A Message from VHEC Executive Director Nina Krieger

Survivors of the Holocaust are central to the VHEC’s mission and to the impact of many of our educational programs. A small and exceptionally dedicated group of survivor speakers share their eyewitness accounts of loss and survival with audiences at our annual and district-wide symposia, at the Centre, in classrooms and at commemorative and community programs.

This week, the VHEC community is mourning the passing of three of its longstanding Holocaust survivor speakers.

On April 21, Belgian Holocaust survivor Alex Buckman z’l passed away in Warsaw, Poland while participating in the 2023 March of the Living. As a tireless speaker and a longstanding president of the Child Survivor Group,  Alex’s impact on the VHEC, the audiences we serve, and the local survivor community are immeasurable. Our deepest sympathies go out to Alex’s wife, Colette, son Patrick, and to the entire Buckman family.

Alex Buckman, 2022

Alex was four years old when his father handed him over for safekeeping to Mademoiselle Andrée Geulen, a 20-year-old teacher in a Brussels school, one of the Righteous Among the Nations, who also saved hundreds of other Jewish children during the Holocaust. Both of Alex’s parents were murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Alex wrote about the significance of his relationship to Mademoiselle Andrée in the Spring 2022 issue of Zachor.

Alex was adopted by his aunt, Rebecca Teitlebaum, a survivor of Ravensbrück concentration camp. In his video testimony, Alex describes how Rebecca and other women in her barracks recorded, in secret and at great personal risk, recipes from memory in a handmade book. Alex donated Rebecca’s recipe book to the VHEC so that it could be preserved and support learning over time, and it is currently on display in the exhibition, In Focus: The Holocaust through the VHEC Collection.

When he spoke to students, Alex would share a copy of his aunt’s recipe for gateau à l’orange (orange cake) with audiences. Over the years, Alex and the VHEC received countless letters about the significance of the act of baking Rebecca’s cake. CBC featured this story in a documentary in 2017.

Alex’s passing comes days after the loss of two other VHEC Holocaust survivor speakers, David Ehrlich z’l on April 10 and Louise Stein Sorensen z’l on April 19. Our heartfelt condolences to David’s sons Perry, Brent and their families, and to Louise’s sons Andrew, Edward and their families.

Child survivor Louise Sorensen shows her mother’s identification card marked with a ‘J’.

A child survivor from Holland, Louise was a longstanding outreach speaker, a founding member of the Vancouver Child Survivor Group, a participant in the multidisciplinary Gesher Project, and served on the VHCS Board for a decade.

Louise was also a generous donor to the VHEC’s collection; her materials are described and digitally available here. A compelling speaker, Louise would wear a heavy coat and turn her back to the students as they entered the classroom in which she was about to speak. When the teacher introduced her, she would turn around and reveal the yellow Star of David patch sewn onto her coat. The students’ attention was assured from the outset.

Born in Gherla (now part of Romania) in 1926, and one of the war orphans that came to Canada in 1947, David Ehrlich was a captivating speaker, who travelled across BC to share the story of his survival of Auschwitz, the death march, and Mauthausen concentration camp. David was motivated to begin speaking when Jim Keegstra made headlines with his teachings in Alberta that denied the Holocaust. Likening Holocaust denial to a second attempt at genocide, David was determined to counter antisemitism and distortion of history with his testimony.

David Ehrlich, 2007

David spoke with a humanity and charm that will be remembered by all who had the privilege of hearing him. I am one of these former students, who participated in a breakout session with David at the Annual Symposium on the Holocaust many years ago.

Alex, Louise and David are Life Fellows of the Vancouver Holocaust Centre Society, an honour bestowed by the Board of Directors for outstanding contributions to our mandate.

At this difficult time, the VHEC is here to support the survivor community in navigating these profound losses. We will always be grateful to Alex, Louise and David for all that they contributed to advancing learning and understanding about the Holocaust and its legacies, and about the possibility—the necessity, even—of resilience, compassion and hope in its aftermath.

May their memories be for a blessing and a source of courage and inspiration to us all.

Post contributed by VHEC Program Coordinator Pascale Higham-Leisen.

On the evening of February 13, 2023, Holocaust survivor and acclaimed author Lillian Boraks-Nemetz shared her experience of surviving the Holocaust with members of the Ben Gurion Society at the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre. The Ben Gurion Society is the Jewish Federation’s national leadership and donor recognition program for young professionals who support the Jewish community through the Federation’s Annual Campaign. Over thirty members of the society attended Lillian’s presentation. Many of them had never heard a Holocaust survivor speak before.

