Wednesday, November 8th, 2006
10:00AM
 My Personal Testimony
10:00AM
Continuing the Legacy: The March of the Living From Different Perspectives
10:30AM
My Personal Testmony
11:00AM
My Personal Testmony
1:00PM
My Personal Testimony
1:00PM
A Ride to Remember!
1:00PM
My Personal Testimony
1:00PM
My Personal Testimony
1:30PM
My Personal Testimony
1:30PM
My Personal Testimony
1:30PM
My Personal Testimony
2:00PM
Watermarks (FILM)
2:00PM
Tea at Two
2:30PM
My Personal Testimony
2:30PM
My Personal Testimony
7:00PM
Who is Your Neighbour: Will You be Saved or Betrayed?
7:00PM
Hana's Suitcase: An Interactive Exhibit
7:00PM
Paper Clips(Film)
7:30PM
Continuing Legacy: March of the Living
7:30PM
Between Accomodation and Resistance: A New Look at the Holocaust in France
7:30PM
Resistance & Survival: The Jewish Community of Kaunas
7:30PM
No Greater Honour
7:30PM
Sister Rose's Passion
8:00PM
Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust
8:00PM
The Shop on Main Street
Admission to all programs is free unless otherwise noted.
However, to ensure that the highest caliber of Holocaust programs may be perpetuated in future years, a voluntary donation of at least $3 per person per event would be appreciated. Donation boxes will be available at all events. We thank you for your generosity.
For program changes visit this website frequently or call our hotline at 416-631-5689.
|
|
10:00AM
Milliken Mills Community Library
7600 Kennedy Road, No.1, Unionville
Contact: 905-513-7977 x5344
MY PERSONAL TESTIMONY
ALEX LEVIN was born in 1932 in the small town of
Rokitno, (Volin) Poland. He survived the Rokitno
Ghetto’s massacre, during which his parents and
younger brother were murdered. He managed to
escape with his other brother into the forest where they
lived in a cave for over one year. He was liberated by
the Soviet Red Army in 1944. In 1975, Alex made his
way to Canada via Vienna and Rome. A question and
answer period will follow.
|
|
|
10:00AM
Maple High School
50 Springside Road, Maple
Contact: 905-417-9444
CONTINUING THE LEGACY: THE MARCH OF THE LIVING FROM DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES
March of the Living is a trip that has educated
thousands of Jewish high school students about the
horrors of the Holocaust. In May 2005, 18,000
politicians, teachers, students, Holocaust survivors,
Jews and non-Jews, gathered in Poland for a special
March of the Living to mark the 60th anniversary
of the end of World War II. It was a symbolic,
emotional, and historic journey that was lifechanging
for many. Canadian politicians from
across the country were part of that group. Their
experiences are documented in A-Channel’s awardwinning
documentary March of the Living. After
screening the documentary, A-Channel reporter
NAOMI PARNESS, joined by Vaughan’s MAYOR
MICHAEL DI BIASE and Holocaust survivor
MAX EISEN, will speak to students at Maple High
School about their personal experiences on the trip.
Max Eisen was born in Moldava, Czechoslovakia.
He and his family were deported to Auschwitz-
Birkenau in 1944 where he worked as a slave
labourer with his father and uncle. Max survived a
death march to Mauthausen, Melk and Ebensee
and was liberated on May 6, 1945. After spending
three years in an orphanage, he arrived in Canada
in 1949. Max is the recipient of the 2004
Humanitarian Award from the Friends of Simon
Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies.
Mayor Michael Di Biase graduated with a Bachelor
of Arts degree from York University and a Bachelor
of Education from the University of Toronto. He has
been in municipal politics for over 20 years and has
been the Mayor of Vaughan since 2002. Prior to
becoming involved in politics, Mayor Di Biase was
a secondary school teacher for 16 years.
