Go to The Visual History Archive

Visit the USC Shoah Foundation Institute website

 

Contact:
Susanne Hillman
Program Coordinator
Office Hours:
By appointment
858-534-7661
HLHW@ucsd.edu

 
 
 

2014 - 2015

Lampert-Weissig, Lisa. "The Vanished Stumbling Stones of Villingen." Tablet: A New Read on Jewish Life, 3 June 2015. Web. 15 June 2015.

Unless otherwise noted, all events are held at the Geisel library's Seuss room and begin at 5 pm. Free and open to the public. Refreshments are provided. For more information contact Susanne Hillman at hlhw@ucsd.edu or 858-534-7661.

Hidden Stories: Legacy of Pain

During the academic year 2014/2015 we offer an all-new lecture series featuring several internationally renowned speakers. Hidden Stories: Legacy of Pain focuses on stories and experiences that have generally received less coverage in Holocaust studies.

April 15. 2015: Growing Up in the Shadow of the Holocaust: A Roundtable Discussion

Since the catastrophic defeat of Nazi Germany, Germans have been forced to confront their “unmasterable past.” What was it like to grow up in a divided country burdened with the legacy of genocide? How does one deal with the knowledge of one’s people’s complicity in mass murder, and how does this knowledge affect one’s identity? At this roundtable discussion, primary witnesses of both German and Jewish background explore answers to these questions. ATTENTION: This program will begin at 5:30pm

April 22, 2015: "I had to clean my heart": A Survivor's Story - an original documentary by Bob Schneider and Lou Dunst (45 min.)

Lou Dunst grew up in Jasina, Czechoslovakia. As a teenager he was deported to Auschwitz, Mauthausen, and Ebensee. At war's end, he moved to the United States. How was he able to make peace with his traumatic past? Using exclusive interviews and historical footage, this original documentary provides answers to these questions. The film will be followed by a discussion with Lou Dunst and the film-makers. 

May 6, 2015: Whatever happened to Klimt’s Golden Lady? with E. Randol Schoenberg

SPONSORED BY DANIEL AND PHYLLIS EPSTEIN

E. Randol Schoenberg, the grandson of the composer Arnold Schoenberg and the winner of numerous awards in the field of litigation, is an expert in handling cases involving looted art and the recovery of property stolen by the Nazi authorities during the Holocaust. Among his most prominent cases is that of “Republic of Austria v. Altmann” which resulted in the successful return of six paintings by Gustav Klimt, including the “Golden Lady,” to their rightful owner. Schoenberg graduated from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and a certificate in European Cultural Studies and received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Southern California.

This event will be held in the Hojel Hall of the Americas, Copley International Conference Center, UC San Diego

June 3, 2015: Missing: The Fate of the Nazi Concentration Camp Archives with J.J. Surbeck

Since its founding in 1863, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC, the Swiss private organization which many have dubbed the “Guardian of the Geneva Conventions”) has helped reunite POWs and uprooted civilians with their families. The Nazi conquest of most of Europe resulted in the displacement of millions of individuals. Beginning in 1943, the British Red Cross and the ICRC began the work of tracing victims of incarceration, forced labor, and relocation. This effort eventually led to the establishment of the International Tracing Service (ITS), also known as the Bad Arolsen Archive. The year 2015 will mark the sixtieth anniversary of the ITS’ work under the direction of the ICRC. A Swiss-educated attorney living in San Diego, J.J. Surbeck worked for 16 years for the ICRC and knows its history and workings intimately.

Unless otherwise noted, all events are held at the Geisel library's Seuss room and begin at 5 pm. Free and open to the public. Refreshments are provided. For more information contact Susanne Hillman at hlhw@ucsd.edu or 858-534-7661.


For more information on the Holocaust Living History Workshop survivor presentations or instruction sessions on how to use the Visual History Archive, please contact Susanne Hillman, 858-534-7661 hlhw@ucsd.edu or the Judaic Studies Office, 858-534-4551, judaicstudies@ucsd.edu

DIRECTIONS FOR VISITORS:

Unless otherwise announced, events take place in UCSD's Geisel Library. Parking at UCSD is free only during weekends. During the week, you may either use parking meters or buy permits from automated machines. The nearest visitor (V) parking spaces, together with a vending machine, are on right side of the last block of Hopkins Drive, just northwest of the Library. The nearest parking structure is at the corner of Hopkins and Voight Drive. To get to the front entrance of Geisel library from the end of Hopkins Drive, follow the signs from the turnaround: you will need either to take the stairs or a walkway that curves down a short hill.

Directions to the library
Visitor parking information

If you need any special assistance, contact Susanne Hillman, hlhw@ucsd.edu,, 858-534-7661.


Courses using the Visual History Archive:

HIEU 145, "The Holocaust as Public History," with DAAD visiting professor Margrit Frölich:
In this course students write a paper based on an in-depth engagement with select video testimonies Reflecting on the complicated relationship between history, memory, and trauma allows students to come away with a deeper understanding of the socially constructed nature of the past and the continued relevance of eyewitness testimony.


