather was a friend of the doctor in
Lithuania. And on this Google journey, he
learned that the United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.,
had Pick’s diary. He reached out and
urged the museum to translate it.

The Philadelphia resident and
Society Hill Synagogue member
began working with a translator,
Gabriel Laufer, a museum volunteer
and former engineering professor at
the University of Virginia. The duo’s
work is now a translated journal called
“Notes from the Valley of Slaughter,”
published by Indiana University Press
on April 4.

“It was a labor of love. Once I got
going, it became engrossing,” Cassel
said. “It tells you a lot about the experi-
ence of the Holocaust that you don’t
get from reading popular accounts.”
Cassel first learned about Pick in
1990. He picked up a book in his
parents’ house that his grandfather had
put together containing memoirs from
Keidan, the town in Lithuania where
Cassel’s grandfather and Pick lived.

One article was by Pick, according
36 APRIL 20, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
to an email from the U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Museum about Cassel.

“It was a memoir of growing up in
this town, and it was fascinating,” said
Cassel to the museum’s PR team.

Seven years later, Cassel received a
package from a cousin in Israel about
the Hebrew-language publication of
Pick’s journal from the ghetto. Pick’s
son took it with him when he moved to
Israel after the Holocaust. Sometime
after, “some folks got a hold of it and
decided to publish it,” Cassel said.

Pick “worked in a Lithuanian hospital
for more than a dozen years,” accord-
ing to the email from the museum.

But then the Nazis “outlawed Jewish
doctors from treating non-Jewish
patients.” As the email goes on to
explain, “Pick was forced to move into
the Šiauliai ghetto, where families were
forced into cramped living situations.

Essential food items like bread, milk
and meat were hard to find, and there
was punishment for Jewish people
caught smuggling these items. Vermin
riddled the ghetto, often making edible
provisions scarce.”
The doctor’s journal contained
passages like this one: “Horrible
rumors regarding the fate of the Jewish
population in Poland terrify us by day
and take the sleep from our eyes by
night. The cup of poison which has
been spilled upon us in the last year is
now the fate of our brothers in Poland.

Exterminations of entire communities,
killings of hundreds of thousands of
Jews. They are telling us that tens of
thousands of our brothers had been
killed with poisonous vapors [gasses]
like bedbugs and cockroaches —
they had chosen a beautiful death
for them!”
Pick learned about the Allied invasion
of Normandy on D-Day in June 1944.

His final entry was about how the West
was coming.

“'Maybe this means we’ll survive and
be liberated.’ But he didn’t survive. He
had an illness and he died shortly after
that,” Cassel said.

“It’s frustrating,” Cassel added. “You
see this drama unfolding, and then it
just stops.”
As he read the story and started
working with Laufer to translate it, the
former reporter viewed it as a much
longer assignment.

“You start going from one discovery
to another,” he said.

Now that it’s out, Cassel believes
he’s contributed to Holocaust memory.

“I’m waiting to see if the rest of the
world agrees with us, but we’ll find
out,” he said.

The translator is already working on
his next project: a translation of a book
written in Yiddish and published in the
late 1940s by a survivor, Levi Shalit,
from the same Lithuanian ghetto. Ellen
Cassedy, a Yiddish translator and a
friend of Cassel’s, asked him to join
the project. Cassel thinks they have a
tentative contract with another univer-
sity publisher.

“It’s a fascinating read,” he said. “But
it’ll reach more people when we get it
translated.” ■
jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com Courtesy of Andrew Cassel
TRANSLATES HOLOCAUST DIARY



