Holocaust Education Resource Council

NewsletterApril 2015 Board of Directors Dear HERC Friends, is dwindling, as the population ages, The Holocaust Education Holocaust remembrance’s needs are Barbara Goldstein Resource Council has come a long way President increasing. With about 15,000 survivors since the first teacher workshop was pre- living in Florida, their stories need to be Rita Blank sented in 2006. This year we have heard as a bridge from the past to the Vice President provided professional learning future. opportunities for schools and the As the school year comes to an Robyn Rachin community. Resources and materials Secretary end soon, I give a big recognition to the have been made available to educators teachers and students who have Sam Kimelman and students. We have organized an demonstrated the need to continue the Treasurer essay and art contest for students who get ongoing programs HERC offers. This awarded in grades 4-12. We have created can only happen with the support of Monte Finkelstein a very successful book club that has just HERC Education Director everyone. With more valuable resources, completed its fourth year with 20 educators can provide their students with Dana Edwards members attending who participate in the important lessons that can change the Communication Director great discussion. There are more plans course of a person’s life. Your started with partnerships developed for membership will make that happen. At-Large Members future events. It is an honor to see the Donna Callaway Pete Cowdrey consistent support at the programs. Barbara Goldstein Linda Davey On April 19, the community is HERC President Shari Gewanter invited to gather for Holocaust Eileen Lerner Remembrance Day, Yom Hashoah, at Amy Piotrowski Temple at 3 p.m. Please join us to Tasha Weinstein honor the victims and survivors for their courage and strength. Teaching the next generation is extremely important to re- member the past and learn for the future. While the number of Holocaust survivors

Inside this Edition...

Anti-Semitism Gets Personal ..... 2 Students learn from survivors ..... 8 Yom Hashoah -- Holocaust Remembrance Day ..... 3 HERC Featured Member of the Month ..... 9 Holocaust Essay & Art Contest Update ..... 4 Movie Showing of “Pastor Hall” ..... 10 Who remembers the Armenians? ..... 5 Membership ..... 10 The last prisoners of war: Inside the battle to ..... 6 recover Nazi-stolen artwork

HE RC Holocaust Education Resource Council | P.O. Box 16282 Tall., FL 32317 | holocaustresources.org 1 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HERCTallahassee Anti-Semitism Gets Personal By Jack Romberg, Temple Israel

It had been many years boarding. When we got off the clearly distressed. She printed our since I had experienced any direct plane it was 15 minutes until the boarding passes and sweetly told anti-Semitism – all the way back next flight was to leave. me not to worry. As Audrey and to high school in fact. But on the So I ran ahead of Audrey, I boarded the plane, we saw what way home from sitting shiva with to get to the desk and have we thought was a plain clothes Audrey’s family after her father’s boarding passes printed. agent taking the young man aside funeral, it became very real once Approaching the desk I saw to talk to him. When we were in again. Our flight into Atlanta was boarding was just about to begin, our seats we were dumbfounded very delayed because of cross so I thought we would be OK. I by the incident. A number of winds shutting down the runway went to the desk, started to explain thoughts went through my head. in Providence, where our flight to the attendant about our late First, I was embarrassed over originated. Once we took off I flight and having to print a losing my cool and yelling back at realized making the connecting boarding pass. He motioned me him. Second, I thought about the flight in Atlanta would be a very to the end of the desk, where young African American Delta tight squeeze, no more than a 20 the boarding passes are scanned attendant who was trying so hard minute window. Fortunately, we as you get on the plane. There, to make things right. I realized landed in the same concourse a sweet looking young African that she, as well as most African that our Tallahassee flight was to American woman was waving to must face leave from, albeit at the complete me to come over and flashing a circumstances that can make them opposite end of the concourse. big, warm smile. I went up to her angry almost every day. My Delta app on my phone would station. There was a young man Prejudice is still very real, not bring up the boarding pass as there perhaps in his late 20’s. The constantly burning. We can never it listed our next flight as already Delta attendant asked me my lose our vigilance in trying to name. As I gave it, standing next educate to prevent it. We must to the young man, he turned to me never stop opposing all kinds of and said, “I know you are a Jew prejudice, racism, anti-Semitism, Upcoming but take a deep breath man.” I was Islamophobia – the list seems stunned. Thinking that the young endless. Events woman might have been asking On April 19 at 3 p.m. his name and I had butted in front will be the annual Yom Hashoah of him I asked her, “Were you service. It will be held at Temple Sunday, April 19 Essay & Arts Contest asking for my name?” She said Israel but sponsored jointly with Awards Ceremony yes she was. I turned to the young Shomrei Torah, HERC and 3-5 p.m. man and said, “You better think Tallahassee Jewish Federation. If Temple Israel about what you are saying.” That nothing else, it will serve as a set off a stream of invectives laced reminder that our work is still not Thursday, April 23 with the constant “You’re a Jew.” done. Movie Showing of “Pastor Hall” Finally, out of anger I yelled back 7-9 p.m. at him a very non-rabbinic reply, All Saints Cinema “You’re an a__hole!” The young woman was

