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Authors | Eli Rubenstein, March of the Living |
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Language | English Spanish Hebrew Polish |
Publisher | Second Story Press |
Publication date | 2015 |
Publication place | Canada |
Media type | Book (Hardback) |
Pages | 136 (first edition) |
ISBN | 9781927583661 |
Witness: Passing the Torch of Holocaust Memory to New Generations is a substantial volume published by Second Story Press, motivated by a 2014 United Nations exhibition featuring reflections and visuals of Holocaust survivors alongside students participating in the March of the Living since 1988.
Both the original exhibition and the accompanying book (published in 2015) aims to inform a new generation of learners about the horrors of the Second World War. The book was produced in partnership with March of the Living, an organization dedicated to facilitating visits to the Polish sites of Nazi crimes and Toronto-based religious figure and Holocaust educator Eli Rubenstein. Witness is available in English, Spanish, Polish, and Hebrew.
The book has an interactive feature and in the revised edition a afterword by Steven Spielberg, while the preface includes contributions from Pope Francis, Pope John Paul II and Barack Obama. In 2021 a short film based on the book was released and features recorded moments used in the exhibition and publication.
Based on a photo exhibit launched at the United Nations in 2014, the book, released in 2015, documents experiences from Holocaust survivors revisiting concentration camps and the reactions of teenage visitors confronting the horrors inflicted by the Nazis on various groups. Eli Rubenstein collected photos from the March of the Living Digital Archive Project and paired these with poems from teenage participants and added historical sections to explain multiple events. [1] The book also outlines the commitment of participates to create a better world through education. [1]
The initial chapter opens with an examination by witnesses and a summary of the Holocaust historical context. The subsequent chapter is dedicated to the principal death camps located in Poland (Auschwitz, Treblinka, Majdanek, and Belzec), where systematic extermination occurred. The third chapter emphasizes acts of resistance amidst the Holocaust. Chapter four provides witnesses testimony about survival. The fifth chapter centers on the significance of survivors and the role of students in perpetuating the legacy of remembrance. The concluding chapter advocates for a dedication to fostering a new generation of witnesses through multiple avenues including Holocaust studies. [2] [3]
The book has an interactive feature where the survivors, liberators, and Righteous Among the Nations featured in the book, include an invisible link embedded on their image. When their image is accessed with a smart phone or other device, the reader is taken to an excerpt of their video testimony on USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education (created by Steven Spielberg) or March of the Living Digital Archive Project websites. [4]
There is an afterword in the revised edition by Steven Spielberg, while the preface includes contributions from Pope Francis, Pope John Paul II and Barack Obama. [5] In the afterword, Spielberg speaks to the survivors, stating; "Your stories are safe with us. They remind us not only of your steadfast courage but also that the days ahead will be filled with light and hope." [5]
Translations in several other languages have been completed and/or published with the launch of the Polish language edition taking place in November 2018 at the Polin Museum, the Spanish edition (Testimonios; traspasar la antorcha de la memoria del holocausto a las nuevas generaciones) launched in January 2019, and the Hebrew edition was release in 2019. [6]
In 2020, a special edition of the book was published in conjunction with “Liberation 75” an international Holocaust education initiative commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the end of WWII and the liberation of Europe from Nazi tyranny. In the new edition, each photo of a survivor, rescuer, or WWII liberator has an invisible barcode that links to their video testimony via mobile phone. There are 75 videos on the USC Shoah Foundation or March of the Living websites. The edition includes new liberation stories, content honoring those who rescued Jews, a new Afterword, and a Preface. [7]
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In 2021 a short film based on the book was released; directed and produced by Naomi Wise, the director of the March of the Living Digital Archive Project, features moments documented between survivors and students over the past 33 years used in the book. [8]
The March of the Living Digital Archive Project, which hosts many of the videos linked in the book was made possible in part, through grants from the Citizenship & Immigration Canada - Multiculturalism Section, and the Claims Conference. The Digital Archives Project aims to gather Holocaust testimony from Canadian survivors who, since 1988, have traveled to Poland on the March of the Living to share their Holocaust stories with their young students in the locations they transpired. [9]
Witness has overall received positive reactions and reviews.
