Holocaust Education Week 2015 Program Guide

tHE saraH and cHaiM nEubErgEr Holocaust Education cEntrE, uJa fEdEration of grEatEr toronto PrEsEnts

2–9 NOVEMBER | LIBERATION: AFTERMATH & REBIRTH

WE gratEfully acknoWlEdgE our donors and sPonsors

PrEsEnting sPonsors

lEgacy lEad bEnEfactors

The Elizabeth & Tony Comper Foundation

honey & barry sherman

MEdia sPonsors

Publication sPonsor

oPEning & closing nigHt Patrons

Judy & Larry Tanenbaum and Family

The Grad Family Foundation Myra & Joel York

transPortation sPonsor

HosPitality sPonsors

Production sPonsors

Marilyn & Stephen Sinclair

consular bEnEfactors & sPonsors

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hungary

CONSULATE GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES Toronto, Canada

HigHligHt EvEnt sPonsors

Eleanor & Martin Maxwell with Scotiabank Bathurst/ Sheppard Branch in rEsidEncE sPonsors

Cohen Family Charitable Trust Joyce & Aaron Rifkind and Naomi Rifkind Mansell & David Mansell kEynotE sPonsors

The Sam & Gitta Ganz Family Foundation The Glick & Glicksman Families Lori & Joseph Gottdenker Dorothy & Pinchas Gutter filM sPonsors

Gail & Stanley Debow Ruth Ekstein & Alan Lechem, Stella & Peter Ekstein, Lillian & Rick Ekstein Marika & William Glied Shirley & Louis Greenbaum, Shirley & Garry Greenbaum, Helen & Morris Greenbaum Debbie & Warren Kimel Joyce & Aaron Rifkind and Naomi Rifkind Mansell & David Mansell

Cyndy & Ron Rosenthal, Rhonda Silverstone & Nathan Rapoport, Debbie & Morris Rapoport Rochelle Rubinstein Frieda & Larry Torkin Carole & Howard Tanenbaum Rochelle Reichert & Henry Wolfond Sally & Mark Zigler survivor tEstiMony sPonsors

Helena & Jeffrey Axler, Feiga Glazer, Lilliane Perez-Glazer & Gerry Glazer Tammy & Jerry Balitsky Barrday Inc. BMO Bank of Montreal Marlene Brickman Circle of Care’s Holocaust Survivor Fund Advisory Committee The DH Gales Family Charitable Foundation of Toronto Dori & Ari Ekstein & Family Sylvia & Edward Fisch The Gottesman Family Roslyn & Ralph Halbert Robin & Eran Hayeems Mary Ellen Herman Iroquois Ridge High School

The Isakow, Robbins, Szpindel and Vogel Families Lianne & Bruce Leboff Edna & David Magder Bonnie & Larry Moncik, Eleanor & George Getzler Danny Pivnick Lisa Richman & Steven Kelman Vivienne Saltzman Mary Seldon & Family Spin Master Corp.

Nancy & Phillip Turk Annalee & Jeffrey Wagman The Ernie Weiss Memorial Fund The Weisz Family Foundation Wendy & Richard Wengle Beatrice & Max Wolfe Foundation “in tHE scHools” sPonsors

Erika Biro The Brettler/Mintz Foundation Trudy & Lorne Cappell Crowe Soberman LLP Wendy & Elliott Eisen Anita Ekstein Faye Firestone The Frankel Family Foundation Gerda Frieberg

Annice & Harvey Frisch Lily Kim Leila, Gary, Ryan, Ilyse and Isaac Lax Frances Mandell-Arad Ellen & Shawn Marr Annette Metz-Pivnick & Richard Pivnick Faye Minuk Florence Minz Dr. Carson Phillips The Rash Family Yigal Rifkind Doris & Rammy Rochman Karen & Mel Rom Aida & Avron Seetner Eileen & Shoel Silver Guido Smit Bryna & Fred Steiner Carole & Jay Sterling Helen Stollar Dorothy Tessis and Family Rosie Uster, Phyllis Gould and Sandra Srebrolow Glenda & Alan Wainer Elaine & Irvine Weitzman Nita Wexler & Hartley Hershenhorn

Holocaust Education Week 2015

On May 8, 1945, Victory in Europe was declared. Through the theme of Liberation: Aftermath & Rebirth, the 35th annual Neuberger Holocaust Education Week marks the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. As survivors were liberated from ghettoes, camps and death marches, and emerged from hiding, forests and exile, complex emotions and circumstances arose that characterized the immediate postwar period: coming to terms with loss, rebuilding life, creating new families, seeking justice, and in some cases, encountering continued persecution. The initial jubilation of liberation was, in many cases, followed by fear and even violence as Jews who survived discovered it was not safe for them to return to their homes, or had no homes to return to. In the aftermath of liberation, the world was seared with the realization that two thirds of European Jewry was murdered in the Holocaust.

The end of the Second World War challenged societal values and institutions as the world grappled with the humanitarian crisis of Jewish refugees living in DP camps, the last of which closed in 1957. Survivors faced physical and psychological ramifications of trauma, but many managed to create vibrant Jewish lives in countries around the world, drawing upon their rich educational, religious and cultural heritage, honouring what had been destroyed.

Cover illustration by Oscar Cahén (via The Cahén Archives) Oscar Cahén (1916–1956) narrowly escaped from Prague in 1939 and arrived in Canada as a Jewish refugee in 1940 where he was interned as an “enemy alien.” He became a nationally celebrated illustrator and abstract painter.

In 1953, he co-founded the artists’ group Painters Eleven. Oscar Cahén’s works can be found in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Ontario, among others. Online archives on Cahén’s life and work can be found at www.oscarcahen.com.

The illustration shown here was created for a story about emigration from post-war Europe by Richard D. McMillan (Maclean’s Magazine, August 15, 1947). Reproduced with permission.

This publication is co-sponsored by Judy and Larry Tanenbaum and family in loving memory of Sam and Alice Lieberman, z”l, whose respect for human dignity and dedication to lifelong learning will be remembered always.

Letters

On behalf of the Government of Ontario, I am deeply honoured to extend warm greetings to everyone attending the 35th Annual Holocaust Education Week, an event organized by the Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto.

This event allows us to remember and mourn the loss of those who perished during an extremely dark chapter in human history—the Holocaust. Through the exploration of the theme of Liberation: Aftermath and Rebirth, this event provides a medium for new generations to be inspired by firsthand accounts of courageous Holocaust survivors. The Holocaust remains a solemn reminder of our duty to fiercely oppose every form of hatred and prejudice—and to uphold the diversity and inclusiveness that lies at the very core of Ontario.

I commend those attending this event. It is important that we continue our commitment to building an Ontario imbued with the values of tolerance, respect and understanding—your support here demonstrates your dedication to this laudable goal.

On this poignant occasion, please accept my best wishes.

Kathleen Wynne Premier

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I would like to welcome everyone attending Holocaust Education Week hosted by the Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto.

The 2015 theme of Holocaust Education Week is Liberation: Aftermath & Rebirth. During Holocaust Education Week, people will gain a broader understanding of the Holocaust by engaging in cultural and literary analysis and through inquiry-based learning where a new generation will be able to hear firsthand accounts from Holocaust survivors.

The anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, will also be commemorated during the Holocaust Education Week.

On behalf of Toronto City Council, I thank all those involved in organizing this event. Please accept my best wishes for continued success.

Yours truly, Mayor John Tory City of Toronto

Letters

As Chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), I extend my warmest regards to the participants of the 35th annual Holocaust Education Week.

Shortly after liberation, Norbert Wollheim who wrote, “we are saved but we are not liberated”. With these words Wollheim touched on the complex nature of the liberation and made it clear that the consequences of the Holocaust would continue to be felt by survivors long after 1945.

On behalf of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, we are honoured to welcome you to the 35th Annual Holocaust Education Week, the signature annual program of UJA’s Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre. Attracting more than 35,000 diverse individuals from across the GTA, Holocaust Education Week is a multifaceted event recognized worldwide for excellence. It builds upon the mission of its founders in teaching the history and legacy of the Shoah to new generations, in new and engaging ways.

The Holocaust was such a dark chapter in world history that it not only continues to have repercussions for survivors and their families, but it has consequences for the whole of humanity.

Former Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson initiated the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust in the year 2000 which was attended by the representatives of 46 states at the highest political level. The outcome of the Forum’s deliberations was the Stockholm Declaration, which committed governments to encouraging international cooperation on Holocaust education, remembrance and research and to fight against Holocaust denial and denigration.

This year’s program, on the theme of Liberation: Aftermath and Rebirth, contributes to our collective understanding of the Holocaust by exploring the theme via new scholarship, engaging in cultural and literary analysis, and providing an inquiry-based learning medium for new generations to hear firsthand accounts from those who survived the Shoah. In fact, this year’s event, which features more than 150 programs, includes an unprecedented 65 programs featuring survivor speakers.

There will come a time when the survivors and other witnesses will no longer be among us to share their memories. It is because this day is approaching that every one of us has such an important role to play; we are the keepers of their truth and it is the duty of us all to defend this truth in face of those who would refute and diminish it.

Morris Perlis, Board Chair Morris Zbar, President & CEO UJA Federation of Greater Toronto

UJA Federation is proud to support Holocaust Education Week and participate in it. We invite you and your families to join us.

Sincerely,

I thank the Holocaust Education Week organizers for their efforts to ensure that the stories and the records never fade away, but remain forever seared in our collective memory. We remember not only to honour the victims and the survivors. We remember for all those who were not there at all; that they may know of what happened in order to stop it from ever happening again; that they might deepen their memories, further their understanding and strengthen their humanity.

This is our obligation to the victims, to the survivors and to future generations.

Yours faithfully, Szabolcs Takács, 2015 Chair, Hungary International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance

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Photo: Yuri Dojc

HEW Greetings

On behalf of our dedicated volunteer committee, loyal partners and sponsors, we are very proud to welcome you to the 35th Holocaust Education Week, presented by the Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre, UJA Federation of Greater Toronto. HEW 2015 marks a bittersweet time of remembrance and renewal.

During the 70th anniversary year of the liberation of Europe from Nazism, HEW 2015 explores the theme of Liberation: Aftermath and Rebirth in honour of the survivors and liberators and in memory of the victims. More than 150 programs that feature Holocaust survivor testimonies, films, lectures, scholars, artists and panel discussions will engage diverse audiences in the history and the legacy of the Holocaust.

Founded by Holocaust survivors, Holocaust Education Week has grown due to the dedication of its volunteer and professional leadership. HEW would not be possible without the partnership of community members, generous sponsors, and audiences committed to fighting intolerance and discrimination through Holocaust education. We gratefully acknowledge the generosity and leadership of Great Gulf, The Elizabeth and Tony Comper Foundation, Apotex–Honey and Barry Sherman, and the Azrieli Foundation, as well as media sponsors CTV and the National Post.

Please join us for this very important and meaningful week.

Dori Ekstein Lily Kim 2015 HEW Co-Chairs Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre

Holocaust Education Week 2015 marks the seventieth anniversary of liberation and explores the humanitarian, political and social realities left in its wake.

We thank our presenters, volunteers, colleagues, partners, generous donors and ambassadors, and most especially Holocaust survivor speakers, who founded this event in 1980—we owe a debt of gratitude to them for 35 years of excellence in Holocaust education, another poignant anniversary. Special recognition goes to HEW co-chairs, Dori Ekstein and Lily Kim, our dedicated presenting sponsors Great Gulf and The Elizabeth and Tony Comper Foundation, and legacy lead sponsors, The Azrieli Foundation and Apotex–Honey and Barry Sherman. The generosity of our media sponsors, CTV and National Post, extends HEW’s reach throughout the Greater Toronto Area and beyond. We are honoured that the Tanenbaum family is our inaugural program guide sponsor, in loving memory of Sam and Alice Lieberman.

We are privileged to benefit from the visionary and dedicated leadership of our professional and advisory colleagues, especially Honey Sherman, Immediate Past Chair; Shael Rosenbaum, Incoming Chair; Carson Phillips, Managing Director; Rachel Libman, Head of Programs & Outreach; Mary Siklos, Operations Manager; and Michelle Fishman, Education Associate. Our team’s work is enhanced by the support of Iris Glesinger, Anna Skorupsky, and Gedenkdiener Mathias Vogt.

UJA Federation of Greater Toronto is our sustaining supporter, enabling us to bring programming throughout the year to the community and beyond.

Neuberger HEW 2015 offers you an outstanding selection of compelling programs at the finest venues in our city and region.

We invite you to join us and we thank you for your continued support.

Marilyn Sinclair, Chair Mira Goldfarb, Executive Director Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre

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Holocaust Education Week 2015

HEW at a Glance 6

Experts-In-Residence 14 Dr. Hilary Earl Scholar-in-Residence Dr. Lauren Granite Educator-in-Residence Elliot Sylman Featured Photographer

Opening & Closing Night Programs 8

Music, Performance & Visual Arts 35 Symposia & Workshops 38

Victory in Europe: Commemorating 70 Years of Liberation Creating A Digital Culture of Remembrance: Reconstructing Synagogues Destroyed during Kristallnacht

Films 15 Survivor Testimony 18

Youth & Family 39 Ontario-Region Programs 40 Closed Programs 41 Holocaust Survivor Speakers 42

Essays 10 The Aftermath of Nazism Dr. Hilary Earl Curating Holocaust Education Week 2015 Dr. Carson Phillips

Lectures & Panels 22 Literary Programs 32

Ensuring the Future of Holocaust Education and Commemoration 46 Spotlight on the Neuberger 48

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HEW at a Glance

7:00 PM

Birth, Liberation and Aftermath 7:30 PM

(Re)Birth: Mothering after the Holocaust 7:30 PM

Restoring Family Trees Severed by the Holocaust 7:30 PM The Future of Holocaust Remembrance 8:00 PM Justice and Forgiveness

Wednesday 4 November

OPENING NIGHT Page 8

Monday 2 November 12:00 PM

Too Little, Too Late 1:00 PM

Ida

4:30 PM

“Never Again”?

6:30 PM

In Conversation . . . Edward Fisch 7:00 PM

The Veiled Sun Holocaust, Survival, and Escape

10:30 AM

Indigenous and Jewish Experiences

1:30 PM

In Conversation . . . Pinchas Gutter

7:30 PM

In Conversation . . . Edith Gelbard

10:30 AM

Taking Sides

War in My Town

Children of the Holocaust

Born in Bergen-Belsen

2:00 PM

12:00 PM

Sephardic Jews in the Balkans

Medical Ethics and the Holocaust

Liberation: The Persisting Holocaust

3:00 PM

1:00 PM

8:00 PM

Child Survivors—Then & Now

In Conversation . . . Denise Hans

Remembering Yiddish Culture Through Song

Antisemitism in the Era of Je Suis Charlie

1:30 PM

4:00 PM

6:00 PM

In Conversation . . . Alexander Eisen

The Red Army and the End of the Holocaust

Distance from the Belsen Heap

2:00 PM

6:30 PM

In Conversation . . . Eva Meisels

7:30 PM OPENING NIGHT

Prisoners of War in Japan

2:30 PM

2:00 PM

film P15

In Conversation . . . Manny Langer

Witness to History: Henry Wellisch

Victory in Europe: Commemorating 70 Years of Liberation

I Kiss Your Hands Many Times

Thursday 5 November 9:00 AM

Witness to History: Judy Weissenberg Cohen 10:00 AM

In Conversation . . . Edith Gelbard 10:30 AM

In Conversation . . . Rose Lipszyc

Tuesday 3 November

12:00 PM

10:00 AM

1:00 PM

Witness to History: Bill Glied

In Conversation . . . Edward Fisch

In Conversation . . . Denise Hans 1:30 PM

In Conversation . . . Esther Fairbloom 10:30 AM

Surviving Survival

In Conversation . . . Rose Lipszyc

Sephardic Jews in the Balkans

Les rafles de l’été 1942

In Conversation . . . Andy Réti

12:10 PM

A View from the Roof

Lunch & Learn

2:00 PM

1:00 PM

A Musical Tribute in Song

In Conversation . . . Leonard Vis

Survivors and Post-war Recovery film P17

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HEW at a Glance

LECTURE P27

4:30 PM

Discover Centropa 7:00 PM

Prisoner of Her Past 7:30 PM

Post-Holocaust Pogroms Holocaust Survivors in Canada

Saturday 7 November

100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide

4:00 PM & 7:30 PM

7:30 PM

5:00 PM

Wunderkinder

Remembering for the Future

Family Heritage and History

Close Encounters in Occupied Germany

7:00 PM

From Budapest to Toronto

After Liberation

8:00 PM

Living in the Shadow

The Lost Rhapsody of Leo Spellman

7:30 PM

Robert Clary: A Memoir of Liberation

The Tailors of Tomaszow

Passing the Torch of Holocaust Memory

Monday 9 November

Sunday 8 November

1:00 PM

10:00 AM

1:30 PM

Jewish DPs in Post-War Italy

German Concentration Camps Factual Survey

Remembering for the Future

Return of the Violin

In Conversation . . . Nate Leipciger

8:00 PM CLOSING NIGHT

8:45 AM/11:45 AM

11:00 AM

Witness to History: Eva and Leslie Meisels

Witness to History: Henry Wellisch

1:30 PM

In Conversation . . . Lenka Weksberg

Life After Hiding

Distance from the Belsen Heap

7:00 PM

From Perpetrators of Genocide to Ordinary German Citizens

Witness to History: Felicia Carmelly

8:00 PM

2:00 PM

Liberating Memory In Conversation . . . Leslie Meisels Saving North American Jewry

Creating A Digital Culture of Remembrance: Reconstructing Synagogues Destroyed during Kristallnacht HEW programs with dates prior to November 2 and after November 9 are listed in the subsequent pages, in their respective categories.

The Lost Jewish Music of Transylvania

Friday 6 November 10:00 AM

In Conversation . . . Alexander Eisen 12:00 PM

Atrocity, Law, and History 1:30 PM & 3:00 PM

Hidden Sorrows 1:30 PM

In Conversation . . . Joe Leinburd 2:00 PM

70th Anniversary of Liberation

Closing Night Page 9

Neuberger Holocaust Education Week 7

oPEning nigHt

General Dwight D. Eisenhower in Toronto, 1946. Image courtesy City of Toronto Archives, Series 1057, Item 2911.

Victory in Europe: Commemorating 70 Years of Liberation The liberation of Europe and the end of Nazi tyranny brought about tremendous changes. Allied liberators encountered thousands of survivors in concentration camps, on death marches, and emerging from forests and hiding. Although Soviet forces liberated parts of Europe as early as March 1944, it was on June 6, 1944 (D-Day) that Allied liberation of Western Europe commenced under the command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Between January 1945 and early April 1945, Allied Forces in the east and west continued the liberation. On May 8, 1945, Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender became official, and the remaining concentration camps were liberated.

In the aftermath of liberation, from 1945 to 1952, more than 250,000 Jewish displaced persons (DPs) lived in camps and urban centres in Germany, Austria, and Italy, administered by Allied authorities. Jewish refugees immigrated to countries around the world including approximately 40,000 to Canada.

Join historian David Eisenhower, grandson of General and President Dwight D. Eisenhower, for a personal analysis of the pivotal role his grandfather and the Allied Forces played in achieving victory in Europe. david Eisenhower is the Director of the Institute for Public Service at the Annenberg Public Policy Center. He serves as a senior research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School of Communication and is a fellow in the International Relations Department at the University. After serving three years in the United States Navy, he earned his Juris Doctor from George Washington University. Eisenhower is the author of Eisenhower: At War, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in history in 1986, numerous magazine articles and book reviews. His most recent book, co-authored with wife Julie Nixon Eisenhower, is Going Home to Glory, which chronicles the post-presidency years of his grandfather. Eisenhower is the recipient of seven honorary doctorates.

Admission free; no registration required.

Monday, 2 novEMbEr | 7:30 PM (doors oPEn at 6:30 PM) adatH israEl congrEgation 37 soutHbournE avEnuE | toronto | 416–635–5340

opening night of Holocaust Education Week is generously co-sponsored by Marya and Herman grad in memory of his parents, Moses and Pepi grad, both Holocaust survivors.

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Closing Night

Creating A Digital Culture of Remembrance: Reconstructing Synagogues Destroyed during Kristallnacht Closing Night of HEW 2015 explores how synagogues destroyed during Kristallnacht are brought to life in contemporary Germany through digital media. The Synagogues in Germany—A Virtual Reconstruction project began in 1994, after students at the Technical University of Darmstadt learned of an arson attack on the synagogue in Lübeck. More than 70 Darmstadt students have completed 25 synagogue reconstructions using their university’s design and architecture technology. Through this ongoing project, synagogues in Berlin, Darmstadt, Dresden, Frankfurt, Hanover, Cologne, Leipzig, Munich, and Nuremberg (among others) have been reconstructed virtually, recording the loss of communities and culture, and testifying to the historical and architectural importance of the buildings, once part of German cityscapes and culture. The project was expanded to include an interactive online archive of more than 2,200 synagogues that were closed, desecrated or destroyed during the Nazi regime. An exhibition of the reconstructions has travelled to cities in Germany, the US and Israel. Involved initially as a student and now as a professor of architecture, Dr. Marc Grellert explores how this remarkable project offers new generations opportunities to understand, interpret, and make history relevant through new forms of technology, defining the culture of memory for the 21st century.

