The Center for Holocaust, Genocide, and
Human Rights Education of North Carolina
&
Holocaust Speakers Bureau
Second generation (2G)
Holocaust Topics:
Life in a ghetto; creation and operation of an extermination camp (Sobibor); experience of a partisan fighter and refugee
Description of Presentation:
John will present information on his father’s background and childhood in Poland, the onset of the war, his life in the Wlodowa ghetto, his work in a slave labor camp, the story of the extermination of his family, his escape to the forest in Poland, his experience fighting with the partisans, and his experience in a displaced persons (DP) camp.
Age/Grade Appropriateness: High school through adult
About the Speaker:
John, a retired physician, has given presentations before large audiences during his professional life. He has been giving presentations for the Holocaust Speaker’s Bureau for several years.
Contact information: wurzelma@gmail.com (984) 888-7312
Irene Stern Frielich
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.
Contact information : lmoneta@gmail.com (919) 812-8411
Judy Stevens
Alexander “Lex” Silbiger
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’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 a dozen states over the past 30 years. His speaking venues have included schools, Holocaust commemorations, churches, civic clubs, and libraries. This article gives a nice overview of his father's story: https://www.newsleader.com/story/news/2024/02/12/wwii-polish-jew-survives-holocaust-and-commands-italian-partisans/72510775007/
Contact information mwygoda51@gmail (337) 274-3625
Peter Stein
John Wurzelmann
Rabbi Michael (“Mike”) Stevens
Second generation (2G)
Holocaust Topics:
Her family's experiences in concentration camps
Description of Presentation:
Judy is a Hungarian-born child of a Holocaust survivor. She tells the story of her family before, during and after the Holocaust and recounts the loss of eight members of her maternal and paternal family in the Holocaust. Judy often speaks with her husband, Rabbi Michael Stevens (see below), who provides some historical background to the Holocaust.
Age/Grade Appropriateness: Middle school through adult
About the Speaker:
Judy was an elementary school teacher for 28 years and an adult educator for 8 years. She has presented her story many
times to both students and adults.
Contact information: jstevens22@sbcglobal.net (919) 586-7950
Maureen Wertheim
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.
Contact information : judi.magier@gmail.com 336-324-0553
Judi Magier
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.
Contact information: Dfulmer920@gmail.com
SHELDON "SHELLY" BLEIWEISS
Second Generation (2G)
Holocaust Topics:
Survival during the Holocaust, growing up as a child of survivors, impact of visiting Poland and some of the death camps, history of the Holocaust and the events that led to the “Final Solution,” Kristallnacht, antisemistism, lessons learned
Description of Presentation:
Through his interactive PowerPoint presentation with pictorial evidence and video testimony, Shelly tells the story of his parents’ survival during the Holocaust. He also provides historical background and events leading to the Holocaust.
About the Speaker:
Shelly has spent more than 20 years in Holocaust education. He is a member of the NC Council on the Holocaust and has spoken to teacher workshops, hundreds of school students, and numerous community groups. He was the Chair of the NC State Holocaust commemoration for five years. Additionally, Shelly has been a Holocaust instructor for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at Duke and NC State, and the Creative Lifelong Learning Program at Granville County Senior Center.
Contact information: shellybmsw@gmail.com (713) 299-6092
Holocaust Topics:
Teenagers’ survival experiences during the Holocaust
Description of Presentation:
Graham’s presentation focuses on the experiences of several teenagers from various walks of life in Nazi-occupied Europe. He teaches the story of a young girl struggling to survive in Auschwitz in the final stages of the war; Sonia Orbuch, a young girl who becomes a member of a partisan group; and a Jewish boy hiding in occupied France.
Age/Grade Appropriateness: 6th to 12th grade
About the Speaker:
Graham is 17 years old and in 11th grade at Carolina Friends School. He began researching the Holocaust several years ago after reading Elie Wiesel’s Night. He was so inspired by what he read, he committed himself to researching the Holocaust. He joined the Holocaust Speakers Bureau to help shed light on these important stories.
Graham is willing to do his presentation either in-person (if feasible) or by Zoom.
Contact information: grahamdrake2006@gmail.com (984) 244-8030
Roni Rosenthal
Steve Goldberg
Holocaust Topics:
Historical background on the Holocaust
Description of Presentation:
Together with his wife Judy Stevens, a Hungarian-born child of Holocaust survivors, who tells the stories of her parents before, during, and after the Holocaust, Rabbi Stevens adds the historical context.
Age/Grade Appropriateness: Middle school through adult
About the Speaker:
Rabbi Stevens has been teaching about Judaism and the Holocaust as a congregational rabbi for 40 years. He and his wife have given presentations to students and adults numerous times.
Contact information michael.stevens@prodigy.net (919) 586-7950
Second Generation (2G)
Holocaust Topic:
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.
