Student Tribune

31st Annual Yom HaShoah Commemoration

This year marks the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Project's 31st Annual Yom HaShoah Commemoration.

At 7 pm on Wednesday April 7, please join the Center for Holocaust Awareness and Information (CHAI) as we commemorate Yom HaShoah with a virtual remembrance ceremony with keynote speaker Rachael Cerrotti. The service will be broadcast live on the Facebook page of the Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester, and at JewishRochester.org.

Through the day on Thursday April 8, come watch and listen as local Holocaust survivors tell their stories. The opportunity to do so becomes ever more rare with the passing of time.

Warren Heilbronner April 8 from 12:00 – 1:00

Click on the link to register for this talk:

https://monroecommunity.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYtfyvrD4rGtCJ vogWWX9BNfYZ13pQFU9a

Warren Heilbronner was a young child living comfortably with his parents and brother in Stuttgart, Germany until Kristallnacht, when the Gestapo took his father and grandfather to Dachau. The only way out of Dachau was to get an exit Visa and the only way to get that was to have a sponsor in another country. Warren’s uncle in the U.S. became their sponsor but the family had to overcome many obstacles, including officials who blackmailed them for money they didn’t have. Then, when they finally got the necessary papers, they learned their sponsor had died and they had to bluff the U.S. consulate into believing they still had a living sponsor. They settled in Perry, New York where his father could find work in a textile factory. As a family from Germany, moving to a rural area on the eve of World War II, the Heilbronners continued to experience discrimination. Warren’s early experience with how a free society can become a dictatorship had a deep impact on his life and he became a lawyer and settled in Rochester, N.Y.

Lea Malek April 8 from 1:00 – 2:00

Click on the link to register for this talk:

https://monroecommunity.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAtde-oqDouHNc SpDB0If8871bGdLdzKdbO

Lea Malek was born in Janoshalma, Hungary in 1939. Her father died in a labor camp before her younger sister was born. Lea was 5 years old when the rest of her family was loaded onto cattle cars bound for Auschwitz. Along the way, the train suddenly stopped and was split. A large land owner needed some slave laborers and the people in Lea’s car were sent to work the farm instead of to Auschwitz. Lea would not have survived if that hadn’t happened. Her train was part of the failed "Blood for Goods" deal where Eichmann put 20,000 Jews “on ice” for future trading by sending them to work camps in Austria instead of to Auschwitz. Only 3 Jewish children – Lea, her sister and one other girl - survived to return to their hometown in Hungary. Lea witnessed the brutality of the Hungarian revolution in Budapest at age 16, hoping to be able to come to the United States, but the U.S. had closed its borders so she went to Israel in 1957 where she married and came to the US in 1959. She retired from her well-known bakery, "Malek's" a few years ago and has only recently begun to speak about her experiences.

Helen Levinson April 8 from 2:00 – 3:00

Click on the link to register for this talk:

https://monroecommunity.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZclde6vqTsiH9N vIB9dYIlI4txiqOfPx0ob

Helen Levinson is from Lublin, Poland. Her father was the brew master in a Jewish owned brewery so the family was allowed to stay there for awhile (the Nazis liked their beer.) Helen was picked up and sent to Majdanek concentration camp. A few weeks later, her mailman came to the camp and helped her escape by giving her a Hitler Youth uniform. When the family was no longer allowed to stay in the brewery, rather than report to the ghetto, they split up with the hopes that someone would remain alive after the war. Helen survived because she had false papers saying she was Catholic. She worked for Nazis in Vienna – keeping her Jewish identity secret. She was the only survivor of her immediate family.

At 7 pm on Thursday April 8, join us for We Share the Same Sky: A Yom HaShoah Keynote with Rachael Cerrotti. Rachael Cerrotti is an award-winning photographer, writer, educator and producer. Her work explores the intergenerational impact of migration and memory. She currently works as an audio producer and digital storyteller with USC Shoah Foundation. In 2019, Rachael released her first podcast — We Share The Same Sky. It was the first-ever narrative podcast based on a Holocaust survivor’s testimony and tells the story of her decade-long journey to retrace her grandmother’s war story. Rachael shares her story all over the world to communities of all ages and backgrounds. Join us to hear Rachael’s inspiring story of hope and memory.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with information to join, as well as reminders prior to the event. This event is free and open to the public. ASL interpreter available

Kress, Patricia
Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Project
03/22/2021