Dr. Marc Grellert teaches in the Department of Information and Communication Technology in Architecture at the Technical University of Darmstadt and is co-founder of the company Architectura Virtualis. His work focuses on virtual reconstructions, remembrance and conveying of knowledge through digital media, as well as the development of installations and exhibits for museums.

In 1994, Dr. Grellert initiated the Synagogues in Germany—A Virtual Reconstruction project, and developed the Synagogue Internet Archive in 2002. He has led numerous national and international research projects, the results of which were featured in large exhibitions.

Closing Night of HEW will also include a candle-lighting ceremony commemorating the 77th anniversary of Kristallnacht.

We gratefully acknowledge generous HEW hospitality sponsorship from the Chelsea Hotel, Toronto; from Marilyn and Stephen Sinclair and family in loving memory of their father, Ernie Weiss, a survivor speaker committed to teaching students about the Holocaust. His love, kindness and wisdom are forever missed. Additional sponsorship provided by Eleanor and Martin Maxwell, in memory of his sisters, Josephine and Erna Meisels who died in the Holocaust; and by Scotiabank, Bathurst and Sheppard Branch.

Production is generously sponsored by Magen Boys Entertainment.

Monday, 9 November | 8:00 pm Shaarei Shomayim Congregation 470 Glencairn Avenue | Toronto | 416–789–3213

Closing Night is generously co-sponsored

by Myra and Joel York and family in loving memory of Sarah and Chaim Neuberger. Their passionate dedication to family, community and Holocaust education inspired us to continue their legacy.

Neuberger Holocaust Education Week 9

The Aftermath of Nazism

On May 8, 1945, the day that Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Allies, Europe lay in ruins. The Second World War (1939–1945) was one of the most destructive conflicts of the modern era in which 2.5 percent of the world’s population (5560 million people) died, some of who were deliberately targeted for extermination by the Nazis.

As the eminent historian Tony Judt has argued, it was during the Second World War that the full force of the modern European state was mobilized for the first time, for the primary purpose of conquering and exploiting other Europeans. No other conflict in recorded history killed so many people and so quickly.

What is striking though is the number of non-combatant civilians killed—at least 45 million. Many died of starvation and disease, in partisan wars, and bombing raids, and of course, 6 million European Jews were deliberately murdered in open-air shootings and in death and slave labour camps. Unlike the First World War, the Second World War was primarily “a civilian experience”; military conflict was confined to the beginning and the end—“in between was the war of occupation, repression, exploitation,” mass murder, and genocide.

In the wake of such unprecedented violence what would the post-war world look like? Would Germany remain an independent nation-state? What role would the United States and the Soviet Union play in the post-war world? How would Europe be rebuilt? Where would millions of displaced persons live?

Would the Allies seek retribution, and if so, in what manner?

These were the question the Allies tackled in the aftermath of the unprecedented violence of war.

As early as November 1, 1943, in what became known as “The Moscow Declaration on German Atrocities,” the Allied leaders Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin explicitly warned the German government that at war’s end, “all those who have taken a consenting part in atrocities, massacres and executions” of innocent people will be pursed “to the uttermost ends of the earth and will [be] delivered to [their] accusers in order that justice may be done.” Despite such strongly stated intentions, the Allies did very little during the remainder of the war to prepare for such an eventuality, planning for the

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punishment of war criminals was thus deferred until war’s end.

Traditionally to the victors go the spoils and the leaders of the losing countries are summarily executed by firing squad, banished to remote locales, or otherwise rendered powerless.

The British and Soviets wanted to immediately execute Germany’s wartime leaders, whereas the Americans were divided.

Some in the State Department believed Germany should be rendered helpless, de-industrialized, de-militarized, and de-Nazified as a way to prevent Germany from ever starting a war again. Others feared the destruction of Germany, seeing it of central importance to a functioning and healthy Europe. It was Secretary of War Henry Stimson who put forward the idea of a war crimes trial to punish Nazis. These were not to be show trials; rather he firmly believed they must operate with the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, a fundamental tenet of liberal democratic justice. Germans should be held accountable for the unprecedented crimes they had unleashed on Europeans, but as important was that they be taught a lesson: the authoritarian Nazi government they supported was evil and the best way for them become good democrats was by showing them that liberal democratic justice could be fair. What better place to do that than a courtroom—Nuremberg, it was hoped, would be both redemptive and retributive.

Using the law to change society is referred to as transitional justice. Many countries that have experienced traumatic events have used it, but in the aftermath of 1945 it was a novel idea.

War crimes trials are almost commonplace today, the normal course of events that follow modern-day wars and atrocities, but the truth is they are a recent invention. The Nuremberg Trial of twenty-two of the highest-ranking political and military leaders of the Nazi regime, held between October 1, 1945 and November 1, 1946, and the twelve subsequent Nuremberg Trials that followed prosecuting 185 more, were the first time leaders of a modern and legitimate nation-state were held accountable for crimes they committed during wartime.

Nazi officials were tried by an international tribunal consisting of representatives from the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. There were no German represen-

tatives on the tribunal. On the surface, this trial appears to be one of the winners over the losers or what Herman Göring called “victor’s justice.” It wasn’t. Rather ironically, Nuremberg represents a renewed hope in humanity, illustrating a uniquely American optimism and faith in liberal democratic justice. Nuremberg was intended to give meaning to the deaths of millions of innocent people – not just Jews – and it was hoped in the process it would also prevent such atrocities from happening again. As Lawrence Douglas has so powerfully argued, Nuremberg and all subsequent war crimes trials have both legal and didactic ends.

At war’s end, scholars estimate that 5.8 million Germans were members of the Nazi party. The American planners of the Nuremberg proceedings hoped to educate Germans about democratic justice and, in so doing, provide an historical record of the criminal policies enacted by Hitler’s Third Reich. Today, Germany stands as a centrepiece of democracy in Europe. Whether or not war crimes trials had anything to do with that success is difficult to determine. What is certain, however, is that they exposed the insidiousness of National Socialism to the entire world. In fact, most of what we know about the Holocaust and the Third Reich is based on captured German documents that were seized and catalogued for the trials. The Allies captured and preserved tens of thousands of documents and as a result the Holocaust is now one of the best-documented genocides in modern history. The inner workings of the twentieth century’s worst genocide were laid bare for all to see at the trials, and this result alone gives the trials at Nuremberg immense historical significance.

More than seventy years after the conclusion of the Second World War and the birth of international justice, genocides continue unabated and so do war crimes trials. Nuremberg established a precedent. From the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Israel to the special ad hoc tribunals set up to try war criminals from the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, for better or worse, Nuremberg was the legal template for everything that followed. Since Nuremberg itself, historians have debated the nature and limits of the way in which punishment for wartime atrocities was meted out after 1945. The decade between 1945 and 1956 might

usefully be understood now as “post-war” in the sense that the unresolved business of the war itself, including questions of justice, were the dominant feature. In the end, Herman Göring might have been correct, Nuremberg may have been victor’s justice, but for the most part it was justice. For all of its flaws, it established through its documentary record that Nazi Germany was one of the most criminal regimes in history. The trials showed the horrors of slave labour, occupation, and genocide and in doing so it made Nazism a dirty word. As one Nuremberg judge aptly concluded, Nuremberg may have been the home of the Nazi party, but it was also “its grave.” Discrediting Nazism forever, Nuremberg provided an important and fitting closure to the criminal Nazi regime.

Dr. Hilary Earl, Associate Professor of European History at Nipissing University in North Bay, is HEW 2015 Scholar-in-Residence.

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Curating Holocaust Education Week 2015

“I visited every nook and cranny of the camp because I felt it my duty to be in a position from then on to testify at first hand about these things in case there ever grew up at home the belief or assumption that ‘the stories of Nazi brutality were just propaganda’ . . . I sent communications to both Washington and London, urging the two governments to send instantly to Germany a random group of newspaper editors and representative groups from the national legislatures. I felt that the evidence should be immediately placed before the American and British publics in a fashion that would leave no room for cynical doubt.”

General Dwight D. Eisenhower Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, Ohrdruf Concentration Camp, 15 April 1945

The theme of HEW 2015 presented our programming team with a paradox. Although many greeted the liberation of Europe with joy, for those who survived the Nazi concentration camp network, in hiding, and in forests, liberation was coupled with the realisation that family members and communities were annihilated. Jewish life was irrevocably altered, and liberation presented a new set of challenges.

From a curatorial perspective, it was critical that this year’s programming illustrate the complexity of the theme while highlighting important leitmotifs. In doing so, we reveal the theme’s intricate and multiple layers, while providing new interpretations to historical events and narratives. It seemed fitting therefore that Opening Night feature David Eisenhower. He provides the overarching introduction to liberation. An historian and grandson of Dwight D. Eisenhower, he is uniquely positioned to provide historical, familial and personal reflections with Victory in Europe: Commemorating 70 Years of Liberation (p.8).

This contextualization segues to several thematic interpretations explored during this remarkable week of learning with more than 100 programs across the GTHA. Military aspects of liberation are expanded upon in The Red Army and the End of the Holocaust (p.23) and Distance from the Belsen Heap: Allied Forces and the Liberation of a Nazi Concentration Camp (p.33), which provide significant opportunities to learn about the multiple factors that ended the horrors of the Holocaust.

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HEW 2015 offers an important opportunity to engage directly with the power of personal testimony as delivered by Holocaust survivors (pp.18–21). Elliot Sylman’s evocative photographs of the Neuberger’s Holocaust Survivor Speakers’ Bureau, Portraits of Resilience (p.35), offer another opportunity to learn about the human dimension of the Holocaust and the rebuilding of lives. Viewing the British film German Concentration Camps Factual Survey (p.17), recently restored by the Imperial War Museum, provides the opportunity to engage with the visual evidence General Eisenhower so passionately described. Based on footage shot by the Allied Forces in 1945, this important historical documentary will be introduced and contextualised by Prof.

Robert Jan van Pelt.

The complex role that the DP camps played emerges as an ancillary theme. Prof. Michael Marrus discusses the reality that many Holocaust survivors encountered in Liberation: the Persisting Holocaust (p.26) and Prof. Atina Grossmann, whose research the DP camps makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the era, presents Jews, Germans, and Allies: Close Encounters in Occupied Europe (p.34). The integration of Jewish refugees in Canada is explored by Dr. Adara Goldberg in Holocaust Survivors in Canada: Exclusion, Inclusion, and Transformation (p.33), and Dr. Paula Draper’s lecture Surviving Survival: Holocaust Survivors and their Integration into Canadian Communities (p.27).

How material traces of the past inform and shape the present

and future is an important auxiliary theme. Dr. Diane Afoumado demonstrates the significance of the International Tracing Service in Restoring Family Trees Severed by the Holocaust (p.24).

A screen highlight is the multi-award winning film Ida (p.15) revealing issues of memory, identity and self-discovery. The Muzsikás ensemble (p.37) testifies to the rich, Hungarian-Jewish musical culture, and Educator-in-Residence Lauren Granite depicts the diversity of European Jewish life in 1492, The Other Path: Sephardic Jews in the Balkans (p.39). Alongside several workshops and symposia, Dr. Granite also offers teachers new pedagogical methods and resources in Border Jumping: Discover Centropa for your Classroom (p.38).

This year, specific programming for youth and families (p.39) is offered through the mediums of literature and film. Of particular interest to young audiences is the peer-education program led

by Mathias Vogt, the Neuberger’s Holocaust Memorial Service Intern. Mathias will discuss the themes and historical context behind the animated BBC film, Children of the Holocaust (p.39).

The enduring quest for post-war justice is highlighted in outstanding new research by scholars like Prof. Rebecca Wittmann in Too Little, Too Late (p.22), and Scholar-in-Residence Prof.

Hilary Earl in Atrocity, Law and History: The Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial (p.27). Demonstrating the continued relevance of this theme, Holocaust survivors Hedy Bohm, Max Eisen and Bill Glied share personal reflections as witnesses at the Groening trial in Justice and Forgiveness (p.25).

HEW 2015 closes with the annual Kristallnacht commemoration. Dr. Marc Grellert delivers the keynote address on the poignant topic of Creating A Digital Culture of Remembrance: Reconstructing Synagogues Destroyed during Kristallnacht (p.9).

Since 1994, Dr. Grellert has worked to digitally recreate some of the most significant losses endured by the German Jewish community–synagogues destroyed during the National Socialist regime. By painstakingly building detailed virtual reconstructions, Dr. Grellert reveals not only the architectural and historical significance of these buildings, but also the people who established them and gathered to worship in them. Synagogues representing Jewish life, culture and presence in cities such as Bad

Kissingen, Berlin, Darmstadt, Dortmund, Dresden, Frankfurt, Hanover, Kaiserslautern, Cologne, Langen, Leipzig, Mannheim, Munich, Nuremberg and Plauen formed the nexus of inquiry for this project. This presentation is a fitting topic for Kristallnacht as Dr. Grellert addresses the question of how new generations and new technologies can contribute to and shape cultural memory and remembrance.

Honouring those who defeated Nazism, remembering the victims, and valuing the many Holocaust survivors who give of their time and energy to educate, is core to HEW 2015. Utilizing an interdisciplinary focus, Holocaust Education Week offers audiences numerous and diverse points to engage with the study of the Holocaust. Through literary, cultural, historical, artistic and cinematic mediums, HEW demonstrates the commitment, as expounded upon in the Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust, “to remember the victims who perished, respect the survivors still with us, and reaffirm humanity’s common aspiration for mutual understanding and justice.”

I encourage you to take part in as many programs as possible and contribute to the legacy of remembrance and education.

Dr. Carson Phillips is Managing Director of the Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre.

Neuberger Holocaust Education Week 13

Experts-in-Residence

Scholar-in-Residence

Educator-in-Residence

FEATURED PHOTOGRAPHER

Dr. Hilary Earl

Dr. Lauren Granite

Elliot Sylman

2015 Scholar-in-Residence Dr. Hilary Earl is an historian of the Holocaust whose research focuses on perpetrator testimony and war crimes trials in the aftermath of the Holocaust. She is currently Associate Professor of European History at Nipissing University, North Bay. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence. She has published extensively in the field of Holocaust studies; her book, The Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial, 1945–1958: Atrocity, Law, and History, won the 2010 Hans Rosenberg Prize for best book in German History at the American Historical Association. She is the co-editor of Lessons and Legacies XI: Expanding Perspectives of the Holocaust in a Changing World (2014), a collection of essays on the most recent scholarship in the field. She is currently working on a number of projects including a study of the integration of Nazi war criminals back into German society, the cultural impact of the Holocaust on pedagogy, and a film on Nazi perpetrators.

The Educator-in-Residence for Holocaust Education Week 2015 is Dr. Lauren Granite, North American Education Director for Centropa, a Jewish historical institute based in Vienna, Austria, dedicated to preserving 20th century Jewish family stories from Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Before joining the Centropa staff, she spent many years teaching Jewish history in colleges, a Jewish day school and congregational schools. As a teacher, Lauren created Centropa’s first cross-cultural projects with schools in Berlin and Budapest. Since 2010, she has been building Centropa’s network of Jewish, public, parochial and charter schools in North America; running workshops and seminars; mentoring teachers; writing curriculum; and establishing teacher advisory teams to advise Centropa about curricula. Today, educators in 500 schools in 18 countries use Centropa’s resources to teach history, social studies, literature, foreign language, and more. Each summer, Centropa brings 90 educators from North America, Europe and Israel to the great cities of Central Europe to study together, create professional partnerships, and design crosscultural projects for their students.

Elliot Sylman has been a professional photographer since 1986. Throughout his career, he has focused on capturing poignant images of individuals. Elliot began photographing Holocaust survivors in 1992, starting with a dramatic portrait of his father, who was born in a small town in Poland. His passion has led him across the country photographing hundreds of survivors who immigrated to Canada. He has collaborated with diverse organizations in pursuit of this goal, donating his time to document the lives of Holocaust survivors through contemporary portrait photography. A book featuring this powerful collection of photographs is planned.

See pages 27 and 41 for programs featuring Hilary Earl during HEW 2015.

The Scholar-in-Residence is generously sponsored by the Cohen Family Charitable Trust.

See pages 38–40 for programs featuring Lauren Granite during HEW 2015.

The Educator-in-Residence is generously sponsored by Joyce & Aaron Rifkind and Naomi Rifkind Mansell & David Mansell.

14 Neuberger Holocaust Education Week

In honour of the 70th anniversary of liberation, Elliot graciously photographed members of the Neuberger’s Survivor Speakers’ Bureau for Holocaust Education Week 2015, displayed in this publication on pages 42–45, and in an exhibition at the Miles Nadal JCC (p.35).

Film

Ida image courtesy of Portobello Film Sales.

Kisses to the Children Greek with English subtitles, 115 minutes Five Greek-Jewish children who were saved by Christian families during the German occupation of Greece finally tell their stories. Using rare archival material, amateur films by German soldiers and once-illegal footage shot by Greek patriots, Kisses to the Children (2012) tells stories of anguish and confusion alongside tales of salvation and safety in the homes and arms of strangers. Featuring discussion with award-winning director Vassilis Loules.

Vassilis Loules is the director of several documentary films: The Noose (2014); Lela Karayannis, The Fragrance of a Heroine (2005); A Bright Shining Sun (2000). Kisses to the Children won the Audience Award at the Greek Film Festival Chicago 2012 and the Best Direction Award “Agon” at the International Meeting of Archaeological Film in 2012 (Athens, Greece).

Co-sponsored by Department of History, Hellenic Heritage Foundation Chair of Modern Greek History.

Thursday, 29 October | 5:30 pm York University—Israel and Golda Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies 120 Accolade East Building Price Family Cinema | 4700 Keele Street Toronto | 416–736–5823

Blind Love: A Holocaust Journey Through Poland with Man’s Best Friend English, 28 minutes This CBC documentary film recounts a 2013 trip to Poland of six blind Israelis and their guide dogs to take part in the annual March of the Living. The film poignantly captures the special bond between individuals and their guide dog companions. Decorated Israeli tank commander Eli Yablonek who was blinded during the Yom Kippur War and his guide dog Glen will participate in this program, along with Israeli Guide Dog Mobility Instructor Yariv Melamed. World Premiere.

This program features three additional short films from the March of the Living Digital Archives: Twice Liberated (2012, 6:13), Reunions (2014, 8:00), and Cszeslawa & Olga (2014, 7:17).

Co-sponsored by Canadian Friends of the Israel Guide Dog Centre for the Blind, Toronto Jewish Film Festival, and March of the Living Digital Archives Project.

Sunday, 1 November | 8:00 pm Congregation Habonim 5 Glen Park Avenue | Toronto | 416–782–7125

Ida

Ida Polish with English subtitles, 82 minutes Set in Poland in 1962, Ida (2013) is about a young woman on the verge of taking vows as a Catholic nun. Orphaned as an infant during the Nazi occupation, she must now meet her aunt, a former Communist state prosecutor and only surviving relative. After her aunt reveals that her parents were Jewish, the two women embark on a journey into the Polish countryside to learn the fate of their family. Winner of the 2015 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Pre-registration required.

Call 416–631–5689 or online at holocausteducationweek.com. Limit 4 tickets per family.

Generously co-sponsored by Cineplex Entertainment LP and by Carole and Howard Tanenbaum in memory of their sister and sister-in-law Peggy Birnberg.

Monday, 2 November | 1:00 pm | Cineplex Cinemas Empress Walk 5095 Yonge Street, 3RD floor | Toronto | 416–847–0218

Les rafles de l’été 1942 en zone libre. Un crime de l’État français Les rafles de l’été 1942 en zone libre : Un crime de l’État français (Documentaire, France, 52 minutes) suivi d’une période de questions avec Paul Schaffer. En août 1942, 10 000 juifs étrangers et leurs enfants sont arrêtés par la police française en zone libre avant d’être déportés vers les camps de la mort. 270 seulement reviendront après la guerre, parmi eux Paul Schaffer. Il reprend ses études. Il suit une formation d’ingénieur, devient professeur, avant de créer sa propre entreprise. En 2001 il a pris sur lui d’écrire le récit de son histoire, Le Soleil Voilé.

