In Prague, on the eve of World War II, art student Lorelei Schumann has the world at her feet. But her whole life changes in an instant when she is sent with her friends and family to Theresienstadt, Hitler’s “City for the Jews,” where her survival depends upon her participation in the Nazi propaganda effort.

She risks her life to tell the truth and discovers who she is as a woman, a Jew, and an artist. Signs of Life is a musical drama of love, defiance, and the power of art.

The show runs from Thursday February 25 through March 21 at the
Marjorie S. Deane Little Theatre, 5 West 63rd St.

Performance schedule: Tuesday at 7:30PM; Wednesday – Sunday at 8PM

For tickets call 212 352 3101 or visit https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/425

When ordering tickets, enter promotional code “SIGNS” for a discounted price of $40 per ticket.

For more on the show, visit terezinmusical.com.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

The Annual Gathering of Remembrance, organized by the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, is New York’s oldest and largest Holocaust commemoration ceremony. The gathering will be held on Sunday, April 11, 2010 at 3pm at Temple Emanu-El on Fifth Avenue and 65th Street.

This program brings together political leaders, survivors, and members of the Jewish community with Holocaust survivors and their families to fulfill the sacred obligation of remembrance.

3GNY will have a presence, and we encourage all to attend so that the survivors can be assured that our generation will carry on their legacy.

Tickets are complimentary to the public, with a suggested donation of $36. Tickets are required, and are not available at the door.

Email agr@mjhnyc.org to get more information.

Thanks for joining us in making Purim baskets and delivering them to survivors. It was a unique and meaningful experience.

We also thank co-sponsors The Blue Card and iVolunteer

Thanks to all members and supporters of 3GNY for joining us at what was a moving Shabbat dinner. Guest speaker and Holocaust survivor Bernard Gotfryd shared his story.

Mr. Gotfryd was born in Radom, Poland, and became interested in photography at an early age. When World War II broke out and schools were closed to Jewish students, Gotfryd found work as an apprentice in a photography studio. While working in the studio, he began aiding the Polish underground by passing on photographs taken by Nazi officers of war atrocities. After an unsuccessful escape attempt in October 1943, Gotfryd was apprehended and shipped to Maidanek. By the war’s end, Gotfryd had survived six concentration camps.

In 1947, Mr. Gotfryd emigrated to the United States, where he worked as a photographer and studied photojournalism. After being drafted into the U.S. Army in 1949 and going through basic training, Mr. Gotfryd was assigned to the Signal Corps as a combat photographer. In 1952, he married his wife, Gina. They settled in Forest Hills, Queens, where they raised two children, Howard and Eva.

Mr. Gotfryd joined the staff of Newsweek in 1957, where he worked for more than thirty years, photographing some of the most influential figures of the 20th century. It was while working for Newsweek, covering the Holocaust Survivors Gathering in Washington, D.C., in April 1983, that Mr. Gotfryd was moved to write about his own experiences. First published in Newsweek, his stories were eventually published as a collection, titled Anton the Dove Fancier and Other Tales of the Holocaust.

Copies of Anton the Dove Fancier are available by calling 1-800-537-5487 or visiting this website.

October 25, 2009
JCC in Manhattan

We were happy to see everyone at our Third Annual Intergenerational Brunch. It was a beautiful day, with so many of all generations meeting, connecting and commemorating their family history. 

The event featured a presentation by 3GNY’s leadership, and guest speaker Amira Kohn-Trattner, C.S.W Amira is an Israeli-born psychotherapist/psychoanalyst in private practice in New York. Amira works with individuals and couples and has extensive experience with survivors, 2nd and 3rd generation.

She has been a consultant to the German government in restitution cases as an advocate to survivors and volunteered at international conferences for the US Holocaust Museum and the Shoah Foundation.

Amira presented an excerpt from her forthcoming documentary film about an unusual small group of Holocaust survivors from Czechoslovakia, who emigrated to South America after the war. The film explores the lives of these close, life-long friends and the new threat they face.

Thanks to all the volunteers who came to the Coffee House in Washington Heights.  It was a successful program.  We were pleased with the turnout and with the noticeably positive effect we had on those with whom we spent time.

This Coffee House is a program of Selfhelp (http://www.selfhelp.net/index.shtm), which is the oldest and largest provider of Nazi victim services in North America.  Selfhelp wanted to convey their gratitude for our presence and our efforts.

We thank Mrs. Claire Boren for being our guest, and telling us her story.
 
Claire Boren was born in a small Polish town that is now part of Ukraine. She was only five years of age when the Germans came and forced Jewish families into a ghetto. News of the Nazis’ liquidation of the Jews quickly spread and Boren’s father arranged for his wife and daughter to hide with a Christian family nearby. When the family they were staying with began fearing for their own lives, Boren and her mother retreated into the forest with several other Jews.
 
From there, they found a farm family that was willing to hide them in a hole they had dug beneath the ground. Boren describes this time as a living in a grave and it was there that she retreated into a silent fantasy world. Eventually they relocated once again in to the attic of another home until they were finally liberated by the Russian Army in 1944.
 
Boren was just a child when the Holocaust began and had repressed most of her memories of the war. It wasn’t until well into her adult life that memories began emerging. They were channeled through her art. Boren today is an accomplished artist, with some of her works’ themes evoking images and memories from the war.

March 18, 2009

David Gewirtzman was born in Losice, a small town in Poland in 1928. He was one of 16 out of 8,000 Jews to survive the Holocaust from this shtetl. 50 members of his extended family were murdered in Treblinka.

Jacqueline Murekatete was born in a small village in southern Rwanda in 1984. She was not yet ten when her immediate family was murdered, as well as most of her extended family, in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Jacqueline was granted political asylum in the U.S. in 1995, placed in public school and quickly learned English. One day David came to her school to speak. Listening to him, she was one of many kids who ended up weeping as he described his experiences. But she also saw a connection. She sent David a letter, which read in part:

“At one time I, too, like you, had a feeling of guilt for being alive. ‘Why was I left?’ I asked myself. I never really got an answer to that, but now I’m thankful that I was left because maybe I can make a difference in this world if I try, and maybe I can do my part in making sure that no other human being goes through the same experience as I did.”

David and Jacqueline have since teamed up to speak about their experiences, with the hope of preventing such acts from happening again.

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We thank Mr. Gewirtzman and Ms. Murekatete for telling us their stories. We also thank the Center for Jewish History for hosting us.