Survivors and 2Gs
To select a speaker who best fits your classroom needs and curricular content, first read through our Speaker Information. If your students are reading The Diary of Anne Frank, you may wish to request one of our Speakers Emeriti who was a hidden child. If your class is reading Maus, you might consider a speaker who is the child of survivors. Several of our speakers are professional historians. Others have expertise in topics such as Resistance and Rescue, Displaced Persons Camps, the Lodz Ghetto, and Elie Wiesel.
We have vetted our speakers to the best of our ability. It is extremely challenging to confirm all of the details of our speakers' stories since they are discussing events that occurred decades ago. All victims of genocide and mass atrocities may choose to relate only portions of their experiences, but we are grateful to them for all they share with us. Please note that most of our volunteer speakers have limited teaching or speaking experience. We regularly meet with them to guide them through their talking points using visual aids. To ensure an effective program, please read Hosting Speakers for practical suggestions on assisting our speakers to do their best.
Speakers may elect to do in-person or Zoom presentations. Please discuss this when you contact them about their availability.
PLEASE CONTACT SHARON HALPERIN TO ARRANGE SPEAKER PRESENTATIONS. [email protected]. 919-414-3211
Sheldon "Shelly" Bleiweiss
Second Generation (2G)
Holocaust Topics:
Surviving the Holocaust using fake identities; The effects of Survivor's PTSD on my generation; the emotional impact of a personal visit to Poland and some of the death camps; History/background of the Holocaust; Kristallnacht—a Green Light to the Holocaust; Understanding Antisemitism; Life After the Holocaust; Applying lessons learned to our behavior today
Description of Presentation:
Through his interactive PowerPoint presentation with pictorial evidence and video testimony, Shelly tells the story of how his parents met and fell in love during deportation, survived independently in the open using fake identities as Polish laborers, and the challenges his father faced posing as a non-Jew. He shares how his life was impacted by his parents' PTSD, and how a personal visit to Poland and 3 of the death camps triggered his journey into Holocaust Education. Shelly can also provide historical background about antisemitism and the events leading up to the Holocaust.
About the Speaker:
Shelly has spent more than 25 years in Holocaust education, including 5 years as a docent at Holocaust Museum Houston. He is a member of the NC Council on the Holocaust and former Chair of the NC State Holocaust commemoration. Shelly has spoken to hundreds of school students, several teacher workshops, and numerous community groups. Additionally, Shelly is a Holocaust instructor for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) senior adult continuing education programs at Duke and NC State, and for the Creative Lifelong Learning Program at Granville County Senior Center. Shelly is available for both in-person & Zoom presentations.
Renée Fink
Survivor
Holocaust Topics:
Hidden child in the Netherlands, epigenetics and the aftermath of war on survivors, courage and standing up
Description of Presentation:
Born in the Netherlands, Renée went into hiding at the age of four during World War II. She was fortunate to be able to stay with a Catholic Dutch family until after the war ended, when she was eight. Reunited with her grandmother, they lived in another Dutch town until she came to the U.S. with her grandmother in 1948.
Age/Grade Appropriateness: 5th grade through adult
About the Speaker:
Renée has spoken at Duke University, the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, and community colleges in various NC counties, women's groups, church groups, retirement communities and more. She is often invited to address educators at teacher symposia and workshops.
Irene Stern Frielich
Second Generation (2G)
Holocaust Topics:
Holocaust survival story; being an 'upstander' citizen (the courage, compassion, and kindness shown by 18 people who helped Irene's father survive)
Description of Presentation:
Irene shares her father's Holocaust survival story from Kristallnacht in Germany, when he was 12 years old, through crossing the border to Holland, hiding in a farm attic for 2½ years, and finally liberation, when he was 18. She focuses on the upstander citizens—usually total strangers—who helped her family survive. This multimedia presentation includes images from then and now and snippets of oral testimony from her father. Irene also includes information about her grandfather's arrest, internment, and murder at Auschwitz. Irene's memoir, Shattered Stars, Healing Hearts: Unraveling My Father's Holocaust Survival Story, takes the reader on an international journey to retrace her father's escape and survival. The book has won three awards: Readers' Favorite Silver Medal in Non-Fiction-Cultural, 2024; National Federation of Press Women, second place in memoir, 2024; and The BookFest GOLD award winner, 2024.