HE RC Holocaust Education Resource Council | P.O. Box 16282 Tall., FL 32317 | holocaustresources.org 2 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HERCTallahassee Yom Hashoah -- Holocaust Remembrance Day By Sarah Johnson, HERC Intern

Each year on the 27th day presence. with education, of Nisan, a two-minute siren is HERC will commemorate tolerance, and love for our fellow sounded throughout Israel and the Yom Hashoah in conjunction with neighbors. While the rise of entire nation comes to a complete the awards ceremony for our annual anti-Semitic incidents across halt. Even in the minutes before the essay and art contest, held this year is heartbreaking and bears some siren is sounded, the busyness of the at Temple Israel. By also focusing on resemblance to the Nazi period, we streets gradually slows down; education during the must continue to combat this hatred bulldozers are turned off; cranes commemoration, we are able to and intolerance with love and hang empty in the air; cars get further honor the memory of the acceptance. parked on the sides of streets, their victims by working to counter the Personally, I have always felt occupants standing silently hate and ignorance that spawned the a deep connection to the alongside their vehicles. On Yom Holocaust. The Nazis were able to Holocaust. Perhaps it is because Hashoah, the nearly six million exploit centuries-old fears and wide- three of my grandparents were annihilated as part of Adolf Hitler’s spread ignorance about the Jews in World War II veterans and helped plan to systematically exterminate order to convince millions of Ger- to rid the world of Nazi tyranny and the world’s Jews are remembered mans and other European sympa- oppression. Perhaps it is because I (Schwartz, 2013). thizers to join their ranks. In the 70 was bullied throughout childhood/ This year Yom Hashoah will years since the end of the Holocaust, adolescence and I can understand be commemorated on Thursday, Yad Vashem, the (on a much smaller level, of course) April 16 until sunset the following Holocaust Memorial Museum, the being singled out based on a certain day, according to the traditional Shoah Visual History Foundation, characteristic that has nothing to do Jewish custom of marking a day. and many other organizations have with your worth as a person. Organizations and individuals made educating the next generation Perhaps it is because I am a social worldwide will all pause to one of their primary goals. They, worker and am passionate about hu- remember the entire communities along with HERC, understand that man rights and equality for all. wiped off of the face of the earth, the only way (Continued on page 4) the groups of people marched like to combat cattle into the gas chambers at the hate and death camps, the individuals mur- ignorance is dered bullet by bullet at the hands of the Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing squads), and the millions of others who died at the hands of the Nazis. This time allows us to reflect on the tragic circumstances surrounding From the their deaths and to mourn the Washing- senseless loss of life, but to also ton Post show the six million victims of the Holocaust that they are not forgot- ten. By simply acknowledging that we remember, we are able to give the victims an eternal voice and HE RC Holocaust Education Resource Council | P.O. Box 16282 Tall., FL 32317 | holocaustresources.org 3 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HERCTallahassee (Continued from page 3)

