The Girl in the Diary: Searching for Rywka from the Łódź Ghetto
56 min
In 1945 a Soviet doctor found a school notebook in the liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau Camp. It was a diary written by the teenaged Rywka Lipszyc in the Łódź Ghetto between October 1943 and April 1944 — the testament of an orthodox Jewish girl who lost her siblings and parents, but never lost hope despite moments of doubt. More than 60 years after its discovery, the diary traveled to the United States, where it was translated from Polish, supplemented with commentaries and published in book form. Rywka Lipszyc’s diary, a moving memoir of life and adolescence in the Łódź Ghetto, has become a starting point for the Girl in the Diary. Searching for Rywka from the Łódź ghetto exhibition created by the Galicia Jewish Museum in Kraków, Poland. Since then the exhibition was presented across Poland and beyond, in the USA, South Africa and Ireland. Jakub Nowakowski, director of the Galicia Jewish Museum and co-curator of the exhibition will speak about Rywka Lipszyc, the story of her diary and research that led to creation of this unique exhibition.
The Girl in the Diary: Searching for Rywka from the Łódź Ghetto
Presented by Jakub Nowakowski, director of the Galicia Jewish Museum.
In 1945 a Soviet doctor found a school notebook in the liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau Camp. It was a diary written by the teenaged Rywka Lipszyc in the Łódź Ghetto between October 1943 and April 1944 — the testament of an orthodox Jewish girl who lost her siblings and parents, but never lost hope despite moments of doubt. More than 60 years after its discovery, the diary traveled to the United States, where it was translated from Polish, supplemented with commentaries and published in book form. Rywka Lipszyc’s diary, a moving memoir of life and adolescence in the Łódź Ghetto, has become a starting point for the Girl in the Diary. Searching for Rywka from the Łódź ghetto exhibition created by the Galicia Jewish Museum in Kraków, Poland. Since then the exhibition was presented across Poland and beyond, in the USA, South Africa and Ireland. Jakub Nowakowski, director of the Galicia Jewish Museum and co-curator of the exhibition will speak about Rywka Lipszyc, the story of her diary and research that led to creation of this unique exhibition.
In 1945 a Soviet doctor found a school notebook in the liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau Camp. It was a diary written by the teenaged Rywka Lipszyc in the Łódź Ghetto between October 1943 and April 1944 — the testament of an orthodox Jewish girl who lost her siblings and parents, but never lost hope despite moments of doubt. More than 60 years after its discovery, the diary traveled to the United States, where it was translated from Polish, supplemented with commentaries and published in book form. Rywka Lipszyc’s diary, a moving memoir of life and adolescence in the Łódź Ghetto, has become a starting point for the Girl in the Diary. Searching for Rywka from the Łódź ghetto exhibition created by the Galicia Jewish Museum in Kraków, Poland. Since then the exhibition was presented across Poland and beyond, in the USA, South Africa and Ireland. Jakub Nowakowski, director of the Galicia Jewish Museum and co-curator of the exhibition will speak about Rywka Lipszyc, the story of her diary and research that led to creation of this unique exhibition.
Recorded Live Remote Tour of Auschwitz
Presented by the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
Revisit the live broadcast from May 5, 2021, at 9:00am (ET) with Tomasz as he walks through Auschwitz. See the Arbeit Macht Frei gate, walk towards the main exhibition halls, listen to explanations on the extermination process, see belongings of murdered Jews, and walk through the building of the gas chamber and crematorium.
Revisit the live broadcast from May 5, 2021, at 9:00am (ET) with Tomasz as he walks through Auschwitz. See the Arbeit Macht Frei gate, walk towards the main exhibition halls, listen to explanations on the extermination process, see belongings of murdered Jews, and walk through the building of the gas chamber and crematorium.
Free To Wait: Refugees & Returning To Life
Explore memoirs of survivors, who found themselves liberated but not free, as they tried to decide where to live and waited to immigrate. “Free to Wait: Refugees & Returning to Life” will explore the challenges that Jewish Holocaust survivors, young people and adults, faced immediately after World War II. Jody Spiegel will amplify the voices of Holocaust survivors through the reading of excerpts from memoirs. Dr. Joanna Sliwa will focus on children in postwar Krakow, Poland, and how they experienced liberation and struggled to resume their lives. Dr. Elizabeth Anthony will discuss the decisions of survivors about returning to Vienna, Austria, and how expectations and reality shaped their lives. Dr. Adara Goldberg will examine the immigration and integration of survivors in Canada and the role of organizations in facilitating the adaptation of refugees into their new home.
