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GenerationsForward
The Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center created a second and third generation group, called GenerationsForward.
This group includes children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors. We meet throughout the year and have ongoing projects, events, book clubs and speaker presentations. MemoryKeepers are members who are trained speakers, who tell their family's story from the next generation perspective, adding new meaning to the survivors' powerful stories of witness.
Announcing: The MemoryKeeper Family History Group
We are pleased to announce our new MemoryKeeper Family History Group, a resource to help develop and present a family’s Holocaust story.
This program offers a uniquely special opportunity to make meaningful connections with other second and third generation Holocaust survivors. Training sessions will be held weekly for 10 weeks at our library at 4 West Red Oak Lane in White Plains.
The MemoryKeeper Family History Group includes access to resources for family research from pre-war through post-war and life in the U.S., writing vignettes for each of these periods; vetting for historical accuracy by the HHREC Education Department; and training to help prepare for presentations. The program cost is $230 and includes a one-year membership to the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center.
For more information, please contact Millie Jasper mjasper@hhrecny.org
Join us for the Memory Keepers Story Hour!
Email Mjasper@hhrecny.org for upcoming speakers or visit our Events page on this website.
If you would like to be part of this group or have questions, please contact Millie Jasper at mjasper@hhrecny.org
HHREC Second Generation Holocaust Speakers Featured in National Media Story
The Forward, a national award winning publication that delivers incisive coverage of the issues, ideas and institutions that matter to American Jews published a story about HHREC GenerationsForward Speakers. Read the full story by clicking here.
Memory Keepers: Speakers
Click on links below for bios
Yonat Assayag
Tamar Ben-Simon
Michelle Bisson
Victor Borden
Yuval Ehrenreich
Max Friedman
Rebecca Freimann
Gila Ellen Fortinsky
Michelle Gewanter
Paul Goldstein
Rochelle Greenspan
Anita Greenwald
Michael Gyory
Joan Arnay Halperin
Ziporah Janowski
Ellen Kaidanow
Naomi Koller
Sandy Speier Klein
Gloria Lazar
Barbara Lewis Kaplan
Debra Lewis
Monica Mandell
Karin Meyers
Renee Pessin
Joan Poulin
Mindy Nagorsky-Israel
Audrey Unger Reich
Ann Rolett
Sam Rosmarin
Helen Rubel
Tamar Sadeh
Stacey Saiontz
Lisa Salko
Wendy Sandler
Phyllis Shaw
Julie Sherman
Lea Weinberg
Kathy Grosz-Zaltas
Debby Ziering
William Zimmerman
Education
GenerationsForward have ongoing projects to help educate individuals
Speakers
Members speak out, as seen through the lens of family members experiences and survival
Continuing a Legacy
A group bringing together second and third generation individuals of Holocaust survivors
GenerationsForward Speakers
Granddaughter of two Holocaust Survivors
Grandmother was born in Strobochova, Czechoslovakia. Yonat shares her journey to the Munkacs Ghetto and then Auschwitz.
Personal antisemitic experiences compel Yonat to tell this story in hopes that history will not repeat itself.
Yonat Assayag
Yonat Assayag is the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, Helen Gottesman (née Klein) and Alex Gottesman.
Yonat tells the story of her grandmother Helen, who she adoringly called “Bobby.” Bobby was born in Strobochova, Czechoslovakia in 1924, where she and her family lived comfortably until the Nazi occupation in 1939. Yonat shares how, at 16, Bobby risked her life to support her family. She and a few friends would remove their yellow stars and sneak aboard a train carrying suitcases filled with meat to sell at a nearby town. On one trip, noticing a police officer eyeing them suspiciously, the girls jumped from the speeding train to avoid getting caught. Yonat goes on to share Bobby’s harrowing journey to the Munkacs Ghetto and then Auschwitz, where her mother, grandmother, two sisters, and newborn niece were murdered. Bobby managed to survive on account of her bravery, a bit of “chutzpah,” and a lot of luck.
Yonat memorialized her grandmother’s story so that she could share it with her own children. But a string of personal antisemitic experiences compelled Yonat to tell Bobby’s story beyond her own family in hopes that history will not repeat itself.
Yonat was born in Israel and raised in Beachwood, Ohio. She now lives in New Rochelle, New York with her husband, Lou Arbetter, and their three children, Michael, Sasha and Layla. Yonat is a partner at ClearBridge Compensation Group, where she advises clients on executive compensation and incentive plan design. She received her MBA from NYU Stern School of Business and her BS from Syracuse University.
Yonat is a member of GenerationsForward, a group of second and third generation individuals sponsored by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center of White Plains, New York.
To download an editable flyer, CLICK HERE
Daughter of a Dutch Holocaust Survivor.
Her story begins when the Nazis stormed her grandparents home in Amsterdam and her father's unwavering strength and courage to survive.
Her father’s Holocaust story and treasured family heirlooms serve as a testament of the Holocaust atrocities and defy all those who deny it.
Tamar Ben-Simon
Tamar Ben-Simon is the daughter of Joseph Obstfeld, a Dutch Holocaust survivor. Tamar tells the riveting story of her grandparents and her father, who was barely five years old at the time of the Nazi invasion into the Netherlands in 1940. It is a story of love vs. hate, evil vs. kindness, despair vs. hope and above all, about the few extraordinary, courageous people who stood up for their beliefs and morals and made a difference.
In 1942, the Nazis stormed Into her grandparents’ apartment in Amsterdam, and it changed their lives forever. In 1944, her father's mother was scheduled to be sent to Auschwitz, but due to a transportation error, she arrived and was imprisoned in Theresienstadt. Her father's father, was deemed a “Free Jew” by the Nazi regime due to being forced to work for them as a furrier, while he secretly joined the underground resistance.
Since Tamar was a young adult, she has been sharing her father’s Holocaust story about the treasured family heirlooms that serve as a testament of the Holocaust atrocities and defy all those that deny it. Tamar grew up in Israel and returned to New York in 1986 with her husband, Bobby. Today they live in Greenwich, Connecticut. Tamar worked as a Hebrew teacher in Solomon Schechter and several synagogues for many years. Since retiring from teaching, she has been assisting in her family’s luxury home building company. They have four children, who have a close relationship with their grandparents and often share their grandfather’s story.
To download an editable flyer, CLICK HERE
Mother fled the Holocaust alone at age 16
Used her mother's story to author a children’s picture book, Hedy’s Journey: The True Story of a Hungarian Girl Fleeing the Holocaust
Michelle Bisson
Michelle Bisson tells the story of her mother’s journey from Budapest, Hungary, to Lisbon, Portugal, in the middle of the Holocaust in her children’s picture book, Hedy’s Journey: The True Story of a Hungarian Girl Fleeing the Holocaust (ages 8+). Michelle’s mother was only 16 when she had to travel alone through Nazi Germany in 1941, in order to escape the fate of her cousin Marika and much of her extended family, who perished in the Holocaust.
Michelle talks about how this dangerous journey alone, and the loss of one of her mother’s closest friends and relatives, as well as so many others, affected the rest of her mother’s life and that of her uncle, who was only 11 at the time. She also speaks about how other members of her extended family survived the Holocaust in Hungary, including one aunt who hid in the woods with her newborn son, now a lawyer in NYC. Michelle also talks about the effect on her life of being the child of a mother who experienced such pain. And she also talks about the pain and the pleasures of life in America after the Holocaust. Recently, Michelle visited Budapest for the first time. She found her cousin’s apartment and her mother’s, which is now a Jewish history museum just over the border in what was the Jewish ghetto in the last year of World War II.
