TRIP PARTICIPANTS

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  • Mariana Abrantes

    TOUR CO-LEADER

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    The dramatic events of 1940 came alive for me the first time I took this Journey, coming to feel and to understand the persecution and the fear which forced so many people to flee, but also the courage of Aristides de Sousa Mendes and the hope of the refugees looking for a safe haven in Portugal and beyond. Knowing when to take a stand, be it Charles de Gaulle's "Appel à la Résistance" or Aristides de Sousa Mendes's decision to "Save them All," two shining events in an otherwise dark period of history lead us to reflect on how we react to everyday dramas around us. Hearing the stories of the refugee families allows us to focus on the courage and strength needed for resilience in today's dramatic times.

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  • Denise Bérubé-Mayone

    PARTICIPANT

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    I teach French in a middle school in Middlebury, Vermont. I am a very fortunate friend of a 97 year-old man, my mentor, also a Holocaust survivor who hid in Draguignan, France with his parents during WWII. Through him & his stories, I've become passionate about learning more about this time in history. Also, as an educator, I feel a duty to fight against hate-speech and non-tolerance which are rampant in our schools with too many youth today.

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  • Sima Broza

    PARTICIPANT

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    As a Holocaust educator I'm excited to follow the path of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, a Righteous among the Nations. My father was saved by someone who sheltered him, and my goal is to understand more about people who risked their lives to save others and be able to share through presentations and seminars. I have a degree in secondary education and masters in Instructional design. As fate would have it, I ended up in marketing and finally made it into education in 2000, working in a Jewish Day School in Stamford, CT. As a child of Holocaust Survivors I pursued a path in the summer months to learn more about the Holocaust and gaining an understanding of my family and heritage, attending seminars at Yad Vashem and multiple seminars to Poland, Lithuania and Israel. I enjoy my two daughters, two grandchildren and one kittie, Smokey.

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  • Marc Sr. and Maria Cassier

    HORWITZ FAMILY

    PARTICIPANTS

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    Marc L. Cassier, now 88 years old, is a Sousa Mendes visa recipient. As a young boy of 5 he left Paris on-the 13th of June 1940 with his father Maurice and his mother Blanche as well as his paternal grandparents, Leon and Judith, fleeing south in France. We only discovered his true name, Horwitz, a few years ago. We also learned that his grandfather Leon died in 1941 in Figueira da Foz, and we are hoping to find his grave during this summer's trip. I am Maria T. Cassier, 86 years old. Marc and I have been married for 65 years, and we are looking forward to this journey of family discovery.

    -Maria
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  • Marc Jr. and Katrina Cassier

    HORWITZ FAMILY

    PARTICIPANTS

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    We are Katrina and Marc (Jr.) Cassier. We live in Charlotte, NC and have been here just over 20 years. The attached photo is from Bastille Day last year, at our favorite local bistro. We are taking this journey to learn more about Marc’s dad (Marc Sr.), as he and his parents received visas in Bayonne in 1940. We look forward to an educational and emotional journey, and hope that it may spark some memories along the way.

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  • Michel Cassier and Andrea Galina

    HORWITZ FAMILY

    PARTICIPANTS

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    I’m 60 years old, father of three children (Madeleine, Lucien, and Jean-Marc) and a semi-retired attorney. I was born in New York, but grew up primarily in Toronto, Canada. I now reside in Richmond VA with Andrea Galina. Andrea is younger than I and the mother of two lovely girls (Samantha and Alexandra). She’s a dentist who emigrated from Romania to New York in her teens. I’m taking the trip to be with my father, Marc, and to trace my family’s steps….

    -Michel
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  • Monique (Niki) and Jon Wardner

    HORWITZ FAMILY

    PARTICIPANTS

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    My husband and I live in Ann Arbor, Michigan. We have been married for 38 years and have 3 grown children; Andrew, Nicholas & Katherine, and one new daughter-in-law, Katherine (yes, the same name!). We love college athletics, music, travel, and eating great food! I am the daughter of Marc Cassier, a Sousa Mendes Visa recipient. We are looking forward to learning more about our family and visiting this part of the world.