Dr. Elizabeth Anthony is the Director of Visiting Scholar Programs at USHMM’s Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies. Anthony was co-editor of Freilegungen: Spiegelungen der NS-Verfolgung und ihrer Konsequenzen, Jahrbuch des International Tracing Service, the 2015 Yearbook of the International Tracing Service. Elizabeth has published chapters in Lessons and Legacies Volume XII (2017); The Future of Holocaust Memorialization: Confronting Racism, Antisemitism, and Homophobia through Memory Work (2015); and more .Her book, The Compromise of Return: Viennese Jews after the Holocaust, is forthcoming. Elizsbeth received her PhD in history at Clark University and holds a Master of Social Work from the University of Maryland. Among a number of fellowship awards, Anthony was the recipient of a Fulbright research grant (Austria) and a Mandel Center research fellowship.
Dr. Adara Goldberg is the Director of the Holocaust Resource Center and Diversity Council on Global Education and Citizenship at Kean University (Union, NJ). She earned her doctorate in Holocaust History at Clark University, and has since held fellowships at Hebrew University and Stockton University. Adara has served as Education Director for the Vancouver Holocaust Education Center. She received the Marsid Foundation Prize at the 2016 Western Canada Jewish Book Awards. Dr. Goldberg’s book, Holocaust Survivors in Canada: Exclusion, Inclusion, Transformation, 1947–1955, represented the first comprehensive analysis of the resettlement and integration experiences of 35,000 Holocaust survivors and their families in postwar Canada. Adara's current research projects explore the phenomenon of post-genocidal familial reconstruction, and the role of national apologies in collective memory.
Dr. Joanna Sliwa is Historian at the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference). Her own research focuses on the Holocaust in Poland and on Polish Jewish history. Joanna has taught at Kean University and Rutgers University, and served as an educator in teacher training programs on the Holocaust. She has worked as a researcher, translator, and consultant for projects ranging from academic texts to websites, films, TV programs, and exhibits. Joanna’s first book, Jewish Childhood in Kraków: A Microhistory of the Holocaust will be published by Rutgers University Press in fall 2021. The book has received the 2020 Ernst Fraenkel Prize from the Wiener Holocaust Library. Joanna is working on a new book, Counterfeit Countess: The Jewish Mathematician Who Rescued Poles during the Holocaust, co-authored with Dr. Elizabeth (Barry) White, a senior historian at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Jody Spiegel is the Director of the Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program at the Azrieli Foundation. After Osgoode Law School, Jody joined the program at its inception and has worked with her team to publish over 115 survivor stories including many award-winning publications. She is the Executive Producer of Re:Collection, an interactive experience that invites users to explore the first-hand accounts of Holocaust survivors and the Azrieli Series of Short Films, which features stories and animated excerpts from memoirs written by Canadian Holocaust survivors. Jody has been a Canadian delegate of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) since 2014, representing Canadian expertise in areas of pedagogy, first person accounts and Holocaust distortion in the classroom. She will chair the Education Working Group of the IHRA in 2022.
Dr. Elizabeth Anthony is the Director of Visiting Scholar Programs at USHMM’s Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies. Anthony was co-editor of Freilegungen: Spiegelungen der NS-Verfolgung und ihrer Konsequenzen, Jahrbuch des International Tracing Service, the 2015 Yearbook of the International Tracing Service. Elizabeth has published chapters in Lessons and Legacies Volume XII (2017); The Future of Holocaust Memorialization: Confronting Racism, Antisemitism, and Homophobia through Memory Work (2015); and more .Her book, The Compromise of Return: Viennese Jews after the Holocaust, is forthcoming. Elizsbeth received her PhD in history at Clark University and holds a Master of Social Work from the University of Maryland. Among a number of fellowship awards, Anthony was the recipient of a Fulbright research grant (Austria) and a Mandel Center research fellowship.