Avrum Rosensweig in the Huffpost summarized the book saying; " powerful aspect of Witness is that it stands on its own as a historical document and is an excellent, well laid out read for students of the Holocaust and those who are new to learning about this very complex time in history." [10] Irene Tomaszewski in the Cosmopolitan Review stated; " a remarkable volume that testifies to the power of remembrance, commemoration, and education." [11] Canadian Jewish News described the book as " a treasure trove of photographs, poetry, commentary and history designed to enlighten a broad audience about the events of the Holocaust." [12] Published in the Jerusalem Post, William B. Helmreich remaked " Witness provides a capsule history of the Holocaust that is especially useful for someone who is unaware of what actually happened." [13] The hardback version has been criticized for its "oblong format" resulting in a "heavy awkward" publication. [14] The accessibility concern was negated when the publication was released in digital and paperback formats. [15]
Pope Francis: “Work for peace. Unite with people from different cultures and religions. Keep an open heart. Don’t discriminate. Welcome and understand others. May God bless you.” [16]
Pope John Paul II: “I know all about the March of the Living. God bless your daughter, and God bless the March of the Living.” [16]
President Barack Obama: “I think of Pinchas Gutter, a man who lived through the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and survived the Majdanek death camp…‘I tell my story,’ he says, ‘for the purpose of improving humanity, drop by drop by drop. Like a drop of water falls on a stone and erodes it, so, hopefully, by telling my story over and over again, I will achieve the purpose of making the world a better place to live in.’ Those are the words of one survivor – performing that sacred duty of memory – that will echo throughout eternity. Those are good words for all of us to live by.” [17]
Elie Wiesel: "Forever will I see the children who no longer have the strength to cry. Forever will I see the elderly who no longer have the strength to help them. Forever will I see the mothers and the fathers, the grandfathers and grandmothers, the little schoolchildren…their teachers…the righteous and the pious…. From where do we take the tears to cry over them? Who has the strength to cry for them?" [18]
Steven Spielberg: "We’ve never had a Remembrance Day quite like this. But today, on Yom HaShoah, we gather for our first-ever virtual March of the Living. And I wish we could all be together in person. But what’s important is that we are together now. Because this virtual gathering not only gives us a chance to remember the horrors we faced in the past, it also shines a light on the struggles that lie ahead and those we face as a community this very day. The work we are doing – which is your work – is already having a generational impact. So for that I can only say thank you. Thank you for your bravery. Thank you for your commitment to the March of the Living. And thank you for gathering today to look back, as we continue the vital work of ensuring a better future. [19]
Faigie Libman: "When you have hatred in your heart, there is no room for love." [20]
Nate Leipciger: "Hate will destroy the person doing the hating." [21]
Max Glauben: "I am a strong believer that we must tell the stories to the youngsters – they are going to be our witnesses.” [22]
Elie Wiesel: "To be a survivor after the Holocaust, is to have all the reason in the world to destroy and not to destroy. To have all the reasons in the world to hate and not to hate… to have all the reasons in the world to mistrust and not to mistrust..." [23]
Judy Weissenberg Cohen: “They say 'When you listen to a witness, you become a witness.' I am only asking you to work for a world where nobody will have to live with memories like mine ever again. Please heal the world.” [24]
Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He authored 57 books, written mostly in French and English, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a Jewish prisoner in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps.
Shoah is a 1985 French documentary film about the Holocaust, directed by Claude Lanzmann. Over nine hours long and eleven years in the making, the film presents Lanzmann's interviews with survivors, witnesses and perpetrators during visits to German Holocaust sites across Poland, including extermination camps.
Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; echoing the stories of the survivors; honoring Jews who fought against their Nazi oppressors and gentiles who selflessly aided Jews in need; and researching the phenomenon of the Holocaust in particular and genocide in general, with the aim of avoiding such events in the future. Yad Vashem's vision, as stated on its website, is: "To lead the documentation, research, education and commemoration of the Holocaust, and to convey the chronicles of this singular Jewish and human event to every person in Israel, to the Jewish people, and to every significant and relevant audience worldwide."
The March of the Living is an annual educational program which brings students from around the world to Poland, where they explore the remnants of the Holocaust. On Holocaust Memorial Day observed in the Jewish calendar, thousands of participants march silently from Auschwitz to Birkenau.
Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no universally accepted definition of the term, and it has been applied variously to Jews who survived the war in German-occupied Europe or other Axis territories, as well as to those who fled to Allied and neutral countries before or during the war. In some cases, non-Jews who also experienced collective persecution under the Nazi regime are considered Holocaust survivors as well. The definition has evolved over time.