Past Events

Fall/Winter 2014-2015

October 22: Getting Here: An Odyssey through WW IIwith Ruth Hohberg

Born in Bielsko, Poland, Ruth Weiss Hohberg fled eastward during WW II. Her parents were forced into a Siberian labor camp and then relocated to Uzbekistan where Ruth attended school. At war’s end, she returned to her hometown, only to find the population unwilling to accept returning Jews. After an interlude in Sweden, she arrived in the United States. Her long ordeal illustrates an experience that is less familiar to Holocaust studies but in urgent need of exposure. Hohberg is an artist and writer and lives in Rancho Bernardo. 

Ruth Hohberg will be interviewed by UCSD undergraduate Rebecca Tran.

November 13: Hitler’s Furies: Ordinary Women?with Wendy Lower

Award-winning historian Wendy Lower discusses the lives and experience of German women in the Nazi killing fields. Her study chillingly debunks the age-old myth of the German woman as mother and breeder, removed from the big world of politics and war. The women Lower labels “furies” humiliated their victims, plundered their goods, and often killed them, and like many of their male counterparts, they got away with murder. Lower is the John K. Roth professor of history at Claremont McKenna College and has published widely on the Shoah in Eastern Europe.

Wendy Lower will be introduced by Amy L. Zroka, a doctoral candidate writing her dissertation on German nurses on the Eastern Front.

January 21, 2015: After Auschwitz: Choosing Life with Edith Eger

How does one deal with the wreckage of one’s life in the aftermath of catastrophe? As a young girl Edith Eger of Kosice, Hungary, was deported to Auschwitz where both of her parents were murdered. At war’s end, she moved to the United States and became a clinical psychologist with her own practice in La Jolla. While she could have chosen to remain a permanent victim, she realized early on that true freedom can only be found by forgiving, letting go, and moving on. A prolific motivational speaker, Dr. Eger has appeared on Oprah and on Dutch national television.

February 25, 2015: Remembering Survival: Inside a Nazi Slave Labor Camp with Christopher Browning

Compared to the extermination camps, forced labor camps have received relatively little scholarly attention. Christopher Browning’s study of the Polish slave labor camp at Starachowice thus fills an important gap. Based on an analysis of extensive video testimony, Remembering Survival is a historical and historiographical tour de force. By illuminating a forgotten experience, Browning makes a powerful case for the value of video testimony. Browning teaches at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His publications include Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland; Nazi Policy, Jewish Workers, German Killers; and The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy.

March 11, 2015: Archival Footprints: In Search of the Grishavers with Herman Grishaver

Originally from Belgium, Herman Grishaver survived the war thanks to his family's escape to the United States. Since retiring from his neurology practice, he has researched the fates of numerous family members during and after the Holocaust. His journey through archives on several continents has yielded surprising insights that take the audience from Antwerp to Linz and from Perpignan to Jerusalem. The result is a tapestry of stories woven from memories, images, and scraps of paper.

 

Spring 2014

Series: Journeys, Memories, Echoes, Part III
During the spring quarter the Holocaust Living History Workshop features several internationally renowned speakers. Events are free and open to the public. No RSVP required.  
 
April 8: "Shpil We Must!” The Relationship Between the Jewish and Roma Musicians During the Holocaust – with Yale Strom

How did Roma musicians experience the Holocaust? What was their interaction with Jewish musicians in the camps and in the forests? These and other questions will be addressed by Yale Strom, one of the world’s leading scholar-ethnographer-artists of klezmer music and history. A violinist, composer, filmmaker, photographer and playwright, Strom was a pioneer among Klezmer revivalists. Over the past thirty years, he has conducted 75 research expeditions in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans. In his own compositions he combines klezmer with Hasidic nigunim, Rom, jazz, classical, Balkan, and Sephardic motifs. Strom will be introduced by professor Deborah Hertz, the Herman Wouk Chair in Jewish Studies.
Geisel Library, Seuss room, 5 pm (Tuesday)

May 7: Porrajmos: The Romanies and the Holocaust – with Ian Hancock

The Holocaust claimed anywhere between 500,000 and 1.5 million Romani lives, a tragedy the Romani people and Sinti refer to as the Porrajmos, or “the Devouring.” Notwithstanding the scope of the catastrophe, the Romani genocide was often ignored or minimized until Ian Hancock and others exposed this misfortune. A Romani-born British citizen, activist, and scholar, Hancock has done more than anyone to raise awareness about the Romani people during World War II. For the past four decades, he has been a professor of English and linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is the director of the Romani Studies program and the Romani Archives and Documentation Center. He has represented the Romani people at the United Nations, served as a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, and is currently a state commissioner on the Texas Holocaust and Genocide Commission. Hancock will be introduced by Yale Strom, an expert in Jewish and Roma culture during and after the Holocaust.
Geisel Library, Seuss room, 5 pm

May 14: Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered – with Ruth Klüger (sponsored by Phyllis and Dan Epstein)

Ruth Klüger was eleven years old when she and her mother were deported from her native Vienna to Theresienstadt, the Nazis’ “model ghetto.” Twelve grueling months later, she was deported to Auschwitz. After the war, Klüger emigrated to the United States where she became a professor of German literature. In 1992 she published her memoir Still Alive, one of the most successful and unconventional Holocaust memoirs ever written. The recipient of numerous prestigious awards, Klüger lives in Irvine, California, where she continues to write. At this event, she will be introduced by history professor Frank Biess.
Great Hall at International House, 5 pm