Naomi Parness is a graduate of Ryerson’s Radio and
Television Arts program, and has had experience
working at WCBS and NY1 in New York, and
was an anchor and reporter at CHEX-TV in
Peterborough. Her documentary, March of the Living,
has won three awards, including a regional Edward
R. Murrow Award.
|
|
|
10:30AM
Mount Pleasant Library
599 Mt. Pleasant Road, Toronto
Contact: 416-393-7736
MY PERSONAL TESTIMONY
Born in Zaleszczyki, Poland in 1922, SALLY EISNER
and her entire family were transferred to the ghetto,
then to slave labour camps. When her parents were
murdered, Sally went into hiding with her younger
brother, travelling from place to place, constantly in
great danger. They were liberated in 1944 by the Soviet
Red Army. A question and answer period will follow.
|
|
|
11:00AM
People's Christian Academy
374 Sheppard Ave. East, Toronto
Contact: 416-222-3341 x105
MY PERSONAL TESTIMONY
Holocaust survivor MARTIN MAXWELLborn in
Vienna in 1924, witnessed the Kristallnacht pogrom in
Vienna in 1938. He escaped to England on the
Kindertransport and was adopted by an English couple.
He later joined the British Army in 1942 and took part
in the D-Day invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944.
When he fought in the battle of Arnhem, Holland, he
was wounded and taken prisoner. Liberated in May
1945, he came to Canada in 1952. Martin took part in
the 60th Anniversary Celebrations of the Liberation of
Holland. A question and answer period will follow.
|
|
|
1:00PM
Ansley Grove Public Library
350 Ansley Grove Road, Vaughan
Contact: 905-856-6551
MY PERSONAL TESTIMONY
FANNY PILLERSDORF, born in Bendzin, Poland, survived
seven camps: Ortmunt, Blechamer, Klein
Mangelsdorf, Wizau, Gross Rosen, Gross Maslowich
and Cillertal. Toward the end of the War, she managed
to escape and was hidden by a farmer. She is the sole
survivor of her family, as her parents and two younger
sisters were murdered. She was liberated by the Soviet
Red Army and came to Canada with her husband and
children in 1962. A question and answer period will
follow.
|
|
|
1:00PM
Bernard Betel Centre for Creative Living
1003 Steeles Avenue West, Toronto
Contact: 416-225-2112 x105
A RIDE TO REMEMBER!
What do paper clips and butterflies have in common?
How do you grasp the meaning of “Six Million”?
Excerpts from the documentary Paper Clips will be
shown to illustrate how the students of Whitwell
Middle School in Tennessee solved the problem and the
incredible legacy they created as the result. ANDY
RÉTI is a Holocaust child survivor, author and
member of the Jewish Motorcycle Alliance. He will
focus on the “Paper Clip Ride to Remember,” a recent
trip he took to Whitwell Middle School with 400 other
Jewish bikers, their families and friends. A question
and answer period will follow.
|
|
|
1:00PM
Maple Library
10190 Keele Street, Maple
Contact: 905-653-7323 x4504
MY PERSONAL TESTIMONY
Born in Poland, Holocaust survivor MANNY LANGER
was forced to live in the Lodz Ghetto during the War.
Later on, he was transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau
and Bergen-Belsen concentration camps. After Liberation,
he came to Canada and now regularly volunteers as a
survivor speaker for the UJA Federation Holocaust
Centre of Toronto. A question and answer period will
follow.
|
|
|
1:00PM
Pierre Berton Resource Library
4921 Rutherford Road, Toronto
Contact: 416-653-7323 x4310
MY PERSONAL TESTIMONY
SHARY FINE was born in Bistrica, Romania in 1927.
She was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in early 1944,
then transferred to Plaszow labour camp before being
transferred back to Auschwitz. Later, she was sent to
the Stuttgart area in Germany for slave labour. Shary
survived a death march to the Alps and was liberated
by the U.S. 7th Army on April 29, 1945. She came to
Canada in 1948. A question and answer period will
follow.
|
|
|
1:30PM
Bathurst Clark Resource Library
900 Clark Avenue West, Thornhill
Contact: 905-653-7323 x4122
MY PERSONAL TESTIMONY
Born in 1927 in Nádudvar, Hungary into an Orthodox
Jewish family, LESLIE MEISELS survived the ghetto
in Debrecen, deportation to Strasshof, near Vienna,
slave labour at Hollabrun, Austria, and eventual
deportation to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
He was liberated on April 13, 1945 by the 9th U.S.