Vivian Felsen est une traductrice du français et du yiddish vers l’anglais qui habite Toronto. Ses traductions du yiddish ont remporté le Canadian Jewish Book Award et le prestigieux prix J.I. Segal. Parmi les ouvrages qu’elle a traduits figurent les mémoires de survivants de la Shoah, dont Memoirs of the Lodz Ghetto de Yankl Nirenberg, If By Miracle de Michael Kutz, et The Veiled Sun de Paul Schaffer. Les transmissions passeront par le système « Skype ».

En partenariat avec la Fondation Azrieli.

Tuesday, 3 November | 10:30 am Toronto Reference Library | 789 Yonge Street | Toronto | 416–393–7175

Neuberger Holocaust Education Week 15

Film

(Re)Birth: Mothering after the Holocaust English, 37 minutes Part literary detective story and part personal journey, MUM (2008) is a documentary drawn from Magda Creet’s memoirs, letter and poems, an archive of a Holocaust survivor who left a paper trail to her hidden past. The trail leads to Hungary, where local memory reveals the story one mother tried to forget. Followed by a discussion with Julia Creet.

Dr. Julia Creet is an Associate Professor of English at York University. She is the co-editor of Memory and Migration—Multidisciplinary Approaches to Memory Studies (2011); H.G Adler: Life, Literature, Legacy (2015); and the producer and director of a documentary, MUM, about the memoirs of a Holocaust survivor who tried to forget. A book of documentary fiction based on the same material, tentatively titled “The Unread Novel,” is in progress.

Tuesday, 3 November | 7:30 pm Oraynu Congregation for Humanistic Judaism at Don Heights Unitarian Congregation | 18 Wynford Drive #102 Toronto | 416–385–3910

Hidden Sorrows: Meeting Gypsy (Roma) Survivors of the Holocaust in Romania English, 60 minutes This 2005 film explores the deportation of Romanian Gypsies (Roma) to camps in Transnistria during the Second World War. Survivor accounts of terrible wartime experiences form the basis of this film, telling their stories through words, gestures and facial expressions to convey the tragedy of the Roma during the Holocaust.

Recommended for mature audiences. Q&A moderated by Felicia Carmelly, Romanian Holocaust survivor. Space is limited; pre-registration is required at 416–395–5441 to reserve your space.

Friday, 6 November | 1:30 & 3:00 pm Barbara Frum Library 3rd Floor, Room B | 20 Covington Road Toronto | 416–395–5441

Robert Clary: A Memoir of Liberation English, 57 minutes

Prisoner of Her Past English, 57 minutes How do Holocaust survivors and their children cope with traumatic memories? This 2010 documentary film explores this question through the dramatic case of Sonia Reich, who at age 69 fled her house, believing Nazis were pursuing her once again. Her son, journalist Howard Reich, works to uncover Sonia’s tragic childhood in order to understand why she is reliving it, so many years later. Q&A with Howard Reich following the screening.

Howard Reich is the Chicago Tribune’s arts critic and producer-writer-narrator of the PBS documentary film Prisoner of Her Past. The film is based on Reich’s book of the same name, which illuminates a little-known condition: late-onset Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Known for portraying Louis Lebeau in the longrunning American television series Hogan’s Heroes, Holocaust survivor Robert Clary is the subject of this 1984 documentary. Born Robert Max Widerman in 1926 in France, Clary returns to Europe in search of his story. He relives his happy childhood in the streets of Paris, his incarceration at Drancy, and the horror of Buchenwald. Included in the film is rare colour footage of the liberation of Buchenwald.

After the screening, Chaim Klein, Jewish History teacher at Anne & Max Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto, will lead a Q&A session.

Generously co-sponsored by Sally and Mark Zigler in honour of their parents, Fanny and Bernard Dov Laufer and Etty and Salo Zigler.

Wunderkinder German with English subtitles, 96 minutes The moving story of three musical prodigies—two Jewish and one German—set in 1941 during the Nazi invasion of Ukraine. In a war-torn, adult world gone mad, the three children provide the light of music and, ultimately, salvation. This 2010 film interweaves the historical background with the relationship between the children who occupy its foreground.

Screening followed by a conversation with Toronto artist and author Bernice Eisenstein.

Her critically-acclaimed graphic novel, I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors, received the Jewish Book Award for Memoir (2007) and was adapted into a National Film Board animated short film.

Her latest work, Correspondences (2013), was created with renowned novelist and poet Anne Michaels. She was the Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre’s 2014 Holocaust Education Week Artist-in-Residence and recently exhibited her work at the Royal Ontario Museum.

Individual tickets: $15 General Admission (including seniors), $10 Young Adults (age 18–35). Box office opens one hour before the screening start time. All single tickets are cash sale only and subject to availability. No advance tickets. Info: esthera@mnjcc.org or 416–924–6211 × 606.

Co-presented by The Royal Conservatory and Goethe-Institut Toronto.

Generously co-sponsored by Joyce & Aaron Rifkind and Naomi Rifkind Mansell & David Mansell; by Gail and Stanley Debow in memory of Maria & Max Reisberg and Heneck Reisberg; and by the Rapoport and Rosenthal families in honour of Mania Rapoport and in memory of Jack Rapoport, both Holocaust survivors.

Sunday, 8 November | 4:00 pm & 7:30 pm Toronto Jewish Film Society Al Green Theatre | Miles Nadal JCC 750 Spadina Avenue | Toronto 416–924–6211 × 606

Saturday, 7 November | 8:00 pm Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto Congregation | 613 Clark Avenue W Thornhill | 905–886–3810

Co-sponsored by Chenstochover Aid Society.

Generously co-sponsored in memory of Max & Guta Glicksman, Rose & Morris Glick, and in honour of Morris Glick, by their loving families.

Thursday, 5 November | 7:00 pm Beth Torah Congregation 47 Glenbrook Avenue | Toronto 416–782–4495 × 21

16 Neuberger Holocaust Education Week

For program changes visit: holocausteducationweek.com or call 416–631–5689.

Film

Recording Atrocity image courtesy of the British Film Institute/Imperial War Museum.

Return of the Violin English, Polish and Hebrew with subtitles, 65 minutes The remarkable story of the survival of a 1731 Stradivarius violin once owned by Israeli Philharmonic founder Bronislaw Huberman is the subject of this fascinating 2012 documentary. A young Jewish prodigy from Częstochowa, Poland, Huberman’s story and that of his violin are intertwined with the story of Sigmund Rolat, also a native of Częstochowa, and his survival during the Holocaust. Anne Balaban will introduce the film and conclude the program.

Anne Balaban, daughter of Holocaust survivors, is an adult educator, speaker and trainer. Her background includes experience as a psychology instructor, career exploration specialist, and motivational speaker. She is the author of book and movie reviews.

Monday, 9 November | 1:30 pm Bernard Betel Centre for Creative Living 1003 Steeles Avenue W | Toronto 416–225–2112

Recording Atrocity

Recording Atrocity: German Concentration Camps Factual Survey

Sham Vekan (There and Here)

English and German with English subtitles, 88 minutes including epilogue for reflection; restricted to persons over the age of 18

The compelling story of pilot Harry Klaussner and navigator Shaia Harsit who meet in Israeli flight academy. Many years later, they discover a shared history. Out of the 330 Israeli pilots in 1956, over 130 were Holocaust survivors who hid their true identities. This 2014 documentary describes the journey of those who came from there and lived the Israeli dream.

When British troops liberated Bergen-Belsen in April 1945, army and newsreel cameramen recorded their horrific discoveries. The footage was used to create German Concentration Camps Factual Survey, a documentary intended for the German public that would condemn the Nazi regime and document the magnitude of its crimes. Sidney Bernstein, producer of the film for Britain’s Ministry of Information, initiated and fought for the production of this project. Alfred Hitchcock spent a month advising on the film. Left unfinished for nearly seventy years, this historically significant film was recently completed for the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen by film scholars at the Imperial War Museum. The story behind the original 1945 film was explored in 2014’s Night Will Fall.

Featuring a discussion with Professor Robert Jan van Pelt.

Robert Jan van Pelt is a Holocaust scholar, author, architectural historian, and professor at the University of Waterloo and University of Toronto. He has written several highly acclaimed books and is world renowned for his extensive research into issues surrounding the architecture of the Holocaust.

Hebrew, 56 minutes

Thursday, 12 November | 7:30 pm Mifgash Program (The Israeli Canadian Project) | Schwartz-Reisman Centre 9600 Bathurst Street | Vaughan 905–303–1821

Pre-registration required. Call 416–631–5689 or online at holocausteducationweek.com.

Limit of 4 tickets per family.

Generously co-sponsored by Cineplex Entertainment LP. Monday, 9 November | 1:00 pm SilverCity Yonge Eglinton 2300 Yonge Street | Toronto | 416–544–1236

Neuberger Holocaust Education Week 17

SURVIVOR TESTIMONY

In Conversation with a Holocaust Survivor The following programs feature a Holocaust survivor speaker presenting his or her testimony in the “In Conversation” format, an interactive dialogue for speakers developed with support from the Conference on Material Claims Against Germany, Inc. Hungarian Holocaust survivor Edward Fisch will speak about his personal experiences during the Holocaust. Edward Fisch was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1933. In 1942, his father was conscripted into the Slave Labour Battalion in Hungary; his mother was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in the spring of 1944. Together with his younger brother, he survived in Swiss protected houses, and then in the Budapest ghetto until liberation in January 1945. Edward’s mother survived but his father was murdered by the Arrow Cross. Edward immigrated to Canada in 1948.

Tuesday, 3 November | 10:00 am Beaches Public Library 2161 Queen Street E | Toronto 416–393–7703

Polish Holocaust survivor Esther Fairbloom will speak about her personal experiences during the Holocaust. Esther Fairbloom was born in the ghetto in Tarnopol, Poland, likely in 1941. When the Nazis began deporting Jews from the ghetto, her sister was hidden on one of the farms. Her mother asked the Mother Superior of the Catholic orphanage to hide six-month-old Esther. After the war, Esther learned that her parents had been killed. At the age of five, she was rescued by an aunt and uncle.

She immigrated to Canada ten years later.

Generously co-sponsored by Tammy and Jerry Balitsky in memory of their parents, Holocaust survivors Philip & Esther Balitsky and Icek & Luba Muskat.

Tuesday, 3 November | 10:00 am Sanderson Public Library 327 Bathurst Street | Toronto 416–393–7653

Polish Holocaust survivor Rose Lipszyc will speak about her personal experiences during the Holocaust. Rose Lipszyc was born in 1929 in Lublin, Poland. On October 14, 1942 Rose escaped forced deportation. She survived the war under a false identity, posing as a teenage Polish child worker in Germany. Rose’s mother, father and two brothers were murdered by the Nazis. After liberation, Rose and her future husband Jack immigrated to Israel in 1948. They came to Canada in 1952.

Tuesday, 3 November | 10:30 am Thornhill Community Centre Public Library 7755 Bayview Avenue | Markham 905–513–7977 × 7177

Dutch Holocaust survivor Leonard Vis will speak about his personal experiences during the Holocaust. Leonard Vis was born in Amsterdam, Holland, in 1930. After the Germans occupied the Netherlands, his family went into hiding. They all survived and were liberated in 1945. After the war, Leonard served two years in the Dutch Army before moving to New York. In 1967, Leonard came to Canada for a job posting.

Generously co-sponsored by Mary Seldon and family in memory of the Sicherman and Schafer families.

Tuesday, 3 November | 1:00 pm Richview Library 1806 Islington Avenue | Toronto 416–394–5120

French Holocaust survivor Edith Gelbard will speak about her personal experiences during the Holocaust. Edith Gelbard was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1932. She lived with her parents, sister and grandmother. After the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938, her family fled to Belgium and then to France. In 1942, her father was murdered in Auschwitz. Edith and her brother were hidden in an orphanage. She was liberated in 1945 and reunited with rest of her family. After the war, she lived in Paris and immigrated to Canada in 1958.

Generously co-sponsored by Vivienne Saltzman in memory of Danny Saltzman.

Tuesday, 3 November | 1:30 pm Deer Park Library 40 St. Clair Avenue E | Toronto 416–393–7657

18 Neuberger Holocaust Education Week

Polish Holocaust survivor Pinchas Gutter will speak about his personal experiences during the Holocaust. Pinchas Gutter and his twin sister were born in Lodz, Poland, in 1933. In 1939, his family was forced into the Warsaw Ghetto. In April 1943, they were deported to the death camp, Majdanek, where the whole family was murdered on arrival, except for Pinchas. He was sent to a work camp, then to Buchenwald, and then on a death march from Germany to Theresienstadt. He was liberated by the Soviet Army in May 1945.

Wednesday, 4 November | 10:30 am Brentwood Library 36 Brentwood Road N | Toronto 416–394–5240

French Holocaust survivor Denise Hans will speak about her personal experiences during the Holocaust. Denise Hans was born in Paris, France, in 1938. In 1942, after her father, aunt and uncle were taken from her home and murdered, her mother sought places to hide her six children and two nieces. Denise was hidden twice with farmers and then in a convent. She and two sisters stayed there until 1948, when they were reunited with their mother and siblings. Denise immigrated to Canada in 1956.

Wednesday, 4 November | 1:00 pm Downsview Library 2793 Keele Street | Toronto 416–395–5720

Polish Holocaust survivor Manny Langer will speak about his personal experiences during the Holocaust. Manny Langer was born in Lodz, Poland, in 1929. Manny was forced to live in the Lodz Ghetto before being transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps. After liberation, he travelled back to Poland where he found two surviving sisters. In 1946, he immigrated to the United States, and in 1951, Manny and his sisters immigrated to Canada.

Wednesday, 4 November | 1:30 pm Ansley Grove Public Library 350 Ansley Grove Road | Woodbridge 905–653–7323 × 4404

SURVIVOR TESTIMONY

Austrian Holocaust survivor Alexander Eisen will speak about his personal experiences during the Holocaust. Alexander Eisen was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1929. After the Anschluss in 1938, the Eisen family fled to Hungary. In 1939 Alex’s father was arrested and fled to Palestine, leaving his wife alone with their three children. Alex and the rest of the family endured the hardships of the Budapest Ghetto, but later managed to escape and live in hiding until being liberated by the Soviet Army in 1945.

TWO PRESENTATIONS: Wednesday, 4 November | 1:30 pm Weston Library 2 King Street (Weston & Lawrence) Toronto | 416–394–1016 Friday, 6 November | 10:00 am Maple Library 10190 Keele Street | Maple 905–653–7323

Hungarian Holocaust survivor Eva Meisels will speak about her personal experiences during the Holocaust. Eva Meisels was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1939, an only child. After her father was taken to a forced labour camp in 1942, Eva and her mother were in the Budapest Ghetto and eventually, a safe house. They obtained false papers from Raoul Wallenberg and were liberated by the Soviet Army. After the war, Eva went back to school and immigrated to Canada in 1956.

Wednesday, 4 November | 2:00 pm Christie Gardens 600 Melita Crescent | Toronto 416–530–1330

Hungarian Holocaust survivor Edward Fisch will speak about his personal experiences during the Holocaust. For his bio, see page 18.

Co-sponsored by the Schwartz-Reisman Centre.

Generously co-sponsored by the Frankel Family Foundation in loving memory of Miriam Frankel’s parents, sisters and brother.

Wednesday, 4 November | 6:30 pm BBYO at Leo & Sala Goldhar Conference & Celebration Centre 9600 Bathurst Street | Vaughan 416–398–2004 × 1

French Holocaust survivor Edith Gelbard will speak about her personal experiences during the Holocaust. For her bio, see page 18.

Generously co-sponsored by Mary Ellen Herman.

Thursday, 5 November | 10:00 am Parliament Street Library 269 Gerrard Street E | Toronto 416–313–7664

Polish Holocaust survivor Rose Lipszyc will speak about her personal experiences during the Holocaust. For her bio, see page 18.

Generously co-sponsored by Sylvia and Edward Fisch in memory of their parents, Ignac & Sarah Fisch and Max & Yetta Starkman; and by Edna and David Magder in memory of her grandmother, Reisl Chana Brodi, and grandfather, Marc Weissman, who were murdered in the Holocaust.

Hungarian Holocaust survivor Andy Réti will speak about his personal experiences during the Holocaust. Andy Réti was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1942. He survived in the Budapest Ghetto together with his mother and paternal grandparents. His father was murdered in a forced labour camp. Andy and his remaining family were liberated in January 1945. In October 1956, during the Hungarian Revolution, he and his mother were able to escape and immigrate to Canada to begin a new life.

Thursday, 5 November | 1:30 pm Wychwood Library 1431 Bathurst Street | Toronto 416–393–7683

Romanian Holocaust survivor Joe Leinburd will speak about his personal experiences during the Holocaust. Joe (Joseph) Leinburd was born in Suceava, Romania, in 1922. In 1941, the Romanian Fascist Regime, collaborating with Nazi Germany, deported the entire Jewish population of Northern Bucovina and Bessarabia to Transnistria, an area in southwestern Ukraine. Miraculously, his entire family survived a death march from Moghilev to Murafa and was liberated in 1944. After spending two-and-a-half years in Displaced Persons camps, Joe and his wife immigrated to Canada in 1949.

Friday, 6 November | 1:30 pm Davenport Library 1246 Shaw Street | Toronto 416–393–7732

Thursday, 5 November | 10:30 am Danforth/Coxwell Library 1675 Danforth Avenue | Toronto 416–393–7783

French Holocaust survivor Denise Hans will speak about her personal experiences during the Holocaust. For her bio, see page 18.

Thursday, 5 November | 1:00 pm Dufferin Clark Library 1441 Clark Avenue W | Vaughan 905–653–7323

For program changes visit: holocausteducationweek.com or call 416–631–5689.

In honour of this year’s HEW theme, speciallycreated short films about Holocaust survivor speakers’ liberation experiences will be screened at select venues. Produced by Shoy Pictures for the Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre.

Neuberger Holocaust Education Week 19

SURVIVOR TESTIMONY

Witness to History The following programs feature a Holocaust survivor speaker presenting his or her testimony as part of a worship service or multidisciplinary program.

Programs featuring authors published by the Azrieli Foundation’s Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program will include complimentary copies of the memoirs where possible, generously provided by the Azrieli Foundation. The program was established by the Azrieli Foundation in 2005 to collect, preserve and share the memoirs and diaries written by survivors of the twentieth-century Nazi genocide of the Jews of Europe who later made their way to Canada.

This special FLOW lecture will feature the eyewitness testimony of Polish Holocaust survivor Anita Ekstein. She will share her experiences as a hidden child during the Holocaust and will recount how she survived as a young girl thanks to the courageous actions of a few Christians. Moderated discussion to follow.

Anita Ekstein was born in Lvov, Poland, in 1934, to Edzia and Fischel Helfgott. In 1942, after her mother was taken away, she was placed in hiding. Anita was hidden by a Christian family; then in 1943, by a priest. Her mother was murdered in October 1942 in the Belzec death camp, her father was murdered in 1943. Anita was liberated in 1945. She immigrated to Canada in 1948, with a surviving aunt.

Generously co-sponsored in honour of Anita Ekstein by her children.

Saturday, 17 October | 7:00 pm Scarborough Chinese Baptist Church 3223 Kennedy Road | Toronto 416–297–8011

Henry Wellisch will describe his experiences as a Holocaust refugee. Henry Wellisch was born in Vienna in 1922 and managed to escape from Austria in 1939. He spent the war years in a British internment camp on the island of Mauritius and joined the Jewish Brigade in 1944. He fought with the Israeli army in the War of Independence In 1948.

Mr. Wellish was was president of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Toronto from 1993 to 1998.

Presented in partnership with the Jewish Genealogical Society of Toronto.

TWO PRESENTATIONS: Wednesday, 4 November | 2:30 pm Forest Hill Place Retirement Residence 645 Castlefield Avenue | Toronto 416–785–1511 Sunday, 8 November | 11:00 am Bathurst Clark Resource Library 900 Clark Avenue W | Vaughan 905–653–7323

Hungarian Holocaust survivor Judy Weissenberg Cohen will speak about her experiences during the Holocaust and the fate of women. Judy Weissenberg Cohen was born in Debrecen, Hungary, in 1928. She was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1944 and survived Bergen-Belsen, a slave labour camp and a death march. She was liberated in 1945 and immigrated to Canada in 1948. Judy’s website, www.womenandtheholocaust.com, is an acclaimed scholarly resource.

Co-sponsored by University of Toronto Mississauga Women and Gender Studies Program and by the Circle of Care’s Holocaust Survivor Fund Advisory Committee.

Thursday, 5 November | 9:00 am University of Toronto Mississauga KANEFF #137 | 3359 Mississauga Road N Mississauga | 905–569–4914

20 Neuberger Holocaust Education Week

Set in Remies, France in 1941 and based on a true story, Pigeon recounts a rare and startling act of resistance. (2004, English, 11 minutes) Following the screening, Yugoslavian Holocaust survivor speaker Bill Glied will reflect on his experiences during the Holocaust and moderate a Q & A. Bill Glied was born in Subotica, Serbia, in 1930. He was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1944 along with his family. He was later transferred to the Dachau concentration camp in Germany and worked as a slave labourer. Bill was liberated by the US Army in April and immigrated to Canada as an orphan in 1947.