Winter 2014

Series: Journeys, Memories, Echoes, Part II
 
February 19: Back to Dudelsheim: Conquering the Fatherland – with Larry Greenbaum

A native of Dudelsheim, Hesse-Darmstadt, Larry Greenbaum was one of only four Jews to emigrate to the United States after Kristallnacht, the pogrom that marked the beginning of the end for Germany’s Jews. Seven years after emigration, Greenbaum returned to Germany, this time as a member of the invading Allies. The Allied advance brought him back to Dudelsheim, his old home town. At this presentation, Greenbaum recalls what it meant to grow up Jewish in Nazi Germany, his experience as a refugee in the United States, and his memorable return to his own home. He will be interviewed by Anne-Clara Schenderlein, a doctoral candidate in modern German history, with an emphasis on Jewish emigration.
Geisel Library, Seuss room, 5 pm

March 12: Survival and Death: What Made you Know the Nazis Would Kill you? – with Peter Gourevitch (sponsored by Charlie Robins)

In this talk Peter Gourevitch explores the dynamics of “lessons to be learned” from the Holocaust. Drawing on the experience of a grandmother who fled and survived in the United States, and an uncle who stayed and died in Auschwitz, he discusses information that made some perceive the danger and others to ignore it. What information made his grandmother sense the danger, and her brother to ignore it? A professor of political science at UC San Diego, Gourevitch emphasizes the role political activism played in alerting some individuals to the impending threat from the destruction of democracy.
Geisel Library, Seuss room, 5 pm

Fall 2013

The Holocaust Living History Workshop is pleased to host a brand-new series of Holocaust workshops called "Journeys, Memories, Echoes." The series features locally and internationally renowned speakers including one of today's foremost experts on the Romani Holocaust, Dr. Ian Hancock, scheduled to visit UCSD in May 2014.

Journeys, Memories, Echoes, Part 1

Wednesday, October 16, 2013; 5:00pm - The Mischling-Experience - a talk by Marianne Burkenroad Schweitzer

Marianne Burkenroad Schweitzer shares her memories of growing up as a "half-Jew" in Nazi Berlin. The grand-daughter of baptized Jews on her father's side, Marianne was raised as a Christian and for a long time unaware of her Jewish ancestry. Her close friendship with an avid supporter of National Socialism who happened to spy for the Gestapo would soon land the family in trouble. Marianne's older sister was arrested for conspiracy to commit high treason and sent to a concentration camp. Her father suffered a similar fate during Kristallnacht. The outbreak of war forever divided the family, with some members staying behind in Germany and others leaving for England and then the United States.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013; 5:00pm - Hidden Letters: Documenting the Destruction of Dutch Jewry - with Deborah Slier-Shine and Ian Shine

The book Hidden Letters contains a treasure trove of letters and postcards accidentally discovered during demolition work in Amsterdam in 1997. Written by an eighteen year-old Dutch-Jewish boy by the name of Philip "Flip" Slier, the letters document the ongoing destruction of Dutch Jewry that Flip experienced firsthand. The editors spent seven years researching Flip's final years, a journey that took them from the Dutch forced labor camps of Voigt and Westerbork to Sobibor in Poland. 

Deborah Slier-Shine, formerly editor for Penguin, Random House and Macmillan, is the founder and CEO of Star Bright Books and the author of several best-selling children's books. Ian Shine works as an  MD at Cambridge and a prolific author.

All events are held in the Geisel Library's Seuss Room. All are welcome. Refreshments will be served. For more information contact Susanne Hillman at hlhw@ucsd.edu or 858-534-7661.


For more information on the Holocaust Living History Workshop survivor presentations or instruction sessions on how to use the Visual History Archive, please contact Susanne Hillman, 858-534-7661 hlhw@ucsd.edu or the Judaic Studies Office, 858-534-4551, judaicstudies@ucsd.edu

DIRECTIONS FOR VISITORS:

Unless otherwise announced, events take place in UCSD's Geisel Library. Parking at UCSD is free only during weekends. During the week, you may either use parking meters or buy permits from automated machines. The nearest visitor (V) parking spaces, together with a vending machine, are on right side of the last block of Hopkins Drive, just northwest of the Library. The nearest parking structure is at the corner of Hopkins and Voight Drive. To get to the front entrance of Geisel library from the end of Hopkins Drive, follow the signs from the turnaround: you will need either to take the stairs or a walkway that curves down a short hill.

Directions to the library
Visitor parking information

If you need any special assistance, contact Susanne Hillman, hlhw@ucsd.edu,, 858-534-7661.


The World Premiere of LIGHT FALLING DOWN by Aimee Greenberg at The Brooks Theatre, Oceanside

Oceanside Theatre Company is proud to present the world premiere of LIGHT FALLING DOWN by Aimee Greenberg and directed by Oceanside Theatre Company Artistic Director Christopher Williams opening in October!

Set against the backdrop of WWII in Poland (1942) and present day California, Ms. Greenberg’s play is a haunting and illuminating drama inspired in part by the true stories of female survivors of the Shoah, now living in Southern California. The story follows a young woman, Alice, who finds a young Jewish girl hiding underground in her garden.  Alice is faced with the decision to either turn her in to the Nazis or to keep her hidden in the dark.  But Alice has a secret, too.  Intertwined is the story of Tuvia, her daughter Ava, and her neighbor Eva in California today.  LIGHT FALLING DOWN explores the nature of survival, the human spirit, and forgiveness.