Army on a train heading toward the Theresienstadt
concentration camp. His mother, father and both
brothers also survived. He came to Canada in 1967.
A question and answer period will follow.
|
|
|
1:30PM
Locke Public Libary
3083 Yonge Street Library
Contact: 416-393-7730
MY PERSONAL TESTIMONY
Born in Antwerp, Belgium in 1936, ANNE EIDLITZ
lived a normal family life with her parents and younger
sister until 1942 when her father was deported. Her
mother then went into hiding with her two daughters.
Later the Gestapo arrested Anne’s mother while Anne
and her sister remained in hiding. Later, they were
smuggled into Switzerland where they stayed until 1946.
They both immigrated to Canada in the early 1950s.
A question and answer period will follow.
|
|
|
1:30PM
Unionville Library
15 Library Lane, Unionville
Contact: 905-513-7977 x5537
MY PERSONAL TESTIMONY
LEIZER (LOU) HOFFER was born in Vijnitz, Bucovina
(Romania) in 1927. During the War, he and his family
were taken to the Transnistria and Shargorod camps.
While his immediate family survived, many of his
relatives perished. Lou immigrated to Canada in 1948.
A question and answer period will follow.
In loving memory of Etty Zigler z”l.
|
|
|
2:00PM
Extendicare Bayview
550 Cummer Avenue, Toronto
Contact: 416-226-1331
WATERMARKS (FILM)
This film focuses on Hakoah, the legendary Viennese
Jewish sports club established in 1909, when Austrian
sports clubs were banned from accepting Jewish
athletes. The club grew into one of Europe’s finest,
known especially for the excellence of its women
swimmers who are reunited in this moving documentary.
|
|
|
2:00PM
Forest Hill United Church
2 Wembley Road, Toronto
Contact: 417-783-0879
TEA AT TWO
ESTHER BEM was raised in Zagreb, in the former
Yugoslavia. Two of her older sisters joined Tito’s
Underground Resistance Army in 1941. Her sister,
Jelka, was caught by the Croat Fascist Ustashi in 1942
and executed. Her other sister, Vera, was cited for
bravery. Esther and her parents survived by hiding in
Italy, where poor farmers in the mountains helped
them under very difficult circumstances. She and her
family arrived in Canada in 1966. A question and
answer period will follow.
|
|
|
2:30PM
Louis-Honore Frechette School
40 New Westminster Drive, Thornhill
Contact: 905-738-1724
MY PERSONAL TESTIMONY
GEORGE BERMAN was born in Poland in 1923. He
and his family lived in the Lodz Ghetto between 1940-
1944, and were then transferred to Auschwitz-
Birkenau, where he lost both his parents. Later, he was
transferred to Gorlitz, a camp in German Silesia, from
which he escaped on May 4, 1945, just one day before
the War ended. He returned to Lodz briefly before
immigrating to Cardiff, Wales, where he met his future
wife. George and his family have been living in Canada
since 1956. A question and answer period will follow.
|
|
|
2:30PM
Netivot HaTorah Day School
18 Atkinson Avenue, Thornhill
Contact: 905-771-1234 x226
MY PERSONAL TESTIMONY
Holocaust survivor and educator INGE SPITZ will
recall her personal story of a young girl saved by nuns
during the War. Inge was born in 1927 in Potsdam,
Germany and survived the 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom in
Nazi Germany. Inge and her sister went into hiding in
France and then, in 1944, sneaked into Switzerland.
The Spitz family miraculously survived and came
together in England after the War. A question and
answer period will follow.