Age/Grade Appropriateness: 7th grade through adult
About the Speaker:
Irene has spoken dozens of times, to over 2,500 people, about her father's story. She speaks in person as well as via Zoom to adults and students. (Note that Irene is based in Massachusetts but frequently visits the Raleigh-Durham area.)
Listen to a short clip about Irene's presentation.
Debbie Fulmer
Second Generation (2G)
Holocaust Topics:
Kindertransport
Description of Presentation:
Debbie discusses her father's family life in Hamburg, Germany and his escape, as a young boy, to England via the Kindertransport. She also talks about his experiences in England living with three different families during the war and his reunification with his family in the US after the war. Materials include: RAF Captain's pin, RAF diary, aircraft spotters guide.
Age/Grade Appropriateness: 4th grade to adult
About the Speaker:
Debbie has 25+ years of public speaking and training experience with a particular interest in Holocaust survivor stories. She is available for in-person presentations (when feasible) and by Zoom.
Sharon Halperin
Second Generation (2G)
Holocaust Topics:
Displaced Persons camps, round ups, Riga ghetto, slave labor, fleeing home and living in forests of Poland, immigration to United States
Description of Presentation:
Sharon discusses her parents' Holocaust story with details about their interwar lives, the outbreak of WWII, DP camps, immigrating to the United States, early life in America, what it's like growing up as a child of survivors. She uses a PowerPoint presentation to help illustrate her presentation.
Age/Grade Appropriateness: 4th grade through adult
About the Speaker:
Sharon has worked on annual Holocaust commemorative services and events for over 40 years. She has taught mini-courses that focus on lessons of the Holocaust, the use and abuse of power, resistance and rescue, and the role of personal responsibility. Sharon participated in The Belfer Conference, an intensive workshop for middle and high school educators, which takes place annually at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in Washington, DC. She has certificates of teacher training from the USHMM, Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior, The Holocaust Educator's Network, and Appalachian State University's Summer Symposium for Teacher Training on the Holocaust.
[email protected]·919-414-3211
Bonnie Hauser
Second Generation (2G)
Holocaust Topics:
Auschwitz, Bergen Belsen, deportation, liberation
Description of Presentation:
Bonnie recounts the harrowing story of her mother, Rebecca Yomtov Hauser. Rebecca along with the entire Jewish community of Ioannina, Greece was rounded up and deported to Auschwitz in March 1944. After a year at Auschwitz, Rebecca was transferred to Bergen Belsen where she was liberated in 1945. Rebecca was the only survivor in her immediate family. Bonnie and Rebecca told the story together for nearly 10 years until Rebecca's passing in 2018. Bonnie now works with her mother's video testimony, 'A Greek Girl in Auschwitz'. She also shares photographs documenting Rebecca's experience.
Age/Grade Appropriateness: 6th grade through adult
About the Speaker:
Bonnie has shared Rebecca's inspiring story of survival with dozens of schools, churches, civic groups, and more. She strives to stay true to Rebecca's experience and voice, which she captured from working side by side with her mother for years. Starting in October 2022, Bonnie was featured in the NC Museum of Art's Judaic Collection discussing the importance of religious treasures and artifacts that survived the Holocaust.