Contact information: Mlwertheim1@gmail.com (919) 961-9618
Holocaust Topics:
One survivor’s story of ghetto life, separation from family, slave labor camps, and liberation
Description of Presentation:
Steve tells the compelling story of Holocaust survivor Abe Piasek. Steve was so taken by Abe's story when he heard it one day when Abe visited the school at which Steve was teaching that he took time away from the classroom for a few years to tell Abe's story of survival. Abe’s story went untold for nearly 50 years and lives on through interviews Steve conducted with him, along with video clips of Abe's various speeches. Steve provides context for those clips, including maps and artifacts, to help audiences better connect with Abe's story.
Age/Grade Appropriateness: 7th grade through adult
About the Speaker:
Steve taught high school students about history for more than two decades, and relates particularly well to high school and college audiences. He has shared Abe’s story with more than 120 audiences (over 6,000 people) over the past three years. More details are available at www.MyFriendAbe.com.
Contact information: MrGoldberg@gmail.com 919-357-8524
Holocaust Topics:
Warsaw Ghetto uprising; refugees; concentration camps
Description of Presentation:
Mike presents a picture of the beginning and end of the Warsaw Ghetto, in which 450,000 Jews were sealed inside. In one year, 47,000 inhabitants died inside the ghetto from starvation, disease and physical abuse. By the spring of 1943, only 43,000 Jews we left alive in the ghetto. The rest died of starvation, disease or were sent to the death camp, Treblinka, where most were murdered upon arrival. In the spring of 1943, a small band of men and women decided to revolt against the Nazi killers. This was the first and largest revolt by Jews living in the ghettos of Europe. In less than 30 days, the Nazis had crushed the revolt and left the ghetto in total ruin.
Age/Grade Appropriateness: 6th grade through adult
About the Speaker:
Mike is a Christian by faith. He has studied the Holocaust for over 25 years and has a large library of books on the subject. He has visited Auschwitz concentration/death camp in Poland and Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. He is available for in-person or zoom presentations.
Contact information: mike4hazel@gmail.com (828) 508-2038
Renée Fink
Third generation (3G)
Holocaust Topics:
Holocaust in Romania, Bucharest and Iasi pogroms, Romanian prison, Romanian labor camps, poems from prison, silenced stories
Description of Presentation:
Roni discusses her grandmother’s cousin, Friddie Stoleru, whose husband disappeared just a few weeks after their wedding in 1940 in Romania. Friddie was wrongly accused of espionage and spent the next nine years in a Romanian prison, followed by four years in a Romanian labor camp, only because of her Jewish heritage.
This presentation will cover Friddie's story, including family research that has been conducted, Friddie's uncle David's story, who was murdered during the Iasi Pogrom in June of 1941, and some of Friddie's poems that were written while she was in prison.
This presentation will also cover the major historical events that took place in Romania leading up to and during World War II, including the Holocaust, and the fascist-dictatorial regime that has been part of Romania for so many years.
Friddie's memoir, titled "Where the Lilacs Bloom Once Again - Friddie's Story" https://a.co/d/4M32c5C was published in 2022 and received 13 book awards. It gained attention from international media and served as a platform to share silenced stories from Romania.
About the Speaker:
Roni Rosenthal was born in Haifa. Roni is the Director of Judaic Studies and Professor of Language and Literature at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Friddie’s story has been shared many times during the past few years, including at the Gaithersburg Book Festival, the New Jersey Public Library, the Nova JCC, Hebrew Homes, Jewish congregations, local schools, and book clubs.
Age/Grade Appropriateness: 8th grade through adult
Contact information: Rosenthal.roni@gmail.com (301) 672-4296
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 2 ½ 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.
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.) 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. She beautifully weaves past and present as she grapples with loss, intergenerational trauma, and hope for a more just future. 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. View the book trailer here.
Readers’ Favorite SILVER Medal Winner in Non-Fiction-Cultural, 2024, National Federation of Press Women, SECOND place in memoir, 2024, The BookFest GOLD award winner, 2024 Follow the journey here: www.facebook.com/ShatteredStarsHealingHearts
Now scheduling events through June 2025. More info at www.shatteredstars.org
Age/Grade Appropriateness: 7th grade through adult
Contact information: irenefrielich@gmail.com (617) 877-2719
Mark Wygoda
We are saddened to share the news that our beloved friend, speaker, and Holocaust survivor Peter Stein passed away on August 8, 2024.
Peter was born on September 22, 1936 in Prague, Czechoslovakia to a Jewish father and a Catholic mother, just two years before the Nazi occupation. His father was forced into slave labor and later deported to Terezin (Theresienstadt), a work and death camp. He managed to survive but his family of nine were killed. During the war, Peter attended a school where photos of Adolf Hitler and the German flag were displayed in every classroom. He dealt with antisemitism and lived through air raid drills and bombings by Allied aircraft. Peter arrived in New York Harbor with his mother on the night Harry Truman upset Thomas Dewey in the 1948 presidential election. Peter’s father eventually joined the family after the Communists finally allowed him to leave Prague. Peter attended public schools in New York, learned English, graduated from the City College of New York, and earned his Ph.D. in sociology from Princeton University.
