Play-reading, documentary conclude Holocause Memorial Week programs

COURTESY PHOTO Edison State College student Priscilla Deoliveira places yellow flags representing the 11 million lives lost during the Holocaust. The flags are part of Holocaust Memorial Week on campus and will remain in place through Friday, March 27. They are haunting words, the stories the survivors tell. And their once strong voice is beginning to diminish to a whisper as the passage of time claims many. Those who still can continue to share their stories, educating young audiences about the need for vigilance, understanding and appreciation for human differences.

For many who survived the Holocaust as either a young child or young adult, the experience set them on a defined path to share their personal story and leave their mark on the world.

As part of Holocaust Memorial Week, Edison State College students and members of the public are invited to the following two free programs:

. 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 25, in Taeni Hall on the ESC campus in Fort Myers: A directed reading of "Miracle at St. Ottilien," a play by Sanibel resident Robert Hilliard. This is the first public presentation of Mr. Hilliard's play based on his memoir "Surviving the Americans: the Continued Struggle of the Jews After Liberation."

. 2:30 p.m. Thursday, March 26, in Taeni Hall: Mr. Hilliard will lecture and show the documentary "Displaced: Miracle at St. Ottilien." The award-winning movie created by filmmaker John Michalczyk is adapted from Mr. Hilliard's memoir.

Right after the end of World War II, more than 400 survivors of Dachau and Buchenwald found a safe haven at St. Ottilien, a former German monastery transformed into a displaced persons camp run by the U.S. military.

Two U.S. Army privates stationed nearby, a then 19-year-old Robert Hilliard and 24-year-old Edward Herman, were shocked by the conditions. Food rations at St. Ottilien were barely more than those in the concentration camps, so the two young men stole from their own mess hall and smuggled food into the camp. Then they conducted a letter-writing campaign to the United States that caught President Harry Truman's attention.

As headlined in the New York Times,

Sept. 30, 1945, "President Orders Eisenhower to End New Abuse of Jews... Likens Our Treatment to that of the Nazis."

There were two documentaries created about St. Ottilien. The second is available online and though it goes on to tell the story of the St. Ottilien orchestra, the first 15 minutes or so will give you a glimpse into the reality of Mr. Hilliard's story. Find it at http://at.bc.edu/creatingharmony.

The rest of the schedule of ESC's Dr. Talbot Spivak Holocaust Memorial Project, themed "The Aftermath," is available at www.edison.edu/holocaust.

For more information, contact the ESC Public Information Office at 489-9207 or e-mail Pamela Nulman at pnulman@ edison.edu.

The play "Miracle at St. Ottilien" is also available for performances beyond March 25. For booking and more information, contact producer Amy Tardif at 851-9983 or atardif@wgcu.org.