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Paper Clips Paper Clips is an inspiring 2004 documentary about a consciousness-raising project that blossomed into something beautiful at a rural Tennessee school. When the principal of Whitwell Middle School sought a program that would teach diversity to a predominantly white, Protestant student body, the notion of focusing on the Holocaust--specifically Hitler's extermination of six million Jews--seemed like an obvious way to go. But understanding what "six million" looks like became a challenge. Thus was born the idea of collecting that number of paper clips at Whitwell as a visual reference. But then it turned out paper clips actually have, in historical terms, symbolic value where the Holocaust is concerned. In this moving film, one sees Whitwell students dig into research on Germany's genocidal campaign, solicit clips from a variety of leaders and celebrities, and make a name for themselves on the national news. In time, the world comes to Whitwell's doorstep, via unsolicited donations of clips from people around the world, and in a tearful meeting of students and Holocaust survivors. The dimensions of the project, the lessons about prejudice and intolerance, are stunning to watch grow beyond anyone's wildest expectations. This is a great film for families and classrooms to watch together. --Tom Keogh
Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon served as chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) from 2002 to 2005. Born in 1950 in Kiryat Haim, he was drafted into the IDF in 1968. He served as a reserve paratrooper during the 1973 Yom Kippur War and participated on the Suez front. In 1986, General Yaalon left to pursue advanced studies in Camberly, England. When he returned to Israel, he became commander of an elite unit in which he had previously served. In January 1992, Yaalon was appointed commanding officer for Judea and Samaria and promoted to the rank of brigadier-general. In May 1998, he was appointed commander officer for Central Command. General Yaalon was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general and appointed the seventeenth IDF chief of staff on July 9, 2002, a position he held until June 1, 2005. General Yaalon is married and has three children.
Michael Berenbaum A historian and a leading authority on the Holocaust, Michael Berenbaum was President and Chief Executive Officer of Steven Spielberg's Survivors of The Shoah Visual History Foundation. He was the Director of the United States Holocaust Research Institute and the project director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, overseeing its creation.
Alice Lok Cahana Renowned artist, poet, and the foremost painter of the Holocaust. A Holocaust survivor, Alice Lok Cahana's life was changed forever when she was brutally uprooted from the security of her home in Sarvar, Hungary, as the Nazis took her and her family to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Her mother, sister, two younger brothers, grandfather, aunts and uncles did not survive. In 1945, at the time of liberation, Cahana was still a young girl, one of the few children who were able to survive the torture and deprivation of concentration camp life. In 1978, she felt compelled to use her art to tell her story and the story of all the children who suffered in the Holocaust. Her lecture, slide show and the exhibit of her works are entitled, "The Soul of the People: Commemorating The Shoah."
Misha Defonseca As told in her awe-inspiring book, Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years, Misha Defonseca walked for over four years as a child during World War II across 3,000 miles of Nazi-occupied land in search of her parents. Her survival was made possible only by her ingenuity and a pack of wolves that helped to feed, shelter and comfort her. Misha Defonseca tells one of the most astonishing stories ever to come out of the Holocaust. A child refugee in search of her parents during World War II, she walked for over four years across 3,000 miles of Nazi-occupied land. In 1941, when Defonseca was seven years old, her parents were arrested and she was hidden in a "safe" home they had secretly arranged for her. Her foster grandfather recognized the terrible danger she was in and taught her some important survival skills. Defonseca overheard her stepmother, however, planning to turn her over to the Germans and decided to run away. She hid in forests and woodland areas, stealing from farm kitchens, pilfering crops in the field and eating wild plants and insects in order to stay alive. Frequently close to death from hunger and cold, her survival was only made possible by the companionship of a pack of wolves that helped to feed and shelter her along her journey. Caring for the cubs while the wolves hunted, she ate the raw meat of their kill, and felt true happiness for the first time in her troubled life. "I never remember being hungry in the company of wolves," she says. Before the war ended, she was captured by partisans, trapped in the infamous Warsaw Ghetto, forced to kill a Nazi soldier in self-defense and swept up by her first love. A classic tale of good and evil, Defonseca describes her extraordinary journey of miles and the passage of her heart from innocence through the abyss of despair to peace and redemption. Told with passion untempered by time, Defonseca's uplifting story is something people of all faiths will want to have the opportunity to hear.