Peter taught at several universities, conducted research and wrote and co-authored a number of books. He served as the Co-Director of the Genocide and Holocaust Studies Center at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey. Upon moving to Chapel Hill, he served as Associate Director for Aging Workforce Initiatives at the UNC Institute on Aging. During this time, he also helped to develop the Holocaust Speakers Bureau, a component of the Center for Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Education of North Carolina. He taught courses on the Holocaust and developed workshops for teachers and community members.
Peter moved to the Washington, DC area a few years ago and served as a Volunteer Holocaust Survivor at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. His book, "A Boy's Journey: From Nazi-Occupied Prague to Freedom in America," covers his experiences during the German occupation and later the Communist coup.
Peter was a generous spirit, an inspiring teacher and a compassionate man. We will miss him greatly.
Courtney Doi
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.
Contact information: DebbieTheTeacher@gmail.com (919) 593 0761
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” https://youtu.be/UbPudYTSWgs. 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. She enjoys meeting students and adults, many who bring their own experiences and connections.
Starting in October 2022, Bonnie will be featured in the NC Museum of Art’s Judaic Collection discussing the importance of religious treasures and artifacts that survived the Holocaust.
Contact information: BonnieAHauser@gmail.com (919) 619-4354
Graham Drake
Survivor
Holocaust Topics:
Hidden child in the Netherlands, epigenetics and the aftermath of war on survivors, courage and standing up
Description of Presentation:
Born 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.
Click here to view a video of Renée's story. The North Carolina Civic Education Consortium has developed a lesson plan based the video: Survival and Resistance: Hidden Children of the Holocaust.
Contact information: Refink58@gmail.com
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’s it 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.
Contact information: Sharonhalperin88@gmail.com (919) 414-3211
Deborah Long
Third generation (3G)
Holocaust Topics:
Kindertransport; refugees; concentration camps
Description of Presentation
Courtney’s grandmother, Judith, left Berlin, Germany on the Kindertransport in December 1938 just after Kristallnacht. She lived with a foster family in the English countryside to avoid heavy bombing in the city. Judith’s father, two aunts, and two of her siblings died in concentration camps. One of Judith's siblings survived internment at the Theresienstadt concentration camp/ghetto. Courtney inherited 30 years of her grandmother’s personal journals and essays. These writings address both childhood experiences from the war and the contrasting feelings of guilt and luck many survivors encountered. Courtney discusses topics such as the Kindertransport and the German Jewish refugee experience, including why Jews did not leave Germany. She also discusses how to prevent future genocide.
Age/Grade Appropriateness: 5th grade through adult
About the Speaker
Courtney Doi was appointed to the NC Council on the Holocaust in 2021. She participated in the 2019 NYC Summer Seminar through The Olga Lengyel Institute for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights. She has spoken to groups across the country in person and on Zoom, reaching more than 2,500 students of all ages. Listen to Courtney share the reasons she tells her grandmother's Holocaust story at: https://youtu.be/DNzQbkz9tQY
Contact information:courtneydoi@yahoo.com (919) 423-9186
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 artificact 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:
Rose has been a Board member of the Center for Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Education of North Carolina and the Holocaust Speakers Bureau for many years. 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.
Contact information: Rmills57fad@gmail.com (919) 973-1011
Larry Moneta
Sharon Halperin
Chaim Poran
Second generation (2G)
Holocaust Topics:
Historical context, ghetto confinement, forced-labor camps, concentration and extermination camps, survival
Description of Presentation:
Chaim presents the story about the miraculous survival of his parents through the Holocaust. As a young teenager, his mother endured the horrors of the Kovno ghetto and the Stutthof concentration camp. In January 1945, she survived a death march of the retreating Nazis. His father escaped the invading Nazis and fled into Russia. When he returned to Nazi-occupied Poland he learned that his family had been murdered. He survived the rest of the war in hiding.
Age/Grade Appropriateness: High school and adult
About the Speaker:
Chaim has visited the birthplaces of his parents, as well as the ghettos, concentration camps and extermination camps where his parents’ families were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. He has been an invited speaker in many high schools and other venues discussing the Holocaust and his parents’ miraculous survival story, which is published at: https://bit.ly/PoranH2H
Contact Information: 18benadam@gmail.com
Debbie Fulmer
Rose Mills
Bonnie Hauser
Mike Lowder
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.
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.
Age/Grade Appropriateness: Grade 6 through adult
Contact information: alexander.silbiger@duke.edu
Speaker Information
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