Generously co-sponsored in honour of Bill Glied by his children and grandchildren.

Thursday, 5 November | 12:00 noon Centre for Social Innovation CSI Annex Room 4 720 Bathurst Street | Toronto 416–979–3939 × 2

The “Shabbat of Remembrance and Rebirth” program begins with morning services at 8:45 am in the sanctuary, and features memorial aliyot honouring survivors, their children and grandchildren.

Services will conclude with a musical tribute followed by guest speakers Eva and Leslie Meisels and kiddush reception. Pre-registration is required at 416–226–0111 × 10. For their bios, see pages 19 and 21.

Complimentary copies of the Meisels’ memoir, Suddenly the Shadow Fell, are generously provided by and published through the Azrieli Foundation’s Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program.

Saturday, 7 November Shabbat service BEGINS 8:45 AM SPEAKERS 11:45 AM–12:30 PM (APPROX) Pride of Israel Synagogue 59 Lissom Crescent | Toronto 416–226–0111 × 10

SURVIVOR TESTIMONY

Image © centropa.org.

Romanian Holocaust survivor Felicia Carmelly will tell her story of survival and liberation. The FJCC singers and dancers will perform. Felicia Carmelly was born in Romania in 1931. In October 1941, Felicia and her family were deported to the camps in Transnistria where 36 members of her extended family were murdered. Felicia was liberated by the Soviet Army in 1944, and returned to her home in 1945. After living under Communist rule in postwar Romania, Felicia immigrated to Canada in 1962. She is the author of the award-winning book, Shattered! 50 Years of Silence, History and Voices of the Tragedy in Romania and Transnistria.

Complimentary copies of Felicia Carmelly’s memoir, Across the Rivers of Memory, are generously provided by and published through the Azrieli Foundation’s Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program.

Co-sponsored by ICEJ Canada. Generously co-sponsored by the Ernie Weiss Memorial Fund in loving memory of Ernie Weiss, who survived the Holocaust, and the entire family from Mád, Hungary, who did not.

Saturday, 7 November | 7:00 pm Friends of Jesus Christ Canada 181 Nugget Avenue | Toronto 416–335–8829

Polish Holocaust survivor Nate Leipciger will speak about his personal experiences during the Holocaust. Nathan Leipciger was born in 1928, in Chorzow, Poland. He survived the Sosnowiec Ghetto and the camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Funfteichen, Gross Rosen, Flossenberg, Leonberg, Muhldorf am Inn and Waldlager (two sub-camps of Dachau). Nathan and his father were liberated in May 1945, and immigrated to Canada in 1948.

Complimentary copies of Nate Leipciger’s memoir, The Weight of Freedom, are generously provided by and published through the Azrieli Foundation’s Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program.

Sunday, 8 November | 10:00 am Ferndale Baptist Church 614 Brimley Road | Toronto 416–267–0805

Czech Holocaust survivor Lenka Weksberg will speak about her personal experiences during the Holocaust. Lenka Weksberg was born in Tacovo, Czechoslovakia, in 1926. In 1944, the entire family was deported to the Mathesalka Ghetto in Hungary and then to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where her mother and brother were murdered. Lenka survived slave labour camps and a death march. Lenka was liberated by the US Army in April 1945. Lenka immigrated to Canada in 1953.

Generously co-sponsored by the Axler, Glazer and Lang families in honour of Feiga Glazer and in memory of the late Mozes Glazer, both Holocaust survivors.

Sunday, 8 November | 11:00 am Hallelujah Fellowship Baptist Church 425 Pacific Avenue | Toronto 416–745–1226

Hungarian Holocaust survivor Leslie Meisels will speak about his personal experiences during the Holocaust. Leslie Meisels was born in Nadudvar, Hungary, in 1927. He lived with his parents, two brothers and both sets of grandparents. He survived the ghettos in Nadudvar and Debrecen, slave labour in Austria and the eventual deportation to Bergen-Belsen. He was liberated in April 1945 by the 9th US Army from a death train. His mother, father and both brothers also survived.

Leslie immigrated to Canada in 1967.

Golda Sorkina with great-grandson Alexander, Leningrad, 1963

Complimentary copies of Leslie Meisels’ memoir, Suddenly the Shadow Fell, are generously provided by and published through the Azrieli Foundation’s Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program.

Sunday, 8 November | 2:00 pm International Christian Embassy Jerusalem CANADA INTERCESSION FOR ISRAEL at Catch The Fire Ministries— Airport Fellowship Campus, SECOND FLOOR 272 Attwell Drive | Toronto | 416-324-9133

Following the screening of excerpts from a new documentary about his life, Political, Polish Jew: The Story of Pinchas Gutter (producer/director: Gal Yaniv), Pinchas Gutter will participate in a Q&A session to discuss the preservation of the memory of the Holocaust. For his bio, see page 18.

Generously co-sponsored by Dori and Ari Ekstein and family in honour of Holocaust survivors Mina and David Rawa (Rosenbaum) and in memory of the Rosenbaum family who perished in the Holocaust.

Tuesday, 10 November | 7:00 pm Scarboro Missions Interfaith Department 2685 Kingston Road | 416–261–7135 × 266

Neuberger Holocaust Education Week 21

Lectures & Panels

The Goldene Adele: The Story of a Fabulous Portrait Drawing upon his book, Some Measure of Justice, Michael Marrus will speak about the odyssey of a stunning portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer: its place in the opulent life style of the Austrian Jewish aristocracy before Hitler; its significance in the mannered life of a Jewish family; its fate after Austria was annexed to the Reich; its targeting by numerous profiteers during and after the Second World War; and its eventual restitution through the persistent efforts of a family member and a determined, talented attorney. The lecture will conclude with some general observations on justice after the Holocaust, law and history.

Michael R. Marrus is the Chancellor Rose and Ray Wolfe Professor Emeritus of Holocaust Studies at the University of Toronto. He is a historian of the Holocaust and currently teaches the history of International Humanitarian Law. His latest book is entitled Lessons of the Holocaust.

The program is free but due to limited capacity, RSVP is required in order to attend. Registration by e-mail only: HEWEvent@kpmg.ca.

Wednesday, 28 October | 5:30 pm KPMG | Bay Adelaide Centre 333 Bay Street #4600 | Toronto

The Dark Side of Liberation For a program description and Steven Leonard Jacobs’ bio, see page 23.

This lecture is part of Friday night services.

Dessert reception to follow.

Friday, 30 October | 7:30 pm Temple Kol Ami | 36 Atkinson Avenue Thornhill | 905–709–2620

Out of the Holy Fire—The Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Post-War Rebirth of His Work One of the most remarkable figures of the pre-war and Holocaust years was the Piaseczner Rebbe, Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, a spiritual leader in the Warsaw Ghetto. Deported to the Trawniki labour camp, he was shot to death in 1943 during Operation Harvest Festival. Rabbi Shapira’s sermons in the ghetto are known through the work Aish Kodesh (The Holy Fire). Rabbi Shapira’s writings illuminate the issues of faith and doubt during the Holocaust. The program will also focus on one of the central instances of post-Shoah revival: the global interest in Rabbi Shapira’s ideas and religious influence.

Torah in Motion founder Dr. Elliott Malamet will interview one of the leading experts on the Aish Kodesh, Rabbi Nehemia Polen. The dialogue will explore Rabbi Shapira’s writings about the anguish of the ghetto, theological implications, and how his attitude towards God evolved.

Rabbi Nehemia Polen is Professor of Jewish Thought at Hebrew College in Newton, Mass. He has Rabbinic Ordination from Ner Israel Rabbinical College and his PhD from Boston University where he studied with Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel. Rabbi Polen is a leading expert in Hasidism and Jewish thought and author of The Holy Fire: The Teachings of Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira, the Rebbe of the Warsaw Ghetto.

For additional information and registration details, visit www.torahinmotion.org.

Saturday, 31 October | 8:00 pm Torah in Motion at Shaarei Shomayim Congregation | 470 Glencairn Avenue Toronto | 416–633–5770

Antisemitism in the Muslim World—The Jewish Experience What was the Jewish experience in the Muslim world before the Second World War, during the war, and in the post-war era? As antisemitism is resurgent in many Western countries, how is it evolving in the Muslim world? Following his presentation, Dr. Mansur will lead an engaging discussion.

Salim Mansur was born in Calcutta, India and moved to Toronto, Canada where he completed his PhD. He is a professor of Political Science at the University of Western Ontario (London) and author and nationally syndicated columnist for QMI. He is a former columnist for the London Free Press and the Toronto Sun and has contributed to various publications including National Review, the Middle East Forum, and Frontpagemag.

Generously co-sponsored by Guido Smit in tribute to Jan Smit, Righteous Among the Nations.

Sunday, 1 November | 2:00 pm Muslims Facing Tomorrow and Muslim Committee against Anti-Semitism at TAG TV Studio | 2244 Drew Road Mississauga | 416–505–1613

Too Little, Too Late: The Lost Lessons of Fritz Bauer in Post-War German Nazi Trials Fritz Bauer, Attorney General of the State of Hesse and instigator of the Auschwitz Trial, argued that to participate in the Holocaust in any form was to perpetrate murder, and it was his goal to see every last Nazi who was involved in the machinery of mass murder convicted as such. The Auschwitz Trial sadly did not produce such results; but what were the lessons learned from this trial in the legal realm?

How have Nazi trials changed and evolved since then? This lecture argues that sadly, they have not.

By looking at trials in the 1970s and 2000s it is obvious that the law was not the place where Germany’s real confrontation with the past would occur.

Rebecca Wittmann is Associate Professor of History at the University of Toronto and Chair of the Department of Historical Studies at University of Toronto Mississauga. She is a historian of post-war Germany and is working on a book entitled Guilt and Shame through the Generations: How Germans Deal with the Nazi Past.

Limited capacity, RSVP required to Bryan Jones at rsvp@airdberlis.com or 416–865–4745.

Co-sponsored by Aird & Berlis and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Monday, 2 November | 12:00 PM Aird & Berlis LLP Please RSVP for Location | 416–865–4745

22 Neuberger Holocaust Education Week

Lectures & Panels

Justice or Revenge: Rethinking the Dark Side of Liberation For many Jews, the liberation of Europe meant freedom, but a small group felt a need to seek vengeance against Nazis. For a period, the Nokmim (Hebrew, lit. avengers) decided to take justice into their own hands. Similarly, after the First World War, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) approved a covert operation to assassinate the masterminds of the Armenian Genocide who had evaded justice. This talk will discuss the complicated concepts of revenge and justice while highlighting what we can learn from these two dramatic cases today.

Steven Leonard Jacobs is Associate Professor and Aaron Aronov Endowed Chair of Judaic Studies at the University of Alabama. He received his BA from Penn State University; and his BHL, MAHL, DHL, DD, and Rabbinic Ordination from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. His primary research foci are in Biblical Studies, JewishChristian Relations, and Holocaust and Genocide Studies. The co-author of Fifty Key Thinkers on Holocaust and Genocide (2012), he is the editor of several publications.

This program is presented as part of the annual memorial program of the Wierzbniker Society which memorializes those who were murdered by Nazis in the Polish shtetl of Wierzbnik during the Second World War. Survivors and their descendants will be in attendance to participate in a meaningful candle-lighting ceremony.

Sunday, 1 November | 2:00 pm Wierzbniker Society at Bialik Hebrew Day School 2760 Bathurst Street | Toronto 416–485–3390

The Red Army and the End of the Holocaust

Lunch & Learn—Liberation: Aftermath and Rebirth

The first liberators of European Jews were soldiers and officers of the Red Army. They encountered Kerch, Babi Yar, Majdanek, Treblinka, Auschwitz and many other sites of mass murder. How did members of the Soviet military—many of whom were Jews themselves—make sense of what they saw? Based on documents of the Soviet Extraordinary Commissions and personal accounts of Red Army Jewish and non-Jewish soldiers, Zvi Gitelman and Anna Shternshis explore the range of responses, from rage and revenge to indifference, and discuss the immediate and long-term implications. Panel discussion moderated by Doris Bergen.

Following lunch, Doris L. Bergen, Chancellor Rose and Ray Wolfe Professor of Holocaust Studies at the University of Toronto, will address this year’s HEW theme.

Doris L. Bergen is the Chancellor Rose and Ray Wolfe Professor of Holocaust Studies at the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on issues of religion, gender, and ethnicity in the Holocaust and the Second World War. She is the author or editor of five books. Her current projects include a book on German military chaplains in the Nazi era. Professor Bergen is a member of the Academic Advisory Committee of the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at USHMM. Zvi Gitelman is Preston R. Tisch Professor of Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan. His most recent book is Jewish Identities in Postcommunist Russia and Ukraine: An Uncertain Ethnicity (2012). Gitelman’s current projects are two edited volumes, on the Russian-speaking Jewish diaspora (2016) and on Jewish literature in the interwar (1918–1939) period (2016). He is writing a book on ethnic relations in the Soviet armed forces and the partisans during the war.

Anna Shternshis is the Acting Director of the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies and Al and Malka Green Associate Professor of Yiddish, University of Toronto. She is cross-appointed between the German Department and the Center for Diaspora and Transnational Studies. The author of books and articles on Soviet Jewish history and culture, Yiddish popular culture, and post-Soviet Jewish Diaspora, her newest book, When Sonia Met Boris: Jewish Daily Life in Soviet Russia, is forthcoming.

The Annual Wolfe Lecture on the Holocaust is presented by the Chancellor Rose and Ray Wolfe Chair in Holocaust Studies and the Faculty of Arts and Science at the University of Toronto.

Admission by advance reservation only ($20).

Lunch starts 12:10 pm; lecture starts 12:40 pm.

Please call 416–221–3433 × 316 by October 30, 2015.

Tuesday, 3 November | 12:10 pm Beth Tikvah Synagogue 3080 Bayview Avenue | Toronto 416–221–3433

Antisemitism and Defining Community Safety in the Era of Je Suis Charlie This session focuses on how community safety can be defined and promoted in the context of antisemitism in Europe. Concern over Jewish community safety is freshly prominent, with high-profile attacks in Paris, Brussels, and Copenhagen, apprehension over Holocaust denial and trivialization, and reports of European Jewish emigration. In the wake of this insecurity, we see attempts to increase community trust and security across domains: in France, a prefect was appointed to protect religious and cultural sites; the Director of the Mémorial de la Shoah has identified Holocaust and genocide education as a means to combat antisemitism; and a European Commission Colloquium was formed to address hate crime and promote inclusivity. Building on these responses, panelists will discuss the meaning of community safety in the current context, the role of cities in promoting respectful coexistence, and how the European Jewish experience opens thinking into political, pedagogical, and legal approaches to define, measure, and promote community safety.

Registration required at munkschool.utoronto.ca/events Tuesday, 3 November | 3:00 pm Munk School for Global Affairs University of Toronto 1 Devonshire Place | Toronto | 416–946–8900

Monday, 2 November | 4:00 pm Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Toronto, Jackman Hall 170 St. George Street, Room 100 Toronto | 416–978–1624

Neuberger Holocaust Education Week 23

Lectures & Panels

Why is it important to understand diverse Second World War experiences in Asia and in Canada?

Giving voice to the marginalized stories of former POWs captured by the Japanese Imperial Army, this program explores the impact of wartime experiences on next generations. Through personal stories, theatre, and academic research, we gain a deeper understanding of how individuals can move forward in peace and reconciliation.

Program includes a play reading from Three Years, Eight Months written by Donald Woo, research presentation from Elizabeth Oliver (University of Leeds) and an interview with author Mark Sakamoto.

Card registry of the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland

Restoring Family Trees Severed by the Holocaust As a result of the Second World War, the fate of millions of people still remains unknown. During this program, Diane Afoumado will introduce the ITS, its collection and history, as well as what it is able to accomplish. Using a database of several million digitized images of documentation, the International Tracing Service helps people locate a single name to discover their fate.

Dr. Diane Afoumado is Chief of the Research and Reference Branch at the Holocaust Survivors and Victims Resource Center at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. She specializes in Holocaust survivors’ and victims’ resources. A Holocaust historian, Afoumado has taught at the University of Paris.

On November 3 & 4, Dr. Afoumado will offer individual consultations for people interested in accessing the ITS database. See page 38 for details.

Tuesday, 3 November | 7:30 pm Kehillat Shaarei Torah 2640 Bayview Avenue | Toronto | 416–229–2600

Dr. Elizabeth Oliver is an LHRI/Wellcome Trust postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Leeds, England. Her thesis focused on the life writing of former prisoners of war who laboured on the Sumatra railway during the Second World War. Her research interests include captivity narratives, embodied memory, and the responses of second and third generation writers and artists to traumatic or ‘forgotten’ histories.

Mark Sakamoto is the author of Forgiveness: A Gift from my Grandparents, a memoir that weaves together the history of two sides of his family during the Second World War in Canada. He is an entrepreneur and investor in digital health, digital media, and real estate.

Donald Woo is a Chinese French-Canadian playwright. With fu-GEN, Donald is developing a trilogy of plays concerning the Canadian experience in Japan-occupied Hong Kong during the Second World War. Co-sponsored by the Equity Studies Program at New College and David Chu Program in the Asia Pacific Studies, University of Toronto.

Tuesday, 3 November | 6:30 pm Alpha Education at William Doo Auditorium New College, University of Toronto 45 Willcocks Street | Toronto | 416–299–0111

For program changes visit: holocausteducationweek.com or call 416–631–5689.

24 Neuberger Holocaust Education Week

Image © International Tracing Service (ITS)/Andreas Greiner-Napp.

Bearing Trauma, Sharing Forgiveness: Prisoners of War in Japan

Lectures & Panels

Birth, Liberation and Aftermath Raul Artal was born in 1943 in Bersad, a concentration camp in Transnistria, under difficult circumstances that ultimately inspired him to become an obstetrician who specialized in high risk pregnancy. Currently, he works with the Houston-based Center of Medicine after the Holocaust, teaching young physicians and medical students about medical ethics derived from lessons from the Holocaust. This talk will discuss the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime, the notion of medical ethics, and his own life experiences.

Tuesday, 3 November | 7:00 pm Reena | 49 Lebovic Campus Drive Vaughan | 905–889–2690 × 2048

Transfer of Memory: The Future of Holocaust Remembrance Seventy years after the end of the Holocaust and the liberation of the Nazi death and concentration camps, we are at a transitional moment when the responsibility for remembrance is being adopted in large part by the survivors’ children and grandchildren. How do they view their families’ histories and how are they transmitting the legacy of memory they received from their parents and grandparents both to their contemporaries and into the future?

Menachem Z. Rosensaft is General Counsel of the World Jewish Congress. Born in the Bergen-Belsen Displaced Persons camp, he is Founding Chairman of the International Network of Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, and Senior Vice President of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants. Currently a member of the US Holocaust Memorial Council, he is the editor of God, Faith & Identity from the Ashes, which will be available for purchase and signing.

Tuesday, 3 November | 7:30 pm Shaar Shalom Synagogue 2 Simonston Blvd | Markham | 905–889–4975

Medical Ethics and the Holocaust: A Legacy for Today What bioethical lessons can medical practitioners, patients and the general public derive from the practice of medicine during the National Socialist regime in Germany? The medical profession’s complex role during Nazism is well documented: the T4 program, mass euthanasia (known as racial cleansing in Nazi parlance), sterilization, medical experiments, followed by the genocidal murder of millions of Jews and other “nonAryans.” This presentation will review the role that midwives played in adopting these unethical practices.

It will also explore North American moral, philanthropic and legal support of the Nazi medical practice philosophy as well as the lessons derived and applied to contemporary medical practice and research.

Raul Artal, M.D., is Professor and Chairman Emeritus of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health at Saint Louis University. He is the author of over 200 publications, three books and six educational videos and a champion of the Houston-based Center of Medicine after the Holocaust.

Co-sponsored by Mt. Sinai Hospital Department of Medicine. Recommended for health professionals; open to the general public.

WEDNESDAY, 4 November | 12:00 noon Mount Sinai Hospital—Joseph and Wolf Lebovic Health Complex Ben Sadowski Auditorium (18 level) | 600 University Avenue Toronto | 416–586–4200 × 8690

Justice and Forgiveness In April 2015, former Auschwitz guard Oskar Groening was brought to trial in Germany facing over 300,000 counts of accessory to murder. Three Holocaust survivors from Toronto travelled to testify in that trial. During this program, they will share their experiences at the trial as well as their ideas and personal reflections on the notion of forgiveness. The panel of Holocaust survivors will be joined

by Jordana Lebowitz and moderated by Michael Ettedgui.