Monique Rubens Krohn
Second Generation (2G)
Holocaust Topics:
Family escape, rescue, resistance, upstander Aristides de Sousa Mendes, visas
Description of Presentation:
The presentation is an interweaving of Monique's mother, grandparents and extended family members' escape from France and Belgium in May and June 1940 and how their escape was due to the heroic actions of the Portuguese consul in Bordeaux, France, a little-known 'upstander' who defied his government's orders and issued thousands of life-saving visas to the fleeing refugees. Artifacts include Monique's mother's agenda book detailing when her family received visas and her feelings about leaving her beloved France, as well as her American immigration card issued in Bordeaux.
Age/Grade Appropriateness: Middle school and above
About the Speaker:
Monique is the Chair of the Sousa Mendes Foundation and has spoken to Jewish groups, retirees, schools and the general public nationally and internationally.
Deborah Long
Second Generation (2G)
Holocaust Topics:
Lodz Ghetto; Auschwitz; Bergen-Belsen; post-liberation; coming to America
Description of Presentation:
Deborah's mother was in her twenties when the Nazis invaded her city, Lodz, Poland, in September 1939. Lodz was the second largest city in Poland with a significant Jewish population. After surviving hunger and disease for four years in the ghetto, her mother and her parents were sent to Auschwitz in 1944. Her mother alone survived and was sent to Bergen-Belsen and another labor camp. Upon liberation, she rebuilt her life. Her mother's story is one of insurmountable tragedy but also one of fortitude and hope.
Age/Grade Appropriateness: 5th grade through adult
About the Speaker:
Deborah's mother demonstrated by her example the importance of education and by her words that we must care for one another. That is the reason Deborah shares her mother's story. Deborah has been an educator for more than 50 years. She works mainly with adults who seek professional licensure, but she is also interested in Holocaust education and Jewish genealogy.
Judi Magier
Second Generation (2G)
Holocaust Topics:
Father's survival story; life in his hometown in Poland at the start of the war; concentration camps; death march; displaced person camp
Description of Presentation:
Judi's father was 17 when he was sent to a concentration camp. Judi shares her father's Holocaust experience with powerful video clips in his own words. Her presentation includes photographs, documents, and maps describing the beginning of the war when Germany invaded, the many concentration camps her father survived, and how he began his life again after liberation.
Age/Grade Appropriateness: High School through adult
About the Speaker:
Judi's father, Steve Magier, gave his testimony to many school groups in his senior years. Judi accompanied him to Israel for the Yad Vashem 60th Anniversary of Liberation in 2005. She escorted him as a guest speaker on the March of the Living to Poland and Israel in 2007. She attended the Roots Journey to Zaglembie in her father's birthplace Bedzin, Poland in 2018. Judi is motivated to follow her father's example to share the truth of what can happen when there is hatred and discrimination.
Rose Mills
Second Generation (2G)
Holocaust Topics:
Kristallnacht; separation of families; hiding from the Nazis; Teresienstadt (Terezin); immigration to the US after the war
Description of Presentation:
Rose tells the story of her parents and their families in Germany leading up to, during and after World War II. Her mother was forced to flee Nazi Germany and escape to London in 1938. Her father was unable to join her and eventually had to go into hiding during the Holocaust. She discusses his eventual liberation and her parents' reunion after the war. She also discusses the tragic fate of some of her less fortunate relatives during the Holocaust. Rose is able to share with her audience an artifact from the Holocaust, her father's yellow Star of David, which all Jews in Nazi Germany were required to wear on their clothing.
Age/Grade Appropriateness: 6th grade through adult
About the Speaker:
She has spoken to numerous school groups and has always received excellent reviews from both teachers and students. Rose is available for Zoom and in-person presentations.
Larry Moneta
Second Generation (2G)
Holocaust Topics:
Parents' experiences in a ghetto, multiple concentration camps and displaced persons camps. The impact on my childhood and young adulthood from parents who initially avoided any discussion of the Holocaust and then finally shared their experiences
Description of Presentation:
Via a powerful set of slides, Larry presents his parents' experiences in their respective Polish communities, including their lives in ghettos, survival in multiple concentration camps, loss of their parents, grandparents and many more relatives, and their subsequent lives as displaced persons and migration to the United States.