Co-sponsored by Leo Baeck Day School.
|
|
|
7:00PM
L'Arche Toronto
186 Floyd Avenue, Toronto
Contact: 416-406-2869 x28
WHO IS YOUR NEIGHBOUR:
WILL YOU BE SAVED OR BETRAYED
ADA WYNSTON, a Dutch Holocaust survivor, will
share her personal experiences during World War II.
Born in 1936 in Amsterdam, Holland, Ada and 231
other Jewish children were rescued from a Jewish day
care centre by the Dutch underground. At the age of
six, she went into hiding with Dutch-Reform Christian
families from 1942-1945. Altogether, 73 members of
her family were murdered in Sobibor and Auschwitz-
Birkenau death camps. She immigrated to Canada in
1957. A question and answer period will follow.
|
|
|
7:00PM
Temple Kol Ami
Leo Baeck Day School
Contact: 905-709-2620 x246
HANA'S SUITCASE:
AN INTERACTIVE EXHIBIT
ILYSE LUSTIG, a library resource teacher at Thornhill
Woods Public School, was named York Region’s first
“Teacher of the Year” for her commitment to educating
young students about the Holocaust and the atrocities
of war. Having read Karen Levine’s award-winning
book, Hana’s Suitcase with a group of Grade 8 students,
both teacher and class felt compelled to pass on the
message of “Never Again.” They created an interactive
exhibit that travels throughout the year to various
schools. The students’ efforts were captured in a
documentary that will be part of this presentation.
|
|
|
7:00PM
Wexford Heights United Church
2102 Lawrence Avenue E., Toronto
Contact: 416-757-0676
PAPER CLIPS (FILM)
It began as a lesson about prejudice – what happened
next was a miracle. In 1998, the students of Whitwell
Middle School in rural Whitwell, Tennessee, embarked
on a classroom project aimed at teaching about cultural
diversity in a small community almost exclusively
white and Christian. The school’s principal and a few
teachers created the “Paper Clips” project to help their
students grasp the enormity of human suffering during
the Holocaust. The idea was to collect six million paper
clips – one for each of the six million Jewish victims of
the Holocaust. Ultimately, the project generated an
international outpouring of support and encouragement.
A discussion will follow the screening of this
documentary.
Co-sponsored by Wexford Presbyterian Church; and St. Giles
Anglican Church.
|
|
|
7:30PM
Chabad Lubavitch Markham
83 Green Lane, Thornhill
Contact: 905-886-0420
CONTINUING THE LEGACY:
MARCH OF THE LIVING
The March of the Living is a powerful journey back to the
concentration camps in Poland to educate young
Jewish teens about the horrors of the Holocaust. In
May 2005, 18,000 Jews and non-Jews went on a special
March of the Living to mark the 60th anniversary of the
end of World War II. NAOMI PARNESS, A-Channel
reporter and the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors,
went on the trip with a number of local politicians,
teachers and survivors. She will discuss her own
personal experience and show her triple-award-winning
A-Channel documentary March of the Living.
|
|
|
7:30PM
Holy Blossom Temple
1950 Baturst Street, Toronto
Contact: 416-789-3291
BETWEEN ACCOMODATION AND RESISTANCE: A NEW LOOK AT THE HOLOCAUST IN FRANCE
Drawing on some recently released letters to his
wife, Odette, sent from the Drancy concentration
camp, PROFESSOR MICHAEL MARRUS will
focus on André Baur, a Jewish leader who was
eventually murdered in Auschwitz. Baur’s correspondence,
remarkable for its perceptions of daily
life in the midst of constant dread, introduces us to
a world we would otherwise have difficulty imagining.
Professor Marrus is the Chancellor Rose and
Ray Wolfe Professor of Holocaust Studies and the
former dean of the School of Graduate Studies at the
University of Toronto. Consul General of France,
Philippe Delacroix, will bring greetings on behalf of
his government.
|
|
|
7:30PM
Israel's Judaica Centre
870 Eglinton Avenue West, Toronto
Contact: 416-256-5983
RESISTANCE & SURVIVAL: THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF KAUNAS (1941-1944)
SARAH GINAITE-RUBINSON will read excerpts from
her Canadian Jewish Book Award-winning book. First
published in Lithuania in 1999, it has received wide
acclaim and is now considered one of the seminal
works on Lithuanian Jewry during the Holocaust.