Holocaust Museum LA, formerly known as Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, is a museum located in Pan Pacific Park within the Fairfax district of Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1961 by Holocaust survivors, Holocaust Museum LA is the oldest museum of its kind in the United States. Its mission is to commemorate those murdered in the Holocaust, honor those who survived, educate about the Holocaust, and inspire a more dignified and humane world.
USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education, formerly Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to making audio-visual interviews with survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust. It was established by Steven Spielberg in 1994, one year after completing his Academy Award-winning film Schindler's List. In January 2006, the foundation partnered with and relocated to the University of Southern California (USC) and was renamed the USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education. In March 2019, the institute opened their new global headquarters on USC's campus.
Blind Love: A Holocaust Journey Through Poland with Man's Best Friend is a 2015 documentary film about blind Israelis traveling to Poland with the help of their guide dogs, to learn about the Holocaust. Footage includes blind participants taking part in the 2012 and 2013 March of the Living programs. The film is narrated by Michael Enright of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
The March of the Living Digital Archive Project, begun in 2013, aims to gather Holocaust testimony from Canadian survivors who have participated in the March of the Living. Since 1988, Holocaust survivors have traveled to Poland with young students on the March of the Living to share their Holocaust stories in the locations they transpired.
Eli Rubenstein is a Holocaust educator, writer, storyteller, filmmaker, and activist. He is currently the religious leader of Congregation Habonim Toronto, a Toronto synagogue founded by Holocaust survivors, served as the Director of Education for March of the Living International since 1988, and currently serves as National Director of March of the Living Canada from 1988 to 2024. Rubenstein was the President of the Israel Guide Dog Centre for the Blind, and was appointed to the Order of Canada in December 2022.
Nate Leipciger is a Holocaust educator, public speaker and author.
Max T. Eisen was a Slovak author, public speaker, and Holocaust educator. He travelled throughout Canada giving talks about his experiences as a concentration camp survivor, to students, teachers, universities, law enforcement personnel, and the community at large.
Sidney Zoltak, is a Polish-Canadian author, Holocaust educator and the subject of several films. Zoltak has been featured on CBC in a special done by the channel.
Pinchas Gutter is a Holocaust educator and frequent guest lecturer for the Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Centre and the March of the Living and March of Remembrance and Hope programs. He is one of the pioneers of an innovative project called Dimensions in Testimony in which a life-sized interactive biography will be wheeled into classrooms, lecture halls and museums. The idea is that the audience asks questions and pre-recorded statements from the video Gutter will respond – much as if talking to the real person. Gutter has also been the subject of a number of films by directors such as Fern Levitt, Eli Rubenstein, Stephen D. Smith and Zvike Nevo.
David Shentow was a Belgian-Canadian Holocaust survivor and educator, featured in Canadian films, books and articles. He received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012, and the Sovereign's Medal for Volunteers in 2017. For "extraordinary community service to the citizens of the City of Ottawa, the Province of Ontario and Canada", the "David Shentow Park" was unveiled by Mayor Jim Watson on 11 September 2022.
Dori Laub was an Israeli-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, a clinical professor in Yale University’s Department of Psychiatry, an expert in the area of testimony methodology, and a trauma researcher. A Holocaust survivor himself, Laub co-founded the Holocaust Survivors Film Project with Laurel Vlock.
Edward Mosberg was a Polish-born American Holocaust survivor, educator, and philanthropist. During the Holocaust, he was held by the Nazis from 14 years of age in Kraków Ghetto, Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp, Auschwitz concentration camp, Mauthausen concentration camp, and a slave labor camp in Linz, Austria, that was liberated by the US Army in 1945. Nearly all of his family were murdered in the Holocaust.
Shmuel Rosenman is an Israeli educator, a co-founder and chairman of the International March of the Living, a past lecturer at Bar Ilan University's Interdisciplinary Department of Social Sciences, and a former CEO of Kupat Holim Leumit. He lectures at Shaarei Mishpat Umada College in Hod Hasharon.
Liberation 75 is a Holocaust education organization based in Toronto, Canada, most notably known for hosting the largest international Gathering of Holocaust Survivors, Descendants, Family and Friends in 2020 which marked the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Holocaust, and their initiatives to increase Holocaust education in Ontario schools. It was founded in 2018 by Marilyn Sinclair, fulfilling a promise to her late father, Ernie Weiss (1928-2010), to organize an event bringing witnesses and survivors together.