Learn what it was really like to live in hiding during WWII and how young survivors faced the challenges of an uncertain future even after liberation. Greenwich Historical Society and the Jewish Historical Society of Lower Fairfield County will sponsor a panel presentation on Sunday, April 3 at 2:00 pm led by Agnes Vertes, President of Holocaust Child Survivors of Connecticut.
The program is being held in conjunction with Greenwich Reads Together, which will feature The Book Thief, a story that encompasses themes of fear, risk and survival during the Nazi era. In this spirit, each panelist will share his or her personal triumph as a hidden child in the face of seemingly overwhelming adversity and loss.
Panel leader Agnes Vertes is a businesswoman, teacher and independent filmmaker who survived the Holocaust. She attended high school in Budapest, Hungary, and earned a Bachelor of Arts from Hunter College in New York and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Connecticut. Among her achievements are two award-winning and internationally recognized films on the subject of the Holocaust - One Out of Ten, about the experiences of child survivors, and Passport to Life, about diplomats who saved Jews in Budapest.
Panelist Marian Nachman was born in Holland in 1938 and remained hidden throughout the war by her father's business associate. Her parents were discovered in hiding elsewhere and sent to Sobibor concentration camp where they perished. Mrs. Nachman came to the United States in 1946 to live with her Jewish aunt and uncle in New York City, graduated from Smith College and enjoyed a long and varied career in the arts and letters.
Panelist R. Daniel Vock, born in Paris in 1933 to a tightly knit Sephardic family, moved perpetually to avoid capture during the war. In 1943, he was taken but ultimately escaped deportation and survived in hiding until the end of the war. He immigrated to the United States in 1951, earned degrees from Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School, and continues to enjoy a long and distinguished legal career.
Greenwich Reads Together is supported by a grant from the Verizon Foundation.
Greenwich Historical Society, Vanderbilt Education Center, 39 Strickland Road, Cos Cob
Admission is free. To attend, call, 203-869-6899, Ext. 10 or email assistant@greenwichhistory.org.