Age/Grade Appropriateness: High school through adult
About the Speaker:
Larry has been an educator for nearly 50 years, working as a college administrator and teacher at six different universities. He has spoken frequently on these campuses about his family and the impact of the Holocaust on his and their lives. He has held local and national roles with Hillel, served as board chair of Shalom Learning (K-5 Jewish education program) and currently is an advisor to two Jewish Leadership development programs.
George Rishfeld
Survivor
Holocaust Topics:
Vilna Ghetto, hidden child in Warsaw, immigration to the US
Description of Presentation:
George was born on the 26th of April, 1939, in Warsaw — just months before the German invasion. When the Nazis took Warsaw that September, the family fled east to Vilna, hoping it would be safer. In June 1941, within weeks, the Nazis held Vilna, and behind brick and barbed wire they built a ghetto. George's parents understood what was happening and they made the hardest decision a parent could make. They kissed their little boy, and "tossed" him over the fence to be taken care of by a non-Jewish couple, the Fronckvics, who raised him as their own son. After the war, the family was reunited and emigrated to the US.
Age/Grade Appropriateness: Middle and High School
About the Speaker:
George has been speaking for many years about his life as a child who was saved by a Christian family in Vilna. He speaks eloquently, is quite animated and is even funny at times. He shares family photos and maps.
Alexander "Lex" Silbiger
Survivor
Holocaust Topics:
Life under Nazi occupation; seeking asylum; refugee experience
Description of Presentation:
Lex presents his memories of the German invasion of the Netherlands and of life under occupation. He discusses his family's flight through Belgium, France and Spain with dangerous border crossings; difficulty of obtaining asylum; and life in a refugee camp in Jamaica. His presentation is illustrated with a PowerPoint slide show with original photographs and maps.
Age/Grade Appropriateness: Grade 6 through adult
About the Speaker:
Lex has given many presentations during the past several years, both live and on Zoom, to middle schools in the Triangle area, as well as to groups of college students. Earlier, his experiences included teaching music to children of grade-school and high-school age and many years of university teaching.
Maureen Wertheim
Second Generation (2G)
Holocaust Topics:
Hidden Child
Description of Presentation:
Maureen shares her mother's miraculous story of survival that began at the age of 7, immediately after Kristallnacht. It ended 7 years later when she was reunited with some of her family. Her presentation includes a brief review of the history leading up to the beginning of Nazism in Germany and includes artifacts (her mother's wartime clothing, photographs and letters).
Age/Grade Appropriateness: Age 12 and older
About the Speaker:
Maureen has a commitment to share her mother's story. She believes that educating people about the Holocaust will encourage dialogue and help prevent hatred and discrimination. She is able to tailor her talk to various age groups and share what impact this information has for us now and for the future. Maureen is happy to speak virtually on Zoom should distance be a factor.
Mark Wygoda
Second generation (2G)
Holocaust Topics:
Mark shares his father's story of resistance as a ghetto smuggler in Poland and later a partisan commander in Italy.
Description of Presentation:
Mark shares his father's story of resistance as a ghetto smuggler in Poland and later a partisan commander in Italy. Mark's father was in his early thirties when the Germans invaded Poland. There he lived in open society under an assumed identity and became a Warsaw ghetto smuggler. Later after working for a year in Berlin, he escaped to northern Italy where he became a partisan commander. Mark uses photographs and maps to help illustrate his presentation, which includes a discussion of the causes of genocide.
Age/Grade Appropriateness: 6th grade through adult
About the Speaker:
Mark is a retired college professor who has spoken about his father's story to thousands of people in 16 states over the past 30 years. His speaking venues have included schools, Holocaust commemorations, churches, civic clubs, and libraries. Mark is a board member of the Center for Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Education of NC.
Survivors and 2Gs Speaker Information