    -Niki
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  • Tanja Dammertz

    PARTICIPANT

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    My name is Tanja Dammertz. I am a freelance journalist and filmmaker. My filming trips take me to the most remote places, to the fjords of East Greenland, to the gold mines of Nevada, to India or China. I always have the privilege of meeting new and interesting people who tell me their personal stories. This journey is one I am particularly excited about: I live in Berlin, a city where one is reminded of the history of the Third Reich on every corner. I am very grateful to be able to accompany this journey and to make a film about it at the end. Unfortunately, the story of Aristides de Sousa Mendes is known to only a few people in Germany. Perhaps this reportage, which will be broadcast on the European channel ARTE at the end, can contribute a little to giving Aristides de Sousa Mendes the publicity he deserves in Germany as well. I look forward to meeting you all. I am looking forward to the journey and to many informative, moving and certainly unforgettable moments.

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  • Elizabeth Eames

    ROZENDAAL FAMILY

    PARTICIPANT

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    My late mother (Agnes deHorst Rozendaal), along with her four siblings and their parents, fled south from Lille, France, receiving their visa from Aristides de Sousa Mendes in June 1940. Then, from Lisbon they sailed to the Caribbean before eventually landing in New York. In their new life in their new place, the Rozendaal family’s shared trauma remained largely unspoken, but undercurrents bubbled. Meanwhile, the family grew at a slow but steady pace (my three siblings and our five first cousins have fifteen children between us, plus six young grandchildren, so far). As for my own work, I retired this August after teaching Anthropology at Bates College for 35 years. Meanwhile, I have been volunteering with African refugees in Lewiston Maine, manifesting both my African Studies background and my own mother’s history. In addition, I have been elected to the city’s School Board. I am indeed tied to Maine, but my grown son resides in New York (serving as Senior Editor of The New Yorker Magazine.)

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  • Cookie Fischer

    VAN DEN BERGH FAMILY

    TOUR CO-LEADER

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    I only found out in 2016 that my mother had escaped from Europe with the help of Aristides de Sousa Mendes. Thanks to him I am alive. June 2017 marked a life changing experience for me. That is when I first participated in the “Journey on the Road to Freedom” (I went again in 2019). I needed to discover my mother’s own hidden past. It was an inspiring and emotional experience to explore and discover the path of this courageous man, to be in the exact places where, ultimately, we had been given the possibility to survive the Holocaust. How can we understand what our families went through but by experiencing the space, breathing the air and imagining their fear and courage. I look forward to new personal discoveries together with all those who will join us for the “Journey on the Road to Freedom 2023."

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  • Rebel Good

    KAUFMANN FAMILY

    PARTICIPANT

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    For 40 years I was a community newspaper publisher and editor. I also have been a professional tennis official for 38 years (and was recently inducted into the North Carolina Tennis Hall of Fame). My wife Evie and I made the Journey in 2016. It was an incredible experience, learning so much about what my mother’s family went through. Now I want my two sons, Brendan and Owen, to have the opportunity to also experience their family’s heritage.

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  • Brendan Fletcher Good

    KAUFMANN FAMILY

    PARTICIPANT

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    My name is Brendan Fletcher Good, I go by Fletch. My grandmother was Annelies Kaufmann, who in May of 1940 was away from her home in the Netherlands, on vacation with her family, when the Germans invaded their country. Before 2012, no one in our family had any idea about the critical role Aristides de Sousa Mendes played in their salvation. In 2017, I attended the Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremonies at the Holocaust Museum Houston, which had an exhibit honoring Sousa Mendes, displaying artifacts that included my grandmother's passport with his signature. I was able to meet and speak with his grandson, Louis-Philippe, and I expressed my gratitude that, 77 years prior, his grandfather had saved my grandmother's life. He smiled and said "we are and always will be family."