Peter Duffy Peter Duffy author of The Bielski Brothers this his first book. In 1941, three young men -- brothers, sons of a miller -- witnessed their parents and two other siblings being led away to their eventual murders. It was a grim scene that would, of course, be repeated endlessly throughout the war. What makes this particular story of interest is how the survivors responded. Instead of running or capitulating or giving in to despair, these brothers -- Tuvia, Zus, and Asael Bielski -- did something else entirely. They fought back, waging a guerrilla war of wits and cunning against both the Nazis and the pro-Nazi sympathizers. Along the way they saved well over a thousand Jewish lives. Using their intimate knowledge of the dense forests surrounding the Belorussian towns of Novogrudek and Lida, the Bielskis evaded the Nazis and established a hidden base camp, then set about convincing other Jews to join their ranks. When the Nazis began systematically eliminating the local Jewish populations -- more than ten thousand were killed in the first year of the Nazi occupation alone -- the Bielskis intensified their efforts, often sending fighting men into the ghettos to escort Jews to safety. As more and more Jews arrived each day, a robust community began to emerge, a "Jerusalem in the woods." They slept in camouflaged dugouts built into the ground. Lovers met, were married, and conceived children. The community boasted a synagogue, a bathhouse, a theater, and cobblers so skilled that Russian officers would wait in line to have their boots reshod. But as its notoriety grew, so too did the Nazi efforts to capture the rugged brothers; and on several occasions they came so near to succeeding that the Bielskis had to abandon the camp and lead their massive entourage to newer, safer locations. And while some argued in favor of a smaller, more mobile unit, focused strictly on waging battle against the Germans, Tuvia Bielski was firm in his commitment to all Jews. "I'd rather save one old Jewish woman," he said, "than kill ten Nazis." In July 1944, after two and a half years in the woods, the Bielskis learned that the Germans, overrun by the Red Army, were retreating back toward Berlin. More than one thousand Bielski Jews emerged -- alive -- on that final, triumphant exit from the woods.
Peter Fischl Peter L. Fischl is a survivor of the Holocaust, a poet and a public speaker, who has dedicated much of his life to educating people about the Holocaust and the importance of acceptance of others. Fischl is currently working on a project with the sculptor Raymond Persinger to create a monument to "The Little Polish Boy." During the Holocaust, Fischl hid in a Catholic school in Budapest, Hungary with 60 other Jewish children. His father was taken by the Nazis and never seen again. A documentary on Fischl's life and his efforts to educate young people about intolerance, is in the final stages of editing. The film, produced by Peter Musurlian of Globalist Films, is called, "Holocaust Soliloquy.
Nesse Godin Nesse Godin is a survivor of the Shauliai, Lithuania Ghetto, the Stutthof Concentration Camp, four labor camps and a death march. She has dedicated her adult life to teaching and sharing memories of the holocaust. Nesse has the ability to translate the Holocaust into a personal glimpse of this enormous and horrifying drama. She has appeared before a variety of audiences including the Naval Academy,West Point Military Academy, the department of Defense, the Department of Energy, numerous Schools, Churches, Synagogues, Civic groups and Teacher's Conferences. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is fortunate to have Nesse Godin as a member of the Speaker' bureau. Nesse is Co-President of the Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Friends of Greater Washington. She is also on the Board of Directors and Founding Member of several Holocaust Survivor groups. Nesse served on the Board of Jewish Federation of Greater Washington. Is a board of the Anti-Defamation League, The Jewish community Council and many other worthy Organizations. She participated as a speaker for the Capitol Children's Museum of Washington, D.C. Numerous awards and honors have been given to Nesse including the "Myrtle Wreath" by the Hadassah Council and the Chaim Solomon Freedom Medal by B'nai B'rith Argo Lodge. She has also received the Woman of Valor Award by three different organizations- B'nai B'rith Women, Naamat USA, and Amit Women Birah Chapter.
