The book that kept them together – despite the Holocaust

As a Dutch Jewish couple hiding separately from the Nazis, Emmanuel Joels and Hetty van Son were literally drawn together by a comic book of Emmanuel’s romantic invention. After narrowly avoiding deportation to Auschwitz thanks to a policeman’s tip, the young couple spent 2 1/2 years living less than a mile apart, each in the […]

Romania to Speed Up Property Restitution Claims of Holocaust Survivors

REUTERS – Romania is to fast-track property restitution claims from Holocaust survivors under an amended law that is expected to be passed by parliament next week, legislators said on Tuesday. Romania was an ally of Nazi Germany during World War Two until it changed sides in August 1944, and much of the property seized during […]

Humor and the Holocaust? Documentary explores the boundaries of comedy and tragedy

Is it inappropriate to joke about the Holocaust? Is it acceptable to make fun of slavery? Can we find humor in topics like cancer and AIDS? Is it too soon to crack wise about 9/11? These are some of the questions raised by “The Last Laugh,” director Ferne Pearlstein’s thoughtful, provocative, and yes, funny documentary […]

U.S. Congress Calls on Germany to Increase Support for Holocaust Survivors

A bipartisan group of Congress members introduced a resolution calling on the German government to provide additional financial aid to Holocaust survivors in their waning years. The resolution, which was introduced in the House and the Senate on Friday, aims to ensure “that all Holocaust victims live with dignity, comfort, and security in their remaining years.” […]

Taking a Long-Term Perspective

Shmuel Rosenman takes a long-term perspective on the place of the Holocaust in Jewish identity. Notwithstanding the fact that the generation of survivors is aging, and soon no one will be left alive to bear witness to the unspeakable tragedy of 1939 to 1945, Rosenman, who in 1988 was one of the founders of the […]

How Much Did Small-town America Know About the Holocaust?

The same week the Dachau concentration camp opened, Maine’s Bangor Daily News also had some good tidings for its readers. “Mistreatment of Jewish Race in Germany Ends” was the headline of a story that ran on its front page in March 1933. Not all coverage of events leading up to the Holocaust was as misguided, […]

Survivors project to save Holocaust stories

As years pass, first-hand accounts of Holocaust survivors are disappearing. An initiative at Carleton University hopes to preserve the oral histories of Ottawa-area survivors and is looking to crowd-fund the $7,500 it needs to get the cameras rolling. Bruce Deachman reports. Judy Young-Drache was only a year old in the summer of 1944 when her […]

Interfaith march to remember Holocaust

According to Jill Rose — co-chair of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County — the March of Remembrance is a unique opportunity for the entire community — Jewish and non-Jewish — to come together to remember the atrocities of the Holocaust. Rose said in a recent Federation […]

Keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive

“When you listen to a witness, you become a witness … please heal the world.” The eloquent plea of Holocaust survivor Judy Weissenberg Cohen perhaps best underpins and represents a new work, Witness: Passing the Torch of Holocaust Memory to New Generations. This book contains striking images and reflections from Holocaust survivors and students (many […]

2016 March of the Living Hungary