Dr. Adara Goldberg is the Director of the Holocaust Resource Center and Diversity Council on Global Education and Citizenship at Kean University (Union, NJ). She earned her doctorate in Holocaust History at Clark University, and has since held fellowships at Hebrew University and Stockton University. Adara has served as Education Director for the Vancouver Holocaust Education Center. She received the Marsid Foundation Prize at the 2016 Western Canada Jewish Book Awards. Dr. Goldberg’s book, Holocaust Survivors in Canada: Exclusion, Inclusion, Transformation, 1947–1955, represented the first comprehensive analysis of the resettlement and integration experiences of 35,000 Holocaust survivors and their families in postwar Canada. Adara's current research projects explore the phenomenon of post-genocidal familial reconstruction, and the role of national apologies in collective memory.
Dr. Joanna Sliwa is Historian at the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference). Her own research focuses on the Holocaust in Poland and on Polish Jewish history. Joanna has taught at Kean University and Rutgers University, and served as an educator in teacher training programs on the Holocaust. She has worked as a researcher, translator, and consultant for projects ranging from academic texts to websites, films, TV programs, and exhibits. Joanna’s first book, Jewish Childhood in Kraków: A Microhistory of the Holocaust will be published by Rutgers University Press in fall 2021. The book has received the 2020 Ernst Fraenkel Prize from the Wiener Holocaust Library. Joanna is working on a new book, Counterfeit Countess: The Jewish Mathematician Who Rescued Poles during the Holocaust, co-authored with Dr. Elizabeth (Barry) White, a senior historian at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Jody Spiegel is the Director of the Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program at the Azrieli Foundation. After Osgoode Law School, Jody joined the program at its inception and has worked with her team to publish over 115 survivor stories including many award-winning publications. She is the Executive Producer of Re:Collection, an interactive experience that invites users to explore the first-hand accounts of Holocaust survivors and the Azrieli Series of Short Films, which features stories and animated excerpts from memoirs written by Canadian Holocaust survivors. Jody has been a Canadian delegate of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) since 2014, representing Canadian expertise in areas of pedagogy, first person accounts and Holocaust distortion in the classroom. She will chair the Education Working Group of the IHRA in 2022.
We, The Liberated
Holocaust survivors Hedy Bohm, Pinchas Gutter, Dr. Nate Leipciger & Dr. Miriam Klein Kassenoff share their memories of liberation, what freedom means to them & what they want the next generation to know.
Hedy Bohm was born in 1928, in Oradea, Transylvania, and was an only child to Ignacz, a master cabinet maker, and Erzsebet, a homemaker. In May of 1944, Hedy and her family were sent to the Oradea ghetto, and from there, she was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. She was then selected for forced work detail at an ammunition factory and shipped to Fallersleben, Germany in August 1944. Hedy was liberated by American forces in April 1945. Hedy returned to Romania, where she reunited with cousins, and married her husband, Imre. They were able to escape to Prague, where an aid organization arranged for this group of Hungarian orphans to obtain visas to Canada. They arrived in Halifax, Canada in August 1948. In 2015, Hedy was an eyewitness at the famous trial of Oskar Groening in Germany. Hedy speaks to student groups to inspire them to "rock the boat" and "make a difference," and to be continuously grateful for their family, education, and Canadian citizenship.
Pinchas Gutter was born in Lodz, Poland. Pinchas and his family were incarcerated in the Warsaw Ghetto, and subsequently sent to the death camp, Majdanek, where Pinchas' father, mother, and twin sister were murdered. Pinchas endured the slave work and horrors of various concentration camps, including Buchenwald. Near the end of the war, Pinchas was forced on a death march from Germany to Czechoslovakia, and barely survived. He was liberated by the Russians on May 8, 1945, and taken to Britain with other children. Pinchas later spent many years living in South Africa, and then immigrated to Canada where he continues to reside. Pinchas divides his time between speaking out against the Holocaust, volunteering as a chaplain, and serving as an honourary full-time Cantor in the Kiever Shul.
Dr. Nate Leipciger was born in 1928, in Chorzow, Poland. He survived the camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Fünfteichen, Gross-Rosen, Flossenbürg, Leonberg, Mühldorf am Inn and Waldlager. Nate and his father were liberated in May 1945 and came to Canada in 1948, where he chaired the Toronto Holocaust Remembrance Committee, and became an executive member of the Canadian Jewish Congress National Holocaust Remembrance Committee. Nate was also a member of the International Council to the Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau for fifteen years, has been an educator on March of the Living trips to Poland and Israel for fifteen years, and recently accompanied Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during his visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Nate has visited Kenora, Ontario to meet with Elders and Chiefs, and to speak to First Nations high school students. Nate's memoir, "The Weight of Freedom", was recently published by the Azrieli Foundation. In 2019, Nate received an honorary Doctor of Law degree from the University of Toronto, faculty of Education.