Dr. Alex Grobman President of the Institute for Contemporary Jewish Life, a think tank dealing with historical and contemporary issues affecting the Jewish community. Dr. Grobman established the first Holocaust center in the US under the auspices of a Jewish Federation in St. Louis. He also served as director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angles where he was the founding editor-in-chief of the Simon Wiesenthal Annual, the first serial publication in the United States focusing on the scholarly study of the Holocaust. His latest book is Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened. His book, From The Depths of Despair: The Vaad Hatzala in the Post-War Europe will be published next year. He is presently working on Denying the Historical Connection of the Jewish People to the Land of Israel.
Elizabeth Holtzman United States Congresswoman from New York for four terms and the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. While in Congress she was the first Democratic woman to serve on the House Budget Committee and was a member of the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment hearings of Richard M. Nixon. Ms. Holtzman won international recognition for her work against Nazi war criminals and was the first member of Congress to expose government inaction against suspected Nazi war criminals. She forced the Justice Department to create a Nazi-hunting unit and authored the law barring Nazi war criminals from entering the United States and authorizing deportation. In 1981 she was elected Brooklyn District Attorney and served in that capacity until 1989. In 1990 she was elected Comptroller of New York City and served in that position until 1994. She is now in the private practice of law.
Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis was born in Hungary and is descended from a great rabbinic dynasty that can trace its lineage back to thedays of King David. Prior to the Holocaust there were 85 rabbis bearing the name“Jungreis” in Hungary. Following W.W.II, only ten remained. Having experienced the Holocaust first hand as an inmate of Bergen Belsen, the Rebbetzin.
Aviva Kempner Respected filmaker, director and producer of such award-winning documentaries as The Life & Times of Hank Greenberg and Partisons of Vilna, a feature-length, documentary film on Jewish resistance against the Nazis.
Nanette Blitz Konig Childhood friend of Anne Frank, Nanette Blitz Konig met Anne at the Jewish Lyceum school in 1941. After surviving the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, she moved to Brazil where she worked as an economist and translator. Ms. Konig was one of the main consultants for ABC TV's mini-series "Anne Frank, The Whole Story" which was aired in May 2001.
Eva Kor Eva speaks about her experience as a prisoner in the Auschwitz Concentration Camp and the affects it had on her life. Prior to her visit, a showing of her documentary, "Forgiving Dr. Mengele," which is a first-hand account of the Holocaust from her perspective will take place. At the age of 10, twins Eva and Miriam Mozes were taken to Auschwitz where Dr. Josef Mengele used them for medical experiments. Both survived, but Miriam died in 1993 when she developed cancer of the bladder as a consequence of the experiments done to her as a child. Eva Kor has since spoken explicitly about her experiences at Auschwitz and founded The C.A.N.D.L.E.S Holocaust museum in Terre Haute, where she now lives. Eva is a graduate of Indiana State University with a degree in education. She has given over 2,500 lectures on her Holocaust experience and is highly admired throughout the world for her strength and power to overcome. She has been interviewed on CNN, with her story and she has appeared in numerous other programs and publications. Her documentary, forgiving Dr. Mengele, received rave reviews from Entertainment Weekly, Los Angeles Times, and the Chicago Reader to name a few.
