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.
Register in advance at https://tinyurl.com/ytumyan9
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