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  • Owen Good

    KAUFMANN FAMILY

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    I am the son of Rebel Good and the grandson of Annelies Kaufmann, who escaped Europe with her family thanks to a visa issued in May 1940 by Aristides de Sousa Mendes. The details of my grandmother’s flight from the Netherlands and immigration to the United States have always fascinated me, but over the years seemed too cinematic to be real. I am very much looking forward to retracing the Kaufmann family’s steps and understanding the truth of their journey firsthand. I am a journalist and writer, since 2014 for Vox Media of New York; I live in and work from Elkin, N.C. and am 49.

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  • Nate Powell

    KAUFMANN FAMILY

    PARTICIPANT

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    I want to trace the footsteps of my grandmother, learn more about my heritage and spend time with my uncle and cousins who are also attending.

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  • Isaac Powell

    KAUFMANN FAMILY

    PARTICIPANT

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  • Sharon Hoff

    PARTICIPANT

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    My name is Sharon Hoff and I live in Stamford, CT. I currently work in the healthcare industry. I enjoy reading and learning about history. I love to travel and at my daughter's suggestion recently read a book about Aristides de Sousa Mendes and found the story fascinating. We are both very excited to learn more about his life and the journey to freedom.

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  • Sydney Hoff

    PARTICIPANT

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    Hi everyone! My name is Sydney Hoff. I recently relocated from NYC to Lisbon, Portugal. A few years ago, I started an online writing tutoring center and I am lucky to partner with many devoted families on the writing component of their children's education. After visiting Israel at the end of 2022, I read "In the Garden of the Righteous," where I learned about Aristides de Sousa Mendes. I was very touched and decided to have some of my students research and write about him. While helping one of my students write her essay, I came across this trip opportunity. I knew I had to sign up and recruited my awesome mom to join me. Can't wait to meet everyone and be part of this journey!

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  • Nancy Isserman and Joel Horwitz

    PARTICIPANTS

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    I am an adjunct professor at Gratz College, where I teach "The Psychology and Sociology of Altruism and Rescue,” among other courses. I am the Director of Operation Home and Healing: Services for Veterans and Families; and Co-Director of the Transcending Trauma Project at the Council for Relationships. I have published articles and books, and lectured on topics relating to trauma and Holocaust survivors, military culture, the transmission of trauma in military families, and on tolerance in survivors. My husband Joel Horwitz is a professor in the Department of Pharmacology & Physiology at Drexel University College of Medicine. We recently celebrated our 40th anniversary in Israel where three of our four children and eight of our nine, soon to be ten, grandchildren live.

    -Nancy
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  • Hellen Kaufmann and Bernard Lhoumeau

    TOUR CO-LEADER AND PARTICIPANT

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    We first became aware of Aristides de Sousa Mendes in 2006 while preparing a book on the history of the Righteous of Aquitaine on the occasion of the induction of the Righteous of France into the National Pantheon in 2007. To continue this work, we created an association whose mission is to tell the stories of each of the 38,080 townships in France during WWII, including of course the story of the Righteous of France. In 2010, we had the good fortune to witness the birth of the Sousa Mendes Foundation, thanks to a memory trip organized by the French "Comité Sousa Mendes" which brought together for the first time families rescued by Aristides de Sousa Mendes with members of the Sousa Mendes family. Emotions ran high. We look forward to meeting this year’s group and to seeing again those who have become our friends during past travels.

    -Hellen
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  • Alyssa Levy

    PARTICIPANT

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    My name is Alyssa Levy, I have been teaching World and United States History for 29 years. I work in a special education high school in Rockland County, New York. I have been teaching Holocaust education for over 20 years. I have been fortunate to be able to attend workshops at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and travel to Germany and Poland with the Holocaust and Jewish Resistance Teachers Program in 2018. I am looking forward to this trip to learn about a different perspective on Holocaust education and bring it back to my students. I have three beautiful college-age daughters.

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  • Susan Lindsey

    PARTICIPANT

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    I am Susan Lindsey, an American nonfiction writer. I moved to Coimbra, Portugal, in 2020, and plan to spend the remainder of my life here. I have always enjoyed learning about history, and I have a deep interest in the story of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, his courage, and his sense of justice. I am looking forward to meeting all of you.

