Congregations Beth Yeshurun and Emanu El’s fourth-to 12th-grade religious school students came together for the program at Emanu El on April 18. And, on April 19, Beren Academy and Torah Day School brought their fifth- to 12th-graders together for the presentation at Beren Academy.

“Voices of the Generations” is based on Hanna Kohner’s story of survival, to show that not all Holocaust stories had such tragic endings. Julie Kohner offers her mother’s story through a 1953 presentation of the old TV show, “This Is Your Life,” on which she appeared as the first Holocaust survivor to tell her story on national TV. She uses the clip to talk about her mother’s story and share her experiences growing up as a child of a survivor.

Julie Kohner has presented “Voices of the Generations” for the last 20 years. Her parents, Hanna and Walter, encouraged and prepared her to become their voice for future generations. They wrote an autobiography, “Hanna and Walter, A Love Story,” which traces their steps from the 1930s in Czechoslovakia to California after World War II. In addition, they took their daughter on a pilgrimage through Europe, stopping at many of the places described in their book. Julie Kohner teaches the Holocaust through its impact on one family, from the millions devastated by those events.

In recent years, “Voices of the Generations” has become a nonprofit charity and has been presented throughout the United States, to both secular and non-secular groups. Her programs have been sponsored by Jewish Federations and Community Centers in New York, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Houston and St. Louis. Julie Kohner has published curriculum to accompany “Hanna and Walter, A Love Story,” preparing other teachers to teach the Holocaust. “Voices of the Generations” is listed by the Los Angeles Unified School District, as approved for Holocaust education.

This program is one of many examples of the way Houston community schools work together in cooperation with the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston to bring quality programs to students.

Julie Kohner and Robert Albanese, Director of the Vancouver Jewish Film Festival.

UCLA Festival of Preservation brought This Is Your Life, Holocaust Survivors to The Ridge Theatre in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Sunday, November 20, 2011, as the closing film of the Vancouver Jewish Film Festival.  Julie Kohner, was the invited guest speaker, and presented an introduction toVoices of the Generations and the This Is Your Life presentation.  Audience members engaged in a question & answer session after This Is Your Life, Hanna Bloch Kohner. Special thanks go to Mr. Jim Sinclair from the Pacific Cinematheque, and Mr. Robert Albanese, director of the Vancouver Jewish Film Festival, for hosting this special event.

Look for Voices of the Generations at the Jewish Film Festival on January 15, 2012 in Portland, Oregon.

The Luire Cave, in the Vercors region of south-central France was the scene of a desperate, yet heroic fight between hospitalized French Resistance fighters and German soldiers battling the onslaught of the Allied Invasion in July 1944. It was here that a brief roadside stop on a recent driving tour of this serene mountainous region near the Rhone River Valley led to my discovery of another element in the effort to defeat Naziism.

From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Resistance): The French Resistance is the name used to denote the collection of French resistance movements that fought against the Nazi occupiers of France and against the collaborationist Vichy regime during World War II. Résistance cells were small groups of armed men and women who, in addition to their guerrilla warfare activities, were also publishers of underground newspapers, providers of first-hand intelligence information, and maintainers of escape networks that helped Allied soldiers and airmen trapped behind enemy lines. The men and women of the Résistance came from all economic levels and political leanings of French society, including emigres, conservative Roman Catholics, including priests; members of the Jewish community; and citizens from the ranks of liberals, anarchists, and communists.

In the region of Saint-Agnan-en Vercors, a medical service was set up in February 1944. A hospital for 60 patients, and several medical aid stations for French Resistance and Allied combat forces were established in the region.  In mid-July 1944, the Nazis launched a vast operation in the region.  Nearly 100 wounded resistance fighters in the hospital at Saint Martin-en-Vercors had to be evacuated, and were taken to the Luire cave, deep in the forest outside of town. With the German attacks intensifying, the least wounded fled into the forest. On July 27, German soldiers arrived at the cave, and in spite of the Red Cross sign, started shooting the remaining hospital patients. Some patients were executed on site, others taken as prisoners to Grenoble. Doctors, nurses and other medical staff were deported to Ravensbruck.