"In LIGHT FALLING DOWN, Aimee Greenberg has written a moving and original piece of theatre" -  David Elllenstein, Artistic Director of North Coast Repertory Theatre

Previews and Performances at The Brooks Theatre, 217 North Coast Hwy, Oceanside, CA 92054 include Wednesday, October 23 at 7:30 pm (Preview) Friday, October 25, 2013 at 7:30 pm (Preview) Saturday, October 26, 2013 at 7:30 pm (Opening Night) Sunday, October 27, 2013 at 2:00 pm Wednesday, October 30, 2013 at 7:30 pm Friday, November 1, 2013 at 7:30 pm Saturday, November 2, 2013 at 7:30 pm* Sunday, November 3, 2013 at 2:00 pm

Tickets are on sale at http://www.oceansidetheatre.org or call the Box Office at 760 433-8900 (For Group Tickets, purchase on website).  Admission is $21 general, $17 seniors, $14 students and military, or $14 on “Preview” nights only. Reservations are strongly recommended. Oceanside Theatre Company operating The Brooks Theatre and Studio 219 is a 501c3 non-profit organization.

*SPECIAL EVENT!
There will be an Oceanside Theatre Company Fundraiser on Saturday, November 2, 2013.  Join us at 5:30pm, your $50 ticket will include Dinner, Drinks, Seating at that evening's performance of LIGHT FALLING DOWN, raffle tickets and dessert/coffee during a post show talk-back with the author Aimee Greenberg.

Carlsbad resident Aimee Greenberg has been creating, directing and performing onstage for nearly three decades. A native New Yorker, Aimee trained with theatre icons Sandy Meisner, Wynn Handman and Stella Adler. She has worked with Playwright’s Horizon, La Mama, Seattle Repertory Theatre, and Theatre for the New City among others.  In 1990, Greenberg founded the Los Angeles based HEIJERA productions presenting works in the United States, Europe and Asia.  Locally, Aimee’s work has been seen at the former Sushi, (Dark Moon of Lilith, Phases of the LOON) and most recently at Space 4 Art, where she premiered “Occupy the Rice Fields.”  LIGHT FALLING DOWN was recently presented as a staged reading at the JCC and the Ion Theatre.

For further information, contact Janene Shepherd 760-805-4213 or email janeneshepherd@cox.net


Spring 2013

During the spring quarter, the Holocaust Living History Workshop will continue its year-long series of all-new speakers called “The Long Shadow of the Past.”  The series is part of the Workshop’s effort to broaden understanding of the past and to foster tolerance.  Interested individuals are invited to listen to local Holocaust survivors, witnesses, and scholars share their stories and to learn about the Visual History Archive, the world’s largest database of Holocaust testimony. Students, staff, and faculty are encouraged to attend these special sessions which are free and open to the public.

April 3 - Anatomy of Malice: Rorschach Results from Nuremberg War Criminals
In the past Joel E. Dimsdale, Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus, has researched the concentration camp survivors. More recently, he has studied the mental world of the perpetrators. At this talk, he presents his latest research based on an analysis of Rorschach inkblot tests administered at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials.

April 24 - The Murders at Bullenhuser Damm
Mark James tells the story of his brother and namesake Marek who was one of twenty Jewish children taken from the concentration camp Neuengamme and hanged in the basement of a school in Hamburg, barely three weeks before war’s end.

May 8 - Living the Past: In Honor of San Diego's Holocaust Survivors
San Diegan Holocaust survivors Lou Dunst and Frances Gelbart share their memories of the Holocaust. They both passed through several concentration camps including Auschwitz and Mauthausen. Sponsored by Phyllis and Dan Epstein.

May 29 - The Force of Things: A Marriage in War and Peace
The turbulent relationship of Alexander Stille's parents, a mid-Western Protestant and an Italian Jew of Russian descent, is at the heart of his new family memoir. The Force of Things: A Marriage in War and Peace explores the ways two people contend with events and powers beyond their control in a time out of joint. Stille is an internationally renowned and award-winning journalist and the author of several books.

June 5 - Surviving Auschwitz
Livia Krancberg was born in the Romanian town of Petrova in 1919. During World War Two she was  deported to Auschwitz and later to the women’s concentration camp Ravensbrück. A regular speaker at local San Diego schools, this is her first visit to UCSD. Sponsored by William and Michelle Lerach.

All events are held in the Geisel library's Seuss room from 5 to 7 pm and free and open to the public. Refreshments provided.


Courses using the Visual History Archive:

HIEU 158, "Why Hitler? How Auschwitz?" taught by Susanne Hillman
In this course students are introduced to the history of the Holocaust. Alongside the historical instruction, students will familiarize themselves with the Visual History Archive. They will learn to evaluate video select interviews for the purpose of research and to critically "read" audiovisual sources as a type of text. As part of the course requirements, students will write a research paper based primarily on video testimony.

Thurgood Marshall Honors Seminar taught by Susanne Hillman:
Participants of this seminar learn to evaluate Holocaust video testimony as a type of text. Topics include affective involvement with primary sources, the ethics of listening, layers and types of memory, the performative function of witnessing, etc.  Selected clips from the Visual History Archive will supplement discussions of the assigned texts. As a term project, students will analyze one entire interview and give a brief presentation of their findings.