Michelle retired from her career as a children’s editor and publisher but sometimes still works with beginning writers to hone their craft.
Michelle is a member of GenerationsForward, a group of second and third generation individuals sponsored by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center of White Plains, New York.
To download an editable flyer, CLICK HERE
Parents survived Jewish persecution in Poland under Nazi Occupation and in the Soviet Union under
Stalin.
Became a surgeon, serving in the U.S. Air Force.
Dr. Victor Borden
Dr. Victor Borden is the son of Holocaust survivors Rywen (Roman) and Mina Bornsztajin (Bronstein). Victor shares his parent's story of surviving Jewish persecution in Poland under Nazi Occupation and in the Soviet Union under Stalin.
Rywen and Mina were born and raised in Lodz, Poland, an industrial city with a large Jewish population, and they came from prosperous families. They married in 1938, a year before the world changed when Germany invaded Poland. A few days after the invasion, Victor's father attempted to flee on foot eastward to the Soviet Union, where they were forcibly relocated to slave labor camps in Siberia. What followed is a uniquely amazing story that offers chilling details of Victor’s parents journey starting in Poland, surviving imprisonment in the Soviet Union, and eventually immigrating to the United States to see their son enlist in the U.S. Air Force and serve as a physician.
Dr. Victor Borden is a member of GenerationsForward, a group of second and third generation individuals sponsored by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center of White Plains, New York.
To download an editable flyer, CLICK HERE
Son of Holocaust Survivor who struggled to survive starting at the age of 7.
Found shelter, evaded being shipped to Auschwitz and saved from the Nazis.
Yuval's story of his father is one of hope, faith and a family that rebuilt when all seemed lost.
Daughter and granddaughter of Holocaust Survivors from Lithunia
Recounts harrowing ordeal of parents and grandparents to survive Nazi occupation
Talk features references to videos, depositions and trial transcripts
Yuval Ehrenreich
Yuval Ehrenreich tells the story of his father’s stolen childhood and his struggle to survive when he was separated from his parents. At age 7 he witnessed the family’s synagogue on Roonstrasse street in Cologne, Germany set on fire by the Nazis on the night of Kristallnacht and weeks later he crossed the border alone in a unique Kindertransport to Belgium arrangement.
Arrested near Brussels by the Gestapo at age 10, he was rescued hours before his train was to depart for Auschwitz where he had been scheduled for extermination. Later, age 11, he was hidden by the Jewish resistance with a false identity in a Catholic home for boys located deep in the Belgian countryside, and miraculously survived a raid by a platoon of heavily armed Nazi soldiers who surrounded the home so no one could escape before forcing their entry. There, he stood with 86 other Jewish children “hidden” in plain sight during the inspection and avoided discovery due to the daring ingenuity, courage, and unwavering Christian faith of a woman who risked it all to save them.
Yuval talks about how his father managed to survive as an orphan and grow up to rebuild all that was lost to give his own family the good life they enjoy today! He concludes with the recounting of Pope Benedict’s historic visit in 2005 on World Youth day to his father’s synagogue in Cologne that was rebuilt after the war, and shares lessons learned from the Holocaust.
To download an editable flyer, CLICK HERE
Gila Ellen Fortinsky
Gila is the daughter and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors. Her mother and grandparents were forced into the Kovno Ghetto in Lithuania in 1941, where they lived in squalor, fear and starvation for three years. Her mother, as a toddler, was hidden during the KinderAktion, when the Nazis kidnapped every child they could find in the ghetto, and from then lived in hiding under a plank in the ghetto room the family shared.
Gila has researched her family experience extensively, visiting sites and addresses in Lithuania and recounts the harrowing ordeal and shear determination that propelled her family to survive the brutal years under Nazi occupation, and to emerge, with help of the partisans and the Jewish underground, and begin a new life, first in Europe and finally in Montreal, Canada. She has uncovered video interviews, deposition and trial transcripts describing her family’s ordeal and what it took to be the only intact family to survive the liquidation of the Kovno Ghetto by the Nazis. Her grandfather was a prominent Zionist leader in Lithuania before the war and testified in Nazi war criminal trials in later years, writing a book on Lithuanian Jews and working as the Montreal correspondent for the Algemeiner Journal.
To download an editable flyer, CLICK HERE
Parents were Polish/Jewish Holocaust Survivors
Survived five years of slave labor and concentration camps
Journalist and author with many years experience in story telling
Max Friedman
Max Friedman’s parents were Polish/Jewish Holocaust survivors who met in Sweden
(where he and his sister were born) after their liberation from Bergen-Belsen.
Max tells the story of how his parents survived five years of ghettos, slave labor and concentration camps and the loss of everyone and everything they had ever loved. Emigrating to the U.S. in 1952, his parents spoke very little about their past – though their physical and psychological wounds were apparent every day to Max and his older sister. They didn’t want to share very much, and for him and his sister, their two children, it was enough to simply survive their survival.
Max has been telling the stories of others for his whole career — as a journalist, publicist, corporate editorial director and memoir ghostwriter. He finally got to share his own story by penning a stirring family memoir, Painful Joy: A Holocaust Family Memoir (Amsterdam Publishers, 2022), a journey that took him five years and began when he was nearly 70 years old.
To download an editable flyer, CLICK HERE
Granddaughter of three Holocaust Survivors
Authored her grandparents' stories in her book Family Tree: Rooted in Survival
Special Education teacher
Rebecca Freimann
Rebecca Freimann is a third generation survivor. She tells the story of her maternal grandparents and paternal grandmother. Her maternal grandfather lost his youngest brother and parents to the evils of the Holocaust. They were shot in a forest outside of the Izbica Ghetto. Rebecca's maternal grandmother escaped to England via a kindertransport. Her paternal grandmother emigrated before her entire family were deported during the Zbasyn deportations, later shot in a field outside of the Bochnia Ghetto. Rebecca tells the story of how the family was separated, and how each member of her family had their own experiences and met their own fates. She authored their stories in a book entitled Family Tree: Rooted in Survival, so that her family's stories reach the masses, and her family's memories can forever be preserved.
Rebecca resides in Rockland County, where she works as a Special Education teacher. She has a background in teaching Holocaust Studies to religious school classes. Rebecca has always thought it extremely important that the stories of the Holocaust be preserved, shared, and remembered.
Rebecca is a member of GenerationsForward, a group of second and third generation individuals sponsored by the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center of White Plains, New York.
To download an editable flyer, CLICK HERE.
Granddaughter of four Holocaust Survivors
Shares the story of her paternal grandmother, who hid from the Nazis in Poland
Graduated from Cornell University and New York University Law School
Michelle Gewanter
As the granddaughter of four Holocaust survivors, Michelle Gewanter tells their story to honor and preserve their memories. She is committed to transmitting the stories and lessons of the Holocaust to audiences of all ages.