Lillian began by describing a poignant memory of her and her father seeing a wall being built as they walked down a street together in Warsaw. Even at this young age, she knew that the construction of this wall would change her life forever. Lillian stated, “The wall would soon create two worlds, being built by the hands of Jews who were told to build their own prison.” She described her family’s move to the Warsaw ghetto and the appalling living conditions; close to half a million Jews confined in 1.3 square miles of Warsaw made the living spaces suffocatingly crowded. The only privacy residents had was from “curtains hanging to separate the beds of approximately 24 people who shared a room with one bathroom.” Due to the cramped environment and lack of food and sanitation, an outbreak of typhus resulted in strict quarantine measures.

Within the walls of quarantine, Lillian felt imprisoned. This feeling returned during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many survivors were triggered by restricted movements and isolation. Lillian shared, “Trauma leaves behind a deep wound that, when unhealed, will eventually begin to start creating an emotional pain which won’t let you cope with an ordinary life. It’s a pain that few understand.”

Lillian Boraks-Nemetz addressing the Ben Gurion Society, February 13, 2023. Photographed by Rhonda Dent.

The audience heard Lillian describe the deportations of the Warsaw ghetto, her remarkable escape as arranged by her father, the separation of her family and the devastating loss of her childhood, her sister and her identity. “My own childhood ended the day Nazi Germany invaded Poland and the Second World War began. Our happy lives ended, and I became an adult at the age of 6.”

After the Holocaust, Lillian and her parents immigrated to Canada. She tried writing about her Holocaust experience in her first year of university. An English professor asked her class to write about a time in their lives which profoundly impacted them. Lillian wrote about the Warsaw ghetto, and the professor’s feedback to her was, “This is not what I asked for.” She felt the hidden child inside her retreat. Lillian continued to push her trauma inwards, while starting a family and dedicating time to running a household. But at the age of 40, everything she had submerged began to resurface.

Her trauma healed, in part, through her sharing her story with students and adult groups like the Ben Gurion Society, as well as from her writing practice. Lillian is an accomplished writer in the genres of poetry and fiction. Her work explores trauma and her relationships with her children, who “Bore the brunt of my pain and whose forgiveness and understanding mean more to me than life.”

As the program coordinator at the VHEC, I see the impact our survivor outreach speaker presentations have on students. The attitude Lillian encountered in her first year of university is crushing, but also serves as a crucial reminder: Education is the pillar of combating antisemitism. The courage and tenacity it took, and continues to take, for Lillian to share her testimony of surviving the Holocaust, even after being discouraged, is remarkable.

Lillian recently introduced me to the concept of an ‘enlightened witness’, and its importance for survivors. Not just an active listener, the enlightened witness empathizes and sees the survivor’s trauma as complex and nuanced. VHEC board member, Sam Heller, who attended Lillian’s presentation, was an enlightened witness:

“I was in awe of her strength, resilience, and vulnerability. I have heard survivor testimonies before and thought that maybe I would be prepared for the torrent of emotion that these talks elicit. I was wrong. Each time it is new, raw and powerful. We are lucky to be able to hear firsthand from Lillian, and we are lucky to have heroes like her among us. It made me think of my grandparents, and all the crazy things that they went through in the war, and renewed my sense of awe how they persevered to provide amazing lives for their children and grandchildren.”

Pascale Higham-Leisen and Sam Heller in conversation with Lillian Boraks-Nemetz, February 13, 2023. Photographed by Rhonda Dent.

Lillian reminds us that with knowledge comes responsibility. The responsibility of an enlightened witness is to remember the Holocaust and honour its victims, to be the stewards of survivors’ stories and to ensure the phrase “never again” echoes through the generations to come.

*Lillian’s first book of poetry, Garden of Steel, was published in 1994. To date, she has published 11 books including The Old Brown Suitcase, The Sunflower Diary and Mouth of Truth. These books are available for borrowing from the VHEC library.

Post contributed by Program Coordinator Pascale Higham-Leisen.

The parking lot was packed with parents dropping off their kids for swimming lessons, children were squealing with excitement at Nava café, parents and grandparents were waking up with steaming cups of coffee in hand. This is the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver on a Sunday morning. The halls buzzed with anticipation for the launch of Marie Doduck’s memoir, A Childhood Unspoken, in the Norman and Annette Rothstein Theatre.