However, I think the reason for feeling 2015 Holocaust Essay & Art a deep connection to the Holocaust comes down to five simple Contest Update words—I am a human being. Even By Robyn Rachin, HERC Board Member & after many years of studying and re- Essay Contest Chair searching about the Holocaust, I often have to pause and The 2015 HERC Essay & Art Contest is underway. Both reflect for a moment before I can teachers and students have been busy preparing for the essay con- continue. Whether it is learning about test. Students have submitted their essays, judges are reviewing the children murdered by having their essays, and the art contest has finished being judged. heads slammed against walls, reading We could not be successful without our great volunteers about the horrific living conditions serving as judges. Judges play a vital role in the essay contest. On of the ghettos, or watching newsreel behalf of HERC, I want to thank the judges of the 2015 essay footage of the piles of emaciated contest. We appreciate your time and effort and we are so glad to bodies in the camps upon liberation by the Allies, I stop and promise to have you participating. This is an opportunity to enhance and make them that I will always remember a difference in the education of our community. them and will do my best to honor All judges, teachers, students, families and the community their memory by dedicating my are invited to attend the HERC Awards Ceremony on Sunday, April professional career to combating the 19, 3 p.m. at Temple Israel, 2215 Mahan Drive, Tallahassee. We hope hate and ignorance that caused the to see you there! Holocaust. It is important for us to not just commemorate Yom Hashoah once a year, but to instead commemorate it in our hearts and You’re Invited: minds every day. It can be done by Yom Hashoah standing up to a bully, denouncing hate speech when you hear it, getting Remembrance Ceremony to know someone who is “different” than you, or by educating others about with HERC the beauty of diversity. By commemorating Yom Hashoah every Sunday, April 19, 2015 HERC Essay and Art Contest day, we are showing the victims that awards presentation; we remember, we hear their cries, and 3 p.m. Memorial candle lighting that they will never be forgotten. May ceremony; their memories always be a blessing to Temple Israel Responsive reading and prayer us as we take on this important task. 2215 Mahan Drive by local clergy Tallahassee, FL Resource Co-sponsors: Schwartz, P. (2013, April 5). Yom Hashoah: Annual Gathering of HERC, Tallahassee Jewish Federation, The Remembrance of Many. Retrieved Temple Israel, Congregation Shomrei March 16, 2015, from http://www.reformju- Holocaust Remembrance Torah daism.org/print/53401

HE RC Holocaust Education Resource Council | P.O. Box 16282 Tall., FL 32317 | holocaustresources.org 4 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HERCTallahassee Map of the 1915 Armenian Geno- Who remembers the cide in the Turkish Empire. (Photo from Armenian National Institute) Armenians? By Linda Davey, HERC Board Member