Michelle shares her paternal grandmother’s story of survival in World War II Poland, where her grandmother, Hindzia, hid from the Nazis and their collaborators. Hindzia was the only member of her immediate family to survive, with the exception of her brother who had fled to Russia in the early part of the war. After the war, Hindzia met her husband, Karl, who had survived by hiding in an underground bunker that he built with his brothers in a Polish forest. They lived in a displaced persons camp in Austria, where Michelle’s father was born, until they emigrated to the United States in 1950.
Michelle resides in Scarsdale with her husband and three children. She graduated from Cornell University and New York University Law School. After law school, Michelle’s commitment to helping Holocaust survivors led her to a position as assistant settlement counsel on the Holocaust Victim Assets Litigation (also known as the Holocaust-Swiss Bank cases). In addition, she worked for the American Jewish Committee and the NYU Law School Masters of Law program.
Michelle is a member of GenerationsForward, a group of second and third generation individuals sponsored by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center of White Plains, New York.
To download an editable flyer, CLICK HERE
Aunt and uncle, Bertha and Henry Behr, imprisoned in Terezinstadt
Retired educator from New York City School System & Mercy College School of Education
Cyberseniors volunteer at Greenburgh Public Library
Dr. Carol Gladstone
Dr. Carol Gladstone’s aunt and uncle, Bertha and Henry Behr, were imprisoned in Terezinstadt from 1941-1945 until Carol’s father brought them to America in 1946. The Behrs’ experience with starvation and extreme cruelty at the hands of the Nazis form the basis of her narrative and its relationship to child abuse spanning three generations.
Henry Behr was among the Holocaust artists whose work depicts the camp and living conditions. Carol Gladstone’s Aunt Bertha and Uncle Henry exemplify how survivors of Terezin as well as victims of abuse could ultimately lead productive, loving lives.
Carol is a retired educator from the New York City School System and the Mercy College School of Education, so her background enables her to address classes about overcoming dark times in history and in one’s personal life. She lives with her husband in Hartsdale, NY and is on the executive board of the Lower Hudson Valley Council of Supervisors and Administrators Retiree Unit.
Dr. Carol Gladstone is a volunteer with the cyberseniors at the Greenburgh Public Library and serves on the Retired Faculty Association of Mercy College.
Dr. Gladstone is a member of GenerationsForward, a group of second and third generation individuals sponsored by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center of White Plains, New York.
To download an editable flyer, CLICK HERE
Parents cheated death in the Warsaw Ghetto, concentration camps, and POW camps
They resisted the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Paul Goldstein
The fear of many Holocaust survivors is that when they are gone, their stories will be gone. Children of survivors, are living testimony to the hopes, dreams, and ideals that their parents and grandparents embodied.
When Paul Goldstein was asked to speak to his synagogue a few years ago on the Holocaust Day of Remembrance about his parents’ experiences in Nazi-occupied Poland he was so moved by the impact his story had on the members of the congregation, and on him personally, that he now continues to speak to schools and other organizations as a personal tribute to those who survived the Holocaust and those who died.
Paul’s story is uniquely important beyond describing in chilling detail how his parents cheated death in the Warsaw Ghetto, concentration camps, and POW camps, and how they resisted the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and fought with the Partisans. Paul also reveals how his parents’ lessons of life, death, and survival—a tale of tragedy and resilience—impacted his own childhood and approach to life.
Before he began his speaking journey, Paul spent his career in the advertising world creating campaigns for DirecTV, Jose Cuervo and Dunkin’ Donuts. He has also taught Marketing and Advertising at the college level.
In the past few years, Paul has presented his story to thousands of students, teachers, and administrators from middle school through college, as well as adult groups, customizing the presentation to fit the specific needs of the organization
To download an editable flyer, CLICK HERE
Daughter of two Holocaust survivors from Northern Transylvania, present-day Romania
Shelley tells the story of her mother, who survived two concentration camps
Rochelle Greenspan
Shelley is the only child of two Holocaust survivors who came from Northern Transylvania, in present-day Romania. The region was taken over by Hungary in 1940, when harsh anti-Jewish laws were imposed. But the Jewish community there survived until March of 1944, when the Germans occupied Hungary. On the eve of the Allied victory, the Jews of Northern Transylvania were concentrated into ghettos and, within several weeks' time, were transported to Auschwitz, where the majority of them were gassed upon arrival. Shelley tells the story of her mother, Lilly, who survived two concentration camps thanks to the love and support of her older sister, Sarah, who was with her throughout the war. Shelly’s oldest daughter, Emily, also tells Lilly’s story through her presentations with 3GNY, an educational organization founded by the grandchildren of survivors to preserve the legacies and lessons of the Holocaust. Shelley and Emily had the opportunity to visit Romania in May 2019 through Tarbut Foundation Sighet to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the deportation of Jews from Transylvania. While there, they traveled to the village of Borșa to see Lilly’s childhood home, which is now a post office. Shelley's younger daughter, Naomi, is the image of her grandmother Lilly.
Shelley was born and raised in the Bronx and lived in New Jersey and Israel. She spent her professional life in international banking and is looking forward to her upcoming retirement. In retirement she plans to work on her father’s story, learn Yiddish, keep physically active through hiking, and eventually travel to Eastern Europe to learn more about her parents' pasts. She currently resides in Irvington with her husband David.
Shelley is a member of GenerationsForward, a group of second and third generation individuals sponsored by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center of White Plains, New York.
To download an editable flyer, CLICK HERE
Daughter of two Holocaust survivors
Has started successful organizations that continue to thrive
Anita Greenwald
Anita Greenwald is the daughter of two Holocaust survivors. Her father was only 12 years old when the Nazis arrived in his Polish town of Tomasev Lubelski and sent him to Siberia, resulting in heart-breaking loss and a lifelong commitment to family, Israel and making a good life. Her mother was only 5 years old when she was taken from her German home to Camp Gurs, France, and was just the beginning of her journey of devastation and miracles. Anita will tell her father’s/mother’s story and share how being a child of a Holocaust survivors has impacted her life.
Anita lives in Armonk, NY with her husband, Richard and they have two childen that are launched and two in college. Professionally, Anita has started successful organizations that continue to thrive, in both the corporate and the non-profit world.
Anita is a member of GenerationsForward, a group of second and third generation individuals sponsored by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center of White Plains, New York.
To download an editable flyer, CLICK HERE
Son of two Hungarian Holocaust survivors
Tells the story of how his teenage parents survived, married, and rebuilt their lives
Real Estate entrepreneur
Author of book on family history during the Holocaust
Shares testimony her mother gave in 1989.
Family made a 1,241 day journey on the road to freedom.
Michael Gyory
Michael Gyory is proud to be the Chairperson of the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center.
He is the son of Hungarian Holocaust survivors. During World War II, his parents, both teenagers, were sent to concentration camps and slave labor camps. After surviving the horrors and torture of the war, they returned to Budapest to find that they were all alone. They managed to fall in love, marry, emigrate to America and have three children. He also tells the story of his cousin Agi Keleti, who is the Jewish woman with the most Olympic medals, totaling ten medals in women's gymnastics for Hungary after surviving the Holocaust. Michael grew up in the seclusion of Northern Westchester County, and now lives in the Rivertowns.
Gyory holds a master’s degree in communication from the Annenberg School at the University of Pennsylvania. After a brief time in the corporate world, he has been a real estate entrepreneur, building houses, renovating and developing self-storage facilities. He is a graduate of Safekeeping Stories and as a memoirist, has told of his family’s experiences in many schools and civic venues.
