Holocaust Remembrance
This collection contains video of the Holocaust Remembrance program, which features presentations by Holocaust survivors and their children.
The annual JSU Holocaust Remembrance began in 1982 as a project of the JSU Wesley Foundation and has grown to include an attendance of hundreds from the campus and surrounding communities. A Holocaust Remembrance Committee facilitates the planning. The Committee's mission is to organize an annual remembrance of the Holocaust of WWII in order to: memorialize the victims and broaden understanding of the Holocaust, expand scholarship and teaching about the Holocaust, and, through education, ensure that future generations learn the lessons of the Holocaust so that it will never happen again.
The photograph at top shows a group of Jewish schoolchildren in Vienna, November 1937. All were expelled when Germany annexed Austria in 1938. (image courtesy of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)
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Annual Holocaust Remembrance | 2024
Christopher Berdy
The 2024 Holocaust Remembrance was held Tuesday, 9 April in the basement auditorium at Merrill Hall, Jacksonville State University.
Chris Berdy is a partner in the law firm of Butler Snow LLP. Active in the community, Chris is on the Board of Directors of the Alabama Holocaust Education Center, and he is the AHEC’s president-elect. Chris is a second-generation Holocaust survivor, and he shares the story of his father’s survival in occupied France following his grandparents’ and extended family members’ expulsion from Vienna after the Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938. Chris is a dual citizen of both the United States and Austria.
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Annual Holocaust Remembrance | 2022
Eli Pinhas
The 2022 Holocaust Remembrance was held Tuesday, 5 April in the basement auditorium at Merrill Hall, Jacksonville State University. The keynote speaker was Mr. Eli Pinhas, son of Holocaust survivors from Thessaloniki (also known as Saloniki or Salonica), Greece.
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Annual Holocaust Remembrance | 2021
Jacksonville State University
The 2021 Holocaust Remembrance was held virtually on 15 April. The keynote speaker was Ms. Ann Mollengarden, daughter of Holocaust survivor Dr. Robert May. Robert May was born in Germany in 1926. The May family had owned a dry goods store for several generations, and May's father was cantor at the local synagogue. But when Hitler came to power in 1933, anti-Semitism threatened the family business and forced Robert to leave school and stay with his aunt in Frankfurt. During Kristallnacht in 1938, Robert's school and synagogue were burned, and his aunt's apartment ransacked. A month later, Robert escaped Germany through the Kindertransport, a British program that allowed Jewish children under 17 to enter England, as long as they could support themselves. Robert's father and mother managed to join him in London two days before the war began, and the family emigrated to the U.S. in 1940. Robert's aunt, with whom he stayed in Frankfurt, and the uncle who sponsored his Kindertransport, both perished in Auschwitz.
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Annual Holocaust Remembrance | 2017
Jacksonville State University
The 2017 Holocaust Remembrance was held on 13 April at the Stone Center Theatre. The Keynote speaker was Dr. James Sedlis.
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Annual Holocaust Remembrance | 2016
Jacksonville State University
The 2016 Holocaust Remembrance was held on 5 April at the Stone Center Theatre. The Keynote speaker was Ms. Esther Levy, daughter of a Holocaust survivor.
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Annual Holocaust Remembrance | 2015
Jacksonville State University
The 2015 Holocaust Remembrance was held on 14 April at the Stone Center Theatre. The Keynote speaker was Holocaust survivor Dr. Robert May. Dr. May was accompanied by his daughter, Ann Mollengarden. Robert May was born in Germany in 1926. The May family had owned a dry goods store for several generations, and May's father was cantor at the local synagogue. But when Hitler came to power in 1933, anti-Semitism threatened the family business and forced Robert to leave school and stay with his aunt in Frankfurt. During Kristallnacht in 1938, Robert's school and synagogue were burned, and his aunt's apartment ransacked. A month later, Robert escaped Germany through the Kindertransport, a British program that allowed Jewish children under 17 to enter England, as long as they could support themselves. Robert's father and mother managed to join him in London two days before the war began, and the family emigrated to the U.S. in 1940. Robert's aunt, with whom he stayed in Frankfurt, and the uncle who sponsored his Kindertransport, both perished in Auschwitz.
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Annual Holocaust Remembrance | 2014
Jacksonville State University
The 2014 Holocaust Remembrance was held on 10 April at the Stone Center Theatre. The Keynote speaker was Ms. Denise Lewis, daughter of Holocaust survivor Roger Nathan Blum. Ms. Lewis's father was born in Brumath, France in 1920. Encouraged by his parents, Roger left home at age nineteen, coming to Birmingham to stay with a cousin. Some of his family that remained in France were captured by the Nazis, while others went into hiding. In 1942, after being drafted by the U.S. Army, Roger returned to France where he was able to locate his immediate family with the help of the American Red Cross. Roger Blum passed away in 2007.
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Annual Holocaust Remembrance | 2012
Jacksonville State University
The 2012 Holocaust Remembrance was held on 19 April at the Stone Center Theatre. The Keynote speaker was Holocaust survivor Mr. Max Herzel of Birmingham, AL. The 2012 program marks the 30th Anniversary of the JSU Holocaust Remembrance, which began in 1982.
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Annual Holocaust Remembrance | 2011
Jacksonville State University
The 2011 Holocaust Remembrance was held on 7 April at the Stone Center Theatre. The Keynote speaker was Holocaust survivor Mr. Herbert Kohn of Atlanta, Ga.
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Annual Holocaust Remembrance | 2010
Jacksonville State University
The 2010 Holocaust Remembrance was held on 15 April at the Stone Center Theatre. The Keynote speaker was Holocaust survivor Mr. Benjamin Hirsch of Atlanta, Ga.
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Annual Holocaust Remembrance | 2009
Jacksonville State University
The 2009 Holocaust Remembrance was held on 13 April at the Stone Center Theatre. The Keynote speaker was Holocaust survivor Mrs. Ruth Siegler, of Birmingham, Alabama. Mrs. Ruth Siegler was born in 1927 in Sinzenich, Germany. In 1942, she and her family were deported to the concentration camp at Auschwitz (Birkenau). Ruth and her sister were the only members of her immediate family to survive. They were liberated by the Russian Army and eventually emigrated to the United States.
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Annual Holocaust Remembrance | 2008
Jacksonville State University
The 2008 Holocaust Remembrance was held on 3 April at the Stone Center Theatre. The Keynote speaker was Holocaust survivor Mr. Jack Bass. Mr. Bass was born in 1923 in a small town in Germany. Mr. Bass and his mother moved to Berlin in 1937. In 1942, he was arrested by the SS and sent to the concentration camp at Auschwitz. After being sent to various other camps, including Dachau, Mr. Bass was liberated by American troops and emigrated to the United States, where he has lived ever since.
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Annual Holocaust Remembrance | 2007
Jacksonville State University
The 2007 Holocaust Remembrance was held on 5 April at the Stone Center Theatre. The Keynote speaker was Holocaust survivor Dr. Eugen Schoenfeld.