being quickly executed. The next targets were the women and children who were loaded up onto trains headed for or led on forced marches through the desert. Little food was supplied along these death marches and there was little hope for survival. The Armenian women were subjected to sexual violence and had to watch as their children died of dehydra- tion and starvation. Disease and dysentery was rampant, and some of the women and children were sold or abducted into slavery. Those who survived the brutal marches found themselves in concentration camps in Syria. By 1918, most of the Armenians who had lived in their historic land were dead or had escaped to other lands. By 1923, a 3,000-year-old civilization virtually ceased to exist. After WWII, the UN passed the Convention and The mission of HERC is to keep the story of the at- Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which clearly identifies tempted murder of the Jewish people by Hitler and the Nazis what happened to the Armenians as genocide. Historians and alive in people’s memories so that, as the USHMM states, governments around the worlds affirm it, however the “Never Again”. April 24, 2015 marks the 100th anniversary of Turkish government continues to deny the Armenian the beginning of an earlier genocide which took the lives of 1.5 genocide. In 2004, Turkey made it a criminal offense to discuss million Armenians. The man who coined the term “genocide”, the Armenian genocide. based on his study of the deaths of the Armenians at the hands We are all familiar with George Santayana’s of the Ottoman Turks and the persecution of the Jews under statement, “Those who cannot remember the past are Nazi rule was Raphael Lemkin. Lemkin was a Polish lawyer condemned to repeat it.” Just over 20 years after the genocide and a Jew who lost 49 relatives in the Holocaust. He himself of the Armenians, Hitler understood the meaning of those left Poland in 1941. But who remembers the Armenians? words. In a speech delivered to the Supreme Commanders of What was the nature of this genocide? his army on August 22, 1939 as they prepared to march into During WWI, Armenia was a part of the Turkish Ot- Poland with orders to kill the Polish people, he stated, “ Who, toman Empire which existed along the Russian border. One of after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” the Ottoman Empire’s greatest enemies was Russia, as Russia was constantly threatening Turkey’s security. The Empire was badly defeated by Russian in a campaign in the winter of 1914- 1915, and the “Young Turks” of Turkey made the Armenians a Support HERC scapegoat for the military losses imposed by the Russians. on Amazon.com! Deep causes of suspicion and hatred were that the Armenians were Orthodox Visit this link www.bit. Christians, as were the Russians; the Turks were Moslems. ly/1ALzw3N to sign up. Russia was on the side of England and France in WWI; Turkey Amazon will give .5% of your was allied with Germany and Austria. qualifying purchases to HERC. In the spring of 1915, the Turkish ruling party was This is one more way to give determined to erase the Armenian presence from their land. HERC funding necessary to WWI made a good cover. Beginning on April 24, 1915, keep our Armenian civil leaders, professionals, artists, and intellectuals students educated on the were rounded up and killed. Once these leaders were killed, Holocaust. the genocide proceeded quickly with many Armenian men HE RC Holocaust Education Resource Council | P.O. Box 16282 Tall., FL 32317 | holocaustresources.org 5 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HERCTallahassee ments Men (portrayed in George Clooney’s film) and dutifully re- The last prisoners of war: turned to the Netherlands. But the Netherlands failed to return them to Inside the battle to recover Jacques’ surviving family. In, 2006, the Dutch Govern- ment finally returned the works to Nazi-stolen artwork Jacques’ sole surviving heir, after de- By Randy Schoenberg, MSNBC termining that the family had been Originally published on April 1, 2015 treated unfairly after the war. Un- fortunately, “Adam” and “Eve” were In 2006, I was very fortunate diptych “Adam” and “Eve,” by the not returned, because the Dutch to win an eight-year legal battle to famed German artist Lucas Cra- Government in 1966 improperly recover five Gustav Klimt paint- nach the Elder, which presently sold them to George Stroganoff- ings taken by the Nazis, which is hang in the Norton Simon Muse- Scherbatoff. Stroganoff later sold the the basis for the film “Woman in um in Pasadena, California. These paintings to foundations associated Gold,” opening today. (Ryan Reyn- two paintings were owned by a with the Norton Simon Museum in olds plays me in the film, and Helen Dutch Jewish art dealer named Pasadena. Mirren plays my client, Maria Alt- Jacques Goudstikker, who fled Rather than return these mann.) with his wife and young son as the paintings, which the Norton Simon At the screenings I have Nazis invaded the Netherlands in Museum does not dispute were attended, I have been repeatedly 1940. looted by the Nazis, the museum asked whether there are still other Sadly, Jacques died in a has spent years in litigation posing paintings yet to be returned to their shipboard accident while the fam- procedural objections instead of rightful owners. The answer is, un- ily was crossing the Atlantic. His doing the right thing and returning fortunately, yes. Below are just three entire art collection was seized by the paintings to their rightful own- of the cases I have worked on. the Nazis, and “Adam” and “Eve” ers. Last year, one of Norton Simon’s were ultimately taken by Hermann grandsons also called for a “just and Adam and Eve, Lucas Cranach the Göring, the number two Nazi after fair solution” to the case. Elder (1528) Adolf Hitler. If you ever watched the Some of Jacques’ paintings Portrait of Amalie Zuckerkandl, opening sequence for “Desperate were recovered by the Allies at Gustav Klimt (unfinished, 1918) Housewives,” then you’ve seen the war’s end by the so-called Monu- (Continued on page 7)

Museum visitors study “Adele Bloch-Bauer I,” a 1907 painting by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt at the Los Ange- les County Museum in 2006. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Reuters)