Michael is a member of GenerationsForward, a group of second and third generation individuals sponsored by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center of White Plains, New York.
To download an editable flyer, CLICK HERE
Joan Arnay Halperin
Joan Arnay Halperin is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, with a BA in Speech and Drama. She earned a Master of Arts Degree in TESOL, and devoted many years to teaching, grant writing and teacher training at various New York City Public Schools.
In 2012, while doing research for her book My Sister’s Eyes: a Family Chronicle of Rescue and Loss During World War II, Joan learned of her family’s debt to the Holocaust rescuer Aristides de Sousa Mendes the Portuguese Consul General in Bordeaux, France.
In recent years Joan dedicates her energies to sharing the story of her family’s 1241-day journey on the road to freedom with teachers and students at the elementary through university level.
Joan will share excerpts from the testimony her mother Helene Arnay gave on January 1, 1989..
To download an editable flyer, CLICK HERE
Daughter of two Holocaust Survivors
Litigation attorney and healthy chef
Lives in Croton on Hudson with her husband
Ziporah Janowski
The daughter of two Holocaust survivors, Ziporah’s mother Chana Mosler was barely 16 when she was deported to a work camp from her small town of Olkusz, Poland. Ziporah’s father, Meier Janowski, was living a prosperous life in the Polish town of Wolbrom where he was helping run the family business and was part of a revered religious family. The Nazis entered the town at the beginning of the war and quickly deported or killed the Jewish residents. Quoting newly discovered documents written by her father, Ziporah tells in her father’s own words the shocking detail of his and his family’s deportation. She describes the torture her father endured throughout his journey through multiple labor camps and his imprisonment in the Buchenwald concentration camp, culminating in his being part of an infamous death march to Thierenstadt. Ziporah speaks of her father’s incredible losses framed by his cleverness and innate will to survive and of how he picked up the pieces of his shattered life to create a new family, moving from Germany to Israel and then the United States. Ziporah also speaks of what life was like as the American child of Polish Holocaust survivors and the lasting imprint being Holocaust survivors left upon her parents. Her presentation is at its heart a love letter to her father and a reminder to all that their family stories are precious and merit knowing and telling.
Ziporah lives in Croton on Hudson, New York with her husband David Ettenberg. Their daughter Hannah lives in New Jersey with her husband. She is a chemical engineer and is finishing her Masters in Social Work to become a licensed therapist. Their son Sam works in the tile and stone industry in Miami and is an accomplished DJ. Ziporah was a litigation attorney, having retired from Marsh & McLennan Inc. in 2007 to join her husband in his business running healthy summer camps throughout the country. She also became a certified healthy chef in 2016. She is a long time board member of Teatown Lake Reservation nature preserve and in the past has done volunteer work to help women attain corporate board positions and served as a board member of her temple. She enjoys running, hiking and bicycling and is the proud owner of two rescue standard poodles.
Ziporah is a board member of the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center of White Plains, New York and a member of its GenerationsForward group of second and third generation children of Holocaust survivors.
To download an editable flyer, CLICK HERE.
Daughter-in-law of two Holocaust survivors
Tells the story of her mother-in-law, who became the sole surviving family member at age 6
Converted to Judaism
Previously worked in real estate and executive recruiting
Ellen Kaidanow
Ellen Kaidanow is the daughter-in-law of two Holocaust survivors. Her mother in law, also named Ellen Kaidanow, was only 5 years old when her mother, father and two sisters were all forced to move from their beautiful home in Dubno, Ukraine to a walled Jewish ghetto. Ellen tells the story of her mother in law’s life as a young girl in the ghetto and her miraculous tale of becoming the sole survivor of her family at age 6. She was saved by a Christian woman who hid her for two years.
Ellen feels that part of her fate and purpose is to be a witness for her mother in law’s story. She wants to honor her and help others of all religions have a personal connection to the Holocaust so they become witnesses. Most important, she wants to influence others to be “upstanders”, not bystanders. She also wants to show those who are struggling with tragedy that her mother in law was able to be resilient under the worst circumstances and went on to have great joy and love in her life despite the devastating experiences she had as a child. She wants to inspire others to never give up hope and to be grateful for what you do have. When possible, Ellen’s mother in law will accompany her to the presentation and will be available for a question and answer period afterward.
Ellen lives in Harrison, NY with her husband, Joseph. They have two daughters who are out of college and working, and a son who is still in college. Ellen worked in commercial real estate and executive recruiting before she became a full-time mother, active community organizer and volunteer for her children’s schools. She continues her volunteer work with her synagogue, UJA, and several other local non-profit organizations. She enjoys playing tennis and canasta and being a member of GenerationsForward, a group of second and third generation individuals sponsored by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center of White Plains, New York.
To download an editable flyer, CLICK HERE
Daughter and Grand-child of Holocaust Survivors from Romania in the town of Viznitz
Member of HHREC Advisory Board
Naomi Koller
Naomi Koller is the daughter and grandchild of Holocaust survivors. Naomi’s paternal grandparents, Anna and Israel Koller lived a very comfortable life in the Carpathian Mountain region of Romania in the town of Viznitz. Their two young sons included Naomi’s father, Mark and his brother, Dov. With Israel Koller’s parents and siblings nearby, life was wonderful with music, friends, family and education marking the cornerstones of their life. This is the of heroic story of Naomi’s grandmother, Anna Koller and it is a story of valor and family.
At the very start of the Nazi occupation of Viznitz, Anna devised a daring plan to save the family from death. Throughout the Koller family’s deportation to the ghetto, march through the mountains to the labor camp known as Transnistria; also known as the Forgotten Cemetery, their liberation and subsequent journey to Israel, and Mark’s immigration to New York. Anna’s story is one of incredible courage and heroism.
The centerpiece of the story is Anna’s beloved piano. It was this piano which returns as a character in the journey and provides the unlikely escape for Anna, Israel, Dov and Mark.
Naomi lives with her family in Westchester County, where she works as a Career Coach and Professor.
Naomi is a member GenerationsForward, a group of second and third generation individuals sponsored by the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center of White Plains, New York, as well as a member of the HHREC Advisory Board.
To download an editable flyer, CLICK HERE.
Father survived the Holocaust
Speech-language pathologist
Published articles in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune
Gloria Lazar
Gloria Lazar tells the story of her father, Arthur, whose courage, determination and cunning were key to his survival after the Nazis invaded his town in southern Poland in September 1939. Gloria’s story traces his escape from the Nazis, imprisonment in a Soviet concentration camp, daring leap from a Polish troop train and the remaining years of the war working on a Soviet commune. Arthur broke his silence 35 years after the end of the war and recorded his story as an oral memoir so that his only child would write about his survival and the endurance of the human spirit.
Gloria works in private practice as a speech-language pathologist, public speaking coach and speech writer in Tarrytown. She has an undergraduate degree in English from New York University and graduate degrees from Simmons College and Columbia University. Her father’s spirit and strength of character live on in her two grown sons: Ethan, who works as a film producer in New York City and Toronto, and Jason, a business and health care consultant in Seattle.
Gloria has published freelance articles in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, and poetry in literary journals. Her short performance pieces have been presented at the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art. She has completed a young adult novel, Catch A Falling Star, about the uprising of the Warsaw ghetto and is working on a screenplay adaptation. Her screenplay, Djambul, grew out of her father’s Holocaust experience.