Dr. David Kranzler Dr. David Kranzler, a noted Holocaust historian and retired professor at the City University of New York is the author of nine books and numerous articles on rescue and rescue attempts during the Holocaust. His most recent, book is entitled, The Man Who Stopped the Trains to Auschwwitz: George Mantello, El Salvador and Switzerland's Finest Hour (Syracuse U. Press), was awarded the prestigious Israeli EGIT Prize for the best manuscript on the Holocaust. The foreword is by Senator Joseph I. Lieberman. His next work is entitled, Holocaust Hero: the Untold Story of Solomon Schonfeld, the British Rabbi Who Saved Thousands of Jews During the Holocaust.
Henri Landwirth Henri Landwirth as a child faced death every day as a prisoner in Auschwitz and other German concentration camps. He not only survived, but prospered, and became the personification of the American dream, dedicating his life to helping others. Landwirth was born in Belgium in 1927. His childhood was shattered by the advance of the Nazi army across the face of Europe. He saw friends and family separated and segregated living in desperate circumstances for the single reason that they were Jewish. He watched as friends and family were starved, beaten, killed, or simply disappeared. Landwirth's father, Max, was killed fairly early in the War. His mother, Fannie, and his twin sister, Margot, were all placed into the same concentration camp. Tragically, Henri's mother lived within a few months before the end of the War only to be put on board ship with a thousand others which was then blown up at sea. Landwirth was lucky. In 1945, he was brought before a firing squad, but inexplicably, the soldiers lowered their rifles and told Henri to run. He ran for days until he collapsed. He was found and nursed back to health by a Czechoslovakian couple who informed him that the War was over. Landwirth, now 18, traveled from refugee camp to refugee camp until finally he found Margot. In 1950, Landwirth emigrated to the United States, making his way across the Atlantic on a cargo ship with only $20 to his pocket. Three months after passing through Ellis Island, he was drafted by the United States Army. Landwirth took full advantage of his military service to learn everything he could learn. Thereafter, he used his rights under the G.I. Bill to take courses in hotel management and found employment in a New York City hotel. He started at the bottom, but worked his way up the ladder by doing the work of others as well as his own. For example, he bribed the night accountant with a bottle of whiskey and then did that man's work for him. In this way, he learned every job in the hotel. Married in 1954, he went with his bride to Florida and within a few months he and his wife had moved to the state. He worked in a department store and as a short-order cook until he landed a job running the 100-room Starlight Hotel in Coco Beach, Florida. Fortune smiled on Landwirth. These were the early days of America's space program and the Starlight became home to the original Mercury 7 astronauts as well as their families, the media, and other VIPs who gathered there. Landwirth impressed everyone with whom he came in contact with his honesty and integrity and because he used his success in business only as the means for what he considered a larger and more important goal--helping others. When Walt Disney moved to Florida, Landwirth sensed the opportunity and along with several partners, including Senator John Glenn, obtained a Holiday Inn franchise near the main gate of Walt Disney World. The more Landwirth prospered, the more he did for others. He worked with retarded children, giving them employment in his hotels. He helped build a clinic for children with cerebral palsy. In honor of his mother, he began the Fannie Landwirth Foundation which allowed him to do still more good works. He built a senior citizen center, gave scholarships to poor kids in Israel, and created a scholarship program to allow Israeli children to come to the United States as visiting scholars. He began transportation programs for the handicapped and disabled and provided housing and meals for families giving them food or emergency financial assistance. In 1985, Landwirth founded "Give Kids the World" as a means of helping terminally ill children and saying thanks to his adopted country for the many blessings he had received. Landwirth's Holiday Inn was part of an informal network committed to fulfilling the last wish of dying children, most of whom asked to meet Mickey Mouse. The red tape and the delay were interminable and Landwirth was outraged to learn that a child from Michigan died while waiting for paperwork to be completed. He decided that something had to be done and personally contributed a million dollars toward the creation of the village, a specially designed hotel and recreation complex for the sick kids and their families. He talked builders, suppliers, and laborers into donating their services and in short order the village was up and running. Landwirth secured free airline tickets for the children and their families, a free vehicle, free meals, as well as free tickets to Disneyland. More than 4,000 terminally ill children and their families visited the village in 1991. Asked why he does all of this, he says, "I love life. I shouldn't be here. By all rights I should have died. My whole life was a miracle. I feel it is my duty to give something back. You've got to give of yourself-- not money, but the essence of yourself. That is what makes life meaningful."