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  • Marc Zimmerman and Françoise Lotstra

    FORTGANG FAMILY

    PARTICIPANTS

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    My mother and my grandparents were visa recipients and were eventually able to reach the US from Porto. My grandmother aggressively fought for reparations money on behalf of all escaped family members, and made several trips to Germany in this pursuit. Françoise grew up in a Belgian town where many Jews had been hidden during the war. Two members of her family survived Bergen Belsen and Auschwitz, after having been deported from Thessalonika. I am a medical oncologist, recently retired, living in the New York suburbs. Françoise has been a professor of neuroanatomy and psychiatry at the Free University of Brussels and currently is in psychiatry private practice in Brussels.

    -Marc
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  • Corinne Zimmerman and Ernie Maginsky

    FORTGANG FAMILY

    PARTICIPANTS

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    My brother Marc Zimmerman and I decided that we wanted to take this emotional journey to replicate our mother’s final escape from the Nazis; into the USA! My mother Annette Fortgang Zimmerman and many of her paternal family (Fortgang) began their escape from Berlin in October 1938. After spending months in Paris; they fled to Bordeaux in June 1940 to escape the Nazis in Paris. Fortunately; their lives were saved by the kindness and decency of Aristides de Sousa Mendes in June 1940!!!!!

    -Corinne
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  • Jessica Maginsky

    FORTGANG FAMILY

    PARTICIPANT

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    My grandmother, Annette Fortgang, was a Sousa Mendes visa recipient. I look forward to following the path she and her family took on their journey from Europe to New York. She continues to be a source of strength and inspiration for our family.

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  • Ruth Aronson

    FORTGANG FAMILY

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    My mother, Chana Hella Fortgang, at age 12, sailed in December 1940 from Lisbon to New York on the ship Nyassa. About six months earlier, she and other family members received visas from Aristides de Sousa Mendes. My cousins Corinne and Marc inspired me to take this journey to pay honor to Sousa Mendes and to learn more about our family’s experience. As my mother is still alive (age 95), perhaps this journey will illuminate some of her formative experiences which we may be able to talk about. I work at Brandeis University and have two adult sons whom I hope to share this journey with. I look forward to getting to know my fellow travelers.

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  • Olivia Mattis

    MATUZEWITZ FAMILY

    TOUR CO-LEADER

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    I am a musicologist by training and profession and grew up in Scarsdale, NY. My father and eleven other members of my family received visas from Aristides de Sousa Mendes as they fled from Belgium in May and June of 1940. In 2010 I co-founded the Sousa Mendes Foundation, which I ran for five years on top of my full-time job in academic administration. Now I am devoting my daytime hours to the Foundation, and feel very fulfilled.

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  • Anita Meijer

    ANHOLT FAMILY

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    Hello everyone, my name is Anita Meijer, I am 58 years old. I am single and have two adult children. I live with my old dog in a small village Abcoude near Amsterdam (the Netherlands). From an early age my interest has been the Second World War and it was only at a later age that I learned more about my own family. This has never been discussed in my family. Many things I only found out after my parents passed away. I am very grateful to be able to participate in this journey because it will give me a bit of insight into my own family story. I also enjoy getting to know other people and their stories. - Lots of love Anita

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  • Heidi Omlor

    TOUR CO-LEADER

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    As a Holocaust educator, I had the privilege of taking the Journey on the Road to Freedom in 2019; upon returning from the Journey, I immediately got involved with the Sousa Mendes Foundation through their Educational initiatives Committee. It is a dream come true for me to be a co leader on the Journey so that I may assist educators in their own teaching and learning about the hero, Aristides de Sousa Mendes and share his story in their own schools and spread his message of love of humanity despite the personal cost. I look forward to meeting each of you and learning with you on the Journey.