Hedy Bohm, Max Eisen and Bill Glied are Holocaust survivors who each went to Germany in April 2015 to testify in the Oskar Groening trial. For their bios, see pages 40, 30 and 20. March of the Living alumnus Jordana Lebowitz attended the trial to observe this crucial event in history and to witness the pursuit of justice for Holocaust survivors globally.

Michael Ettedgui practices civil litigation at Linden and Associates. He is a former consultant to the Toronto office of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre and founding director of Yaldeinu, a charitable organization that provided scholarships and camperships towards Jewish education in developing countries and Israel.

Co-sponsored by March of the Living. Generously co-sponsored by Lisa Richman & Steven Kelman in loving memory of her father Joseph Richman, a Hungarian Holocaust survivor; and by Bonnie and Larry Moncik and Eleanor and George Getzler and their families in loving memory of their parents, Abraham and Ida Moncik.

What Do We Mean When We Say “Never Again”?

In June 1974, a symposium on the Holocaust involving Jewish and Christian participants was held in New York City. One of the questions discussed was what we mean by “never again.” This lecture will examine whether this question continues to be relevant and if developments since 1974 had led to new reflections on the Holocaust and generated new debates.

Gregory Baum was born in Germany in 1923. He is Professor Emeritus at McGill University’s Faculty of Religious Studies. He has published numerous articles about Christian-Jewish topics and an expert advisor at Vatican II. He was professor of Theology at St. Michael’s College in Toronto (1959–1986) and of Religious Studies at McGill University (1986–1995).

He is the author of The Jews and the Gospel.

Generously co-sponsored by Leila, Gary, Ryan, Ilyse and Isaac Lax, honoring the memory of Bella and Irving Goldstein as a tribute to them as survivors and the legacy they created.

Wednesday, 4 November | 4:30 pm University of Toronto, Regis College 100 Wellesley Street W | Toronto 416–922–5474

Tuesday, 3 November | 8:00 pm Petah Tikva Congregation 20 Danby Avenue | Toronto | 416–636–4719

Neuberger Holocaust Education Week 25

Lectures & Panels

A panel of individuals born post-Holocaust in the Bergen-Belsen DP camp will address issues of intergenerational trauma; social, emotional and physical implications of their shared circumstances of birth; and how their parents’ Holocaust experiences informed their lives. Focusing on the legacy of the Holocaust, the program will include excerpts from video testimonies of children of Holocaust survivors.

Karen Lasky launched a personal mission to discover the hidden pasts of her parents and understand their Holocaust experiences. An interior design consultant, she actively volunteers with several organizations.

Isaac Applebaum graduated in Photographic Arts from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute. His work on the Holocaust & antisemitism was included in the long-running installation The Space of Silence at the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography. His artwork is in collections at The Art Gallery of Ontario, The National Gallery of Canada, The Victoria and Albert Museum among others.

Circle game with children from liberated Bergen Belsen on a Sunday picnic, 1945.

Indigenous and Jewish Experiences: Change and Continuity What are treaty rights? How have communities adapted and rebuilt in the face of loss and persecution? What can we collectively do to move forward? This interactive lecture will explore shared experiences that have shaped the individual and collective identities of Indigenous and Jewish communities with the goal of finding ways to prevent prejudice and overcome indifference. This program will be accompanied by ASL interpreters.

Maurice Switzer is a citizen of the Mississaugas of Alderville First Nation and a member of the Sons of Jacob Synagogue, North Bay. Formerly director of communications for the Assembly of First Nations and Union of Ontario Indians, he currently writes and delivers workshops about the Treaty Relationship.

Co-presented by Facing History and Ourselves and the Equity Studies Program, New College, University of Toronto. In partnership with Winchevsky Centre— United Jewish People’s Order.

Wednesday, 4 November | 7:00 pm Ve’ahavta: the Canadian Jewish Humanitarian & Relief Committee at William Doo Auditorium | University of Toronto | 45 Willcocks Street Toronto | 416–964–7698

26 Neuberger Holocaust Education Week

Liberation: The Persisting Holocaust Even after the collapse of the Third Reich, some of the most brutal elements of the Holocaust persisted for a time. Although there were no more mass killings, some Jews, notably in Eastern Europe, were murdered in antisemitic attacks.

Across Europe, and even in North America, antiJewish sentiment and the marginalization of Jews continued. People in the victorious countries were far from coming to terms with the Holocaust, from acknowledging what had happened to the Jews, or even from recognizing what they had endured. Although there were huge differences between east and west, what is extraordinary is that this failure was part of the reaction from Poland to North America, across all walks of life.

This lecture will examine this problem, part of the legacy of the Holocaust today.

For Michael R. Marrus’ bio, see page 22.

Wednesday, 4 November | 7:30 pm Holy Blossom Temple 1950 Bathurst Street | Toronto 416–789–3291 × 239

Paulette Volgyesi travelled to Bergen-Belsen and Poland to retrieve archival information about her family. She has a BA and B.Ed from University of Toronto and York University and has taught for the Toronto District School Board.

Moderated by Kenneth Dancyger, Professor of Film & Television Professor at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts. Ken was born in the Bergen-Belsen Nazi concentration camp on March 8, 1945 and immigrated to Canada with his family in 1948.

Wednesday, 4 November | 7:30 pm Beth Tikvah Synagogue 3080 Bayview Avenue | Toronto 416–221–3433

Image courtesy of the Ontario Jewish Archives, accession 2010-5/15.

Holocaust Legacies: Born in Bergen-Belsen

Lectures & Panels

Scholar-in-Residence

From Perpetrators of Genocide to Ordinary German Citizens: the Reintegration of Nazi War Criminals into German Society On May 8, 1945, the day that Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Allied forces in Europe, ten percent of the German population—approximately 5.8 million people—were members of the Nazi party.

Many party members had aided and abetted the German state in carrying out its genocidal policy against Europe’s Jewish population. Very few of these people were ever prosecuted and even fewer were punished.

The fate of Herman Göring and Albert Speer are well known today, but what about the former Nazi perpetrators who escaped justice, what became of them? This talk from Scholar-in-Residence Dr. Hilary Earl explores a less familiar story of genocide – its aftermath. In keeping with the theme of “aftermath” of liberation, special attention will be paid to the way that former Nazi perpetrators integrated back into German society. For Dr. Hilary Earl’s bio, see page 14.

The Dr. Emil & Bessie Glaser Memorial Lecture. The Scholar-in-Residence is generously sponsored by the Cohen Family Charitable Trust.

Thursday, 5 November | 7:30 pm Beth Tzedec Congregation | 1700 Bathurst Street | Toronto | 416–781–3514 × 234

Surviving Survival: Holocaust Survivors and their Integration into Canadian Communities It is difficult to imagine how survivors rebuilt their lives after the Second World War. They faced an uncertain future. What happened to these men, women, and children in their first years after the war? What was it like to be a survivor in Canada?

Paula Draper examines “the burden of survival” and how it has informed the lives of Jewish survivors who came to live in Canada. She illustrates that there is no one way to understand survivors and that individuals found their own paths “by choosing to survive their survival.”

Historian Paula Draper specializes in memory history. In 1986, she developed the Oral History Project of the then-Toronto Holocaust Education and Memorial Centre (Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre). Dr. Draper was involved in the Royal Commission of Inquiry on War Criminals in Canada, the second trial of Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel, and was Lead International Trainer for Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation.

Selected materials from the Centennial Libraries’ special collections will be on display, including items from the John and Molly Pollock Holocaust Collection.

Generously co-sponsored by Spin Master Corp. in honour of Hilary Rabie.

Thursday, 5 November | 1:30 pm Centennial College of Applied Arts and Technology/Centennial College Libraries at Holy Trinity Armenian Church, Magaros Artinian Hall 920 Progress Avenue | Toronto 416–289–5000 × 5418

Post-Holocaust Pogroms in Poland In the aftermath of the Second World War, outbreaks of anti-Jewish violence occurred in several Central and Eastern European countries including Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Ukraine and the former Soviet Union. These pogroms made life particularly precarious for Jews who had endured the Holocaust. Utilizing specific examples of Polish antiJewish violence, this presentation examines preconditions and contributing factors frequently cited for these post-Holocaust pogroms. Discussion points include contemporary attempts to reconcile Polish history with Polish national mythology, the influence of the Soviet occupying forces, and historical antisemitism and anti-Judaism.

Alexandria Fanjoy Silver is an educator teaching at TanenbaumCHAT. She is the recipient of several awards and fellowships for her Holocaust research and is currently completing her PhD at the University of Toronto. Ms. Silver holds two Masters degrees from Brandeis University.

The Nuremberg SS Einsatzgruppen Trial, 1945–1958: Atrocity, Law, & History The Second World War was one of the most violent wars in human history. Fifty-five million people died, half of them civilians. With such staggering human loss, the Allies pledged to bring Germans to justice for their crimes. Good to their word, the Americans, British, Soviets, and French held thousands of former Nazis to account, changing forever the role of international criminal and humanitarian law. The 13 Nuremberg trials, held between 1945 and 1949, were the most influential of all the postwar trials, not only because they set a precedent for the future treatment of war criminals, but also because they prosecuted some of the most prominent surviving Nazis. With the exception of Rudolf Hess who died an old man in Allied custody in 1987, all of those sentenced to prison terms in the Nuremberg courtrooms were released well before they were scheduled. Why had the Allies gone back on their promise to hold Nazi war criminals accountable? This talk provides some answers to that question and examines the processes that encouraged the early release and in some cases amnesties for Nazi war criminals in the aftermath of the war.

For 2015 Scholar-in-Residence Dr. Hilary Earl’s bio, see page 14.

RSVP to Nicole Nassri at nnassri@stikeman.com The Scholar-in-Residence is generously sponsored by the Cohen Family Charitable Trust.

Friday, 6 November | 12:00 noon Stikeman Elliott LLP 5300 Commerce Court W | 199 Bay Street 53rd Floor | Toronto | 416–869–5500

Please pre-register at tanenbaumchat.org/tcu Generously co-sponsored by Doris and Rammy Rochman in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.

Thursday, 5 November | 7:30 pm TanenbaumCHAT Kimel Family Education Centre | 9600 Bathurst Street (entrance from Marc Santi Blvd) Vaughan | 905–787–8772 × 2201

Neuberger Holocaust Education Week 27

Lectures & Panels

From 1945 to 2015: 70th Anniversary of Liberation and its Meaning Following liberation in 1945, it could be argued that the events of the Holocaust gave the world such a stark warning that antisemitism was seen for what it is: hatred that kills. Holocaust studies and commemorations became a part of European culture in the years following. This lecture will focus on the seventy-year period from 1945 to 2015 and the sobering aspect of resurgent antisemitism in an effort to understand how the lessons of 1945 are still relevant.

Dr. Susanna Kokkonen, originally from Finland, is the Director of the Christian Friends of Yad Vashem and the Country Director for Italy and Scandinavia at the International Relations Division of Yad Vashem. Dr. Kokkonen is responsible for many of Yad Vashem’s activities, including enrolment of new Friends and Partners for Yad Vashem’s many projects as well as the annual International Christian Leadership Seminar.

Co-sponsored by International Christian Embassy Jerusalem.

Friday, 6 November | 2:00 pm Forest Hill United Church 2 Wembley Road | Toronto | 416–783–0879

Life After Hiding How do the specific experiences of living in hiding and hiding a person affect the relationship for both a rescuer and charge? What happens when liberation again changes the nature of this relationship? This lecture seeks to explore these questions by looking at case studies of Polish Jewish children who were protected by the Polish Catholic maids and nannies working for their families prior to the outbreak of the war and Holocaust. With the aid of memoirs, testimonies, and archival documents, this lecture will argue that the clandestine activity of hiding a former Jewish charge, and the act of participating in this conspiracy, often brought the child and prewar caregiver closer, while at the same time changing the nature of their relationship.

Dr. Jennifer Marlow is Assistant Professor of European History at Bethel University. She holds a PhD in East Central European History from Michigan State University and held the Robert Savitt Visiting Fellow Fund Fellowship at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies. She is the author of an academic chapter included in an upcoming Yad Vashem anthology.

Saturday, 7 November | 1:30 pm First Narayever Congregation 187 Brunswick Avenue | Toronto 416–927–0546

100 Voices: Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the Sara Corning Centre for Genocide Education has created the 100 Voices Project. An ongoing project to document voices of victims of the Armenian Genocide and their descendants, it explores themes of survival, memory and justice.

Raffi Sarkissian, Chair of the Corning Centre, will discuss the challenges and benefits of the project and explore the question of remembering in absence of survivors and in the face of statesponsored denial.

In partnership with the Sara Corning Centre for Genocide Education.

Saturday, 7 November | 7:00 pm Winchevsky Centre—United Jewish People’s Order | 585 Cranbrooke Avenue Toronto | 416–789–5502

28 Neuberger Holocaust Education Week

Remembering for the Future: How to Live in a Post-Holocaust, Post-Totalitarian and Post-Modern World Through artistic projects, public debates, social activities and publications, the Borderland Foundation actively promotes an understanding of Jewish culture, heritage and memory. Headquartered in the town of Sejny’s renovated former “white synagogue” and yeshiva, the Foundation also runs a centre for international dialogue.

Krysztof Czyżewski will discuss the foundation’s educational and preservation initiatives. He will present the relevance of such activities in the process of building a modern civil society based on tolerance and mutual respect in post-war, post-totalitarian Poland.

Krysztof Czyżewski is a Polish publisher, writer, theatre director, and social activist. Together with his wife, Małgorzata Czyżewska, he co-founded the Borderland Foundation (Fundacja Pogranicze).

A member of the European Cultural Parliament, he served as Polish Ambassador to the European Commission’s European Year of Intercultural Dialogue, and in 2012 was appointed Artistic Director of Wrocław—European Capital of Culture 2016.

Co-sponsored by the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Toronto and the Polish-Jewish Heritage Foundation of Canada. Generously co-sponsored by Dorothy and Pinchas Gutter in memory of his sister Sabina.

TWO PRESENTATIONS: Saturday, 7 November | 7:30 pm Polish-Jewish Heritage Foundation at George Ignatieff Theatre, University of Toronto, Trinity College | 6 Hoskin Avenue | 647–328–9727 Sunday, 8 November | 10:00 am Temple Emanu-El 120 Old Colony Road | Toronto 416–449–3880 × 14

Lectures & Panels

Image courtesy of Schwules Museum, Germany.

Saving North American Jewry: Max Weinreich and the Mission of YIVO in PostHolocaust America ‫ראטעווען‬ ַ ,‫ראטעווען ייִ דיש‬ ַ ‫מאקס ווייַ נרייַ ך און‬ ַ :‫מעריקאנער ייִ דן‬ ַ ‫ַא‬ ‫ווא אין ַאמעריקע‬ ָ ִ‫דאס שליחות ֿפון יי‬ ָ ‫נאכן חורבן‬ ָ In early 1940, Max Weinreich, co-founder of the Vilna-based YIVO (Yidisher visnshaftlekher institut), arrived as a refugee in the United States. Founded in 1925, the YIVO’s mission was to document the thousand-year history of Jewish life in Eastern Europe. In this Yiddish-language lecture, Kalman Weiser will explore how Max Weinreich set out to build Yiddish scholarship in America and find new relevance for Yiddish in the lives of American Jews.

Thanks to his vision and efforts, the vast archives, publications and educational activities of the YIVO, today headquartered in New York City, continue to play an important role in the training and research of specialists in the history, language and culture of Eastern European Jewry, thus preserving Yiddish culture for future generations.

Kalman Weiser is the Silber Family Professor of Modern Jewish Studies at York University. He is the author of several studies about Jewish nationalism, Yiddish linguistics and culture. His most recent book, Jewish People, Yiddish Nation: Noah Prylucki and the Folkists in Poland, won the 2012 Canadian Jewish Book Award for scholarship.

His current research examines the relationship between ethnic German scholars of Yiddish who served the Nazi regime and Max Weinreich, Solomon Birnbaum and other Jewish colleagues.

Co-sponsored by Toronto Workmen’s Circle and Friends of Yiddish.

Sunday, 8 November | 2:00 pm UJA Federation’s Committee for Yiddish Lipa Green Centre, Tamari Hall 4600 Bathurst Street | Toronto 416–631–5843

Herbert Kirchhoff and Albrecht Becker, Alster River, Germany 1948.

Living in the Shadow of Germany’s Paragraph 175 & Austria’s Paragraph 129(b) The end of the Nazi era did not signify an end to discrimination or even persecution of homosexuals in Germany and Austria. Compensation, restitution and even the publishing of personal memoirs by gay survivors of Nazi persecution were not particularly welcomed by post-war society. Using excerpts of recorded and written testimonies, Carson Phillips will contextualize the history of this era and the challenges gay survivors encountered.

Carson Phillips, PhD, is the Managing Director of the Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre and the recipient of several scholarly awards including the 2013 BMW Canada Award from the Canadian Centre for German and European Studies, York University. An editorial board member of PRISM— An Interdisciplinary Journal for Holocaust Educators, he is a sought-after speaker for formal and non-formal educational settings on new developments and best practices in Holocaust education and pedagogy.

Co-sponsored by Kulanu Toronto.

Sunday, 8 November | 7:00 pm Congregation Darchei Noam 864 Sheppard Avenue W | Toronto | 416–638–4783

For program changes visit: holocausteducationweek.com or call 416–631–5689.

Neuberger Holocaust Education Week 29

Lectures & Panels

Liberating Memory to Rebuild Lost Connections

Family Heritage and History: Re-approaching Poland

After Liberation: Rebuilding Lives

After 1989, Polish schools fundamentally changed how they teach about the Holocaust and Jewish history. Yet much more needs to be done. From the outset, the Forum for Dialogue has been involved in education. The School of Dialogue is an adventure that allows students—with the help of Forum for Dialogue Educators—to uncover the forgotten history of their city, town, or village. Students share this newly gained knowledge with other inhabitants of their towns through public projects.

The presentation will consist of short videos combined with lecture/commentary and Q&A session.

Jews of Polish origin can reconnect with their past and re-approach Poland in a positive way through the Genealogy and Family Heritage Center in the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute of Warsaw. While Poland and the Holocaust have become synonymous, there are hundreds of years of Jewish history, changes in contemporary Poland and a great awakening in Jewish culture yet to be explored. This program will present the Center’s sources of information and documentation, unique stories and methodologies, and will offer audience members who have used services of the Jewish Genealogy and Family Heritage Center in the Jewish Historical Institute (JGFHC) an opportunity to share their experiences.

This program will provide an overview of general conditions during the early years after liberation, including the exposure to extreme dangers such as overfeeding and antisemitism. In DP camps, survivors were sometimes neighbours of perpetrators.

In their hometowns, residents feared Jews returning to possibly claim their property. For those who survived the Holocaust, liberation was the beginning of a journey to rebuild lives.

Zuzanna Radzik is Forum for Dialogue’s member of the Executive Board. She is a theologian interested in Christian-Jewish relations and a graduate of Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Zuzanna participated in number of ethnographic field trips to research the Holocaust in Polish countryside. Her controversial article, Basements Continue to Rot, led to the closing down of an antisemitic bookshop in Warsaw.

Sunday, 8 November | 2:00 pm Beth Radom Congregation 18 Reiner Road | Toronto | 416–636–3451

Anna Przybyszewska-Drozd is Head of the JGFHC and has been working in the Center for over 15 years. She has developed and shared unique expertise in Jewish Genealogy in Poland, archival research and ways in which culture, history and family interact.

Matan Shefi has been working in the JGFHC for more than a year. He grew up in Israel and came to Poland to connect himself and others to the place of their heritage, unique history and culture.

Anna Przybyszewska-Drozd and Matan Shefi will offer individual 60-minute genealogical and family research consultations on Monday 9 November at the Lipa Green Centre. For more information and to register for an individual consultation, please e-mail president@jgstoronto.ca.

Co-sponsored by the Jewish Genealogical Society of Toronto and the Polish-Jewish Heritage Foundation of Canada. Generously co-sponsored by Lori & Joseph Gottdenker in memory of the Gottdenker and Zuckerbrot families who perished in the Holocaust.

Sunday, 8 November | 5:00 pm Lodzer Synagogue 12 Heaton Street | Toronto | 416–636–6665

30 Neuberger Holocaust Education Week

Holocaust survivor Max Eisen will speak about his personal liberation experience, his attempt to return home, life in the DP camp, immigration to Canada and renewal of life. Historian Dr. Paula Draper will speak from a historical perspective of liberation and the struggle to find a way into Canada during the immediate post-liberation period.

Bev Birkan will moderate the panel discussion.

Max Eisen was born in Moldava in the former Czechoslovakia, in 1929. In 1944, his family was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Max worked in slave labour with his father and uncle, but in September 1944, the two were selected out. Max survived a death march to Mauthausen, Melk and Ebensee. He was liberated by the US Army in May 1945. He returned to Czechoslovakia and stayed in an orphanage. Max immigrated to Canada in 1949.