Winter 2013

In the winter quarter of 2013, the Holocaust Workshop continues its year-long series "The Long Shadow of the Past."

January 9, Wednesday: He Walked Through Walls: A Reading and Discussion of Survival Ethics
5:00 - 7:00pm
Geisel Library, Seuss Room

Speaker Dr. Myriam Miedzian is a professor of philosophy and author of numerous books, articles, blogs, and op-eds on social, cultural, and political issues. He Walked Through Walls  tells the story of how her father, born in Poland in 1901, survived three 20th century  European wars including WW II and the Holocaust.

January 30, Wednesday: We are Here: Memories of the Lithuanian Holocaust
7:00 - 9:00pm
JCC Astor Judaica Library

Sponsored by Miriam and Jerome Katzin. Speaker Ellen Cassedy, a scholar of Yiddish and a playwright, researches and writes about Lithuania's genocidal past, the Soviet era, and Lithuanian hopes for the future. Her new book We Are Here is a testimony of her decade-long study of an unparalleled tragedy.

Please note: this event is jointly sponsored with the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center and held at the JCC Astor Judaica Library. For ticket information please contact Marcia Tatz Woellner at marciatw@lfjcc.com or 858-362-1174.

February 20, Wednesday: Jackie Gmach and the Sephardic Experience: Between Two Worlds
5:00 - 7:00pm
Geisel Library, Seuss Room

Sponsored by Joan and Irwin Jacobs. Speaker Jackie Gmach-Nataf was a little girl when the Germans occupied her native Tunisia. She is currently at work on her memoirs of this tumultuous and unforgettable period. 

March 13, Wednesday: From Shtetl to Shtetl: A Journey Across Three Continents
5:00 - 7:00pm
Geisel Library, Seuss Room

Speaker Dr. Franklin Gaylis, a San Diego physician who grew up in South Africa, has traveled three continents in search of his family's past in Lithuania.

With the exception of the January 30 talk, all events are held in the UCSD Geisel Library and free of charge. Everyone is welcome, and no RSVP is required. Refreshments provided.


UCSD Courses using the Visual History Archives --Winter 2013:

Sociology 178, "The Holocaust," taught by Richard Biernacki


 

Fall 2012

During the fall quarter, the Holocaust Living History Workshop will host several events on campus. They are part of a year-long series of all-new speakers and artists called “The Long Shadow of the Past.”  The series continues the Workshop’s effort to broaden understanding of the past and to foster tolerance.  Interested individuals are invited to listen to local Holocaust survivors, witnesses, and scholars share their stories and to learn about the Visual History Archive, the world’s largest database of Holocaust testimony. Students, staff, and faculty are encouraged to attend these special sessions which are free and open to the public.

October 10: Escaping to Palestine
5:00 - 7:00pm
Geisel Library; Seuss Room

Stephen Victor Kraus kicks off the series with a talk about his experiences during the Nazi period. His is the story of a boy who grew up in interwar Poland. As the German tanks rolled in, his family fled. After an excruciating odyssey through Romania, Turkey, and Yugoslavia, they reached Palestine and safety. Kraus will share memories of his life in Warsaw and his dramatic escape.

November 5: Legalism and Memory: The Post-WW II Identity of Jewish Survivors in Budapest
5:00 - 7:00pm
Geisel Library; Seuss Room

The identity of Hungarian Jewish Holocaust survivors is the focus of a presentation by Dr. Andrea Petö. In Legalism and Memory Petö discusses Jewish participation in post-WW II trials and its negative effect on their identity. She is an associate professor in the department of Gender Studies at the Central European University in Budapest and has published widely on the Holocaust.

November 14: A Childhood in the Shadow of the Holocaust
5:00 - 7:00pm
Geisel Library; Seuss Room

This event features San Diego resident Trudie Richman-Wilder. Richman was born in Vienna in 1923 and managed to escape to the US during World War II. Her memoir Escape from Vienna details reminiscences of her childhood and her bid for freedom. An accomplished singer and guitarist who has recorded folksongs for the prestigious Smithsonian Folkways label, Richman will conclude her presentation with some Yiddish songs.

November 26: An Evening with Madame F.
7:00 - 9:00pm
Mandeville Recital Hall ( the Recital Hall is located in Mandeville Center )

Performance artist and playwright Claudia Stevens whose parents fled Europe uses music to explore the Holocaust. An Evening with Madame F. focuses on the real-life experience of Fania Fenelon, a member of the women’s orchestra at Auschwitz who was forced to perform to an audience of concentration camp guards. Fenelon’s story raises profound ethical questions which Stevens addresses in an original, interactive way. Stevens has been a creative and performing artist for many years. Her numerous honors include residencies at the Gitameit Art Center in Rangoon, Burma; RS9 Studio Theatre in Budapest; and  Brandeis University’s Women’s Studies Research Center. She regularly performs her solo plays at leading universities and arts centers in the United States

Note on Time and Location: All events begin at 5 pm and last approximately two hours. With the exception of An Evening with Madame F., they are held in the Geisel Library's Seuss Room on the UCSD Campus.


