CONTACT: Victoria Villarreal, 210-207-2577
Victoria.Villarreal2@sanantonio.gov
SAN ANTONIO (January 6, 2021) – The San Antonio Public Library (SAPL) and the Holocaust Memorial Museum of San Antonio (HMMSA) will host a variety of online programs throughout January as part of the ninth annual, The Holocaust: Learn & Remember program series. The Holocaust: Learn & Remember is an annual initiative created to enlighten and educate the community on the importance of promoting tolerance and inspiring acceptance while remembering those who were lost in this horrific moment in history.
This year’s Learn & Remember series theme, “Isolation in the Holocaust”, will feature an online exhibit, online programs including presentations by Holocaust survivors, a Take-and-Make kit available through Contact-Free Pickup at all library locations, and more.
Visit guides.mysapl.org/holocaustremembrance for more information on the series and to view the online exhibit. Additionally, here is a promotional video with further details on this year’s programs https://youtu.be/k_YHF2klljk.
Schedule of Events
All events and registration links can be found at https://guides.mysapl.org/holocaustremembrance.
“Discrimination and Isolation During the Holocaust” - Online Exhibit
Holocaust Memorial Museum of San Antonio
January 4-31, 2021
hmmsa.org/learn-remember-exhibit
Holocaust Remembrance Walk
Semmes Branch Library - 15060 Judson Rd., 78247
Through January 31st
As a part of The Holocaust: Learn & Remember series this year, we invite you to visit Semmes Branch Library to view a Holocaust Remembrance Walk. This Walk features images and text from this year’s online The Holocaust: Learn & Remember exhibit. As you view the images and read the text, we hope that you learn more about the trauma, isolation, and discrimination that victims of the Holocaust experienced. The Holocaust Remembrance Walk will be available at Semmes Branch Library through January 31st. Please practice social distancing as you share the grounds with other visitors.
Public Speaking Programs (presented online)
Isolation at Wobbelin Concentration Camp
Dr. Roger Barnes - University of the Incarnate Word
- Wednesday, January 6 | 7PM
- Wednesday, January 13 | 7PM
- Wednesday, January 20 | 7PM
Life in the Secret Annex: Challenges for survival for Anne Frank
Gene Festa - Docent from Holocaust Memorial Museum of San Antonio Presentation
- Thursday, January 7 | 7PM
- Sunday, January 10 | 3PM
- Thursday, January 14 | 3PM
Hiding: In the Attic and in Plain Sight
Liz Reichman - Docent from Holocaust Memorial Museum of San Antonio
- Wednesday, January 6 | 3PM
- Tuesday, January 12 | 6PM
- Thursday, January 21 | 10AM
Isolation and Social Death in Nazi Germany
Dr. Edward B. Westermann - Texas A&M University-San Antonio (Professor of History)
- Monday, January 11 | 2PM & 7PM
Jews Hiding in Plain Sight
Reyna Stovall - Docent from Holocaust Memorial Museum of San Antonio
- Thursday, January 14 | 7PM
- Thursday, January 21 | 7PM
Holocaust Survivor’s Story of Isolation (to be translated into Spanish)
Pieter Kohnstam - Holocaust Survivor from Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect
- Tuesday, January 19 | 6PM
- This program will be presented in Spanish
Mr. Kohnstam, a Holocaust Survivor, lived in the same apartment complex as Anne Frank and later escaped to Buenos Aires.
Closing Event
Evi Blaikie - Organization: Holocaust Survivor from Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect
- Wednesday, January 27 | 6PM (International Holocaust Remembrance Day)
Evi Blaikie was born just a year before the outbreak of WWII in Paris, France, to Hungarian Jewish parents. When the Germans invaded, her parents were deported and she was smuggled to Hungary to live with her mother's relatives. In 1944, when the Germans invaded Hungary, Evi, her mother, who had escaped from deportation, went into hiding for a harrowing year until they were liberated by the Soviet Army. Following liberation, and the disappearance of her father and most of her family, Evi and her mother returned to France, where she was placed in the Anna Szenes orphanage. Two years later they immigrated to England where Evi was sent to the Norwood Jewish orphanage, but managed to get a scholarship to the prestigious Saint Martin-in-the Field Hight School for girls. In 1991, Evi was instrumental in founding a group called the Hungarian Hidden Children of NY, Inc. In 2003, she published her memoir, Magda's Daughter, followed in 2010 by, Remember Us, an anthology of short stories by Hidden Children. Her wartime experiences are shown in the just released documentary of the same name.