Editor Shlomit Kriger connected with a mixed audience at Toronto’s Barbara Frum Library on Nov. 30, 2011 for the latest Marking Humanity Holocaust book event, which also featured survivors John Freund and Ghita Malvina. Both survivors faced extremely difficult situations at various concentration camps, including Auschwitz-Birkenau, and witnessed the brutal murder of many others. They have remained resilient and are spreading lessons from the Holocaust and messages of peace to others. In the words of 91-year-old Ghita Malvina, “Love, freedom, and friendship are the most important things in the world. Each person on Earth can and has to contribute something good in order to make our world safer.”

On June 21, 2011, an audience at the Sephardic Kehila Centre in Thornhill, Ontario, beared witness as Marking Humanity‘s editor, Shlomit Kriger, and two of the survivors featured in the book, Andy Réti and Sophie Soil, gave an intimate presentation about the Holocaust and its lessons at an event held by the Iraqi Jewish Association of Ontario. Both Andy and Sophie were young children during the Holocaust and have remained particularly struck by how the Nazi-perpetrated atrocities affected their parents. Andy showed a photo of his late mother, Ibi, as well as the wedding ring from Ibi’s first marriage to his father, who he never got to know. Although the Nazis confiscated jewellery and other valuables from the Jews, Ibi had managed to save the ring by hiding it in her baby’s diaper.

On May 1, 2011, Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Aish Thornhill Community Shul in Ontario, Canada, held its third annual commemoration in memory of those lost and in honour of those who survived. Marking Humanity‘s editor, Shlomit Kriger, and three of the survivors featured in the book — Helen Drazek, George Scott, and Simcha Simchovitch — addressed the audience of about 250 people, educating and inspiring them with personal experiences and writings as well as some thoughts on the meaning of Never Again.

The Jewish Tribune included mention of this event in a recent article.

Click here to watch some highlights from the presentation

Marking Humanity‘s editor, Shlomit Kriger, read the poem “Rosh Hashanah 1944 in Birkenau” by survivor George Scott at the Markham Arts Council’s first Open Mic Night, held in partnership with the Markham Village Writers on Mar. 24, 2011.

Marking Humanity‘s editor, Shlomit Kriger, and two of the survivors featured in the book, Helen Drazek and Renate Krakauer, recently spoke at a Toronto, Ontario, chapter of Na’amat Canada. The all-female audience was very curious to find out about the survivors’ experiences during and after the Holocaust, while also discussing reflections on the past and its relevancy to the present.

On November 11, Remembrance Day, Marking Humanity‘s editor, Shlomit Kriger, gave a presentation at the University of Ottawa in Ontario, Canada, and led a discussion with the students on some of the topics that were raised in her talk and some of the survivors’ pieces from the book.

Marking Humanity‘s editor, Shlomit Kriger, and some of the featured survivors from Toronto, Canada — Renate Krakauer, George Scott, Simcha Simchovitch, Helen Drazek, and Frieda Traub (joined by her daughter Debi Traub) — connected with audience members ranging from youth to the elderly at two events in October 2010: at the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center on Oct. 18 and at The House on Oct. 28 (as part of Holocaust Education Week).

The survivors moved the audience with their stories and as they read their pieces from the book. Shlomit then shared her thoughts and research in relation to what people can learn from the survivors and the Holocaust, as well as how some of the core issues that played a role during that dark period in history are relevant in people’s own communities today. She emphasized that every person helps to shape the world and everyone can work on bettering themselves and their communities.

Shlomit Kriger shared some of the bios and poems of the survivors featured in Marking Humanity at the 2010 Patio Plays summer arts festival in Toronto, Canada.