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  • Frances Panchok

    PARTICIPANT

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    I attended Yad Vashem’s 1995 Holocaust educators Jerusalem program & the 2005 Poland/Lithuania one. I have a PhD in religious history, taught graduate students for 43 years, incorporated the Holocaust into my history courses, and have traveled widely from Ireland to Eastern Europe, Germany to Sicily. I give walking tours of Rome where I lived for 1 1/2 yrs. Portugal has always been a travel goal, & now I could expand my experience. I’m a member of the Fairfield Co. Jewish Historical Society where I volunteer in their archives. Sima Broza and I can develop local programs in Connecticut.

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  • Shulamit Reinharz

    PARTICIPANT

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    I was born in Amsterdam in 1946, and my German Jewish parents survived the war by hiding in Holland. I am one of the few people I know who “loved Hebrew School,” and have been studying Jewish topics my entire life. I earned a B.A. in sociology from Barnard, married, and then earned a Ph,D. in sociology from Brandeis. I taught at the Univ. of Michigan, had two daughters, and later joined the Brandeis faculty, where I directed the Women’s Studies Program and established the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute. Having authored 14 books and many articles, I retired in 2017 and am currently writing a book based on the life of my father. One set of my grandparents were imprisoned in the Gurs Concentration Camp at the base of the Pyrenees. My grandfather died of starvation in Gurs and my grandmother died in a cattle car on the way to Auschwitz. I wish those grandparents could have crossed the Pyrenees as we will do this summer. This trip is a way for me to honor this set of non-survivors.

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  • Margarida Mascarenhas

    SOUSA MENDES FAMILY

    PARTICIPANT

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    I met Aristides de Sousa Mendes through the eyes of his daughter, Clotilde Sousa Mendes, my grandmother. Nowadays, I realize that the story of my family has shaped my personal choices ever since. Twenty years ago, I decided I wanted to work with and for people through Museums, as I believe Museums have the power to transform everyone’s life and eventually the world. Working in the Educational Department of the Orient Museum has given me that opportunity. Therefore, every day, I try to guide my actions with respect, empathy, sensitivity, humility, flexibility, open spirit, and creativity. A professional path based on a degree in Anthropology with a specialization in Heritage Management and Cultural Action to which other experiences, namely in teaching and in different cultural facilities, have added a continuous motivation.

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  • Jan de Moncada de Sousa Mendes

    SOUSA MENDES FAMILY

    PARTICIPANT

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    My name is Jan de Moncada, and I am a great-grandson of both Aristides de Sousa Mendes and his brother César de Sousa Mendes. I grew up in Portugal, and am currently an English teacher working in France. During my childhood and adolescence I watched my father António working hard for the recognition of the action of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, which meant that there was.a lot of discussion in our household about human rights and the suffering of the Jewish people. That upbringing helped me develop a moral and ethical compass that I wish to transmit to my children and their generation.

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  • Aristides and Teresa de Sousa Mendes

    SOUSA MENDES FAMILY

    PARTICIPANTS

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    I am the 5th child of Clotilde, the eldest daughter of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, after whom I was named. In my professional life, I was a computer engineer, and my wife, Teresa, who has a degree in Germanic Philology, worked with German companies, as well as with state schools. We have one son and one daughter and now we have five grandchildren. From my grandfather Aristides I inherited a passion for music, and we transmitted it to our descendants: all of us play a musical instrument.

    -Aristides
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  • Silverio de Sousa Mendes and family

    SOUSA MENDES FAMILY

    PARTICIPANTS

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    Eighty years is a long time. Even a heroic act, such as saving tens of thousands of lives from the Nazi executioners, can easily fall into oblivion. Such examples as those of Aristides de Sousa Mendes and his wife Angelina should guide us in complex times such as today, when Europe faces the largest refugee drama since the Second World War. If there were more awareness, especially on the part of politicians, influencers and other decision makers… the world would not be as it is. In order to not erase this example from our memories, we as a descendants of Aristides and Angelina; myself (great-grandchild), my wife Maria Teresa and our daughters Carlota (great-great-grandchild) and Matilde (great-great-grandchild), will be joining this Journey. We’re looking forward to meeting the other participants on the tour and hearing their first-person stories.

    -Silverio