Gloria is a member of GenerationsForward, a group of second and third generation individuals sponsored by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center of White Plains, New York.
To download an editable flyer, CLICK HERE.
Daughter of a Holocaust Survivor
Barbara tells the story of her father, who survived the horrors of the Holocaust, enduring slave labor and torture at four different concentration camps, including Plazcow, the camp portrayed in the film, “Schindler’s List.”
Barbara Lewis Kaplan
Barbara Lewis Kaplan is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. She tells the story of her father, Leon Lewis, who grew up in Krakow, Poland and survived the horrors of the Holocaust, enduring slave labor and torture at four different concentration camps, including Plazcow, the camp portrayed in the film, “Schindler’s List.” Barbara also recounts her father’s literal leap of faith jump to escape a cattle car headed to an extermination camp. Her father’s story is also one of resilience and perseverance as his daughter talks about his building a new life in America, while overcoming additional obstacles. With rare photos, Barbara brings to life her father’s incredible journey, and describes her emotional trip back to Krakow with Leon. Barbara lives in Larchmont, NY.
Barbara is a member of GenerationsForward, a group of second and third generation individuals sponsored by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center of White Plains, New York.
To download an editable flyer, CLICK HERE.
Child of two Polish Holocaust Survivors
Debra Lewis
Debra Nancy Lewis is the child of two Polish Holocaust survivors. Her mother, Rose, was born in Lodz and survived the Lodz Ghetto, Birkenau, Oederon (Flossenburg) and Terezin before emigrating to London in 1945 with a group of 732 orphans known as "The Boys." Debra's father, Benjamin, was born in Opatow and was a prisoner at a subcamp of Buchenwald known as Skarjisko Kamienna where he was able to survive thanks to his skills as a tailor.
Debra is a member of GenerationsForward, a group of second and third generation individuals sponsored by the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center of White Plains, New York.
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Granddaughter and niece of survivors
Social worker focused on the importance of helping others
Lives in Harrison with her husband and 3 children
Monica Mandell
Monica is a granddaughter and niece of survivors. She grew up in a home where the past and the present were intertwined. What was it like to be a granddaughter and niece to survivors? The story that Monica shares is of her aunt and grandmother who survived the war because of their fortitude, shrewdness and, perhaps more importantly, luck. The story starts before the war, describing a large and loving family and goes through the years of the war chronicling how difficult it was to survive. The story also includes Monica's grandfather whose life and family interacted with Monica's grandmother and her family. The story also touches upon a few upstanders who saved Monica's grandmother's life at great expense to their own safety. The story winds itself to the present, where Monica describes what it was like to be a member of a family that combined the past with the present. Could the wounds of the war be healed? Who was responsible for healing the wounds?
Monica lives in Harrison, NY with her husband and three children. Monica is a social worker who bases her social work practice on the importance of helping others. Her decision to memorialize her family's story was not only to pass along to future generations, but to ensure that the legacy of those who died does not fade. Writing the story has become not only a blessing, but an honor to ensure that our family will live on and on.
Monica is a member of GenerationsForward, a group of second and third generation individuals sponsored by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center of White Plains, New York.
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Born in Wuppertal, Germany
Graduated from Brandeis University
Daughter of Holocaust Survivors
Karin Meyers
Karin Beuthner Meyers was born in Wuppertal, Germany on June 7, 1937. Her father, an obstetrician, delivered her at home as Jews were no longer admitted to hospitals and Jewish doctors were not allowed to treat Non-Jews. However, Dr. Beuthner continued the care for his patient and for this he was arrested. Later freed, Karin tells the story of her parents’ emigration ordeal as well as the fates of other members of her family that are pictured in a faded photograph taken the last time they were together in the Spring of 1938. The photograph becomes a focal point of the story that Karin weaves in verse and narrative form. Her story illustrates the importance of perseverance, luck and particularly, how the good deeds of some affected her family’s outcome.
Karin Beuthner Meyers graduated with honors from Brandeis University and received a Masters of Humanities degree. She was an adjunct lecturer in Medical Ethics at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City and a member of its Institutional Research Review Board. Karin authored several articles on the ethics of Human Research Ethics.
Karin is a member of GenerationsForward, a group of second and third generation individuals sponsored by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center of White Plains, New York.
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Former Nurse, Researxh Assistant
Daughter of Holocaust Survivors
Parents separated during Holocaust, found each other
Renee Pessin
Renee Bronner Pessin, a Connecticut resident, is a descendant of two Holocaust survivors. Originally from Brooklyn, NY, she has lived in several cities and towns over the years. Over the years, Renee has worked as a registered nurse, editorial associate for scientific journals and most recently, for over 20 years, as a freelance biomedical grant and manuscript editor.
Renee’s mother Helen was the only survivor of her immediate and extended family of more than 50 people In Poland. Her father Sam, along with one brother were the only survivors of their large immediate and extended family. Having met while imprisoned in concentration camp during the atrocities of the Holocaust, Helen and Sam found each other after being separated during the War. They married soon after liberation. Eventually, they immigrated to the USA to start a new life. Renee feels it is more urgent than ever to share their story, especially to community listeners, to ensure that history does not repeat itself. She is able to do so through excerpts from her mother’s video testimony to the Shoah Foundation and family pictures saved through the horrors of the Holocaust.
Renee is a member of GenerationsForward, a group of second and third generation individuals sponsored by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center of White Plains, New York.
To download an editable flyer, CLICK HERE.
Daughter of a Holocaust survivor
Used 175 letters from her father's mother and brother to piece together his story
Works in a financial planning office
Joan Poulin
Joan Poulin is the daughter of Holocaust survivors who never spoke of their past. Her father left Hamburg, Germany for New York in 1938, leaving his mother and brother behind. Joan was able to piece together his story from 175 letters he kept by his bed until the day he died. You will hear not only his story and the plight of those left behind but also how being a child of Holocaust survivors has impacted her life and the lives of her children.
Joan is a member of GenerationsForward, a group of second and third generation individuals sponsored by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center of White Plains, New York.
Joan lives in New York with her husband, Steve and they have two children. Joan works at a financial planning office.
Read an article about Joan HERE.
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Tells the story of her husband's grandmother and family who lived in Munich Germany.
Mindy is a knowledge strategy lawyer
Mindy Nagorsky-Israel
Mindy Nagorsky-Israel is married to the son and grandson of Holocaust survivors. She tells the story of 102 year old Ilse Sundheimer Seelig, her husband’s grandmother, and her family, using pictures, historical documents and artifacts that have been found. Ilse grew up in Munich, Germany, a member of multiple prominent Jewish families that had lived in various parts of Bavaria for hundreds of years. Ilse escaped Nazi Germany in late 1938, but she lost her entire immediate family and most of her extended family in the Holocaust.
Ilse did not speak about her lost family in the 68 years following the end of the war and her discovery of their fate until late 2013 when Mindy’s then 8 year old daughter asked Ilse to tell the story of her family. This discussion spurred on years of research and writing to find and document the history and fates of family members.
Mindy is currently a knowledge strategy lawyer working in the Private Equity and Mergers and Acquisitions at Skadden Arps. She received her law degree from the University of Chicago in 1999 and a bachelor of science in economics, concentration in accounting from the Wharton School and a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from the College of Arts and Sciences, both from the University of Pennsylvania in 1994.
