San Francisco Public Library
Skylight Gallery
100 Larkin Street
January 10 - March 15
Alive A la vie!, a photo exhibition of the saved
children of Buchenwald, debuts in the United
States in 2015.
These photographic panels were created by the
renowned French Jewish humanitarian organization
OSE (Œuvre de secours aux enfant), which saved
hundreds of Jewish refugee children before,
during, and after World War II. The exhibition
looks at life before the Holocaust, ghettos and life
during the war, the Buchenwald camp, and life
after the war.
In early 1945, the Jewish underground in Buchenwald
established a special barrack within the camp to shelter
600 children. Elie Wiesel was one of these children. After
the camp was liberated, the OSE played a major role in
relocating them. They escorted hundreds of children to
France, Switzerland, and England.
Photos: Co
or
E/CDJC Mém
pyright OS
ial de la Sh
oah
Co-sponsored by:
Supported by:
Ingrid D. Tauber Philanthropic Fund of the JCF
lehrhaus.org | sfpl.org
The Boys of Buchenwald
Tuesday, January 27 | 6:00 - 7:30 pm
Yedida Kanfer, Ph.D.
We will be screening the film The Boys of Buchenwald
on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. A
“gentle rekindling of the human spirit” brought child
survivors of the Buchenwald concentration camp out
of despair and moved them to create remarkable lives for
themselves. In the film, they return to the homes in France
that took them in after the war, and reconnect with
fellow survivors whose friendships helped to heal their
devastating losses.
The film will be introduced by Yedida Kanfer of the JFCS
Holocaust Center and Tauber Holocaust Library.
The Holocaust in Every Tongue: Which
Night is Right: Yiddish, French or English
and the Politics of Translation
Thursday, February 12 | 6:00 - 7:30 pm
Prof. Naomi Seidman and Howard Simon
San Francisco Public Library Programs
All programs are free.
Please arrive early to guarantee a seat as space is limited.
Opening Event
Wiesel’s Buchenwald and Wiesel’s Night
Sunday, January 11 | 2:00 - 4:00 pm
Prof. Murray Baumgarten, Charlie Varon, Fred Rosenbaum,
and Dr. Steven Sloan
Professor Murray Baumgarten will provide a historical review of
Buchenwald and discuss Elie Wiesel’s novel Night in popular
literature and the formation of the Holocaust narrative.
Prof. Naomi Seidman will discuss how when the events of
the Holocaust reached a worldwide audience it did so largely
in translation, in languages different from the one of the
victims, or in which the events transpired. The term “Holocaust”
is itself, not coincidentally, taken from the Septuagint, the
Greek translation of the Bible. What is the role of translation in
the transmission of Jewish memory? How does this Jewish
catastrophe mean differently to different audiences, far
removed in culture, time, and place from World War II-era
Europe? Why is the translational nature of Holocaust memory
so often neglected? This talk will focus on both the larger
question of the role of translation in Holocaust discourse and
the particular role played by translation in Elie Wiesel’s Night.
Howard Simon will open the program by speaking from an
American Jew’s viewpoint of Buchenwald through the lens of
Primo Levi.
Free follow-up program: The Language Wars on March 8
Charlie Varon, an artist-in-residence at The Marsh in San Francisco,
will perform a dramatic reading of Wiesel’s letter to the authors
of The Children of Buchenwald and a selection from Night.
Fred Rosenbaum, a Holocaust scholar, and Dr. Steven Sloan,
son of a Buchenwald camp survivor and past president of the
Holocaust Center of Northern California, will introduce the
program.
We will conclude with a reception in the exhibition area.
Refreshments will be served.
lehrhaus.org | sfpl.org