Holocaust Survivors Join HHREC Speakers Bureau
Press Release Contact: Millie Jasper, Executive Director, Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center mjasper@hhrecny.org Tel 914.696.0738
Holocaust Survivors Join HHREC Speakers Bureau
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE– The Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center (HHREC) of White Plains, NY has announced Stephen Felton and Joseph Gosler have joined their Holocaust Survivors Speakers Bureau.
Stephen Felton was born in the Warsaw Ghetto in June, 1942. He and his mother, Eva, were the only survivors of a large family. Shortly before the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in April, 1943, Stephen and his mother were smuggled out; his father, Victor, and brother, Stasio, were sent to the concentration camp, Auschwitz, and then killed. Stephen and his mother found refuge with a Polish Catholic family until the end of the war. Eva remarried another survivor in Paris in 1946. The three of them immigrated to the United States in 1947. Stephen earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry and M.D. degree, and became a practicing Ophthalmologist in Princeton, N.J. He published his mother’s memoirs entitled: I Shall Lead You Through the Nights. Stephen and his mother had the Polish family who rescued them, recognized and honored as “Righteous Among the Nations” at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem.
Joseph Gosler was born in the Netherlands in July 1942. At seven months old, he was given to the Dutch resistance (the underground movement against the German occupation of the Netherlands during WWII), and placed with the Dijkstra family. Though danger lurked everywhere, he was lucky; his birth parents (Henriette and Maurice) were not as fortunate. They were caught and severely beaten. His mother, who had ivory white skin and blue eyes, was told that she would be killed if found with a Jew again. His father was taken to a transit camp called Westerbork, in the northeastern part of the Netherlands, about 19 miles from the German border. WWII ended, and both parents were reunited with their son. However, to Joseph, they were total strangers. He was angry, disoriented, and wanted to return to his wartime family. In 1949, with the addition of his sister, Marja, the family immigrated to Israel, and subsequently to the USA in 1953.
Joseph is the author of Searching for Home: The Impact of WWII on a Hidden Child. He earned a BA in History, and an MBA in Corporate Finance, and worked for 40 years as a finance director in various schools. He and his wife (Sheila) founded a pre-school called Beginnings Nursery, have one son, and live in New York City.
“We are very humbled and honored to have such distinguished Holocaust Survivors join our Speakers Bureau, as they are first-hand witnesses to history,“ said Daniel Weinreb, Chairperson, Board of Directors, HHREC. “We look forward to having Stephen and Joseph share their powerful and unique experiences with students and other people in our communities, as their stories will surely resonate, now more than ever.” Daniel Weinreb QUOTE HERE
For more information about Stephen Felton, Joseph Gosler, and other HHREC Speakers, visit HHRECNY.org