Co-sponsored by Association of Jewish Libraries, Ontario Chapter. Generously co-sponsored by the Gottesman family in memory of Carol and Herman Gottesman.

Sunday, 8 November | 7:00 pm Terraces of Baycrest RETIREMENT RESIDENCE 55 Ameer Avenue | Toronto 416–785–2500 × 2270

Lectures & Panels

Image courtesy the City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1266, Item 96241. Photographer: John H. Boyd.

V-E Day celebrations, Bay Street, May 7, 1945.

Between Darkness and Hope: Jewish Displaced Persons in Post-War Italy Between 1945–1951, approximately 70,000 Jewish refugees and displaced persons lived in 35 DP camps in Italy. Some 50,000 of them went on to immigrate to Eretz Israel. Because most Jewish refugees remember Italy with fondness, yet did not consider it home, it was a place between darkness and hope. This presentation will illustrate the complexity of being in such a place. Exploring such questions as, why did the refugees come to Italy, what were their hopes for the future, and how did they live without despair until they could leave Italy, provide insight into the complex manner with which survivors of the Holocaust rebuilt their lives in countries around the world.

For Dr. Susanna Kokkonen’s bio, see page 28.

Co-sponsored by International Christian Embassy Jerusalem.

Sunday, 8 November | 7:00 pm Melrose Community Church 375 Melrose Avenue (at Avenue Road) Toronto | 416–785–1980

Uncertain Haven: Canada and Jewish DPs Canada dragged its heels for years while Holocaust survivors languished in DP camps in Europe. This multidisciplinary presentation explores the story of why Canada was so slow to accept Jewish immigrants after the war and what economic and political conditions eventually impelled Canada out of its shameful lethargy.

Anne Dublin is the award-winning author of biographies and historical novels for young people. She is a retired teacher-librarian with a special interest in the topic of Jewish displaced persons, for her parents were Holocaust survivors who came to Canada in 1948. Anne’s latest book is 44 Hours or Strike!, a historical novel about the dressmakers’ strike in 1931 Toronto.

Wednesday, 11 November | 7:30 pm Association of Jewish Libraries ONTARIO CHAPTER at Ekstein Holocaust Resource Library 4600 Bathurst Street, 4th floor Toronto | 416–635–2996

Neuberger Holocaust Education Week 31

Literary Programs

Celebrating 10 Years of Storytelling: The Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program Please join the Azrieli Foundation in celebrating their authors—past and present—with a special presentation honouring the five most recently published authors and a premiere screening of three new films. There will be an opportunity to meet the authors at the book signing and reception following the event. All those attending will receive copies of the most recent publications.

Reservations required: 416–322–5928 or memoirs@azrielifoundation.org Thursday, 22 October | 7:30 pm (Doors open at 7:00 pm) THE CARLU | 444 Yonge Street Toronto | 416–322–5928

Only by Blood Renate Krakauer discusses Only By Blood, her new novel about the search for roots, mother-daughter love, and family reconciliation. Spanning over sixty years, it describes the lengths to which mothers will go in order to protect their children from pain.

Set in the broader context of the fraught relationship of Poles and Jews during and after the Second World War, it examines the human condition from the polarities of heroism and betrayal.

Book signing to follow the lecture. Complimentary copies of Renate Krakauer’s memoir, But I Had A Happy Childhood, are provided by and published through the Azrieli Foundation’s Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program.

TWO PRESENTATIONS: Thursday, 29 October | 1:30 pm Miles Nadal JCC Arts and Culture/Active 55+ 750 Spadina Avenue | Toronto 416–924–6211 × 155 Friday, 13 November | 8:00 pm Solel Congregation 2399 Folkway Drive | Mississauga 905–820–5915

Beyond the Call

I Kiss Your Hands Many Times

Beyond the Call: The True Story of One World War II Pilot’s Covert Mission to Rescue POWs on the Eastern Front tells the story of Captain Robert M. Trimble, a US bomber pilot sent on a covert operation at the end of the war to rescue American POWs from behind Soviet lines. During his secret missions, he also saved many civilians, including liberated Holocaust survivors. Captain Trimble courageously flew 35 bombing missions over Germany and France in 1944 as an officer based in England. Trimble never spoke about the rescue aspect of his military service, but a few years before his death at 90, he opened up to his son, Lee, who created the book. Book signing to follow the lecture.

Marianne Szegedy-Maszák’s book, I Kiss Your Hands Many Times: Hearts, Souls, and Wars in Hungary, examines Hungary’s pre- and post-Second World War history as well as the country’s troubled relationship with its Jewish population as told through the lives of her extraordinary family. This presentation reveals the paradoxes and tragedies of the Holocaust in Hungary, the history of Hungarian antisemitism that pre-dated the Second World War, and the story of two families that embodied many of the forces that created and destroyed the country.

Lee Trimble works in research and development on lasers, electronics and semiconductors and has been a scientific writer and reviewer for scholarly and professional journals. Beyond the Call is his first book.

Co-sponsored by Jewish War Veterans of Canada.

Saturday, 31 October | 8:00 pm Congregation B’nai Torah 465 Patricia Avenue | Toronto 416–226–3700 × 23

The Veiled Sun: From Auschwitz to New Beginnings Written with young readers in mind, Paul Schaffer’s autobiography tells the story of his middle-class Jewish childhood in pre-war Vienna, arrest and detention in France, survival in Auschwitz, and return post-war to face the challenges of re-integration into French society. This program will include a presentation by Vivian Felsen, translator of The Veiled Sun, and readings by Northern Secondary School Students.

Vivian Felsen is a Toronto-based translator of French and Yiddish works. Her translations from Yiddish have won both the Canadian Jewish Book Award and the J.I. Segal award. Among the books she has translated are memoirs of Holocaust survivors, including Memoirs of the Lodz Ghetto

by Yankl Nirenberg; If By Miracle by Michael Kutz; and The Veiled Sun by Paul Schaffer.

Wednesday, 4 November | 7:00 pm Northern Secondary School 851 Mount Pleasant Road | Toronto 416–393–0284

32 Neuberger Holocaust Education Week

Marianne Szegedy-Maszák, Senior Editor at Mother Jones Magazine, is a journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and Psychology Today, among others. She has worked for the New York Post, Congressional Quarterly, U.S. News & World Report, and taught journalism at American University. The recipient of a several fellowships and awards, Szegedy-Maszák has been a board officer of the Center for Public Integrity and the Fund for Independence in Journalism.

Book signing to follow the lecture.

Generously co-sponsored by the Embassy of Hungary in Canada and the Consulate General of Hungary, Toronto; and by Phyllis and Gary Gould, Sandra and James Srebrolow, and Rosie and John Uster and families in memory of their beloved parents, Helen and Mayer Fogel.

Wednesday, 4 November | 8:00 pm Beth Emeth Bais Yehuda Synagogue 100 Elder Street | Toronto | 416–633–3838

Literary Programs

Image courtesy of the Beaverbrook Collection of War Art, Canadian War Museum, CWM 19710261-2032.

Holocaust, Survival, and Escape Through written word and photography, Joseph Kertes and Yuri Dojc address the complexity of healing and rebirth after the Holocaust. Kertes will discuss two of his novels, Gratitude (2008) and The Afterlife of Stars (2014), which together tell the story of a Hungarian Jewish family, poignantly illustrating how liberation did not always bring the opportunity for rebirth. Yuri Dojc’s Last Folio, an exhibition, documentary, and book of iconic images and heartbreaking stories of courage and survival, charts a personal journey in cultural memory. Both artists will talk about some of the stories that influenced their work.

Joseph Kertes is an award-winning author (Canadian National Jewish Book Award, 2009, and U.S. National Jewish Book Award for Fiction, 2010, for Gratitude; Stephen Leacock Award for Winter Tulips, 1988). He is the Dean of Humber School of Creative and Performing Arts and was one of its founders.

Yuri Dojc is an internationally-acclaimed photographer whose work is included in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Library of Congress, National Museum of Slovakia, Rothschild Foundation Europe, and other museums. Last Folio is a continuous project that documents abandoned synagogues, Jewish schools, and other fragments of the Jewish past in Slovakia and throughout Europe.

Book signing to follow the lecture. Space is limited, RSVP on the library website: http://www.rhpl.richmondhill.on.ca/RHPL Wednesday, 4 November | 7:00 pm Richmond Hill Public Library 1 Atkinson Street | Richmond Hill 905–884–9288

Alex Colville, Belsen Concentration Camp.

Distance from the Belsen Heap: Allied Forces and the Liberation of a Nazi Concentration Camp Witnessing the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust had a profound effect on the military forces that liberated Nazi concentration camps. Mark Celinscak will discuss his new book, which reexamines the surrender and relief of the BergenBelsen concentration camp in northwest Germany at the end of the Second World War. The book surveys the personal narratives of both British and Canadian military personnel as they responded to the situation at the camp, drawing on diaries, letters, and personal interviews.

Dr. Mark Celinscak is Assistant Professor at Trent University’s Department of History who has written extensively on the Second World War and the Holocaust. In 2012–2013, he was the Pearl Resnick Postdoctoral Fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, among other fellowships. He has been featured on CHEX Television and CBC Radio.

Book signing to follow the lecture.

For program changes visit: holocausteducationweek.com or call 416–631–5689.

Book Launch: tuesday, 3 November | 6:00 pm York University—Israel and Golda Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies Kaneff Tower, 7th Floor 4700 Keele Street | Toronto | 416–736–5823 Thursday, 5 November | 7:30 pm Beth Lida Forest Hill Congregation 22 Gilgorm Road | Toronto | 416–489–2550

Holocaust Survivors in Canada: Exclusion, Inclusion, Transformation At the Toronto launch of Holocaust Survivors in Canada: Exclusion, Inclusion, Transformation, 1947–1955, the author will explore the relationships between survivors, Jewish social service agencies, and local Jewish communities that emerged during the early years of post-war resettlement. The talk will address local and national organizational efforts to aid the new immigrants. Strained by mammoth disconnects in experience, language, and culture, these fragile connections greatly affected the resettlement process and shaped Canadian Jews’ understanding of the Holocaust more than a decade before the term entered popular lexicon.

Adara Goldberg received her PhD from Clark University and is currently the Education Director of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre. She is the recipient of several international scholarships and has published numerous articles on the topic of Holocaust Survivors in Canada.

Co-sponsored by Na’amat Canada Toronto. Generously co-sponsored by the Ganz family in loving memory of their husband, father and grandfather, Sam Ganz, a Holocaust survivor.

Thursday, 5 November | 7:30 pm Beth David B’nai Israel Beth Am 55 Yeomans Road | Toronto | 416–633–5500

Neuberger Holocaust Education Week 33

Literary Programs

In this multimedia presentation, Allan Chernoff will discuss the lost society of Polish Jewry through the experiences of survivors he interviewed from Tomaszow-Mazowiecki, Poland. Nearly 14,000 Jews lived there before the Second World War, many making their living as tailors and seamstresses.

Only 250 survived the Holocaust, including Chernoff’s mother, in part because of their skill with a needle and thread. Chernoff will also discuss details of liberation day in Auschwitz-Birkenau and other related aspects of life after liberation.

Double wedding of Eva & Jiri Meisl and Marta & Richard Meisl, Tabor, 1946

Jews, Germans, and Allies: Close Encounters in Occupied Germany

Witness: Passing the Torch of Holocaust Memory to New Generations

In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, more than a quarter million Jewish survivors of the Holocaust lived among their defeated persecutors in the chaotic society of Allied-occupied Germany. Jews, Germans, and Allies (2007) draws upon the wealth of diary and memoir literature by the people who lived through post-war reconstruction to trace the conflicting ways Jews and Germans defined their own victimization and survival, comprehended the trauma of war and genocide, and struggled to rebuild their lives.

How will personal narratives of the Holocaust be transmitted once survivors are no longer able to speak? Based on the acclaimed temporary exhibition installed at the United Nations and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, this book uses photography and firsthand accounts to illustrate the passing of the torch to the young people who become the new witnesses. In cooperation with the USC Shoah Foundation, testimonies of survivors who appear in the book may be accessible online by scanning a survivor’s image with a smartphone.

Several survivors and students featured in the book will be in attendance. Video clips from the March of the Living Digital Archives Project will also be screened. Many of the survivors in the book are from Toronto, have participated in the March of the Living, and are regular speakers for the Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre.

Atina Grossmann teaches Modern European and German History, and Women’s and Gender Studies.

A graduate of the City College of New York (BA) and Rutgers University (MA, Ph.D), she has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, German Marshall Fund, American Council of Learned Societies, Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and the American Academy in Berlin, as well as Guest Professorships at the Humboldt University Berlin and the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena.

Book signing to follow the lecture.

Saturday, 7 November | 7:30 pm National Council of Jewish Women—Toronto Section 4700 Bathurst Street | Toronto 416–633–5100

34 Neuberger Holocaust Education Week

Eli Rubenstein is National Director of the March of the Living Canada and Director of Education, March of the Living International.

The books will be available for purchase at the program.

Co-sponsored by Second Story Press and Congregation Habonim.

Saturday, 7 November | 8:00 pm March of the Living at Congregation Habonim 5 Glen Park Avenue | Toronto | 416–782–7125

Award-winning journalist Allan Chernoff is a former Senior Correspondent for both CNN and CNBC. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Forward. Allan served as an interviewer for the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Project. The Tailors of Tomaszow, co-written with his mother Rena Margulies Chernoff, is a communal memoir and history of the survivors of Rena’s hometown, Tomaszow-Mazowiecki, Poland.

Book signing to follow the lecture.

Free admission; pre-registration is required. Reserve tickets by visiting www.tailors-of-tomaszow.eventbrite.ca or by calling 905-771-5526.

Co-sponsored by the Town of Richmond Hill.

Sunday, 8 November | 7:30 pm Beit Rayim Synagogue and School at The Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts 10268 Yonge Street | Richmond Hill 905–771–5526

Image © centropa.org.

The Tailors of Tomaszow

MUSIC, PERFORMANCE & VISUAL ARTS

Illuminations: The Art of Samuel Bak This exhibit of Samuel Bak’s paintings and drawings celebrates his art influenced by his experiences surviving the Holocaust as a child in Vilna, Lithuania. Bookending the exhibit are two special concerts featuring Atis Bankas and Constanze Beckman performing new work. The evening will include an introduction to the art of Samuel Bak from Bernie Pucker.

Bernie Pucker is the Founder/Owner/Director of the Pucker Gallery in Boston. He has been president or chair of several organizations, including School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Terezin Chamber Music Foundation.

Neuberger Survivor Speakers, 2015.

Portraits of Resilience Photographer Elliot Sylman’s evocative portraits of Holocaust survivor speakers are powerful testaments to the lasting impact of the Shoah on the individual. Each of the survivors pictured is a member of the Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre’s Speakers’ Bureau. With the inception of the Neuberger as the Holocaust Education and Memorial Centre in 1985, Holocaust survivor speakers created a forum to share their testimony with tens of thousands of students and members of the public over the decades to ensure that the horrors they survived are not repeated. Thirty years later, and seventy years after liberation, their portraits, as diverse as their experiences before, during and after the Holocaust, serve to remind us of what was lost and what they have each contributed to ensure a better future for our society.

Elliot Sylman has been photographing people and their events since 1987. In 2013, he worked with Baycrest to produce Precious Legacy, a photo exhibit that celebrates the lives of 180 Holocaust survivors. This summer, Elliot donated his time and skill to capturing the portraits of the Neuberger’s Holocaust Survivor Speakers’ Bureau.

Generously co-sponsored by Rochelle Rubinstein.

November 1–26 Monday–Friday 9:00 am–9:00 pm; Saturday–Sunday 9:00 am–7:00 pm Miles Nadal JCC—The Gallery at the J 750 Spadina Avenue | Toronto | 416–924–6211

Constanze Beckmann graduated from The Royal Conservatory of Music under the tutelage of John Perry in 2014. This season Constanze has given solo and chamber recitals in Europe. She has given several recitals in Toronto.

Violinist Atis Bankas has performed as a soloist in North America, Europe and Asia. Bankas leads the Ensemble CamerAtis and is the first violinist of the Gould String Quartet. He is the founder and artistic director of Music Niagara.

Exhibit hours: Thursday 29 October, 1–4pm; Sunday 1 November, 1–6pm; Tuesday 3 November, 11–3pm; Tuesday 10 November 11–3pm; Thursday 12 November, 1–4pm; Tuesday 17 November, 11–3pm.

Co-sponsored by Facing History and Ourselves.

Generously co-sponsored by Frieda and Larry Torkin in memory of Frank and Jennie Krystal.

Tuesday, 27 October | 7:00 pm (OPENING & CONCERT) Sunday, 15 November | 5:00 pm (CLOSING & CONCERT) Exhibit on view 27 October—17 November Beth Torah Congregation 47 Glenbrook Avenue | Toronto | 416–901–3831

Neuberger Holocaust Education Week 35

MUSIC, PERFORMANCE & VISUAL ARTS

Sounds of Survival: Music of the Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz A 5-piece women’s orchestra will perform pieces representative of the Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz to honour their legacy seventy years later.

This concert will be narrated, offering a lens to the experience of the victims of the Shoah and the impact of music. Cantor Jeri Robins will speak following the concert on the topic of remembering the Holocaust through music and the arts. Themes of endurance, hope and renewal will be explored in the context of the Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz.

Jeri Robins is Cantor and Director of Education at Temple Beth Shalom in Peabody, on Boston’s North Shore. She received her cantorial ordination and Master’s Degree in Jewish Education from Hebrew College in 2013. Cantor Robins is the 2009/10 recipient of the Gideon Klein Award from the Jewish Studies Department at Northeastern University as she wrote, produced and performed a critically acclaimed concert on the music of the Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz.

Cantor Severin Weingort Holocaust Education Lecture.

Generously co-sponsored by Rochelle Reichert and Henry Wolfond in honour of their father, Solomon Reichert, who survived the Holocaust, and in memory of his mother, Udle, and sisters, Nechamah, Machja, Devorah, Franya and Chanah, who did not.

Sunday, 1 November | 10:15 am Temple Sinai Congregation 210 Wilson Avenue | Toronto 416–487–4161

Máramaros

Remembering Yiddish Culture Through Song In honour of the theme of liberation and what was lost in the Shoah, this program highlights Yiddish music. Song lyrics will be available in both the original Yiddish as well as transliterated. Engaging with Yiddish culture and language through music has the potential to create emotional connections and to honour the culture that has all but vanished.

Etta Donnell was hidden for three years as a young child in Poland. Her first language is Yiddish and she enjoys sharing Yiddish language, music and humour.

She will lead a sing-a-long of pre-war Yiddish songs as well as those popular with Diaspora Jews.

Monday, 2 November | 2:00 pm Kensington Place Retirement Residence 866 Sheppard Avenue W | Toronto 416–636–9555

For program changes visit: holocausteducationweek.com or call 416–631–5689.

36 Neuberger Holocaust Education Week

Taking Sides As part of the denazification process in Germany, Major Steve Arnold is assigned to investigate Wilhelm Furtwängler, a leading German conductor, who is suspected of serving the Nazi regime. Did Furtwängler choose to remain in Germany during the war to help or to hinder the Nazi regime in the way he knew how—with the power of celebrity and music? Following a staged reading of the Ronald Harwood play based on this true story, a brief discussion follows about the real-life Wilhelm Furtwängler and the ultimate outcome of the investigation.

WEDNESDAY, 4 November | 7:30 pm Medina Theatre Ensemble at Temple Sinai 210 Wilson Avenue | Toronto 647–977–6015

MUSIC, PERFORMANCE & VISUAL ARTS

A View From the Roof A powerful and haunting jigsaw history set during the Holocaust, A View From the Roof is a play based on short stories written by award-winning Toronto author Helen Weinzweig. Narrated by survivors of war, the story begins with a young woman who flees the Holocaust with her lover in 1938 Germany. Throughout the play, the characters look back on their lives and the choices they made along the way. Featuring a one-hour dramatic reading of excerpts performed by four professional actors with an introduction and post-presentation discussion led by playwright Dave Carley.

Dave Carley is a Toronto-based playwright. His plays have had over 450 productions across Canada and in many countries around the world, and include: Writing with our Feet (nominated for the Governor General’s Award); After You; and an adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s novel The Edible Woman. A View from the Roof has enjoyed numerous productions in Canada and the United States.

Between Stages 20th Anniversary play reading.

Thursday, 5 November | 1:30 pm Miles Nadal JCC Arts and Culture/Active 55+ 750 Spadina Avenue | Toronto 416–924–6211 × 155

From Despair to Hope: A Musical Tribute in Song This concert will address universal themes of responses to the Holocaust through Yiddish poetry set to music. Through narration, the audience will learn about the composers and poets. The music addresses the responses of denial, mourning, anger, and memorialization, among others. English translation provided.

