Ziggy’s Playground

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STACY GITTLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Furthering the legacy of their father, Fred “Ziggy” Findling ground because his early childhood was spent in survival mode,” Findling said of how (1930-2019), Darren Findling of Huntington Woods and his sister and brother-in-law, Debbie Findling and Steven Moss of San Francisco, are working with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) to fund the construction of “Ziggy’s Playground.” The play area will be part of a new Rwandan affordable housing development that strives to create opportunities and a better quality of life to those who survived the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

“My father never had an opportunity to have a playhis father survived in Nazi Germany as an orphan on the run until he was brought to the United States, all before he turned 11. “As a child, he was always in survival mode. The creation of Ziggy’s Playground is an opportunity to give back to a community to which I deeply connect with their struggles. The pain that was caused in Rwanda in such a massive, horrific way deeply resonated with my family.” he said. “Most of the world watched but then looked away during the Holocaust. So, when we observed when other genocides took place in our lifetime, we felt deeply connected.”

Ziggy’s Playground is located at See Far Housing in the Rwandan capital of Kigali and is a project of AgahozoShalom Youth Village (ASYV), a project of the JDC and other nonprofit organizations.

ASYV is the brainchild of the late philanthropist Anne Heyman, who believed the 1.2 million Rwandans orphaned during the genocide could benefit from the creation of a kibbutz-styled youth village modeled after those created in Israel to care for orphaned Holocaust survivors.

ASYV opened to its first class in 2008. This summer, Findling and family members will travel to Rwanda for the opening of Ziggy’s Playground and celebrate the graduation of the ASYV class of 2022.

So far, $47,000 has been

raised for the $60,000 project, and additional sponsorship donor opportunities are available. For more information or to donate, contact Steven Moss, See Far’s board chair, at steven@moss.net.

Fred “Ziggy” Findling was born in 1930 as Siegfrieg Findling in Cologne, Germany.

During WWII, he and five of his siblings survived the war by being placed in orphanages and convents throughout Belgium, France and Spain. His mother was murdered in Auschwitz and his father killed in a massacre near Frystag, Poland. His entire story was documented in 2012 at the Zekelman Holocaust Center in Farmington Hills.

It was first reported that the 1941 safe passage to the United States of Ziggy, his brothers and about 50 other orphans was sponsored by Eleanor Roosevelt and the Quakers. On the day the SS Serpa Pinto docked at Ellis Island, an Associated Press photographer caught Ziggy’s exuberant smile as he leaned over the boat’s deck to catch his first sight of the Statue of Liberty. A cutout of Ziggy from that historic photo was made part of the playground project’s logo and, according to his son, captures the spirit and the mission of the project of returning the spark of life to children who suffered from trauma with the joy of play.

About eight years ago, Darren Findling became a JDC Interfaith Fellow. In this two-year position, he visited humanitarian projects in Haiti, Ukraine and Hungary that impacted both Jewish and non-Jewish populations. Meanwhile, in California, his brother-in-law worked with JDC to perpetuate and further efforts in Rwanda.

It was during this time that Findling and Moss made a startling discovery. While poring through JDC archives, they learned the JDC played a crucial financial role in rescuing the orphans from Nazi-occupied Germany to the tune of $250,000 per child. Calculated to today’s dollar, that would amount to $5 million per child.

“There must have been a reason why we were drawn to getting involved with the JDC,” Findling said. “Behind the scenes, the JDC raised the money to purchase the boat on which my father and the other orphans traveled to the United States. We learned that American Jews who never met my father supported the rescue of him and many others.

“My father had a deep faith in people and sympathy for the underdog. He welcomed into our home neighbors or children who were struggling. This was a constant part of his adult life.”