UCSD Courses using the Visual History Archives -- Fall 2012:

HIEU 145, "The Holocaust as Public History," by visiting professor Margrit Frölich:

In this course students write a paper based on an in-depth engagement with select video testimony. Reflecting on the complicated relationship between history, memory, and trauma allows students to come away with a deeper understanding of the socially constructed nature of the past and the continued relevance of eyewitness testimony.

HITO 133, "War and Society/Second World War," by Ryan Zroka:

Iin this course students are given the opportunity to analyze select testimony by Jewish as well as non-Jewish survivors of the Holocaust and the Second World War and to write an essay based on their insights.

Public talk at San Diego Mesa College:

To mark the opening of the traveling exhibit "The Courage to Remember," Mesa College has invited Dr. Susanne Hillman to give a talk on the Holocaust. "What Happened, Happened: Reflections on Genocide, Unheroic Survival, and Witness Testimony" is based on extensive research in the Visual History Archive and on Hillman's experience as the program coordinator of the Holocaust Living History Workshop.


Spring 2012

The events are part of the Workshop's ongoing effort to broaden understanding of the past and to foster tolerance. Events are held in the UCSD Geisel Library (Seuss Room) and free and open to the public.

April 18: Michael Bart: The Partisans of Vilna
5:00 - 7:00pm
Geisel Library; Seuss Room

The series kicks off on April 18 with a presentation by Michael Bart. To honor this year’s Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Ha-Shoah), Bart shares the incredible story of his parents Zenia Lewinson and Leizer Bart who were both members of the Lithuanian partisan group “The Avengers.” Under the leadership of the Zionist Abba Kovner, they vowed to resist the Nazis “until our last breath” – the title of Bart’s award-winning history of the Vilna partisans. At this special event Bart relates the struggle of his parents and talks about his own ten-year-long journey to recover their history.

May 23: Tal Golan: The Politics of Memory
5:00 - 7:00pm
Geisel Library; Seuss Room

Our May 23 event features Tal Golan, a professor of history and son of a Holocaust survivor from Poland. Yu?ek Goldberg (later Joseph Golan) grew up in the Polish town of Nere-Miasto and spent time in the Warsaw ghetto before going into hiding. At war’s end, he immigrated to Palestine. Goldberg was one of many Holocaust survivors who kept silent about their ordeal until late in life when he decided to commit his memories to paper. In this talk Tal Golan reflects on the politics of memory and the struggle for Israeli identity.

June 6: Samuel Horowitz: Hiding from the Nazis
5:00 - 7:00pm
Geisel Library; Seuss Room

On June 6 Samuel Horowitz’s account of his wartime experience in Poland concludes this quarter’s series of talks. Horowitz was born in Lopatyn, Poland. When the Nazis came in, his family was among the many Jews herded into ghettoes. Threatened with deportation to a camp, the family decided to escape. In the dead of night, they trekked back to their village. A Ukrainian farmer took them in, and they remained in hiding until the end of the war. After several years in Vienna and Munich, Horowitz immigrated to the US. Today, he and his wife Reena are involved in various philanthropic causes.


Spring 2012: Courses using the Visual History Archives

EU 158, "Why Hitler, How Auschwitz?" by Professor Deborah Hertz: Students in this class will write an essay based on testimony from the Visual History Archive. They will compare two selected testimonies in their entirety, analyze the interviewees' grappling with traumatic memory, and reflect on the value of audiovisual primary sources.

ITO 107, “Holocaust Video Production” by Professor Isaac Artenstein: In this course students learn to produce creative video projects by conducting interviews and drawing from relevant texts, lectures, the Visual History Archive, and other materials. This will allow them to expand and deepen their understanding of the Holocaust and help contribute to the body of work documenting this period in history.

Winter 2012

During the Winter Quarter the Holocaust Living History Workshop features a brand-new line-up of speakers. Our new series of events is called "Witnessing History" and focuses on the topic of experiencing history in the making. The events are part of the Workshop's ongoing effort to broaden understanding of the past and to foster tolerance. Events are held in the UCSD Geisel Library (Seuss Room) and free and open to the public.

January 25, 2012: Fleeing Fascim: Andrew Viterbi Remembers
5:00 - 7:00pm
Geisel Library; Seuss Room

The series kicks off with a presentation by Andrew J. Viterbi. Viterbi was born in the Italian town of Bergamo in 1935. When life became more and more difficult for Jews in Mussolini’s Italy, his family decided to emigrate to the United States. Starting out as a virtually penniless refugee who could hardly speak English, Viterbi later rose to prominence as an electrical engineer, the inventor of the Viterbi algorithm, and the co-founder of Qualcomm. By way of providing a contrast to his own stunning life-story, Viterbi will also talk about the wartime experience of his cousin by marriage, the world-famous writer and survivor of Auschwitz Primo Levi. UCSD professor Deborah Hertz provides a brief historical introduction to these remarkably varied stories.

February 15, 2012: German Tragedies: Robert Nichols Remembers
5:00 - 7:00pm
Geisel Library; Seuss Room

On February 15th, Robert Nichols, M.D., MPH, will talk about his childhood as a refugee from Nazi Germany. Born in Berlin to the daughter of the anarchist Gustav Landauer (murdered by Bavarian counter-revolutionaries in 1919) and the poet Hedwig Lachmann, Robert was forced to leave Germany as a child. His father, the Russian-born physician Pavel Nikolaevich Peschkowsky who had fled the Russian revolution, died a few years after the family’s arrival in the New World, leaving his ailing wife to raise Robert and his brother Mike on her own. Robert never returned to Germany. At this special event, he talks about the difficulties and possibilities of starting a new life on another continent and shares stories and pictures of his famous family members.