SEASHORE SALE
LOVE V where you L LIVE
VE #1 IN NEW JERSEY
FOR LARGE TEAM
SALES VOLUME
*RealTrends 2021
NEW LISTING!
MARGATE $929,000
COMPLETELY RENOVATED
3 BEDROOM, 1.5 BATH
BEACH HOUSE WITH A LARGE
LIVING & DINING AREA!
NEW LISTING!
MARGATE $1,999,999
MAGNIFICENT CUSTOM-
BUILT 5 BED, 3.5 BATH
HOME ON A RARE, OVER-
SIZED LOT IN MARGATE!
www.HartmanHomeTeam.com NEW LISTING!
MARGATE $949,000
NEWLY RENOVATED 4 BED,
2.5 BATH HOME IS MOVE-IN
READY! NEW ELECTRICAL,
HVAC AND DREAM KITCHEN!
NEW CONSTRUCTION!
MARGATE $2,195,000
LUXURY SOUTHSIDE NEW
CONSTRUCTION TOWNHOMES
AVAILABLE! 4 BEDS, 3.5 BATHS,
OCEAN VIEWS & ELEVATOR!
NEWLY RENOVATED!
MARGATE $1,349,000
NEWLY RENOVATED
4 BEDROOMS, 3.5 BATH
HOME WITH PARKING
AND HUGE BACKYARD!
NEW LISTING!
MARGATE $2,300,000
COMPLETELY RESTORED,
CHARMING 4 BED, 2.5 BATH
HOME PLACED ON AN
OVERSIZED CORNER LOT!
NEW CONSTRUCTION!
MARGATE $1,475,000
LUXURY BEACH BLOCK
TOWNHOME WITH 5 BEDS, 4
BATHS, A 5-STOP ELEVATOR
AND A HUGE ROOFTOP DECK!
NEW LISTING!
MAYS LANDING $2,500,000
COMPLETELY CUSTOM 3 BED,
3.5 BATH HOME NESTLED ON
6.6 ACRES WITH A HUGE BARN
AND FLOATING DOCKS!
HHT Office
609-487-7234 9211 Ventnor Avenue, Margate
8017 Ventnor Avenue, Margate
9313 Ventnor Ave, Margate
BEACH BLOCK!
VENTNOR $1,600,000
ADORABLE BEACHBLOCK
HOME WITH 4 BEDS, 3 BATHS,
LARGE LIVING AND DINING AREA
AND RELAXING SUNROOM!
NEW LISTING!
MARGATE $2,599,999
5/6 BEDROOM, 4.5 BATH
SOUTHSIDE & GORGEOUS
HOME WITH BEAUTIFUL
OCEAN VIEWS!
NEW CONSTRUCTION!
MARGATE $1,795,000
HIGH-END NEW CONSTRUC-
TION WITH 3 FLOORS AND
LOADS OF SPACE! 5 BEDS,
3 FULL BATHS!
NEW CONSTRUCTION!!
VENTNOR $3,750,000
NEW CONSTRUCTION! 6
BEDS, 6 FULL BATHS & 2 HALF
BATHS! POOL, ELEVATOR &
3 LARGE FRONT DECKS!
HOMES FOR SALE
PENN VALLEY “OAK HILL”
Call directly for updates on sales and rentals.

OAK HILL TERRACES • OAK HILL TOWER
OAK HILL ESTATES
Mazal Tov on 75!
NEW LISTING – TOWER AT OAK HILL
4th Floor, spacious, 1 bedroom, 1.5 bath. Large living room, dining room and den or office.

Eat-in kitchen, “WALL OF CLOSETS”. Sunny balcony overlooking pool, 24 hour doorman,
basement storage, SPECIAL CABLE PACKAGE; 2 gyms. Heating & air conditioning included.

NO PETS PERMITTED! April Availability: ONLY, $192,500.

Oak Hill Estates
CUSTOM BUILT/TOTALLY RENNOVATED; 1st Floor; 2 bedroom/2 bath; BEST LOCATION; living room w/
fireplace; expanded open kitchen w/custom cabinets; quartz countertops and backsplash; Custom
work station; washer/dryer; upgraded lighting; lots of closets; parking at your door. $390,000.

NEW LISTING – FOR RENT – Tower at Oak Hill
7th Floor - CORNER; 2 bedroom/2.5 bath; modern open kitchen; granite counters; breakfast bar;
new appliances; washer/dryer in unit; wall-to-wall carpet; new closets; SUNNY balcony; 24 hour
doorman; basement storage, SPECIAL CABLE PACKAGE; 2 gyms. Heating & air conditioning included.

SEPTA 44 & school bus at front door. NO PETS PERMITTED! RENT: $2,800 a month
NEW LISTING – Oak Hill Estates
Mid-level Townhouse; 2 bedroom/2 bath; open granite kitchen; washer/dryer; fireplace;
custom lighting; parking under covered balcony. Facing the woods!
REDUCED & AVAILABLE IMMEDIATELY: $2,195.00 per month
NEW LISTING – Tower at Oak Hill
Large corner 2 bedroom/2.5 baths; wood floors; washer & dryer in unit; lots of closets;
balcony overlooking pool; 24 hour doorman; basement storage, SPECIAL CABLE PACKAGE; 2 gyms.

Heating & air conditioning included. SEPTA 44 & school bus at front door. NO PETS PERMITTED!
AVAILABLE IMMEDIATELY! ASKING $268,000
NEW LISTING: Tower at Oak Hill
2nd floor, 2 bedroom/1.5 bath; modern kitchen; custom lighting; custom generous closets;
sunny balcony; washer/dryer hook-up. AVAILABLE IMMEDIATELY $190,000
Realtor® Emeritus.

5 Star winner, Philly Mag
Google Harvey Sklaroff
oakhillcondominiums.com PA#RB041533-A NJ#8310118
HBSHOME@AOL.COM Office: 610-667-9999
Direct: 610-660-9999
Cell/Text: 610-613-7606
The DeSouzas
are Back
on Bustleton!
WANTED TO BUY
ANTIQUE & FINE FURNITURE
Paintings & Sculptures
THE SPRING MARKET
IS HERE!
Now is the time to list
your home with Us!
Call Andi or Rick DeSouza for an appointment
& we will deliver: Results, Not Promises!
RE/MAX ONE REALTY
Eric DeSouza, Associate Broker
Andrea DeSouza, Sales Associate
Eric Cell 215-431-8300/8304 • Bus 215-953-8800
rickdesouza70@gmail.com JEWISH EXPONENT
CLASSIFIEDS To advertise, call
215-832-0749 Also Vintage Modern,
Mission & Nakashima Etc.

HIGHEST PRICES PAID
215-663-1813 JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
37