HE RC Holocaust Education Resource Council | P.O. Box 16282 Tall., FL 32317 | holocaustresources.org 6 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HERCTallahassee (Continued from page 8) so far the Austrians have refused authorities rejected Czernin’s claim to reconsider the case. The looted for restitution, finding that he had In the film “Woman in “Portrait of Amalie Zuckerkandl” not been under any duress. Gold,” Helen Mirren (playing Maria continues to hang in the Belvedere The claim was reviewed Altmann) stops to marvel at this to this day. again by the Austrian art restitution painting hanging in the Belvedere board in 2011 and rejected on the Gallery in Vienna, noting sternly Artist in his Studio, Johannes Ver- grounds that Czernin’s wife was only that Amalie was murdered by the meer (circa 1665-1668) one quarter Jewish and therefore Nazis. What the film doesn’t men- This famous Vermeer, which should not have been persecuted tion is that this painting hung until currently holds pride of place in by the Nazis. Once again, the great 1938 in the bedroom of Maria’s Austria’s Art History Museum value of the painting had blinded uncle, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer. Fer- (Kunsthistorisches Museum), was the authorities to the indisputable dinand fled when the Nazis invaded long owned by the aristocratic facts of the case. Austria in the infamous Anschluss Czernin family in Austria. Jaromir These few cases are of course of March 1938, and died in exile in Czernin was trying to get permis- not the only ones. Thousands of Switzerland in 1945, shortly after sion to sell it abroad when the important artworks still remain to the war ended. By that time the Nazis invaded. Although not Jewish be located and recovered. Millions painting had made its way into the himself, Czernin was married to of Jews lost their lives and property hands of an Austrian art dealer, who a woman with Jewish background in the Holocaust, and so it is not ultimately donated it to the Belve- (a descendant of the Oppenheim surprising that in the immediate dere when she died in 2001. banking family), and his sister was aftermath of the war, the recovery of Rather than return this obvi- married to deposed Austrian chan- valuable artworks was not the first ously looted painting, an Austrian cellor Kurt Schuschnigg, who had order of business. arbitration panel concluded that it opposed Hitler and was imprisoned And yet, seventy years later, should stay in the Belvedere. The ar- in Sachsenhausen concentration this is one of the few areas where bitrators said they were not certain camp. we can still correct the wrongs of exactly how the painting left Ferdi- In 1939, Czernin’s proposed the past and provide families with nand’s home, and believed (despite sale of the painting to a friend of a certain amount of restitution. I a mountain of evidence concerning Hermann Göring was quashed was very fortunate that I was able to the Nazi liquidation of Ferdinand’s by Hitler, who nine months later recover the paintings once owned entire estate) that Ferdinand might purchased it for himself for a signi- by Maria Altmann’s family, includ- have decided to give the painting fanctly lower price. Hitler’s agent, ing two portraits of her aunt, Adele to Amalie’s family. How this could Hans Posse, told Czernin that Hitler Bloch-Bauer. Many others have have been accomplished while Fer- would get the painting “one way or been less fortunate, and still struggle dinand was in exile, the arbitrators another,” and so Czernin felt he had with seemingly endless roadblocks did not explain. no choice. and obstacles to recovery set forth The panel refused to apply Just days earlier, the Gestapo by people who value the artworks long-standing Austrian restitu- had declared his wife “Jewish and more than they value justice. It is tion laws, finding that a newer art an enemy of the state.” Earlier in the time for these last prisoners of war restitution law enacted in 1998 did year, the Nazis had interfered in her to be returned. not incorporate them. The Austrian child custody case with her former Randy Schoenberg, whose life Supreme Court upheld the decision, husband, arguing that she was an is part of the focus of the new film finding that the arbitrators’ con- unfit mother because she was Jew- “Woman in Gold,” is a Los Angeles- struction of the law was “plausible.” ish. Even following the sale, Czernin based attorney and President of the However, Austria’s art restitution was imprisoned by the Nazis and Los Angeles Museum of the Holo- advisory board has since clarified lost his entire estate. After the war, caust. that the old restitution laws should Austria nationalized the painting continue to be applied. And yet, and placed it in the museum. The HE RC Holocaust Education Resource Council | P.O. Box 16282 Tall., FL 32317 | holocaustresources.org 7 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HERCTallahassee Students learn from survivors

