I went to Copenhagen to find a Europe that didn't have death camps and discovered a vast Jewish cultural heritage that changed my life
Inside the Black Diamond- July 2000. (courtesy)
“I was like a kid in a chocolate shop — I didn’t have enough.” Saul Chapnick, Copenhagen, Denmark, Journal Entry, July 7, 2000
It was early Friday morning. I was enjoying European coffee at some outdoor café in Copenhagen. The Dane sitting next to me was curious as to why an American was situated in a nondescript part of her city.
I gave the Dane the same spiel I gave a security guard late the night before, which convinced the guard to allow me access into Memorial Park, hours after closing time:
I am the son of Polish Holocaust survivors. I haven’t been to Tivoli or any other tourist spot in Denmark. I wanted to go to a country in Europe that did what Poland did not do — I came here, to Denmark.”
The Danes are very accommodating to everyone. They virtually gave the Germans permission to stay in their country believing the Nazi request that they need to be in Denmark to be on the lookout for British ships on the Baltic Sea.
This accommodating Dane wanted to hear about my adventure. I told her about how my friend Bjarne from New York, a Danish tourist agent, connected me with the Danish consulate. For the previous two days, through their support, I had rented a car and was able to trace the exact escape routes the Jews back then took, with the help of the citizens of this great country, to sail to Sweden.
I also visited Memorial Park where the Nazis executed members of the Danish Resistance and toured the Resistance Museum, where the curators gave an unfiltered, demythologized account of Denmark during the occupation.
Water view of the Black Diamond
“You owe it to yourself to go to the Black Diamond,” my coffee partner told me. She was of course referring to the magnificent National Library of Denmark, similar to The Library of Congress in the United States.
After noticing my initial facial expression, she continued, “You have been stressing too much about the Holocaust and must see other Jewish sites. The Black Diamond,” she continued, “has a comprehensive Judaica library, and it was the only national collection in Occupied Europe that the Nazis did not destroy.”
On that very day, I took advice from a total stranger. Imagine going into a library of such stature and allowed total access into a vast and valuable collection. The librarians directed me to the section which contained Yiddish books that were hundreds of years old.
I was in for a shock. Up until that year, scholars, by and large, wrote that Yiddish was not taken seriously over the centuries and this was reflected in their literature.
How wrong they were. There were Yiddish books of science, serious literature and history that dated back to the early 18th century and beyond.
I was reading them and shaking. Time was lost during those moments. I must have spent six hours in the library, and the librarians were more than accommodating.
My view of Ashkenaz, the 1,000 year old history of European Jewry, changed at that moment. My journey, which had begun nearly 10 years before my visit to Denmark in 2000, took a whole new direction that lasts till today.
Inside the Black Diamond, July 2000
Since then I have frequented Europe, namely Poland and Ukraine, spoken with community leaders, rabbis, politicians, teachers, grassroot organizations to uncover more about this vanished world…as well as about myself.
About the Author
Saul Chapnick was raised in an Orthodox home with deep familial Hasidic roots. Educated in yeshiva and later earning a Master of Social Work degree from Yeshiva University's Wurzweiler School of Social Work, Saul has continued throughout his life to embrace Jewish learning in many settings—from studying at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion to maintaining a weekly chavruta for ongoing Torah study. His lifelong journey has given him a deep appreciation for richness of Jewish tradition across the spectrum of Jewish life.
For more than thirty-five years, Saul has devoted himself to the study of Jewish history, with a particular focus on Jewish life in interwar Eastern Europe. Inspired by the mitzvah of Zachor (to remember), he has explored both the extraordinary vibrancy of the Jewish world that was destroyed in the Shoah and the enduring questions of Jewish memory, continuity, and identity. Through extensive travel, archival research, and conversations with survivors, scholars, communal leaders, and public figures, he has sought to understand not only what was lost, but also what those vanished communities continue to teach us today.
His writing explores the intersection of Jewish history, personal memory, Israel, and contemporary Jewish life, seeking to connect the voices of the past with the challenges of the present.
A gifted storyteller and engaging speaker, Saul has lectured throughout the United States and abroad on Jewish history, Yiddish language and culture, modern Poland, Israel, and post-Holocaust Jewish identity. His presentations blend scholarship with personal experience, inviting audiences to explore the enduring relevance of Jewish history to contemporary Jewish life. He has also prepared adult participants of the March of the Living by providing historical and cultural context that deepens their understanding of both Poland's Jewish past and its emerging Jewish present.
Saul is the author of a widely read weekly Substack newsletter and a contributor to The Times of Israel, where he reflects on Jewish life, history, Israel, memory, and current events. His essays weave together personal experience, historical research, and contemporary issues, encouraging readers to reflect on the challenges and opportunities facing the Jewish people today.
For the past thirteen years, Saul has served as the Substitute Chaplain through the Greater Miami Jewish Federation Chaplaincy Program at Miami Jewish Health. During rabbinic transitions, he has served as the community's interim spiritual leader, leading Shabbat and holiday services, reading Torah, delivering Divrei Torah, teaching adult education classes and study groups, and providing pastoral care to residents and their families.
Professionally, Saul brings more than two decades of executive leadership in healthcare and human services. He specialized in turning around distressed assisted living and memory care communities by rebuilding staff morale, restoring occupancy, improving quality of care, ensuring regulatory compliance, and returning organizations to financial stability. Today, he draws upon that experience as an expert witness in legal matters involving senior care, assisted living, and long-term care communities.
Whether teaching Torah, leading prayer, writing, or speaking, Saul believes that Judaism is best experienced through learning, storytelling, meaningful relationships, and a deep respect for every individual's Jewish journey.
At the same time, Chapnick has witnessed a limited reawakening of Jewish life in his family’s ancestral homeland of Poland. He has spoken at numerous venues on the contemporary relevance of Yiddish and Yiddish culture, the significance of the 19th- and 20th-century Jewish world to modern life, and the shaping of post-Holocaust Jewish identity. He also prepares adult participants of the March of the Living to engage meaningfully with modern-day Jewish Poland.
Chapnick shares his insights and reflections in weekly blogs on https://saulchapnick.substack.com, where readers are welcome to subscribe.