Naomi Levy Author of the highly acclaimed and inspiring national bestseller, To Begin Again: The Journey Toward Comfort, Strength, and Faith in Difficult Times. The first female conservative rabbi to head a congregation on the West Coast, Naomi Levy now teaches and lectures throughout the country on issues of healing, spirituality and faith.
Hans Massaquoi Retired managing editor of Ebony magazine and author of Destined to Witness, his autobiography, in which he tells what it was like to grow up black in Nazi Germany.
Ernest Michel A Holocaust survivor, Ernest Michel served as chairman of the first World Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors in Israel, was chairman of the first Auschwitz Memorial Dinner held in the United States, is the co-chairman of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Preservation Committee and co-chairman of the New York Holocaust Museum. He was honored with an invitation from President Carter to attend the historic signing of the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty and the State Dinner at the White House. The head of the UJA-Federation for twenty years, Ernest Michel has been involved in most of the major events in Jewish history since the end of World War II.
Rachel Miller Miller was born in France, the youngest of four children. Her parents and siblings had moved from Poland in 1932 because of anti Semitism and fears of being conscripted into the Polish army. The family left behind a large house and servants in Warsaw and went to live in a two-room apartment without running water. Also, her mother's discovery that she was having Miller came as a surprise. Every Saturday night both sides of the family got together for dessert and cards. Her mother was from a family of 13 and her family was from a family of eight. There had already been family members living in Paris. There were lots of cousins, family and friends and lots of singing recalled Miller. "I was very happy," Miller said. "We didn't have cars or phones because we were too poor. But I didn't know I was poor. It was just wonderful, just great." Things began to change in 1939. Miller remembers her father sitting by a window and saying "it's the beginning of doom." She also recalls her excitement as a child hearing about a parade coming to town. She wiggled through the crowds to get a closer look. "I saw the uniforms, the soldiers on horses, the tanks and became terrified," Miller said. "I told my family I was scared. Basically France had told the Germans they were welcome and to come on into the country." Things continued to look the same for a while including the Saturday evening gatherings. In August 1941 the family heard a lot of commotion outside. A neighbor in another part of their apartment complex came to warn them the SS and French Police were there to pick up the Jews. He offered to hide and protect them at his apartment. When Miller's father was crossing the courtyard another neighbor saw him and denounced him to the Germans. He was picked up immediately. Meanwhile the French Police had started looking in the apartments. Millers mother had her sons hide under the bed behind the bathtub which was stored there. Miller is sure they were seen. "We are sure when the inspector looked under the bed, he saw my brothers, but chose not to 'see' them," Miller said. All the men were taken that day, said Miller, including her father, his brother Leon, his brother-in-law Salomon and her mother's brothers Jules and Avrom. In the beginning the family was able to receive letters from the men and send them packages. Then Leon and Avrom were deported to Auschwitz. Miller's father and uncle became very ill and both were taken to Tenon Hospital, where they had major surgery and did very well. Their families could see them three times a week and everyone took turns, Miller said. The German occupiers had issued many decrees that were bad for all Jews, but worse for non-French Jews. One of the new decrees said only French Jews could remain in the hospital. Miller's father was taken in an open wagon in the bitter cold to another hospital. "Then on Dec. 30, 1941, my father told my mother he had been injected with something at 10 a.m.," Miller said. "He died at 2 p.m. in my mother's arms. On that same day, at the hospital where my uncle was, he told my aunt he had been injected with something at 10 a.m. and he died that day. It was not unusual for the Germans to experiment on people." A burial was provided by the Jewish Forward since the family did not have any money. Miller's mother did not allow the children to go to the funeral. Of course life was never the same, said Miller. She was never sure how her mother managed after that tragedy. She does not ever remember being hungry or without clothes. There was a lot of sadness at home and they weren't singing anymore. One day Miller's mother told her she was sending her to the country for the summer. She told Miller her best friend Cecile and sister Sabine would be going with her. Miller didn't think anything unusual about it since it wasn't an uncommon occurrence to send city children to the country for the summer.