Holocaust survivor Julius Eisenstein shares his story with high By Sergio Carmona, Sun Sentinel school students at the Miami-Dade County Student Awareness Originally published on March 1, 2015 Day. (Submitted Photo / Sun Sentinel)

ing on through- ness Day] is something that needs to out the world continue so that we can raise aware- today regarding ness, because these sort of events are the hate, the ter- bound to repeat themselves unless rorism and the our generation understands them violence,” noted and sees what happened in this pe- Rositta Kenigs- riod,” he explained. berg, president Tontyana Francoeur, a ninth of the HDEC. grade student at Archbishop Curley “The students Notre Dame High School in Miami, are beginning to said the event taught her to “keep an Holocaust survivor Julius understand the importance, espe- open mind.” Eisenstein wanted to make sure that cially when speaking to a Holocaust The event also featured history doesn’t repeat itself while survivor, of what can happen when presentations by reformed skinhead sharing his life story with local high you remain silent and you just hate Angela King, liberator Carl Arfa and school students in a roundtable for the sake of hating.” Dr. Bernd Wollschlaeger, a family discussion. Nicolas Hevia, a 10th grade practitioner in North Miami Beach “If people are going to be student at Christopher Columbus who discussed his struggle growing silent and they don’t speak up, it High School in Miami, was speech- up in Germany in the shadow of his [Holocaust] could happen again, so less in response to what he heard in father, a highly-decorated World my aim is to not to let this happen the roundtable discussion. War II tank commander and Nazi again to anybody,” Eisenstein, a Hal- “All of the things that have officer, and how he converted to landale Beach resident, said. happened to these people, how Judaism. Fellow survivor Paul Gast of they still continue and how they’re “We are all responsible for Aventura also wanted “to teach the actually able to speak about this preventing hatred, intolerance and future generation, tell them what is a lot to take in,” Hevia added. “I genocide,” Arfa remarked. happened, to not let the horrors don’t think if I was in that situation Wollschlaeger urged the stu- of the world repeat itself, and that I would be able to speak about it. dents to stand up against hatred and the students to have respect for one It’s really amazing to see how these that they need to love each other another.” people can actually get up and talk and embrace each other. He also Eisenstein and Gast were about their life experiences so we told them not to judge people of among 52 Holocaust survivors who can learn not only the history, but where they belong to and what they shared their stories to almost 800 also learn how to prevent this from belong to, but to judge them as who students at Hilton Doubletree in Mi- happening again.” they are as people. ami during the recent Miami-Dade Daniel Romero, a 10th grade King told the students to County Student Awareness Day student at Belen Jesuit Preparatory treasure the time they got to spend presented by the Holocaust Docu- School in Miami, mentioned that he with the survivors and that “every mentation and Education Center. learned a lot at the event. single one of us has the ability to “This is incredibly meaning- “I think this [Student Aware- show kindness and compassion.” ful, especially in light of what is go- HE RC Holocaust Education Resource Council | P.O. Box 16282 Tall., FL 32317 | holocaustresources.org 8 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HERCTallahassee HERC Featured Member of the Month Margareta Ackerman published the book, “Running from Giants: The Holocaust Through the Eyes of a Child,” in October 2013. The book is based off her grandfa- Margareta Ackerman, PhD. ther’s experiences. To learn more, visit: http://www.amazon.com/Margareta-Ackerman/e/ Assistant Professor at FSU B00GJZ2FW6

