Book Talk

The realities of World War II catapult the Krakowiak family out of their charmed life and into an exodus across half the world.  Joan Arnay Halperin’s book My Sister’s Eyes tells the dramatic true story of her family’s rescue by Aristides de Sousa Mendes and subsequent semi-internment in a British evacuee camp on the island of Jamaica, amounting to a Holocaust tale quite unlike any other.

The realities of World War II catapult the Krakowiak family out of their charmed life and into an exodus across half the world.  Joan Arnay Halperin’s book My Sister’s Eyes tells the dramatic true story of her family’s rescue by Aristides de Sousa Mendes and subsequent semi-internment in a British evacuee camp on the island of Jamaica, amounting to a Holocaust tale quite unlike any other.

Leah Rozenfeld Sills, Vice-President of the Sousa Mendes Foundation, invites you to

Escape to Life, an exhibit and artist talk with:

Gaia Starr, ceramic artist and author of

Journey Maps 1940, a ceramic novel

and

Joan Arnay Halperin, author of

My Sister’s Eyes:  A Family Chronicle of Rescue and Loss During World War II

A benefit for the Sousa Mendes Foundation

Artist talks at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m.

Coffee and kosher desserts!

Donations (of any amount) can be made at:

www.crowdrise.com/visastofreedom

Or by check or cash in person.

Donations are 100% tax-deductible.

Questions?  Call (877) 797-9759 or email:  olivia@sousamendesfoundation.org

In this workshop for Holocaust educators and librarians, Joan Arnay Halperin will be presenting her book, My Sister’s Eyes, dealing with how her family was saved during the war by Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the Portuguese diplomat, who permitted thousands of desperate refugees safe passage via France from the Nazis.  The role of Rescuers will be discussed. Who is considered a Righteous Among the Nations? Most importantly the difference individuals and communities can make when they believe in moral responsibility and right conduct.  Note:  This event is restricted to Long Island-based school librarians.

FREE EVENT — PRE-REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED

You’re invited to join Dr. Miriam Klein Kassenoff, Holocaust educator and child refugee survivor, for a Mother’s Day dialogue with Joan Arnay Halperin, author of My Sister’s Eyes: A Family Chronicle of Rescue and Loss During World War II on the topics of love, loss, and survival.  Q&A to follow.  Please note that the time given is US Eastern Time.

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Emmy Award-winning writer, producer, and author Yvette Manessis Corporon scours the globe to track down the Jewish family that her Greek Orthodox grandmother saved from the Holocaust in 1944. But suddenly, after a glorious reunion with the saved family, her own family falls victim to antisemitism in the U.S. In Something Beautiful Happened: A Story of Survival and Courage in the Face of Evil, the past and present come together in a nuanced, heartfelt story about the power of faith, the importance of kindness, and the courage to stand up for what is right.

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Author-illustrators Hans and Margret Rey fled Nazi-occupied France on handmade bicycles with the manuscript to the first Curious George book among their meager possessions. Thanks to a fortuitous encounter with Aristides de Sousa Mendes, they were all saved. Meet Louise Borden, author of The Journey That Saved Curious George, and Sheila Abranches-Pierce, granddaughter of Sousa Mendes. The program moderator will be Robert Jacobvitz.  This will be a fun program, appropriate for all ages.

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If you are a bystander and witness a crime, should intervention to prevent that crime be a legal obligation? Or is moral responsibility enough? Law professor Amos Guiora, the son of Holocaust survivors, argues provocatively and controversially that we must make the obligation to intervene the law, and thus non-intervention a crime. He will be in dialogue with Holocaust historians Dr. Victoria Barnett, formerly of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, and Dr. Mordecai Paldiel, formerly of Yad Vashem. Following our recent program on what makes a hero, we will examine the dilemma of the bystander and take a close look at the famous assertion by Edmund Burke: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

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Did you know that there were Jewish refugees in Iowa during World War II?  Tune in to learn about this fascinating and untold story. Meet Edith Lichtenstein Froehlig, originally from Limburg, Germany, who was brought by the Quakers to Iowa, where she lived in a converted schoolhouse called Scattergood Hostel as one of 185 Jewish refugees. She will be in dialogue with Dr. Michael Luick-Thrams, the world’s expert on this story, and they will take your questions. We will also watch a short film on this history called Out of Hitler’s Reach produced by the PBS station in Iowa. (more…)

4 PM US EASTERN TIME, 1 PM US PACIFIC TIME

In February 1943, at the height of the deportations from France, a daring group of Jewish and Christian women banded together to stage the largest single rescue operation in wartime Paris. Please join Anne Nelson, author of Suzanne’s Children, and Joanne Gilbert, author of Women of Valor, as they describe these women — including Suzanne Spaak, Sophie Schwartz, Frida Wattenberg and others — who risked everything to fight back against evil.
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