Mindy is very involved with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC, and is a founding member of a new grassroots 2G-3G group based in Manhattan that focuses on education of the third and fourth generation.
Mindy and her husband Ronen Israel, a principal at AQR Capital, a hedge fund in Greenwich, CT, live in Purchase, New York with their three children.
Mindy is a member of GenerationsForward, a group of second and third generation individuals sponsored by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center of White Plains, New York.
To download an editable flyer, CLICK HERE
Pictured: Audrey Unger Reich with her father Ron Unger
Father is a Holocaust survivor
An artist & educator, telling her father’s Holocaust story
Audrey Unger Reich
Audrey’s father, Ron (Romek) Unger, grew up in the southern Polish town of Tarnow. His life changed abruptly at age 11, when the Nazis invaded Poland in September 1939. He lived under ever-increasing restrictions and brutality until he was deported to Plaszow, the first of three concentration camps he was sent to during the War. He was liberated from Ebensee (a satellite camp to Mauthausen) on May 6, 1945, only months after his father died of infection and malnutrition. Ron’s mother was murdered at Auschwitz. Ron spent more than three years in a displaced persons camp in Italy until emigrating to the United States in December 1948.
Audrey visited Poland in 2014 and was able to find her father’s home in Tarnow, as well as the building where his family’s business had been. She also visited Zbylitowska Gora, a forest outside of Tarnow, where, in June 1942, 6,000 Tarnow Jews, including 800 children, were shot by German soldiers and then buried in mass graves.
Audrey is an artist and educator, who tells her father’s Holocaust story, and has created artwork inspired by it. Ron is involved in the “Adopt-a-Survivor” program on Long Island. They hope to ensure that the horrors of the Holocaust, and the personal stories of the survivors, will never be forgotten.
Audrey is a member of GenerationsForward, a group of second and third generation individuals sponsored by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center of White Plains, New York.
To download an editable flyer, CLICK HERE
Mother hid in Berlin during the Holocaust
Tells her mother's story to parallel what's happening in today's world
Avid traveler
Ann Rolett
Ann Rolett’s mother Ingrid Sacks was never comfortable speaking in public about her experience as one of the 1500 Jews who survived hiding in plain sight in Berlin, Germany during the Holocaust. Ann wrote her mother’s story with her mother’s help so that her experiences not be forgotten. She researched the extended family her mother vaguely remembers and intertwines her family’s history with the rising success and precipitous fall and destruction of the Jews of Berlin and Germany.
Berlin before Hitler was very much like the US today, a place where Jews were well integrated into the fabric of society and viewed themselves as loyal and respected citizens. Ann tells this story because she believes its lessons about how the Nazi’s used propaganda and laws to isolate and destroy this community are relevant and important in the US today.
The story is told from her mother’s perspective, a child’s perspective, so is appropriate for audiences’ of all ages. Ann accompanies the story with family photos saved by relatives who escaped Germany.
Ann and her husband Rod retired young because they love active travel. In 2018, they spent 3 months bicycling in Norway and the west coast of Sweden. Prior trips included extensive hiking and biking in Australia and New Zealand. When they are home, they are active in their communities.
Ann is a member of GenerationsForward, a group of second and third generation individuals sponsored by the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center of White Plains, New York.
To download an editable flyer, CLICK HERE.
Son of two Holocaust Survivors
Tells their remarkable story of resilience and hope
Lawyer for many years, now a Mediator
Sam Rosmarin
Sam is the son of two Holocaust Survivors. Sam reverently shares their remarkable story of resilience and hope.
His mother, Mania, was 14 when the Nazis invaded Poland and was present when they took her parents and youngest brother. She survived 7 labor camps in the Auschwitz complex. She endured crushing loss yet lived to 89 and enjoyed 60 years of marriage and the arrivals of 3 children and 6 grandchildren.
His father, Leo, was 18 when he was taken to a series of slave labor camps, where he spent his "college years." He survived 5 years in those labor camps, 3 cardiac bypass surgeries over 30 years, and lived into his 80s, long enough to see all of his 6 grandchildren born. He gratefully wrote, in a letter to his first grandchild, asking her and his other grandchildren to never forget what their family went through, "The Nazis burned the trees but they couldn't kill the roots."
Sam lives in Tenafly, NJ with his wife, Susan, a law school classmate. They have two boys, Max and Lee, each of whom made Mania and Leo very proud.
Sam is a member of GenerationsForward, a group of second and third generation individuals sponsored by the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center of White Plains, New York.
Daughter and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors
Dutch family hid her mother and grandmother
Licensed clinical social worker
Helen Rubel
Helen Rubel is the daughter and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors. Helen tells the story of her mother and maternal grandmother, who had lived in harmony with their neighbors in Hadamar, a small town in Western Germany. After Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass, when the Nazis destroyed Jewish homes, businesses and synagogues, their entire lives changed. Helen shares her mother’s first-person account of that night and how she and Helen’s grandmother escaped to Holland, where they were hidden in an attic in Amsterdam until the Nazis were defeated.
An important theme of Helen’s story is the value of being an “upstander,” someone who stands up for what is right. This concept is illustrated by the courage of the Dutch family who hid her mother and grandmother. She also explores the themes of never giving up, being resourceful, taking risks, and just plan luck, that contributed to her family’s survival.
Helen has spoken to groups about her family’s experiences, as well as the impact of growing up as a child of survivors and first-generation American. She has made several visits to her parents’ hometowns in Germany and participated in remembrance programs there. Helen lives in Irvington, NY, with her husband, a retired attorney. Her son and daughter live in Rockville, MD, and Stamford, CT, respectively, and are both special education teachers. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, who has worked with diverse populations, from preschool children with special needs to elderly, homebound seniors.
Helen is a member of GenerationsForward, a group of second and third generation individuals sponsored by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center of White Plains, NY.
To download an editable flyer, CLICK HERE.
Israeli-born Granddaughter and Daughter of Holocaust Survivors
Shares the history of her grandmother who survived two death camps and her seven-year-old father who was hidden by Christians
Graduated from Yale University and New York University School of Law
Tamar Sadeh
Tamar shares the history of the strength, bravery, and hope of her grandmother Margit and her father Ivan and of the ordinary people who chose to help them survive the Holocaust. When Margit and six-year-old Ivan were in a forced labor camp their lives were saved by a man who risked his life to get them removed from a death camp transport. Ivan was then smuggled out of the camp and three different Christians in Slovakia hid him at great risk to themselves. Margit was sent to Ravensbruck and Bergen-Belsen death camps and was liberated when she was gravely ill and wounded. Ivan’s father, grandparents, and many other family members were murdered by the Nazis. After the Holocaust Margit and Ivan started a new life in Israel. Ivan met and married Tamar’s mother Esther, whose parents survived the Holocaust by escaping Nazi Germany and helped found Nahariya, Israel.
She hopes to inspire the realization that your choices matter and contribute to history, and that history is the sum of choices made by ordinary people individually and as part of groups and governments. She seeks to impart that it is essential to reject silence and indifference, and to combat hatred, discrimination, and injustice in our local communities, nation, and world.
