Baruch Dayan HaEmet, ברוך דיין האמת
A Man For All Seasons
It is with great sadness that we inform you of the passing of Alexander Pollak Z”L, loving husband of Mary Pollak. The burial took place on Sunday, September 6th, 2020 at Beth Jacob Cemetery in Houston, Texas. In keeping with public health protocols and rabbinic guidance, the levaya and shiva were private. May his memory be for a blessing, and may the family be comforted with the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.
Denise Joris
In September 1943, after Italy surrendered to the Allies and the Germans entered this zone, the Germans captured Alexander’s mother and she was never heard from again. Denise Joris, who was in constant contact with the family, arrived where they were staying in order to help them. She took Alexander to hide in a monastery and remained in contact with him. There was another Jewish boy, Reuven Kraus, in the monastery. The two boys were safe in the monastery whereas Alexander's sister remained alone. Denise Joris took her to her home in Zagreb, and she remained with Denise until the end of the war. On October 30, 2005, Yad Vashem recognized Denise Joris as Righteous Among the Nations.
Alex’s yahrzeit is lovingly memorialized in three Greater Houston Jewish communities that became part of his life and legacy: United Orthodox Synagogues of Houston, his home synagogue for more than 50 years, where he also celebrated his second bar mitzvah; Temple Beth Torah in Humble, near his family home, where he publicly shared his experiences and Holocaust testimony; and Chabad of The Woodlands, where he visited and had the meaningful opportunity to recite the Shema and lay tefillin.
Alex and Mary are also permanently remembered at Holocaust Museum Houston, where their names are inscribed on the Survivors’ Wall in the Moral Choices Hall. Fashioned from Jerusalem stone, the wall bears the names of nearly 1,000 Holocaust survivors who made Houston their home after the war, placing Alex and Mary within the enduring record of the survivor community that helped shape Greater Houston.
Alex’s memory is further honored at the Holocaust Garden of Hope in Kingwood, where a personalized memorial paver bearing his name rests in the Founder’s Court and will be joined by a memorial boulder. Together, these synagogues, sacred spaces, and places of remembrance preserve Alex’s memory—and the shared legacy of Alex and Mary—within the Jewish and wider Greater Houston community. Through them, their names, their testimony, and the lessons of their lives will continue to be remembered and transmitted l’dor v’dor—from generation to generation.
Remembering Jasenovac in Eretz Yisrael
Established in 1949 by Holocaust survivors in association with Rabbi Dr. Samuel Zangvil Kahane, Director-General of the Ministry of Religion of the new State of Israel, the Chamber of the Holocaust (Martef HaShoah) is among Israel’s earliest Holocaust memorial institutions. Located on Mount Zion, Jerusalem, near King David’s Tomb, it preserves the memory of Jewish communities destroyed during the Shoah.
Its Ohel Yizkor (Tent of Remembrance) commemorates 22 sites of persecution and mass murder, including Jasenovac, the Ustaša-operated concentration and extermination camp complex in Croatia. The Chamber also preserves victims’ ashes and memorial plaques honoring over 1,000 destroyed Jewish communities.
Survivors and descendants gather here to remember, light candles, and recite Kaddish. Jasenovac’s inclusion alongside Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Babi Yar underscores the Holocaust’s wider geography and the responsibility to preserve historical truth.
The Center for Jewish Art at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem provides photographic and historical documentation of the Chamber of the Holocaust, including its memorials, inscriptions, and commemorative plaques.