March 7, 2012: Judge Norbert Ehrenfreund and Ghosts of Nuremberg
5:00 - 7:00pm
Geisel Library; Seuss Room

Our March 7 event features Judge Norbert Ehrenfreund, a witness to history in two senses. After graduating from the Missouri School of Journalism, Ehrenfreund joined the US army and took part in the Allied reconquest of Western Europe under General Patton. After the war, he covered the Nuremberg war crimes trials as a reporter for the army newspaper Stars and Stripes. His experience in Nuremberg later resulted in the successful book The Nuremberg Legacy, written from the perspective of the eyewitness to history and of the Superior Court judge. Ehrenfreund will be introduced by history professor Patrick Patterson who teaches a course on international law, war crimes, and genocide at UCSD.

March 12, 2012: Timothy Snyder on Bloodlands
4:00 - 6:00pm
Geisel Library; Seuss Room

The quarterly series concludes on March 12 with a talk by Timothy Snyder, an historian from Yale University and the author of the book Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin. Since its appearance in 2010 the work has created a sensation in intellectual circles both in the US and abroad. Timothy Snyder discusses the implications of his unified approach to twentieth-century European history for our understanding of Nazism and Stalinism. The talk and following discussion will be moderated by Amelia Glaser, the Director of the Russian and Soviet Studies program at UCSD.

FALL 2011

October 5, 2011: Under the Shadow of the Holocaust

Agathe Ehrenfried grew up in Rakosliget, Hungary. She was twenty-one yearsold when the Germans occupied her country and began to round up the Jews. Over the course of the next twelve months she passed through severalconcentration camps including Auschwitz-Birkenau and Plaszow (Krakow). Ehrenfried will be introduced by local philanthropist and community leader Phyllis Epstein, an active supporter of the Shoah Foundation Institute.

November 9, 2011: Memories of Crystal Night and Beyond

When the Nazis unleashed the pogrom euphemistically called Kristallnacht (Crystal Night), Gerhard Maschkowski was barely fourteen years old. Kristallnacht initiated a five-year long ordeal of forced labor in various camps such as Jessenmühle, Neuendorf, and Auschwitz-Monowitz. In commemoration of the horrifying event that started it all (Nov. 9, 1938), Maschkowski will share the impact these events have had on his life. Sociology professor Richard Biernacki provides the introductory remarks to this talk.

November 22: Musical Journeys: Shtetl, Ghetto, Israel

Our late fall event features San Diego singer and educator Elisheva Edelson. Edelson learned her first Yiddish songs from her father, a Holocaust survivor. Later on, she studied at "Der Yiddisher Shule" in Mexico where she became involved in Holocaust memorialization. Besides teaching and performing songs in Yiddish, Ladino, and Hebrew, Edelson will provide some background information on the significance of music to the modern Jewish experience. Local Holocaust survivors are invited to attend the event and to share memories of their life before the war.

Where: Geisel library, Seuss room (follow directions)
When: 5-7 pm
Who: free and open to the public – refreshments provided

UCSD Courses using the Visual History Archive this fall:

HIEU 144 – Confronting Genocide: How Germans Remember Their Past (taught by Susanne Hillman)

In this course students are provided with an overview of the ways Germans in East and West have dealt with their "unmasterable" past. Alongside the historical instruction, students will be introduced to the Visual History Archive. They will learn to evaluate select interviews for the purpose of research and to critically "read" audiovisual sources as a type of text. As part of the course requirements, students will write a research paper based primarily on video testimony.

Other UCSD courses using the VHA:

CAT II -- Animation, Stimulation, Performance (taught by Emily Roxworthy)

HIEU 154 – Modern Germany: From Bismarck to Hitler (taught by Susanne Hillman)

During the 2010 Winter and Spring Quarters, the Workshop held regular Wednesday 5-7 demonstrations session on how to use the Visual History Archive and hosted nine presentations by local survivors. Beginning with the Fall 2010 Quarter, the Workshop continued putting on monthly talks by local survivors.

WINTER 2010

January 19: Three Years in Auschwitz
Horst Cahn
, originally from Essen, Germany, spent three years in Auschwitz. He shares his experience at the Nazi's most infamous concentration camp and talks about how he overcame the hatred of the past.

February 9: From Bialystok to Palestine
After passing through several concentration camps Ben Midler went to Palestine where he joined the Jewish underground army. He describes life on the frontlines and explains what prompted him to emigrate to the United States. UCSD Sociology Gershon Shafir provided some historical context on Israel in the 1940s.

March 2: The Story of Rose and Max Schindler
Rose came from Hungary and ended up in Auschwitz. Max survived Theresienstadt. After the war they met in England and got married. Today they relate their unique story of survival and triumph.

This Winter Professor Emily Roxworthy is teaching a course titled "Animation, Simulation and Performance" (CAT II). The course explores the recent history of graphic interactivity with "reality" to ask if animation, simulation, and performance engage us more deeply in the world around us. Visual representations of topics will be studies, including the 9/11 terrorist attacks on US soil, the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan, and the Holocaust. As part of their first writing assignment, students will be asked to contrast a war comic with a pre-selected interview from the Visual History Archive. To provide the necessary context, the Program Coordinator, Susanne Hillman, will show exerpts of these interviews on two separate occasions.