Peter Morley Filmmaker, Peter Morley is widely acknowledged as one of the leading television producer/directors in the United Kingdom. Among a host of national and international awards his work has attracted, a special mention should be made of Kitty -Return to Auschwitz, winner of five international awards, including the Clarion Award for the Best U.S. Network Program after its prime-time airing on ABC TV. This classic film is now considered to have made a major and permanent contribution to the awareness of the horrors of the Nazi regime in World War II. It has been shown on television in almost every country around the world.
Hannah Goslar Pik Childhood friend of Anne Frank, Hannah Goslar Pik met Anne in Amsterdam when they were six years old. A survivor of Bergen-Belsen, Hanna now lives in Jerusalem. Ms. Pik was one of the main consultants for ABC TV's mini-series "Anne Frank, The Whole Story" which was aired in May 2001.
Jack Ratz Jack Ratz was a boy of fourteen when his hometown in Latvia fell to the Nazi forces, only a few years after the Russians had brought communism to the peaceful country. Despite the murder of his mother and four brothers, Ratz remembers the endless miracles he witnessed during the ordeal: how he and his father survived the Nazis' attack on their ghetto, how they were saved from a death camp by the Russian Red Army, and how they were able to escape to the West to live long and wonderful lives.
Alex Rosner Alex Rosner survived the Holocaust as a child as part of Schindler's list. Rosner can be seen at the end of Steven Spielberg's film, placing a stone on the grave of Oskar Schindler. Topic: Testimony of a Survivor.
Art Spiegelman Art Spiegelman has almost single-handedly brought comic books out of the toy closet and onto the literature shelves. In 1992 he won the Pulitzer Prize for his masterful Holocaust narrative Maus — which portrayed Jews as mice and Nazis as cats. Maus II continued the remarkable story of his parents’ survival of the Nazi regime and their lives later in America. His comics are best known for their shifting graphic styles, their formal complexity, and controversial content. In his lecture “Comix 101.1" Spiegelman takes his audience on a chronological tour of the evolution of comics, all the while explaining the value of this medium and why it should not be ignored. He believes that in our post-literate culture the importance of the comic is on the rise, for “comics echo the way the brain works." Having rejected his parents aspirations for him to become a dentist, Art Spiegelman studied cartooning in high school and began drawing professionally at age 16. He went on to study art and philosophy at Harpur College before becoming part of the underground comics movement. As creative consultant for Topps Bubble Gum Co. from 1965-1987, Spiegelman designed Wacky Packages, Garbage Pail Kids and other novelty items, and taught history and aesthetics of comics at the School for Visual Arts in New York from 1979-1986. In 1980, Spiegelman founded RAW, the acclaimed avant-garde comics magazine, with his wife, Françoise Mouly. They've more recently co-edited Little Lit, a series of three comics anthologies for children published by HarperCollins ("Comics-They're not just for Grown-ups Anymore"). In 1997 Spiegelman created a picture book for young children called Open Me… I’m A Dog with the same publisher. His work has been published in many periodicals, including The New Yorker, where he was a staff artist and writer from 1993-2003. A collection of his New Yorker work is soon to be published by Pantheon, who also published his illustrated version of the 1928 lost classic, The Wild Party, by Joseph Moncure March. In 2004 he completed a two-year cycle of broadsheet-sized color comics pages, In the Shadow of No Towers, first published in a number of European newspapers and magazines including Die Zeit and The London Review of Books. A book version of these highly political works was published by Pantheon in the United States, appeared on many national bestseller lists, and was selected by The New York Times Book Review as one of the 100 Notable Books of 2004. Spiegelman is working on a comix format memoir, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Nerd, which will incorporate a reprinting of his most significant underground comix work, as well as a forthcoming anniversary edition of Maus, entitled Meta Maus.A major exhibition of his work has been arranged by Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, as part of the "15 Masters of 20th Century Comics" exhibit (November 2005). In his spare time he's working on the libretto and the sets for a music-theater piece about the rise and fall of comic books entitled “Drawn to Death: A Three Panel Opera" with composer Phillip Johnston, to be produced with The Improbable Theater company in 2007. In 2005, Art Spiegelman was made a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France.