Originally an opera singer, Toronto-born Deborah Staiman earned a Bachelor of Music from the University of Toronto and a Master of Sacred Music and Ordination as a Cantor from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York.

She studied at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and at Columbia University in the Uriel Weinrich program. Deborah has sung in London, Israel, Canada and throughout the United States.

She will be accompanied by pianist Asher Farber.

Thursday, 5 November | 2:00 pm Hazelton Place Retirement Residence 111 Avenue Road | Toronto | 416–928–0111

From Budapest to Toronto: A Personal Journey in Music and Words Moshe Hammer and several of his students in The Hammer Band, a program that aims to prevent violence and offer children music education, will perform a concert that testifies to the power of music education.

Born in Budapest after the Second World War, Moshe Hammer and his family traveled to the new country of Israel where a young Moshe established himself as an award-winning violinist. He studied with Ilona Feher at the University of TelAviv’s Rubin Academy of Music, the Julliard School in New York, Jascha Heifetz in Los Angeles and Yehudi Menuhin in London. A soloist and chamber musician, he is admired for his artistic style, unique interpretations and vibrant tone.

Saturday, 7 November | 7:30 pm Grace Church on-the-Hill 300 Lonsdale Road | Toronto | 416–488–7884

Máramaros: The Lost Jewish Music of Transylvania In the early 90s, Hungary’s leading folk music ensemble, Muzsikás, embarked on one of their most challenging and meaningful projects: to reconstruct the musical traditions of Hungary’s pre-war Jewish community. Focusing on the region of Máramaros in Transylvania, once home to 5,000 Jewish families, the group conducted field research in the spirit of Bartok and Kodaly, seeking out those who had played with Jews before the Second World War or could remember the community’s musical life.

Their work resulted in a widely-acclaimed CD that remains the most authentic contemporary depiction of pre-war Hungarian-Jewish music.

The Lost Rhapsody of Leo Spellman Through a concert recording of Leo Spellman’s Rhapsody 1939-1945, this program honours the late Canadian composer and Holocaust survivor from Ostrowiec, Poland. Spellman’s composition premiered at the Fürstenfeldbruck DP camp in 1947 and was performed for the second time in 2000 at a survivors’ conference in Washington, DC. The presenters will discuss Spellman’s life story and ability to use music to capture his sense of sorrow, loss and healing, also depicted in their documentary, Rhapsody: the Liberation of Leo Spellman. The EnWave concert performance of Rhapsody 1939–1945 will also be screened.

Helene Shifman, Leo Spellman’s daughter, will address her father’s life after the war, his connection to music and commitment to his family.

Dr. Paul Hoffert is a Professor of Music, Law, and Information Science at the University of Toronto.

He founded the award-winning rock band Lighthouse and continues to perform with them. Hoffert earned several awards for his work on composing film and television music. In 2005, he received the Order of Canada.

Brenda Hoffert has been a producer/writer of four documentaries including the multi-award winning film OCD: The War Inside. The manager of Lighthouse, she is a noted photographer and lyricist.

David Hoffert is the director and a producer of Rhapsody: the Liberation of Leo Spellman. He has been nominated for three Gemini Awards, including Best Director of a Reality Series.

Generously co-sponsored by Morris, Louis and Garry Greenbaum and family.

Saturday, 7 November | 8:00 pm Temple Har Zion | 7360 Bayview Avenue Markham | 905–889–2252

Presented by the Ashkenaz Foundation, the master musicians of Muzsikás bring forth a unique hybrid repertoire, strongly influenced by the broader musical vernacular of the region but inflected with a distinct Jewish accent. Often described as “aural” history, this moving program is a rare and poignant expression of musical riches now lost from Hungary’s cultural fabric as a result of the Holocaust.

Generously co-sponsored by the Embassy of Hungary in Canada and the Consulate General of Hungary in Toronto.

For tickets and more information, visit www.ashkenaz.ca or call 416-979-9901.

Thursday, 5 November | 8:00 pm Ashkenaz Foundation AT THE Toronto Centre of the Arts | 5040 Yonge Street Toronto | 416–979–9901

Neuberger Holocaust Education Week 37

Symposia & Workshops

Personal Access to the ITS Archive

The 6th annual symposium features engaging workshops that invite participants in their 20s and 30s to consider different perspectives of liberation and life in the aftermath of the Holocaust. Sessions will address this theme through art making, survivor testimony, and thought-provoking discussions. The program concludes with a keynote presentation from Dr. Tomaz Jardim on the trials of Ilse Koch, often referred to as “The Bitch of Buchenwald.”

Until 2007, the International Tracing Service (ITS), located in Bad Arolsen, Germany, was the largest closed Holocaust archive in the world. Established by the Allied powers after the war to help reunite families and trace missing family members, it holds millions of pages of documentation. The USHMM in Washington led an effort to open the archive to the public and remains the only North American access point for the 185 million documents. In a personal consultation with Diane Afoumado, you can access the archive to search your family history.

Tomaz Jardim is a historian of modern Europe at Ryerson University. His first book, The Mauthausen Trial: American Military Justice in Germany (2011), explores the role of U.S. military commission courts in punishing concentration camp perpetrators.

Jardim is currently working on a book on the three trials of Ilse Koch and is the recipient of the 2014 Faculty of Arts SRC Award for outstanding research by pre-tenured faculty.

A symposium for people in their 20s and 30s.

The program is free of charge. Light lunch will be served; Kashruth observed. Register online at www.holocaustcentre.com/YPs. Co-presented by the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Toronto.

Generously co-sponsored by Marlene Brickman, in memory of her parents Regina and Berek Gertner, Holocaust survivors; by Eleanor and Martin Maxwell in memory of his sisters, Josephine and Erna Meisels, who died in the Holocaust; and by Annalee and Jeffrey Wagman.

Sunday, 1 November | 11:00 am Ryerson University, Oakham House 55 Gould Street | Toronto | 416–631–5689

Images © centropa.org.

Legacy Symposium for Young Professionals

For Dr. Diane Afoumado’s bio and a program about the ITS at the USHMM, see page 24.

Tuesday, 3 November & Wednesday, 4 November 9:00 am—5:00 pm Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre, UJA Federation of Greater Toronto Call for Appointment and Exact Location 416–635–2883 × 5153

Child Survivors—Then & Now: Understanding our Childhood and its Impact on our Lives A diverse group of child Holocaust survivors who have been meeting regularly at Baycrest will share some of the themes discussed in their meetings: trauma and its aftermath, loss, identity, immigration and integration into a new society, family life, life achievements, resilience, vulnerability and their own aging.

Tuesday, 3 November | 3:00 pm Baycrest Health Sciences | The Jacob Family Theatre at the Posluns Auditorium 3560 Bathurst Street | Toronto 416–785–2500 × 5162

Abram Kopelovich in Vitebsk, 1949.

Border Jumping: Discover Centropa for your Classroom Lauren Granite, Educator-in-Residence for HEW 2015, will discuss what it means to teach the Holocaust in the 21st century in this seminar for teachers. Discover how teachers in the US, Europe, and Israel are implementing a broader approach to Holocaust education through the resources of Centropa (www. centropa.org), a historical institute in Vienna, Austria. This session will provide educators with resources and pedagogical methods, and will include strategies for cross-cultural projects with students in countries where the Holocaust took place. Participants will receive a copy of the Neuberger’s newest scholarly publication, Holocaust Education in Pedagogy, History, and Practice (2015), introduced by Carson Phillips. Applicable for interdisciplinary education settings.

For Lauren Granite’s bio, see page 14.

For Carson Phillips’ bio, see page 29.

Light refreshments served; kashruth observed.

Registration required: holocaustcentre.com/ HEW or mvogt@ujafed.org.

The Educator-in-Residence is generously sponsored by Joyce & Aaron Rifkind and Naomi Rifkind Mansell & David Mansell.

Thursday, 5 November | 4:30 pm Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre | UJA Federation of Greater Toronto | Lipa Green Centre | Tamari Hall | 4600 Bathurst Street Toronto | 416–631–5689

38 Neuberger Holocaust Education Week

Youth & Family

The Magician of Auschwitz Award-winning author Kathy Kacer shares the true story of Werner, a boy in the Auschwitz concentration camp befriended by a famous magician. A poignant Holocaust story for younger readers.

Kathy Kacer is the author of books for young readers, including The Secret of Gabi’s Dresser, Clara’s War, The Underground Reporters, Hiding Edith, Shanghai Escape and most recently, The Magician of Auschwitz. Recipients of many awards including the Silver Birch and the Yad Vashem award for Children’s Holocaust Literature, Kathy’s stories are inspired by real events.

This program is suitable for adults and families with children ages 9+. Book signing to follow the lecture.

Co-sponsored by Second Story Press. Generously co-sponsored by Glenda and Alan Wainer in memory of Leisor and Ann Wainer and David and Diane Tessler.

TWO PRESENTATIONS:

1492, The Other Path: Sephardic Jews in the Balkans In 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella expelled the Jews of Spain. The majority went east to the Ottoman Empire, where they were welcomed.

After the arrival of the Nazis in 1941, most of these Sephardic Jewish communities were wiped out.

The remaining Jews rebuilt their communities, and, when war came again in the 1990s, the Jews of Sarajevo reached out to their Muslim, Croat and Serb neighbours to help each other survive the siege of their city. This presentation will share the history of Sephardic Jews in the Balkans, the fate of their communities during the Holocaust, and how a small group of Holocaust survivors and their children looked back on their years of co-existence with others to choose a path other than hate.

For 2015 HEW Educator-in-Residence Dr. Lauren Granite’s bio, see page 14.

The Educator-in-Residence is generously sponsored

by Joyce & Aaron Rifkind and Naomi Rifkind Mansell & David Mansell.

Sunday, 1 November | 11:00 am Jewish Storytelling Arts at Congregation Habonim 5 Glen Park Avenue | Toronto 416–782–7125

TWO PRESENTATIONS:

Tuesday, 10 November | 2:15 pm Louis-Honoré Fréchette School 40 New Westminster Drive | Thornhill 905–738–1724

Thursday, 5 November | 1:30 pm Palmerston Library 560 Palmerston Avenue | Toronto 416–393–7680

War in My Town

Children of the Holocaust

In the teen narrative non-fiction book War in My Town, E. Graziani captures her mother Bruna’s story of growing up in a tiny Italian village that became an unexpected battleground between the Allies and the Germans. The book depicts the Nazi invasion of the town and its liberation and that of Italy.

Special screening of animated short documentary films (each 7 minutes) from Children of the Holocaust, created by Fettle Animation and BBC Learning. Animating the stories of Holocaust survivors, this new resource for teaching the Holocaust addresses themes of hope, courage and the need for humanity to learn from the mistakes of the past. Facilitated by Mathias Vogt, Austrian Holocaust Memorial Intern (Gedenkdiener, Austrian Service Abroad) at the Neuberger.

E. Graziani is a teacher and self-proclaimed lifelong learner who has worked with the Alzheimer Society of Canada to raise awareness and promote education about the disease. Her other books are Alice of the Rocks and Jess Under Pressure. Ms. Graziani often speaks to secondary school Writer’s Craft and English classes about writing and the publishing process.

A presentation for teens (ages 13–16) and adults.

Book signing to follow the lecture.

Surviving the Holocaust: Survivors and their Post-war Recovery Students from Crestwood Preparatory College will highlight some of the uses of the school’s Oral History Project. Over the last decade, it has brought Holocaust survivors and students together to record, document, and preserve personal testimonies conducted by students. Presenters will demonstrate themes such as recovery, rebuilding life, and life in Canada using excerpts from the collection that now has testimonies from over 100 individuals.

Co-sponsored by Crestwood Preparatory College.

Generously co-sponsored by Faye Firestone in loving memory of her mother, Bluma Rosenstock.

Thursday, 5 November | 3:00 pm Baycrest Health Sciences The Jacob Family Theatre at the Posluns Auditorium 3560 Bathurst Street | Toronto 416–785–2500 × 5162

Tuesday, 3 November | 2:00 pm Bloor Gladstone Library 1101 Bloor Street W | Toronto | 416–393–7674

WEDNESDAY, 4 November | 10:30 am Maryvale Library 85 Ellesmere Road | Scarborough 416–396–8931

Vera Erak and friends, liberation of Belgrade, 1945

Co-sponsored by Second Story Press.

TUESDAY, 3 November | 1:30 pm North York Central Library 5120 Yonge Street | Toronto | 416–395–5535

Neuberger Holocaust Education Week 39

Ontario-Region Programs

In Conversation with a Holocaust Survivor

In Conversation with a Holocaust Survivor

Polish Holocaust survivor Esther Fairbloom will speak about her personal experiences during the Holocaust. For her bio, see page 18.

Romanian Holocaust survivor Hedy Bohm will speak about her personal experiences during the Holocaust. Hedy Bohm was born in Oradea, Romania, in 1928. In 1944, Hedy was deported from the local ghetto to Auschwitz-Birkenau. An only child, she saw her parents, many relatives and friends murdered by the Nazis. She was selected and shipped to Fallersleben, Germany, to work as a slave labourer at an ammunition factory. She was liberated by the US Army in April 1945 and immigrated to Canada in August 1948.

Co-sponsored by Trinity Anglican Church.

Aurora Thursday, 5 November | 7:00 pm Aurora United Church at Trinity Anglican Church—Binions Hall 79 Victoria Street | 905–727–6639

In Conversation with a Holocaust Survivor Hungarian Holocaust survivor Andy Réti will speak about his personal experiences during the Holocaust. For his bio, see page 19.

Guelph Thursday, 5 November | 5:30 pm University of Guelph (Hillel) Peter Clark Hall, University Centre 50 Stone Road E | 519–824–4120 × 56061

TWO PRESENTATIONS:

Moving On: Dor L’Dor

Barrie Wednesday, 4 November | 7:00 pm Am Shalom Synagogue 767 Huronia Road | 705–792–3949

This moderated panel discussion explores Holocaust and human rights education and its relevance 70 years later. Panelists include Kathy Kacer (children’s author), Jody Spiegel (Director, Azrieli Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program) and local award-winning secondary school teachers. Moderated by Steve Paikin of TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin.

Fort Erie Sunday, 8 November | 2:00 pm Old Fort Erie/The Niagara Parks Commission 350 Lakeshore Road | 905–871–0540

The first 100 guests (one per household) will receive a complimentary copy of Steve Paikin’s new book, written with Mordechai Ronen, I Am a Victor: The Mordechai Ronen Story.

Community partners for Hamilton HEW programs: The Hamilton Spectator, Paratus Investors Corporation and Erwin Jacobs Endowment.

Hamilton SUNDAY, 1 NOVEMBER | 7:30 PM Hamilton Jewish Federation Temple Anshe Sholom 215 Cline Avenue North Hamilton | 905–627–9922 × 24

Triumph over Tragedy: Remembering Kristallnacht and Celebrating Life Please join the Hamilton Jewish Federation for their annual Kristallnacht commemoration program.

Generously co-sponsored by the Weisz Family Foundation in memory of Margaret and Arthur Weisz.

Hamilton Monday, 9 November | 7:30 pm Adas Israel Synagogue 125 Cline Avenue South | 905-627-9922 × 24

Surviving the Holocaust: 20th Century Stories of Survival and Rebirth from Germany and Austria This program draws from Centropa’s archive of more than 1200 interviews with elderly Jews from fifteen European countries to feature stories from Germany and Austria that tell of people who survived Nazi persecution by fleeing. Through short multimedia films, Kurt Brodmann from Vienna will tell you how his family survived by sending him to Palestine, his brother to England and his parents to Shanghai; Rosa Rosenstein will tell you about growing up in Weimar Berlin, and how she saved her children by sending them to Palestine to live with her parents, while she and her husband fled; and Erna Goldmann will tell us about life in Frankfurt before the war, and what it meant to leave her grandfather behind in Frankfurt as she fled for Palestine in 1937. All will tell you how they survived, and how they rebuilt their lives to start anew.

For 2015 HEW Educator-in-Residence Dr. Lauren Granite’s bio, see page 14.

Co-presented by Barrday, Inc. The Educator-in-Residence is generously sponsored by Joyce & Aaron Rifkind and Naomi Rifkind Mansell & David Mansell.

Kitchener-Waterloo Wednesday, 4 November | 7:00 pm Sir John A. MacDonald Secondary School 650 Laurelwood Drive jeff_chard@wrdsb.on.ca

40 Neuberger Holocaust Education Week

Closed Programs

We gratefully acknowledge the participation of the following speakers, schools and organizations at closed programs during HEW 2015:

Crescent School In Conversation with a Holocaust Survivor: Pinchas Gutter

Sir Richard Scott Catholic Elementary School In Conversation with a Holocaust Survivor: Magda Hilf

A.Y. Jackson Secondary School In Conversation with a Holocaust Survivor: Amek Adler

Glenforest Secondary School In Conversation with a Holocaust Survivor: Max Eisen. Generously co-sponsored by Helen Stollar in memory of her husband, Jack Stollar.

Stephen Lewis Secondary School In Conversation with a Holocaust Survivor: Leonard Vis. Generously co-sponsored by Roslyn and Ralph Halbert.

Anne Frank Public School In Conversation with a Holocaust Survivor: Gershon Willinger. Generously co-sponsored by Anita Ekstein in loving memory of Frank Ekstein.

Goodwin Learning Centre In Conversation with a Holocaust Survivor: Vera Schiff

Stouffville Christian School In Conversation with a Holocaust Survivor: Esther Fairbloom

Greenwood College School In Conversation with a Holocaust Survivor: Bill Glied

Thornhill Woods Public School In Conversation with a Holocaust Survivor: Eva Meisels. Generously co-sponsored by Frances Mandell-Arad in loving memory of Jack Arad.

Bakersfield Public School In Conversation with a Holocaust Survivor: Max Eisen Bishop Strachan School In Conversation with a Holocaust Survivor: Gerda Frieberg. Generously co-sponsored by the Brettler/Mintz Foundation.

Blessed Cardinal Newman Catholic High School Reuniting Holocaust Survivors with their Liberators USHMM Teacher Fellow Matthew Rozell presents on his work reuniting 275 Holocaust survivors with the American soldiers who freed them.

Bnei Akiva Schools—Yeshivat Or Chaim Eyewitnesses to Liberation: Dr. Mark Celinscak and Martin Maxwell. Generously co-sponsored

by Nili and Paul Ekstein and Shelley and Steven Ekstein in memory of Mordechai and Hilda Stern and members of their family.

Bnei Akiva Schools—Ulpanat Orot Scholar-in-Residence: Dr. Hilary Earl Generously co-sponsored by the Cohen Family Charitable Trust.

Branksome Hall In Conversation with a Holocaust Survivor: Hedy Bohm. Generously co-sponsored by Carole and Jay Sterling in memory of Ralph Frank Dankner.

Cedarvale Community School In Conversation with a Holocaust Survivor: Leslie Meisels. Generously co-sponsored by Shawn, Ellen, Alexa and Jordan Marr in loving memory of Gerard Marr, Ina & Bernard Gurofsky, and Murray Albert - always in our thoughts and hearts.

Centrepoint LINC In Conversation with Holocaust Survivors: Martin Maxwell and Amek Adler Christian Centre LINC In Conversation with Holocaust Survivors: Martin Maxwell and Faigie Libman

Kenton LINC In Conversation with a Holocaust Survivor: Martin Maxwell and Andy Réti. Generously cosponsored by Yigal Rifkind in honour of Joyce Rifkind.

The Leo Baeck Day School & Netivot HaTorah Day School In Conversation with a Holocaust Survivor: Edith Gelbard. Generously co-sponsored in honour of Anita Ekstein by her children.

Maple High School In Conversation with a Holocaust Survivor: Gershon Willinger Mother Teresa Catholic Elementary School In Conversation with a Holocaust Survivor: Howard Kleinberg Northern Secondary School In Conversation with Holocaust Survivors: Bill Glied and Judy Lysy. Generously co-sponsored

by Gerda Frieberg in honour of Marilyn Sinclair, carrying the torch of remembrance; and in honour of Bill Glied by his children and grandchildren.

Toronto French School In Conversation with a Holocaust Survivor: Elly Gotz. Generously co-sponsored by Erika Biro in memory of George Biro.

Westmount Collegiate Institute In Conversation with a Holocaust Survivor: Leslie Meisels William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute In Conversation with a Holocaust Survivor: Nate Leipciger. Generously co-sponsored by Dorothy Tessis and family in memory of Yadzia and Zenek Wajgensberg and their families who perished in the Holocaust.

Upper Canada College Accountability and Justice: Max Eisen and Bill Glied. Generously co-sponsored by Annette Metz-Pivnick and Richard Pivnick in honour of George Metz who survived the Holocaust, and in memory of his sister Cesia and all who perished in the Holocaust.