Dr. Miriam Klein Kassenoff (organizer & moderator) is a child Holocaust Survivor, Liberation75 committee member, education specialist for Holocaust Studies at Miami-Dade County Public Schools, an appointee to the Florida Education Commissioner's Holocaust Task Force, and the Director of the Summer Teacher Institute on Holocaust Studies at the University of Miami School of Education. Miriam has studied at Yad Vashem; the International Center for Holocaust Studies in Jerusalem. In October, 2019, Miriam was honoured in Pittsburgh with The Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by Classrooms Without Borders in commemoration of the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting. She was recently chosen as one of the Outstanding Pioneer Women in Miami-Dade County, and was given the Professional Educator of the Year Award. She was also awarded the Florida Holocaust Museum Holocaust Educator of the Year, the Haitian Holocaust Refugee Project's Tikkun Olam Award, the Miami-Dade Women's History Coalition as a Woman of Impact Award, and was given special tribute by the Florida House of Representatives.
Hedy Bohm was born in 1928, in Oradea, Transylvania, and was an only child to Ignacz, a master cabinet maker, and Erzsebet, a homemaker. In May of 1944, Hedy and her family were sent to the Oradea ghetto, and from there, she was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. She was then selected for forced work detail at an ammunition factory and shipped to Fallersleben, Germany in August 1944. Hedy was liberated by American forces in April 1945. Hedy returned to Romania, where she reunited with cousins, and married her husband, Imre. They were able to escape to Prague, where an aid organization arranged for this group of Hungarian orphans to obtain visas to Canada. They arrived in Halifax, Canada in August 1948. In 2015, Hedy was an eyewitness at the famous trial of Oskar Groening in Germany. Hedy speaks to student groups to inspire them to "rock the boat" and "make a difference," and to be continuously grateful for their family, education, and Canadian citizenship.
Pinchas Gutter was born in Lodz, Poland. Pinchas and his family were incarcerated in the Warsaw Ghetto, and subsequently sent to the death camp, Majdanek, where Pinchas' father, mother, and twin sister were murdered. Pinchas endured the slave work and horrors of various concentration camps, including Buchenwald. Near the end of the war, Pinchas was forced on a death march from Germany to Czechoslovakia, and barely survived. He was liberated by the Russians on May 8, 1945, and taken to Britain with other children. Pinchas later spent many years living in South Africa, and then immigrated to Canada where he continues to reside. Pinchas divides his time between speaking out against the Holocaust, volunteering as a chaplain, and serving as an honourary full-time Cantor in the Kiever Shul.
Dr. Nate Leipciger was born in 1928, in Chorzow, Poland. He survived the camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Fünfteichen, Gross-Rosen, Flossenbürg, Leonberg, Mühldorf am Inn and Waldlager. Nate and his father were liberated in May 1945 and came to Canada in 1948, where he chaired the Toronto Holocaust Remembrance Committee, and became an executive member of the Canadian Jewish Congress National Holocaust Remembrance Committee. Nate was also a member of the International Council to the Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau for fifteen years, has been an educator on March of the Living trips to Poland and Israel for fifteen years, and recently accompanied Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during his visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Nate has visited Kenora, Ontario to meet with Elders and Chiefs, and to speak to First Nations high school students. Nate's memoir, "The Weight of Freedom", was recently published by the Azrieli Foundation. In 2019, Nate received an honorary Doctor of Law degree from the University of Toronto, faculty of Education.
Dr. Miriam Klein Kassenoff (organizer & moderator) is a child Holocaust Survivor, Liberation75 committee member, education specialist for Holocaust Studies at Miami-Dade County Public Schools, an appointee to the Florida Education Commissioner's Holocaust Task Force, and the Director of the Summer Teacher Institute on Holocaust Studies at the University of Miami School of Education. Miriam has studied at Yad Vashem; the International Center for Holocaust Studies in Jerusalem. In October, 2019, Miriam was honoured in Pittsburgh with The Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by Classrooms Without Borders in commemoration of the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting. She was recently chosen as one of the Outstanding Pioneer Women in Miami-Dade County, and was given the Professional Educator of the Year Award. She was also awarded the Florida Holocaust Museum Holocaust Educator of the Year, the Haitian Holocaust Refugee Project's Tikkun Olam Award, the Miami-Dade Women's History Coalition as a Woman of Impact Award, and was given special tribute by the Florida House of Representatives.