She provides the reader with a first-hand account of
pre-War life and life in the Kaunas Ghetto and tells
of her participation in the partisan underground
movement to thwart the Nazis. She focuses on the
part played by women in this struggle. After the War,
Mrs. Ginaite-Rubinson obtained her M.A. from
Leningrad University and her PhD from Vilnius
University. She immigrated to Canada in the early
1980s and has taught at Toronto’s York University.
Generously co-sponsored by Frieda Torkin, in loving memory of
her parents, Frank & Jennie Krystal.
|
|
|
7:30PM
Pride of Israel Synagogue
59 Lissom Crescent, Toronto
Contact: 416-226-0111
NO GREATER HONOUR
PETER SILVERMAN was born in 1924 in Jody,
Poland. He spent six months in a ghetto and in a slave
labour camp. After witnessing the massacre of his
town’s Jewish population, he managed to escape and
spent eight months in hiding. He later joined the
Jewish-Russian Partisan Brigade and actively participated
in armed resistance. He is the co-author of From Victims
to Victors. As part of his presentation, he will show a
brief documentary, No Greater Honour, about the role of
Canadian Jewish War Veterans and answer questions
about the incredible sacrifice these veterans made to
protect freedom and civil liberty.
Co-sponsored by Richard Pivnick and Annette Metz-Pivnick,
in memory of Cesia Metz; by Glenda and Alan Wainer,
in memory of Benjamin David Tessler; and Estelle Zaldin and
Joan Shapero, in loving memory of Arthur Zaldin.
|
|
|
7:30PM
St. Gabriel's Passionist Parish(R.C.)
670 Sheppard Avenue East, Toronto
Contact: 416-221-8866
SISTER ROSE'S PASSION
Sister Rose’s Passion received an Academy Award nomination
and was honored as Best Documentary Short at
the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival. Its main character, an
American nun of the Dominican Order, 85-year-old
Sister Rose Thering was an unlikely activist. She began
to challenge institutionalized prejudice in the Catholic
Church more than 50 years ago, beginning a life-long
struggle for hearts and minds that has extended from
her hometown of Plain, Wisconsin all the way to the
highest ranks of the Vatican and to Hollywood. In 2004,
antisemitism again became a subject of worldwide
discussion with the release of Mel Gibson’s film
The Passion of the Christ. While Sister Rose was careful
not to criticize Gibson, she was critical of the potential
damage the film could cause and she disapproved of
the “anti-Jewish” overtone, which is contrary to the
Church’s “Nostra Aetate” Declaration. After the screening,
Holocaust survivor and educator INGE SPITZ will
recall her own personal story as a young girl saved by
nuns during the War. A question and answer period
will follow.
|
|
|
8:00PM
Beth Tikvah Synagogue
3080 Bayview Avenue, Toronto
Contact: 416-221-3433
IMAGINARY WITNESS:
HOLLYWOOD AND THE HOLOCAUST
See page 14 for details on this program, which focuses
on the ways in which Hollywood has shaped our
perceptions of the Holocaust. There is no charge for this
program.
Generously co-sponsored by Helen Stollar, in memory of her
beloved husband, Jack Stollar.
|
|
|
8:00PM
Te-Amim Music Theatre & Miles Nadal JCC
Miles Nadal JCC, Al Green Theatre
750 Spadina Avenue, Toronto
Contact: 416-489-4709
THE SHOP ON MAIN STREET
A musical workshop/reading based on the novel by
Ladislav Grosman. The 1965 film adaptation of this
novel won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.
Special guests: GEORGE GROSMAN (the author’s son);
BALLET ESPRESSIVO, presenting excerpts from Uprising,
a new, full-length ballet, choreographed by DONNA
GREENBERG; THE MILES NADAL JCC CHOIR with
conductor HARRIET WICHIN. Free admission
|
|
|