Ervin Staub Eminent psychologist and author of The Roots of Evil: The Origins of Genocide and other Group Violence, Dr. Ervin Staub lectures extensively on heroism, altruism, origins of caring, roots of racism, ethnic conflict and violence, and the holocaust. His topics include The Ideal Family of the 21st Century, Raising Kids in a Tough World, Roots of Evil and Origins of Caring, Where Have All The Heroes Gone?, and Facing History and Ourselves. He's available to lecture, conduct seminars and do sensitivity training.
Sol Urbach Schindler’s List Holocaust survivor.
Jaqueline Van Maarsen-Sanders Anne Frank's best friend, Jacqueline Van Maarsen-Sanders survived the war when her Catholic-born mother, a convert to Judaism, convinced the Nazis that she and her family was falsely registered as Jews. She saved Anne's letters sent from her hiding place in the attic of an Amsterdam spice firm owned by her father. Jacqueline Van Maarsen-Sanders was one of the main consultants for ABC TV's mini-series "Anne Frank, The Whole Story" which was aired in May 2001
Jan Wiener Jan Wiener is one of many Holocaust survivors but his story is unlike any you've ever heard. At age 20, Wiener was separated from his father and sent to an Italian concentration camp. After five years of torture, Wiener escaped and joined the Allied army. His rare courage and determination to survive and see his country liberated from oppression is an inspiration to us all. Born in Hamburg, Germany to Czech parents, he escaped the Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia in 1939 to Yugoslavia. In 1940, his father committed suicide and he, Wiener, fled to Italy. From 1941 to 1943, he was arrested in Italy and kept as a Prisoner of War in the Ferramoni Tarzia Concentration Camp. He was rescued by the British and entered their military. In 1943, Wiener graduated from the Royal Air Force Officer School in Cranwell-Lincolnshire, England, majoring in navigation. A Colonel in the Czech Air Force, he has received the Czechoslovak War Cross, the Czechoslovak Medal for Bravery in Action and the British Defense Medal. He also has an English degree from the University of Cambridge in England, a masters in history and physical education from Charles University in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Wiener was arrested in 1950 and sent to a steelworks labor camp in Kladno, Czechoslovakia. Five years later, he was released and began teaching. Wiener has taught in numerous colleges and universities around the world, including Charles University in Prague; Schule Scholtz Salem in Salem, Germany; the Research Institute for Higher Education in Prague; and Williams College and Berkshire Community College, both in Massachusetts. He also has taught history and physical education on several Indian Reservations in Sedona, Ariz., and served as the head of the English department at the Language School on Prague. Wiener is the author of Always Against the Current and The Assassination of Heydrich. He has also published numerous articles in several Czech and German publications and "Father's Suicide," which appeared in The New York Times Sunday magazine. Several documentaries of his life have been filmed, including Two Homelands, Fighter and Four Pairs of Shoes. To commemorate his life, the Jan Wiener Collection was established at Boston University Mugar Memorial Library in 1971.
Elie Wiesel Nobel Peace Prize winner, author and professor, Elie Wiesel has worked on behalf of oppressed people for most of his adult life. His own experience as a Holocaust survivor has made him sensitive to people all over the world who have been deprived of their basic human rights. He has been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States Congressional Gold Medal and more than 90 honorary degrees.