Tamar was born in Israel and came to the United States when she was two years old. She holds a B.A. in History from Yale University and a J.D. from New York University School of Law. She worked at Kramer Levin & Naftalis, the Anti-Defamation League's Legal Affairs Department, and Hadassah's National Domestic Policy Department, where she founded Hadassah's Amicus Brief Program. She is currently Chair of Hadassah's National Attorneys’ Council and a member of Hadassah’s National Board, National Portfolio Council.
She is also a member of the Executive Committee of the American Jewish Committee’s Westchester/Fairfield Region, Co-Chair of the Campus Committee and the Israel New Perspectives Committee, and a founder of the region’s Leaders for Tomorrow education and advocacy program for high school students.
Tamar is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale, and Chair of Alumni and Parent Relations. She is co-founder and national Vice-Chair of the Yale Jewish Alumni Association. She is a member of the Yale Parents Leadership Council, a Yale Alumni Fund Class Agent since graduation, a Co-Chair of her Yale 20th Reunion, and an Attendance Chair of her Yale 30th Reunion. Tamar endows a fund that supports Yale students travelling to Israel to study and work and a fund that supports Israeli students studying at Yale.
She lives in Purchase, New York and has two children: Danielle is a Yale graduate who is currently pursuing a J.D./M.S.F.S. at Georgetown University while working for the U.S. Department of Justice and William is a senior at Yale.
Tamar is a member of GenerationsForward, a group of second and third generation individuals sponsored by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center of White Plains, New York.
To download an editable flyer, CLICK HERE
Graduated from University of Michigan and American University's Washington College of Law
Member of GenerationsForward
Stacey Saiontz
Stacey is the granddaughter of two Holocaust Survivors. Her grandfather’s stories of his time in Auschwitz and her grandmother’s stories of her experience in HASAG Labor Camp have profoundly influenced Stacey’s outlook and mission. She shares her grandmother’s story with audiences of all ages to inspire everyone to be an upstander and resilient.
Stacey served as a founding member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s (USHMM) Next Generation Board. In 2019, she was appointed to serve on the USHMM’s Education Committee. Stacey is a Trustee for the Museum of Jewish Heritage-A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, a Board Member of the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation, and a member of the Next Generation Council for the USC Shoah Foundation.
Stacey shares her passion for Holocaust remembrance and education with her children, who were featured alongside her grandfather in the HBO documentary "The Number on Great Grandpa’s Arm." https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/the-number-on-great-grandpas-arm
Stacey is a member of GenerationsForward, a group of second and third generation individuals sponsored by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center of White Plains, New York.
Lisa tells the story of how she and her family found their grandfather and great uncles' licenses that were confiscated by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
Member of GenerationsForward
Real estate professional
Lisa Salko
Lisa tells the story of 13 Jewish Drivers' Licenses. In November of 2018, Lisa, her sisters and cousins traveled to Lichtenfels, Bavaria, Germany to reclaim their grandfather’s and two great uncles’ drivers’ licenses which had been confiscated by the Nazis 80 years earlier, shortly after Kristallnacht and rediscovered while the town was digitizing records in 2017. What started as a trip about reclaiming a part of their family turned into something so much bigger than them. 13 Jewish Drivers' Licenses is about a small Bavarian town coming to terms with its darkest past. It’s a story about discovery, exploration, reflection and reconciliation. It’s a story about human connection and “doing the right thing”. It’s a story about HOPE. Lisa takes us on an emotional journey during her week long trip which coincided with the 80th Anniversary of Kristallnacht. It’s an important story and extremely relevant given the rise of antisemitic occurrences in our country today, throughout Germany and Europe.
Lisa has presented 13 Jewish Drivers’ Licenses at synagogues, libraries, educational symposiums, middle and high schools; at Manhattanville University, Baruch College/CUNY, the Museum of Jewish Heritage, the German Consulate in New York, the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in NYC, and Yad Vashem: The World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, Israel. This past March, she appeared as the keynote speaker at the HHREC High School Human Rights Institute at Iona University.
Lisa and her husband, Larry, live in Westchester County, NY, where they raised their two children: Jacob, married to Kaitlin, and Jennifer, married to Jonathan Schneider. Lisa and Larry have 3 grandchildren: Liam, Elianna & Noah. When not speaking about 13 Driver’s Licenses, she works as a real estate professional at Benerofe Properties Corp., a real estate and private equity investment firm in White Plains, NY.
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Wendy is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor
Her mother is a Founding Board member of the HHREC
She shares the story of her mother who hid her identity under a false name and false documents from the Nazis in Poland.
Wendy Sandler
Wendy shares the story of her mother's journey from a Jewish six year old to a Catholic school girl who hid in the convent back again to an ardent Jew. She credits her blue eyes with saving her because she didn’t look Jewish and could pass as an Aryan.
Wendy’s mother's story is also about luck and the Upstanding actions of a Priest who risked his life to do help secure proper documentation for the family. It’s a story about hope...and doing the right thing in the face of grave danger.
Wendy is active in UJA Federation and other charitable organizations in the Westchester community, She lives with her husband Neil in Mamaroneck. They have two sons who have graduated from college and are working in New York City.
She's also a Gallery Educator who leads tours for school age children at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York City.
Wendy is a member of GenerationsForward, a group of second and third generation individuals sponsored by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center of White Plains, New York.
To download an editable flyer, CLICK HERE
Parents were Holocaust Survivors
Incorporating my mother’s video testimony as told through the Steven Spielberg’s USC Shoah Foundation, I tell the story of her resilience and how she survived Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen concentration camps.
I am carrying on my mother’s legacy, who courageously would speak and educate others at every opportunity about the Holocaust so that it will never happen again.
Phyllis Shaw
Phyllis Shaw is a 2nd generation survivor. Both her mother and father were survivors. She tells the story of her mother, Regina, who as a teenager was deported to first a crowded ghetto near her home town in Romania and then transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. From there, she miraculously found two of her 9 sisters. The three did everything in their power to survive. From Auschwitz, to another working camp, to Bergen Belsen, to a displaced persons home in Sweden, and finally to America. Phyllis charts her mother's journey. It is one of resilience and gratitude despite everything that she went through.
Phyllis resides in Ridgefield, CT with her husband. She graduated from Rutgers University with a degree in Computer Science and enjoyed a successful career as a Customer Service and Information System Executive. She has now decided to move away from corporate life and pursue her passions.
Carrying on her mother's legacy is one of those.
She is a member of Generations Forward, a group of second and third generation individuals sponsored by the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center in White Plains, NY.
Daughter of Holocaust Survivor who lived in Danzig, which is now Gdansk, Poland
Her mother an aunt were sent on a Kindertransport to England
Julie tells the story of Upstanders who helped her mother's family survive
Julie Sherman
Julie Sherman is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, Helen Sherman, born Chaya Scharfer. Julie tells the story of her mother, one of eight children born to an orthodox Hasidic German family. The family lived in Danzig, which is now Gdańsk Poland, and owned the largest kosher hotel on the Baltic Sea. They were fortunate to have connections, resources and luck which enabled them to escape the Nazis between 1938 and 1940. The family members found refuge in Palestine, Shanghai, England and the U.S. In 1939, Julie’s mother, who was nine years old, and her sister, who was seven years old, were sent on a Kindertransport to England. In England they lived with relatives who mistreated them and were later moved to a hostel.