Introduction to The Neshoma Project
The Neshoma Project is an online video library of conversations with non-Jews in Poland who are rescuing Jewish memory. It was created by Leora Tec and Bridge To Poland, in cooperation with Ośrodek Brama Grodzka–Teatr NN in Lublin, Poland with funding from Wellesley College and The United States Embassy in Warsaw.
Educate, Prevent, Prevail with Ben Lesser, Holocaust Survivor
Presented by ZACHOR Holocaust Remembrance Foundation.
"There are many survivor stories out there. Yet...my story of survival and success is quite unique and inspirational. I survived four different concentration camps, a seven-week long death march, two death trains including the notorious ill-fated death train shuttling from Buchenwald to Dachau nearing 3 weeks. Out of 3,000 inmates only 18 of us walked out alive in Dachau. This was 3 days before liberation. Today, I AM the only survivor alive today."
With education you can prevent. Ben’s eyewitness accounts to hatred delivers a message today of tolerance and peace to audiences worldwide. With bolstering our educational applications, meeting curricula standards with our newly developed ZHC site (www.ZachorLearn.org), providing an interactive 3D AI story telling feature of Ben for future generations to engage with years after he passes and advocating change by teaching the value of acceptance with our I-SHOUT-OUT program (www.i-shout-out.org) - we will then prevail.
"There are many survivor stories out there. Yet...my story of survival and success is quite unique and inspirational. I survived four different concentration camps, a seven-week long death march, two death trains including the notorious ill-fated death train shuttling from Buchenwald to Dachau nearing 3 weeks. Out of 3,000 inmates only 18 of us walked out alive in Dachau. This was 3 days before liberation. Today, I AM the only survivor alive today."
With education you can prevent. Ben’s eyewitness accounts to hatred delivers a message today of tolerance and peace to audiences worldwide. With bolstering our educational applications, meeting curricula standards with our newly developed ZHC site (www.ZachorLearn.org), providing an interactive 3D AI story telling feature of Ben for future generations to engage with years after he passes and advocating change by teaching the value of acceptance with our I-SHOUT-OUT program (www.i-shout-out.org) - we will then prevail.
Testimony of Dana Cohen
Presented by United Jewish Federation of Tidewater
Nine-year old Dana and her mother were forced to flee their home in Lvov when Russia invaded Poland. After a terrible odyssey through Eastern Europe they were imprisoned in a Siberian gulag. When the Nazis broke the non-aggression treaty, they were “freed” but left with nowhere to go. Dana’s mother orchestrated their multi-country escape route, taking them to Africa. They barely escaped death, though her father was murdered in the Katyn Forest massacre.
The What We Carry program of the Holocaust Commission of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater shares testimony of five survivors, a liberator, and a rescuer. There are seven one-hour classroom units, each of which is centered around a 15-30-minute film, and features personal narratives of these Holocaust witnesses, lesson plans, and videos of docents presenting suitcases filled with replicas of the subject’s artifacts. Testimony films can be used as educational tools for any audience.
Find all films at www.holocaustcommission.jewishva.org/home-page/what-we-carry.
Nine-year old Dana and her mother were forced to flee their home in Lvov when Russia invaded Poland. After a terrible odyssey through Eastern Europe they were imprisoned in a Siberian gulag. When the Nazis broke the non-aggression treaty, they were “freed” but left with nowhere to go. Dana’s mother orchestrated their multi-country escape route, taking them to Africa. They barely escaped death, though her father was murdered in the Katyn Forest massacre.
The What We Carry program of the Holocaust Commission of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater shares testimony of five survivors, a liberator, and a rescuer. There are seven one-hour classroom units, each of which is centered around a 15-30-minute film, and features personal narratives of these Holocaust witnesses, lesson plans, and videos of docents presenting suitcases filled with replicas of the subject’s artifacts. Testimony films can be used as educational tools for any audience.
Find all films at www.holocaustcommission.jewishva.org/home-page/what-we-carry.