FALL 2010

October 6th:
Gussie Zaks, a survivor of five concentration camps who lost her parents and six siblings in the Holocaust, shared her story of struggle and survival.

November 3rd: :
Kurt Shuler, originally from Germany and Robert Frimtzis from Bessarabia (Moldova) talked about life under a totalitarian regime and how they escaped. They were introduced by UCSD Professors Deborah Hertz and Amelia Glaser.

Professor Deborah Hertz offered a course on the history of the Holocaust (HIEU 158: Why Hitler? How Auschwitz?). Students learned about answers to the following questions: Why did Germany in 1919 produce an Adolf Hitler? How did the Nazis take power in 1933? Why did the Third Reich last until 1945? Why did the war against the Jews become industrial and absolute? As part of the writing requirements, students had the option to do a project based on the Visual History Archive. On their own, or with the help of Program Coordinator Susanne Hillman, students examined individual testimonies against the background of scholarly research.

WINTER 2010

Dr. Edith Eger, February 3rd:
A survivor of the Auschwitz, Gunskirchen, and Mauthausen concentration camps, Eger came to the U.S. with her husband and daughter in 1949, earned her PhD in psychology and now has her own psychotherapy practice and an appointment at UC San Diego. Eger is a contributor to Chicken Soup for the Golden Soul and travels worldwide to share her story with others, in addition to counseling patients with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Ms. Ruth Klampert, February 17th:
Ruth escaped from Vienna to the United States in 1940 with her mother.  She grew up knowing little about what happened to the rest of her family, whom she left in Austria.  Her story provides a unique perspective of those children who knew little about their own families’ past and how they dealt with this absence.

Mr. Fred Schenk, February 24th: Schenk will discuss the experiences of his father, Sydney Schenk, who grew up in Peregrul-Mare, in what was then Austria-Hungary.  Sydney Schenk was liberated in Yugoslavia at the end of the war and later moved to Los Angeles. Fred Schenk will also discuss what it was like being the child of a Holocaust survivor.

Dr. Robert Frimtzis, March 3rd:
Frimtzis will present his experiences in the Holocaust and his life afterward as an aerospace engineer for NASA, Hughes Aircraft Company, and TRW.  His book From Tajikistan to the Moon discusses his experiences escaping from the Nazis and his postwar career.

SPRING 2010

Mrs. Doris Martin, March 31st:
Mrs Martin was born in Bedzin, Poland and survived the Bedzin Ghetto and the Ludwigsdorf and Auschwitz concentration camps.

Mrs. Fanny Krasner-Lebovitz, April 7th:
Mrs. Krasner-Lebovitz was born in Liepaja, Latvia and survived the Liepaja Ghetto and the Stolp, Stutthof, Riga-Kaiserwald, Riga-Reichsban, and Danzig/Schichau-Weft concentration camps.

Mrs. Rose Schindler, April 14th:
Rose Schindler discussed her experiences in the Holocaust. Mrs. Schindler was born in Seredne, Czechoslovakia and survived the Uzhorod Ghetto, Freudenthal concentration camp, and Auschwitz II-Birkenau death camp. She resides in San Diego with her husband, Max Schindler, who is also a Holocaust survivor.

Mrs. Agathe Ehrenfried, April 19th
[At the Great Hall, Eleanor Roosevelt College:5:30-8:00 pm]
Mrs Ehrenfried was born in Rakosliget, Hungary, and survived Muhldorf, Krakau-Plaslow and Ausburg concentration camps and Auschwitz II-Birkenau death camp.

This presentation was part of Hate Free Week scheduling at UCSD. The event also featured a discussion of the Armenian Genocide by Yeghig Keshishian, Armenian Assembly Western Office Director, and a panel of UCSD students from various organizations who talked about their experiences of sterotyping and racism on our campus.

Also as part of Hate Free Week, the workshop sponsored the Davka Exhibit, a multi-media exhibit located in the Geisel Library on how Survivors in San Diego dealt with life after the Holocaust.

Hanna Marx and Gerhard Maschowsky, May 12th
Mrs. Marx was bornin Hamm, Germany and survived the Riga ghetto and Stutthof and Riga-Kaiserwald concentration camps. Mr. Maschowsky was born in Elbing, Germany and survived Muhldorf, Nuendorf, Auschwitz, Auschwitz III-Monowitz, Uberwustegiersdorf, and Gelsenkirchen concentration camps. They shared the stories of their experiences in the Holocaust.

DIRECTIONS FOR VISITORS:

Unless otherwise announced, events take place in UCSD's Geisel Library. Parking at UCSD is free only during weekends. During the week, you may either use parking meters or buy permits from automated machines. The nearest parking meters are on the last block of Hopkins Drive, just northwest of the Library. The nearest parking structure is at the corner of Hopkins and Voight Drive. To get to the front entrance of Geisel library from the end of Hopkins Drive, follow the signs from the turnaround: you will need either to take the stairs or a walkway that curves down a short hill.

Directions to the library
Visitor parking information

If you need any special assistance, contact Susanne Hillman, hlhw@ucsd.edu, 858-534-7661.