VHEC Executive Director Nina Krieger opened the event by introducing the Centre and its efforts to combat antisemitism and racism through Holocaust education. Nina highlighted International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the importance of survivor memoirs. She finished with a personal and moving introduction of Mariette. Arielle Berger, the Managing Editor of the Azrieli Foundation’s Holocaust Memoirs Program, remarked on the incredible work the Azrieli Foundation does. Arielle emphasized the Azrieli Foundation’s education programs and gave the audience a synopsis of Mariette’s memoir. Following a heartfelt introduction from Dr. Lauren Faulkner Rossi, the historical advisor for Marie’s memoir, Marie made her way onto the stage. As she crossed the stage, everyone in the audience rose in a standing ovation.

Mariette Doduck (left) and Jody Speigel (right) of the Azreli Foundation discussing Mariette’s memoir. January 22, 2023. Photographed by Josias Tschanz.

Marie has close ties with each person in the room. You could hear a pin drop as she not only revealed the arduous task of reliving her story of survival, but also her reunion with Mariette, the child. As stated in her memoir and at the book launch, Mariette was forced to grow up quickly while in hiding from the Nazis. A childhood unspoken, until now. In her memoir, she explains the distinction between Mariette and Marie and recalls a pivotal memory marking a shift into her new identity as Marie. She was travelling via ship across the channel to England when she decided to throw overboard the remnants of an old red sweater her maman gave her. “I was too young, and not well enough physically, or old enough mentally, to reflect on the symbolism of the act, what it meant on different levels: a letting go of my childhood, which had been long destroyed in any case; an attempted goodbye to the Mariette of Europe, to the hunted little girl who survived the Nazis; a recognition that I was in transition, passing from one phase of life to another.”

Mariette held the room’s attention with her strength and vulnerability, as she took us through her experiences of being a child survivor, but also of writing a memoir. As a founding member of the Child Survivor Group here in Vancouver, Mariette described the significance of this group and the collective experience of being a survivor and how that affects their identity. “We, the first survivors that came here [Vancouver], we found out that we were always two people. We didn’t know we were two people. Because I accepted the name Marie as my Canadian name and Mariette I left. But when we [the child survivors] are together, we are our Jewish name and our European name… Mariette will never grow old. I was trying for the last 10 to 15 years to see if I can get Mariette to grow to my age. That will never happen. The child Mariette will always be the child inside me, and that’s what survivors live like.” Mariette mentioned, “it took me 40 years for me to expose myself to the community.” The resiliency and strength Mariette demonstrated in reliving her trauma, writing her memoir and sharing it with the world, is astonishing.

Mariette Doduck signing copies of her memoir, A Childhood Unspoken. January 22, 2023. Photographed by Josias Tschanz.

When asked what she wants readers and students to take away when they complete the book, she responded: “First, knowledge of the past, accepting we [survivors] are not frauds. That we survived, maybe we were left to survive to teach you not to hate.”

Since the launch, people have been purchasing copies of A Childhood Spoken. Books will be gifted to students visiting the VHEC courtesy of the Azrieli Foundation.

A unilateral success and incredible accomplishment for Mariette/Marie, we are reminded through her testimony and memoir: “Survival is a coat you never take off.”

Mariette Doduck will answer questions about her memoir in an upcoming Q&A on zoom, hosted by the VHEC and moderated by Dr. Abby Wener Herlin, Wednesday, March 8 at 7 p.m. Register to attend: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAvfuusrDMoEtDspIDDYBRb7zT5meCC5HtA  

For the past two semesters, the VHEC worked with students enrolled in LIBR 535: Instructional Role of the Librarian, taught by instructor Fiona Hunt at UBC.  The goal of this course is to provide students with a foundation in learning theory, instructional design and information literacy instruction. Students work with real clients, like the VHEC, to create an instructional resource. In our case, students created video tutorials to explain features of our online collections catalogue.

For term one, Andrea, Matthew, Jill, Martin and Claire approached the subject of the lightbox, a collaborative research tool. Watch their video:

For term two, Andy, Emma, Jack and Katelyn tacked the subject of the finding aid, and how archival material is organized and presented online. Watch their video:

According to their professor, real life experiences are incredibly valuable and instructive for students preparing to enter the field of library and archives. We’re pleased to support new professionals interested interested in the field, and thank them for their great work on these videos!