Dana Edwards.: I understand you wrote a the book is fairly short, and the surrealistic grandfather shared that surprised you? children’s book based on your grandfather’s illustrations depict Grandpa’s life through M.A.: Perhaps most surprising was how experiences during the Holocaust. How did metaphor. As a result, the book turned out little I knew about my Grandpa’s life. I shud- this book come about? to be suitable for both adults and school- der to think that I would have had only a Margareta Ackerman: Originally Grandpa aged children. superficial understanding of his life had we was planning to write his story on his own. not worked on the book in time. He would write it in Russian, and then my D.E.: What was the experience writing the But, if I were to choose a few par- dad would translate it into English. I was book with your grandfather like? ticular thing, then a couple stand out. On looking forward to Grandpa’s story as a M.A.: In some ways, it was one of the most a personal level, it was important for me to reader. difficult things that I’d ever done. I am a know that I was very similar to his mother, Then, one evening, I got a phone very sensitive person. I don’t watch vio- my great-grandmother, Masha. While work- call from my dad. He told me that Grandpa lent movies and avoid books that include ing on the early parts of the book, he men- had finished the book, and that the transla- violence of any form. Violence and pain feel tioned on two separate occasions that I both tion was complete. “Great!” I exclaimed. very real to me - even when I know they are look like her and have a similar personality. “May I read it?” fake. But when dealing with the Holocaust, The other thing I’d like to mention Then, with notable hesitation in which had always indirectly been part for is related to one of the most difficult parts of his voice, my father shared that actually the my world, it is just too much. I find it diffi- the book, where a Nazi asks a little child if project was not quite done, and asked if I cult to even read about it (which of course I he would like to touch his gun. Then, as the could perhaps help turn the translated notes do anyway). It is really quite amazing to me child reaches his little hand, the Nazi shoots into a book. Assuming that it would be no that I was able to write about it. him dead. more than an editing job, I immediately Grandpa didn’t like talking about Grandpa included this event when agreed. his past. It was very difficult to get him to he orally shared his life’s story with us. Then, my dad emailed me what answer questions. After nearly each ques- When I was going to write about it, I asked was essentially ten pages of point-form tion, he would ask “Are we done now?” or him how old was the child. “How old?” he notes. The story that I knew to be incredible say “I already wrote about it. Go look at my said. “They were all kinds of ages.” I would beyond belief lay flat in this brief summary. notes.” have never guessed that this took place on a Editing was not going to be enough. After The most difficult part was writing regular basis. getting encouragement from my husband, about the Ghetto. I had actually taken about I decided to flesh out the story by getting a three month break after trying to write D.E.: What is your personal motto? more information from Grandpa. I estimat- the very first paragraph in that section. It M.A.: “Between stimulus and response ed that it would take about three months. was just too much. I doubted my ability to there is a space. In that space is our power In the three years that I worked adequately convey such material, but more to choose our response. In our response on Grandpa’s book, the process led to many than anything else, I simply didn’t want to lies our growth and our freedom” - Victor decisions that I hadn’t previous anticipated. write about it. I resisted the closeness with Frankl. Writing about the Holocaust is extremely this material that is necessary to write about difficult, but so is reading about it. So, I it. If you would like to read more from this decided to share Grandpa’s story without interview with Margareta, visit our website: over-stressing his hardships. In addition, D.E.: What are some facts or stories your www.holocaustresources.org. HE RC Holocaust Education Resource Council | P.O. Box 16282 Tall., FL 32317 | holocaustresources.org 9 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HERCTallahassee 2015 Membership

Martha Billings Bill and Jill Mattox Rita Blank Michael and Julie McBride Art and Elaine Cooper David McNaughton Linda Davey Roger Peace Dana Edwards Eva Pelt Morris and Terri Fishman Virginia Perkins Steven Friedlander Amy Piotrowski Shari Gewanter Kathy Reeves Mitchell and Jacque Gilberg Eleanore Rosenberg and Lawrence Sack Barbara Goldstein John and Monica Rosner Susan Haddix Myrnalee Smith Rosinsky Jeff Helicher Ron and Jane Schagrin Roberta Hill Jerry and Susan Sternstein Sol Hirsch St. John’s Episcopal Church Rick and Linda Hyson Tallahassee Jewish Federation Marshall and Susan Kapp Barry and Tiffanie Webster Paula Kiger Tasha Weinstein Eileen Lerner Daniela Wellner John Lutz Judge James Wolf David and Mona Markell

I Saw It In The Movies FREE Movie Showing of “Pastor Hall” Presented by Holocaust Education Resource Council & Tallahassee Film Society

April 23 -- 7 p.m. All Saints Cinema Contact Linda Davey, 850-893-3801, for more information.

HE 10 RC Holocaust Education Resource Council | P.O. Box 16282 Tall., FL 32317 | holocaustresources.org Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HERCTallahassee HERC 2015 Membership Form

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Membership Enables You To: • Attend programs, films, and scholars’ lectures – at reduced rates or no charge • Receive notice of ongoing programs, updates on current genocidal situations, and invitations to special events • Borrow from our extensive collection of books, media, research files and curricula on Holocaust, geno- cide & human rights issues • Affirm your personal commitment to our mission and help us reach our goal

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Please Send Checks To: Holocaust Education Resource Council P.O. Box 16282 Tallahassee, FL. 32317

Membership can also be purchased online at: www.holocaustresources.org. HE RC Holocaust Education Resource Council | P.O. Box 16282 Tall., FL 32317 | holocaustresources.org 11 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HERCTallahassee