People’s Christian Academy In Conversation with a Holocaust Survivor: Helen Yermus. Generously co-sponsored by the Circle of Care’s Holocaust Survivor Fund Advisory Committee.

The York School Peer Education with the Neuberger’s Austrian Memorial Intern (Gedenkdiener): Mathias Vogt.

Generously co-sponsored by Dr. Carson Phillips in honour of Dr. Andreas Maislinger, who founded the Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service program in 1998.

Royal St. George’s College A Tale of Two Genocides: Col. Brent Beardsley and Holocaust survivor Vera Schiff. Generously cosponsored by Rosie Uster, Phyllis Gould and Sandra Srebrolow in memory of our beloved parents, Helen and Mayer Fogel.

Biographies of the Holocaust Survivor Speakers featured at these closed programs and the entire Neuberger Speakers’ Bureau are accessible at holocaustcentre.com/Holocaust-Survivor-Speakers.

Sacred Heart Catholic High School In Conversation with a Holocaust Survivor: Yael Spier Cohen

Programs featuring authors published by the Azrieli Foundation’s Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program will include complimentary copies of the memoirs where possible, generously provided by the Azrieli Foundation.

Sir John A. Macdonald Collegiate Institute In Conversation with a Holocaust Survivor: Howard Chandler. Generously co-sponsored

by Roslyn and Ralph Halbert.

Neuberger Holocaust Education Week 41

Holocaust Survivor Speakers

The Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre gratefully acknowledges members of the Survivor Speakers’ Bureau for their dedication to Holocaust education. For a complete listing of programs with Holocaust survivor testimony and biographies for members of the Neuberger Survivor Speakers’ Bureau, visit holocausteducationweek.com. Survivor portraits by HEW Featured Photographer Elliot Sylman, Sylman Photography, 2010 & 2015.

In honour of Holocaust Education Week and the 30th anniversary of the Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre, Elliot Sylman’s portraits of Holocaust survivor speakers at the Neuberger are on view at the Gallery at the Miles Nadal JCC from November 1-26. The exhibit is generously co-sponsored by Rochelle Rubinstein. See page 35 for more information.

AMEK ADLER b. Poland 1928. Liberated April 28, 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1954.

CLAIRE BAUM b. Holland 1936. Liberated May 5, 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1951.

HEDY BOHM b. Romania 1928. Liberated April 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1948.

FELICIA CARMELLY b. Romania 1931. Liberated Spring 1944 Immigrated to Canada 1963.

HOWARD CHANDLER b. Poland 1928. Liberated May 5, 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1947.

JUDY WEISSENBERG COHEN b. Hungary 1928. Liberated May 5, 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1948.

ALEXANDER EISEN b. Austria 1929. Liberated January 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1952.

MAX EISEN b. Czechoslovakia 1929. Liberated May 6, 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1949.

SALLY EISNER b. Poland 1922. Liberated March 1944.

Immigrated to Canada 1949.

ANITA EKSTEIN b. Poland 1934. Liberated March 1944.

Immigrated to Canada 1948.

ESTHER FAIRBLOOM b. Poland, year unknown. Liberated 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1951.

SHARY FINE MARMOR b. Romania 1927. Liberated April 29, 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1948.

Neuberger Holocaust Education Week 42

Holocaust Survivor Speakers

EDWARD FISCH b. Hungary 1933. Liberated January 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1948.

GEORGE FOX b. Ukraine 1917. Liberated May 3, 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1948.

MIRIAM FRANKEL b. Czechoslovakia 1927. Liberated April 14, 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1948.

GERDA FRIEBERG b. Poland 1925. Liberated May 9, 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1953.

EDITH GELBARD b. Austria 1932. Liberated 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1958.

BILL GLIED b. Serbia 1930. Liberated April 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1947.

MEL GOLDBERG b. Poland 1942. Liberated March 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1948.

ELLY GOTZ b. Lithuania 1928. Liberated April 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1964.

PINCHAS GUTTER b. Poland 1932. Liberated May 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1985.

DENISE HANS b. France 1938. Returned home 1948.

Immigrated to Canada 1956.

MAGDA HILF b. Czechoslovakia 1921. Liberated May 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1953.

LOU HOFFER b. Romania 1927. Liberated 1944.

Immigrated to Canada 1948.

NANCY & HOWARD KLEINBERG b. Poland 1925. Liberated April 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1947.

MARK LANE b. Czechoslovakia 1929. Liberated May 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1951.

MANNY LANGER b. Poland 1929. Liberated April 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1951.

JOE (JOSEPH) LEINBURD b. Romania 1922. Liberated May 1944.

Immigrated to Canada 1949.

Neuberger Holocaust Education Week 43

Holocaust Survivor Speakers

NATE LEIPCIGER b. Poland 1928. Liberated May 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1948

ALEX LEVIN b. Poland 1932. Liberated 1944.

Immigrated to Canada 1975.

FAIGIE (SCHMIDT) LIBMAN b. Lithuania 1934. Liberated January 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1948.

ROSE LIPSZYC b. Poland 1929. Liberated May 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1952.

JUDY LYSY b. Czechoslovakia 1928. Liberated May 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1952.

MARTIN MAXWELL b. Austria 1924. Freed May 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1952.

EVA MEISELS b. Hungary 1939. Liberated January 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1956.

LESLIE MEISELS b. Hungary 1927. Liberated April 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1967.

ANDY RÉTI b. Hungary 1942. Liberated January 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1956.

SALLY ROSEN b. Poland 1929. Liberated April 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1948.

VERA SCHIFF b. Czechoslovakia 1926. Liberated May 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1961.

FAYE SCHULMAN b. Poland 1919. Liberated 1944.

Immigrated to Canada 1948.

YAEL SPIER COHEN b. Germany 1929. Liberated May 5, 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1952.

LEONARD VIS b. Holland 1930. Liberated May 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1967.

LENKA WEKSBERG b. Czechoslovakia 1926. Liberated April 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1953.

GERSHON WILLINGER b. Holland 1942. Liberated May 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1977.

Neuberger Holocaust Education Week 44

Holocaust Survivor Speakers

HELEN YERMUS b. Lithuania 1932. Liberated January 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1948.

ROMAN ZEIGLER b. Poland 1927. Liberated May 1945.

Immigrated to Canada 1948.

The Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre was founded as the Holocaust Education and Memorial Centre in 1985.

We gratefully acknowledge the contributions of the dedicated Holocaust survivor educators, not pictured, who established this museum and worked to fulfill its mission throughout the past 30 years. We continue your work in your names.

Anne Eidlitz, Jerry Kapelus, George Scott, George Berman, Sally Wasserman, Felix Brand, Mendel Good, Inge Spitz, Rosalind Goldenberg, Helen Schwartz, Samuel Shene, Chava Kwinta, John Freund, Irene Csillag. z”l Bronia Beker, Esther Bem, Marian Domanski, Robert Engel, Mike Englishman, Arnold Friedman, Herb Goldstein, Ibolya Grossman, Elisabeth de Jong, Moishe Kantorowitz, Joseph Kichler, Max Kingston, Bronka Krygier, Wanda Lerek, George Lysy, Anita Mayer, Henry Melnick, Fanny Pillersdorf, Robert Rosen, Freda Rosenblatt, Judith Rubinstein, George Salamon, Magda Schullerer, Hanneliese Schusheim-Beigel, Peter Silverman, Ann Szedlecki, Dennis Urstein, Ernst Weiss, Robert Weiss, Nechemia Wurman, Ada Wynston, Etty Zigler, David Zuckerbrot.

IN MEMORIAM 2014–2015 Bronia Beker was born in Kozowa, Poland, in 1920.

Her family built a bunker in the basement of their home where ten of them hid until the air vent was obstructed

by Nazi soldiers and everyone suffocated except for Bronia. When the ghetto was liquidated, together with her boyfriend, Joslo (Joseph) Beker, she hid in several locations until they were liberated in July 1944.

Bronia immigrated to Canada in October 1948. She passed away on May 19, 2015.

Arnold Friedman was born in 1928 in Chudlovo, Czechoslovakia. His whole family was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1944. His parents, younger brothers and sisters were all murdered. In January 1945, Arnold survived a death march to the Gross-Rosen and Dachau concentration camps. He was liberated in May 1945 by the US Army.

He immigrated to Scotland in 1946 and then to Canada with the assistance of Canadian Jewish Congress in 1947. He passed away on June 4, 2015.

George Lysy was born on a farm near Nove Zamky in Czechoslovakia, in 1916. In 1939, he was conscripted in the Hungarian army, in a separate Jewish slave labour battalion. He served 45 months and then escaped to Budapest, where he lived with false papers as a Catholic. He was liberated by the Soviet Army in February 1945. He passed away on September 9, 2014.

Fanny Pillersdorf was born in Benzin, Poland, in 1924.

She survived seven concentration and slave labour camps. Fanny escaped a death march and made her way from Germany to Czechoslovakia where she was hidden by a farmer until her liberation by the Soviets. She married in 1946 and lived in several countries before immigrating to Canada in 1962 with her husband Leib and three children. Fanny passed away on January 13, 2015.

Ada Wynston was born in Amsterdam, Holland, in 1936. She and 231 others were rescued from a Jewish daycare centre by the Dutch underground. From 1942 to 1945, Ada was hidden with Dutch-Reform Christian families. Her entire family, consisting of 73 individuals, was murdered in death camps. Ada immigrated to Canada in 1957. She received a Knighthood from Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands in 1993 for her volunteer work. She passed away on November 28, 2014.

Neuberger Holocaust Education Week 45

ENSURING THE FUTURE OF HOLOCAUST EDUCATION

Hall of Memories, Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre.

Holocaust Education Endowment Fund The Jewish Foundation of Greater Toronto and the Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre are pleased to support the Holocaust Education Endowment Fund. The Fund will ensure that programs like Holocaust Education Week will be sustained in perpetuity. The Neuberger has also established the Yom HaShoah Commemoration and Education Fund at the Jewish Foundation to help sustain our annual communitywide Holocaust commemoration.

To make a gift to either fund by way of a donation or as a planned gift in the form of a bequest or life insurance policy, please contact the Jewish Foundation at 416–631–5703

46 Neuberger Holocaust Education Week

ENSURING THE FUTURE OF HOLOCAUST EDUCATION

Images courtesy Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre; Michael Rajzman for the Neuberger; Karp Family.

Dedicated Leadership Holocaust Education Week is made possible by the generous support of individuals, corporations and foundations who donate time, resources and funds to ensure that Holocaust education remains a vital part of civil society.

We are honoured that our long-time Lead Benefactor The Elizabeth & Tony Comper Foundation has joined Great Gulf as a Presenting Sponsor this year. Commenting upon the significance of HEW, Tony Comper says: “It’s a very worthy cause and the programme has evolved into a very sophisticated treatment of the subject over the past few years.”

By their ongoing commitment to Holocaust Education Week, The Azrieli Foundation has become a Legacy Lead Benefactor. CEO Naomi Azrieli notes: “Education is essential to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive and to teach about citizenship, responsibility and acceptance of diversity.” They join dedicated Legacy Lead Benefactor Apotex Foundation as sustaining sponsors of our program. The Neuberger is grateful to all our supporters and donors who are vital to the success of Holocaust Education Week.

To support Holocaust Education Week, please visit http://holocaustcentre.com/HEW

Holocaust Educators’ Study Tour, Majdanek, 2010.

Featured Events in 2016

The Karp Family: Committed to Educating Youth In addition to Holocaust Education Week, the Neuberger presents an array of programming throughout the year. The annual Student Symposia on the Holocaust offers middle and high school students the opportunity to explore new developments in Holocaust studies while interacting with survivor testimony.

Fred and May Karp have been generous benefactors of this signature program for many years.

The Karp family’s commitment to Holocaust education is inspired in part by familial losses endured in the Holocaust. As May explains: “We were so anxious to do something to commemorate them so that their lives wouldn’t have been lost without value or memory. When we heard that the UJA Federation had a program to educate students about the Holocaust, we wanted to get involved to help ensure that it became a part of the middle and high school curricula. Our children and grandson also became involved.” Fred Karp agrees, “We wanted to help HEW’s efforts to bring the message to as many young people as possible. Many young kids didn’t know what had happened and I really felt that it was important for the future – and for their future – to become aware. Holocaust Education Week is one of the most important weeks of the year for me.”

Now entering its thirty-sixth year, the annual Student Symposia on the Holocaust continues to educate and inspire thousands of school students thanks to the vision and commitment of May & Fred Karp and their family. Students from across the Greater Toronto Area as well as Barrie, Belleville, Kitchener and St. Catharines participate in the annual symposia. “Although it doesn’t change what happened to our family, it is positive to hope that the students who come to this and other symposia will be better people for it and understand what happened in those years,” says May.

The Neuberger presents commemorative and educational programming throughout the calendar year. We offer specialized programming for students, educators and young professionals. Join us.

JANUARY

Raoul Wallenberg Day International Holocaust Remembrance Day FEBRUARY

Film Screening MARCH

YP Event MAY

Yom Hashoah V’Hagvurah Ontario Jewish Heritage Month Student Symposia on the Holocaust Experience Jewish Life in Vienna Study Tour JULY

Holocaust Educators’ Study Tour

Neuberger Holocaust Education Week 47

SPOTLIGHT ON NEUBERGER

Education, Remembrance, Engagement. For 30 years, Toronto’s Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre has informed and inspired hundreds of thousands across Ontario through its museum and a vast array of resources and dynamic programs.

MUSEUM EDUCATION

Thousands of students experience our in-depth approach to Holocaust education that encourages exploration of the complexity of historical events. Utilizing historical thinking concepts, students are encouraged to find meaning on a personal level. For advanced training, we offer seminars on teaching the Holocaust as well as educator study tours.

PROGRAMS FOR YOUNG PROFESSIONALS

The Neuberger’s newly-expanded Legacy Committee provides important learning and commemoration opportunities for young professionals. In addition to the annual LEGACY HEW SYMPOSIUM, the group presents film screenings, a book club, lectures and an annual study tour, EXPERIENCE JEWISH LIFE IN VIENNA. HOLOCAUST EDUCATION FOR ENGLISH-LANGUAGE LEARNERS

An interactive seminar that utilizes recorded testimony of Holocaust survivors to teach new vocabulary and concepts related to citizenship, immigration, diversity and democratic values. Seminars are offered on site as well as at LINC (Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada) Schools across the GTA. THE CANADIAN COLLECTION OF HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR TESTIMONIES

Approximately 1200 testimony recordings of Holocaust survivors who renewed their lives in Canada will be preserved with the USC Shoah Foundation in partnership with the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre and made accessible to patrons of the Montreal and Toronto centres. Under the rubric of “The Canadian Collection,” this archive will prove to be an invaluable resource for future generations of learners.

For the most up-to-date information on current and upcoming programs, visit us at holocaustcentre.com

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All programs are free of charge unless otherwise noted. We regret any errors or omissions due to printing deadlines. The views expressed by any presenter during Holocaust Education Week are their own and do not represent the views of the Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre or UJA Federation of Greater Toronto.

DISCLAIMER: Please be advised that UJA Federation hosted events may be documented through photographs and video. These images may be used by UJA Federation for promotional, advertising, and educational purposes. By participating in our events, both on our premises and off-site, you consent to allow UJA Federation to document and use your image and likeness. However, if you do not want us to use a photo or video of you or your child, please do not hesitate to let us know when you arrive at the event. You are also welcome to contact UJA Federation’s Privacy Officer at privacy.officer@ujafed.org.

Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre Survivor Speakers’ Bureau

Amek A. Adler Claire Baum George Berman Hedy Bohm Felicia Carmelly Howard Chandler Judy Cohen Irene Csillag Anne Eidlitz Alexander Eisen

Max Eisen Sally Eisner Anita Ekstein Esther Fairbloom Shary Fine Marmor Edward Fisch George Fox Miriam Frankel John Freund Gerda Frieberg

Rosalind Goldenberg Edith Gelbard Bill Glied Mel Goldberg Mendel Good Elly Gotz Pinchas Gutter Denise Hans Magda Hilf

Lou (Leizer) Hoffer Jerry Kapelus Howard & Nancy Kleinberg Chava Kwinta Mark Lane Manny Langer Joe Leinburd Nathan Leipciger Alex Levin

Faigie Libman Rose Lipszyc Judy Lysy Martin Maxwell Eva Meisels Leslie Meisels Andy Reti Sally Rosen Vera Schiff Faye Schulman

Helen Schwartz George Scott Samuel Shene Yael Spier Cohen Inge Spitz Leonard Vis Lenka Weksberg Gershon Willinger Helen Yermus Roman Ziegler

Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre

Dori Ekstein Catherine Gitzel Bill Glied Joseph Gottdenker Irv Gottesman Pinchas Gutter Joyce Rifkind Doris Rochman Rammy Rochman Leonard Vis Myra York

Eric Cohen Sally Dale Howard Driman Ellen Gardner Sandra Gitlin Marilyn Goldberg Nicole Greenwood Ezra Grossman Hartley Hershenhorn Eileen Jadd Sheri Kagan Stephanie Kirsh Kendra Knoll Joy Kohn Eliane Labendz Karen Lasky Susan Lehner Arla Litwin Roz Lofsky Elise Loterman Shelly Mann Martin Maxwell Annette Metz-Pivnick Naomi Parness Jodi Porepa Hilary Rabie Ricardo Rapaport Andy Reti Lisa Richman Joyce Rifkind Doris Rochman Rammy Rochman Jillian Rodak Barbara Rusch Annette Sacks Joan Shapero Julie Silver Guido Smit Yael Spier-Cohen Celine Szoges Daniel Tarek

Charlotte Tessis Ken Tessis Alan Wainer Heather Waldman Jennifer Walsh Nita Wexler Rhonda Wolf

Centropa Lauren Granite Ouriel Morgensztern Ed Serotta

Ontario Jewish Archives Dara Solomon

Chair Marilyn Sinclair Incoming Chair Shael Rosenbaum Immediate Past Chair Honey Sherman Executive Director Mira Goldfarb Managing Director Carson Phillips Manager of Operations Mary Siklos Head of Programs Rachel Libman Education Associate Michelle Fishman Librarian Anna Skorupsky Gedenkdiener Mathias Vogt Administrative Assistant Iris Glesinger Lichtinshtein Advisory Committee Jordana Bergman Marlene Brickman Howard Driman Anita Ekstein

Honorary Members Max Eisen Gerda Frieberg Elly Gotz Nate Leipciger UJA Federation of Greater Toronto

Chair of the Board Morris Perlis Vice Chair Bruce Leboff President & CEO Morris Zbar 2015 Holocaust Education Week

Co-Chairs Dori Ekstein Lily Kim Liaisons Steven Albin Elisabeth Goldie Babarci Ken Bernknopf Robert Buckler Felicia Carmelly Sharon Chodirker

Legacy Symposium

Chair Jillian Rodak Vice Chair Dayna Simon

CIJA Stephen Adler CTV Mercedes Findlay Naomi Parness German Consulate Walter Stechel Aljona Schnitzer Hungarian Consulate Stefania Szabo

Committee Elizabeth Banks Stephanie Corazza Brandon Lablong Jon Livergant Jessica Pollock

IHRA Berlin Rosvita Krajinovic Kathrin Meyer Laura Robertson

Special Thanks

ITS—Bad Arolsen Friederike Scharlau

Austrian Embassy Bettina Miller Azrieli Foundation Naomi Azrieli Elin Beaumont Dena Libman Jody Spiegel

Jewish Foundation of Greater Toronto Angela D’Aversa Ronit Holtzman Miles Nadal JCC Harriet Wichin Deanna DiLello

Canadian-German Economic Chamber Thomas Beck

Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre Alice Herscovitch

The Cahén Archives Maggie Cahén Michael Cahén Jaleen Grove

National Post Paul Godfrey Jackie Rose Sandra Zingaro

Canadian War Museum Susan Ross

Shoy Pictures Matthew Shoychet TJFF Helen Zukerman UJA Federation Stella Beili Melissa Daiter Elliott Fienberg Dan Horowitz Nurit Richulsky Taali Lester Tollman University of Toronto Centre for Jewish Studies Anna Shternshis Doris Bergen Emily Springgay Munk School of Global Affairs Ron Levi U.S. Consulate Claudia L. Valladolid York University Sara Horowitz Brochure Design Lauren Wickware laurenwickware.com Cover Artwork Oscar Cahén, 1916–1956 The Cahén Archives/ Maclean’s Magazine Brochure Printing Raw Brokers ISBN 978-0-9811031-3-66

Holocaust Education Week 2–9 November 2015 www.holocausteducationweek.com Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre UJA Federation of Greater Toronto Sherman Campus 4600 Bathurst Street Toronto, ON M2R 3V2 416–631–5689 www.holocaustcentre.com

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