10 May 07 – For the first time since opening, the Holocaust Centre (situated between Laxton and Ollerton, in north Notts) is running a full summer of weekend talks by survivors of Nazi concentration camps such as Auschwitz and Belsen.
Every Saturday and Sunday, from now to the end of September, members of the public visiting the Centre will be able to sit down at 3.00pm to hear one individual’s account of those terrible years – and then ask questions and engage in discussion.
“In the past we’ve limited public weekend survivor talks to August, but we wanted to open up this opportunity to a larger audience,” says Dr James Smith, the Centre’s Chief Executive. “Time takes its toll. Survivors of the Holocaust will not be with us forever. While they are able and willing to share their experiences, as many people who can hear them, should.”
‘Just go one step further… respect other people, regardless where they are from’
“When we arrived in the UK in 1945, we were told the atrocities would never happen again – and we believed that,” says Belsen survivor Rudi Oppenheimer, who will speak at the Centre this Saturday. “But in 1994, a million Tutsis were murdered in Rwanda. Then, two months before the Holocaust Centre opened, Srebrenica entered our consciousness when thousands of Muslims were massacred there. Yet as we speak here, youngsters realise the value of childhood, of life. And it’s given me a new purpose in life too.”
“By some fluke I am still alive; a sort of war memorial on legs, you might say,” says Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, Auschwitz survivor and founder member of the English Chamber Orchestra, who will speak at the Holocaust Centre this Sunday. “The absolute horrors that happened are impossible to retell, and I don’t think it is that important that everyone should know what it feels like to be freezing half to death, or whatever physical deprivations we suffered. Just go one step further, and learn to respect other people, totally regardless of where they come from.”
“My experience at the Holocaust Centre has made me realise that you shouldn’t judge anyone, and everyone is equal,” says Rizwana, 14. “I think that the survivors are very brave to share their experiences. The pain they went through stands out in my mind.”
“It’s an inspired and inspiring place to visit,” says Jeanne Broadbent, a senior lecturer in education. “Going there is a profoundly moving experience, which makes one thank God for one’s own blessed life and liberty.”
The Holocaust Centre Weekend Speaker Schedule for 2007
Saturday 12 May Rudi Oppenheimer
Born in Germany. The family settled in Holland, were arrested by the occupying Germans and sent via Westerbork to Bergen Belsen
Sunday 13 May Anita Lasker-Wallfisch
Born in Germany. She was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, where she played the cello in the camp orchestra. Later transferred to Bergen Belsen. She is a founder member of the English Chamber Orchestra.
Saturday 19 May Trude Levi
Born in Hungary. She survived the Ghetto and was deported to Auschwitz and later transferred to a Buchenwald outcamp. Miraculously she survived the camps and the Death March.
Sunday 20 May Awaiting Confirmation
Saturday 26 May Ibi and Val Ginsburg
Waldemar was on point of going to university when Nazis invaded Lithuania. Survivor of the Kaunas ghetto and Dachau concentration camp. Ibi is Hungarian. Survived both Auschwitz and Dachau. Now live in West Yorkshire.
Sunday 27 May Renee Salt
Born in Poland. From the Ghetto she escaped mass execution and survived Auschwitz, labour camps and Bergen Belsen.
Saturday 2 June Rudi Oppenheimer
Born in Germany. The family settled in Holland, were arrested by the occupying Germans and sent via Westerbork to Bergen Belsen
Sunday 3 June John Chillag
Born in Hungary. From the Ghetto was sent to Auschwitz. Survived to endure slave labour in Germany.
Saturday 9 June Kitty Hart-Moxon
Born in Poland. Escaped the Ghetto to work in Germany with false papers. Upon discovery she was sent to Auschwitz. Miraculously, she survived the camp and the Death March.
Sunday 10 June Anita Lasker-Wallfisch
See above
Saturday 16 June Trude Levi
See above
Sunday 17 June Joanna Millan
Born in Berlin. Spent two years in the Terezin ghetto. Came to England with ‘the Boys’, a group of young camp survivors, 1945. Became a magistrate. Also very active in the community; involved in a range of Jewish organizations. London-based.
Saturday 23 June Eva Clarke
Born in Mathausen Concentration Camp, days before liberation by American troops. The family had been sent to Theresienstadt and Auschwitz. Her mother survived to arrive in Mathausen.
Sunday 24 June Ibi and Val Ginsburg
See above
Saturday 30 June Awaiting confirmation
Sunday 1 July John Fransman
Born in Holland. Transported to Bergen-Belsen where his father died. Eventually liberated with his mother. Chairman of the Child Survivors Association of Great Britain.
Saturday 7 July Eva Clarke
See above
Sunday 8 July John Chillag
See above
Saturday 14 July Trude Levi
See above
Sunday 15 July Renee Salt
See above
Saturday 21 July Awaiting confirmation
Sunday 22 July Martin Stern
Born in Holland of German parents, arrested at his primary school, and sent to Theresienstadt Concentration Camp
Saturday 28 July Awaiting confirmation
Sunday 29 July Mala Tribich
Born in Poland. Survived Piotrkow ghetto, a brief period in hiding in Czestochowa, the Hortensia slave labour camp, Ravensbruck concentration camp and Bergen-Belsen. Sister of Ben Helfgott (Chairman of the 45 Aid Society and the only Holocaust survivor to have represented his country at the Olympics – weightlifting for Great Britain).
Saturday 4 Aug Eva Clarke
See above
Sunday 5 Aug Joanna Milan
See above
Saturday 11 Aug Trude Levi
See above
Sunday 12 Aug John Chillag
See above
Saturday 18 Aug Steven Frank
Born in Holland. Father shot for resistance activities. Survived Terezin with his mother and brothers. (He was one of little more than 100 out of 15,000 children in Terezin to do so.) Herts-based.
Sunday 19 Aug Renee Salt
See above
Saturday 25 Aug Rudi Oppenheimer
See above
Sunday 26 Aug John Fransman
See above
Saturday 1 Sept Mala Tribich
See above
Sunday 2 Sept Awaiting confirmation
Saturday 8 Sept Ibi and Val Ginsburg
See above
Sunday 9 Sept Martin Stern
See above
Saturday 15 Sept Kitty Hart Moxon
See above
Sunday 16 Sept Joanna Millan
See above
Saturday 22 Sept Awaiting confirmation
Sunday 23 Sept John Fransman
See above
Saturday 29 Sept Awaiting confirmation
Sunday 30 Sept Arek Hersh
Born in Poland. As a young boy he survived a notorious labour camp, then the Lodz Ghetto, Auschwitz and Buchenwald. He was liberated in Theresienstadt.
Occasionally it is necessary to arrange an alternative speaker to the one advertised.
For all enquiries please tel: 01623 836627