After the war, all eight siblings and both parents were reunited in Brooklyn, NY. There were many “upstanders”, ordinary people, Jews, non Jews, and even Nazis who helped her mother’s family survive. Theirs is a story of miracles, but also of great loss and trauma. Julie tells the family story and talks about the lingering effects of their experiences and what it was like to grow up as a child of a survivor.
Julie lives in Mt Kisco with her husband, Bruce Jakubovitz. They have three grown sons, two daughters-in-law and two grandchildren. Julie graduated from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and is a co-principal of So Mulch More, a landscape architecture design firm.
She is a member of Generations Forward, a group of second and third generation individuals sponsored by the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center in White Plains, NY.
To download an editable flyer, CLICK HERE
Israeli born and raised
Daughter of two Holocaust Survivors
Shares the story of her mother Paula
An Artist-Sculptor, also expressing Holocaust in Contemporary Art
Lea Weinberg
Lea Weinberg is a second generation to Holocaust Survivors Paula and Mordechai Fried.
Her father’s Journey from Transylvania to Auschwitz, to more concentration camps, death march and liberation from Dachau. After the war, luckily found his 3 sisters who also survived. He came to Israel on a boat that was sent to Cyprus by British soldiers. Later, joined the Israeli army, was wounded in a battle near Jerusalem; at the hospital, met Paula, who was a nurse.
Her mother Paula (Gelb) was sent from Czechoslovakia to Auschwitz-Birkenau where she lost her parents and siblings, worked, at 18, as a Clothes’ Sorter near the crematoria. After the war came to Israel to build a new life and a new family; bringing to life the memory of her lost family through the nostalgic and vivid stories she told.
Lea speaks about her optimistic mother inspired by the special story about 8 photographs of her family which she came upon in Auschwitz-Birkenau and how she was hiding them.
Lea is preserving the stories she has personally heard in a few different ways:
- A talk about her mother’s story; A poem she wrote: “Memories in the Air”
- As an Artist Sculptor Lea is also expressing Holocaust in Contemporary Art through an ongoing project installation MOTHER-SURVIVOR a woman’s Personal Story intertwined with the Shoah History
Lea was born and raised in Israel; since 2005 lives with her husband and younger daughter in White Plains, NY, their older son and daughter lives in Israel.
Lea is a member of GenerationsForward a group of second and third generations individuals sponsored by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center of White Plains.
To download an editable flyer, CLICK HERE
Kathy's parents are Holocaust survivors
Was a foreign language teacher
She & her family are owners of Zaltas Gallery of Fine Jewelry
Kathy Grosz-Zaltas
Kathy Grosz-Zaltas is a daughter of Holocaust survivors. She tells their story to honor their lives and to have their story serve as a purposeful tool to look at bullying, injustice, antisemitism and bigotry in our world today.
Her parents grew up in different parts of Czechoslovakia, enjoying happy, cultured and well-to-do lives. And then, suddenly, the Nazi era began to control their lives, destroying their families forever.
Concentration Camps, Forced Labor, Death Marches were their lot…Despite their hardships and loss, survival was their personal miracle.
Kathy speaks about their lives after the War, along with their growing family in America. She discusses what it is like to be part of the Second Generation.
Kathy lives with her husband in Rye New York. Her family and grandchildren live close by, which is the joy of her life. She was a foreign language teacher for 17 years in Westchester County. Currently, she and her family are the owners of Zaltas Gallery of Fine Jewelry, where she curates fine jewelry and diamonds as well as creates custom pieces for her clients.
Kathy is a member of GenerationsForward, a group of second and third generation individuals sponsored by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center of White Plains, New York.
Read an article about Kathy here
To download an editable flyer, CLICK HERE
Debby's parents are Holocaust survivors
Tells the story of her father's war time experiences
Has a Master's in speech-language pathology
Debby Ziering
Debby is the daughter of two Holocaust survivors. Her father Herman, was born in Kassel Germany and was sent to the Riga Ghetto in Latvia. Herman was a teen when the Nazis invaded Germany. He survived the Riga Ghetto and Kaiserwald, concentration camp. Debby recounts her father’s story from the perspective of a young teen and discusses how her father’s story has impacted her life.
The Ziering family story as told by Debby is recounted in the Herman and Lea Ziering Archive Center at the Manhattan College Genocide and Multicultural Center in Riverdale, New York. In addition to books and other resources for research, the archive includes artifacts from Herman’s work bringing Nazi war criminals to justice after the war.
Debby co-teaches 8th graders at SAR Academy in the Names Not Numbers© Program, an oral history film project which enables students to interview Holocaust survivors to learn about World War II and create a documentary. She is also a Facilitator for Safekeeping Stories.
Debby lives in Greenwich CT with her husband. She received her masters degree in speech-language pathology.
Debby is a member of GenerationsForward, a group of second and third generation individuals sponsored by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center of White Plains, New York.
To download an editable flyer, CLICK HERE
Son of Polish Jews who survived the Holocaust
Inspirational presentation for students as well as adults
William Zimmerman
William is the son of Holocaust survivors Frieda and Morris Zimmerman, Polish Jews from small towns who survived work camps, ghettos and concentration camps during the Holocaust.
William tells the story of their amazing journey and his own, as he joined his parents on a pilgrimage back to Poland with his wife, three sons and two daughters-in-law, and returned last summer on an HHREC-sponsored trip to Germany and Poland. He also shared his experiences including his visit to the Buchenwald concentration camp 77 years after his father’s liberation from the camp. William has been an educator for 50 years. Following 36 years in the K-12 domain, he has continued his career at Iona University where he has supervised Education majors in PreK-12 fieldwork placements. He has also taught math courses and a Holocaust studies course. He works as a Gallery Educator at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan where he conducts student-oriented tours of the exhibit “The Holocaust: What Hate Can Do.”
For an editable flyer, CLICK HERE.
Daughter of two Holocaust Survivors
Tells inspirational story of resilience and ability to rebuild lives
Sandy Speier Klein
Sandy Speier Klein was born in the Bronx and raised in Washington Heights. Sandy spent her entire adult life in the field of Psychiatric Social Work, first as a line worker, then as a supervisor and finally as the Associate Director of Social Work at New York State Psychiatric Institute. The last 10 years of her career were at New York University Silver School of Social Work where she was a Clinical Associate Professor.
Sandy credits her Parents for inspiring her career choice. Paula and Herman Speier were immigrants. They were not JUST immigrants: they were holocaust survivors. Their life experiences were part of the reason Sandy was attracted to working with and empowering the disenfranchised people in our communities who do not have a strong voice and who need our help. Paula and Herman’s resilience and ability to rebuild their lives from nothing was inspirational.
Sandy tells two stories: that of her mother and, in addition, the story of Sandy’s search for her half- brother. She is beginning to write the story of her father as well.
Sandy is married to Sam Klein, also a child of survivors. They have two children, Heather, an Attorney, who specializes in Corporate Immigration, and Gabriel, who is currently doing a residency in Plastic Surgery. The inclination to help others has carried into another generation. In 2018, Heather and her husband Mike gave the family the best present of all: their son Ethan Pierce.
Sandy is a member of Generations Forward, a group of second and third generation individuals sponsored by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center of White Plains, New York.
For an editable flyer, CLICK HERE.