July 12, 2023
“So much has been written on the way the Nazis used art in Germany, but very little on art in Nazi Vienna, and almost nothing at all in English,” notes Dr. Laura Morowitz, whose forthcoming book, Art, Exhibition and Erasure (Routledge, 2024) sets out to change that. Morowitz has been a Professor of Art History […]
March 8, 2023
In her welcoming letter to an international community of Holocaust scholars on our campus, Fern Zagor–tireless and devoted Chair of the Wagner College Chai Society–wrote of “...the courage of the spirit, daring to believe in the future against unfathomable, indescribable odds.” Fighting for social justice and to protect those less fortunate has always been […]
September 7, 2021
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has devoted a one hour interview special, First Person, Interviews with Holocaust Survivors, to the remarkable and courageous Estelle Laughlin. Estelle, who survived the Warsaw ghetto, and Majdanek concentration camp with her mother and sister, is the aunt of our Wagner College Holocaust Center and Chai Society Board Member Fern […]
January 5, 2021
Eta Wrobel (1916-2008) Possessed of incredible bravery and pluck, Eta Wrobel refused to allow her destiny to be determined by others. Through her extraordinary acts of defiance--escaping deportation, smuggling weapons and leading her partisan unit-- Eta took back her fate as both a woman and a Jew in Nazi-occupied Europe. She is one of over […]
March 24, 2020
The touching testimony of Shirley Gottesman’s experiences in the Holocaust were unfathomnable for me. Shirley came from humble beginnings- her mother was a seamstress and her father was a farmer. But during World War Two, Hungary was taken over and she found herself being transported to the Auschwitz camp. Inside the camp, she saw the […]
March 24, 2020
The fate of Hitler’s Black victims--whether Afro-German or African-American soldiers and citizens--is often overlooked in studies of World War II. The genocide of six million Jews is the central tragedy of the Holocaust and more recent studies point to the persecution of the disabled and homosexuals. Yet there is much more to be learned […]
April 12, 2019
The Wagner College Holocaust Center reached out to every public elementary, middle and high school on Staten Island to create a collaborative, borough-wide art project commemorating survivors of the Holocaust. Several students from each school painted or drew and original piece on a small ceramic tile, totaling over 100 unique pieces (and counting). Each of […]
March 16, 2015
Growing Up Jewish in Hungary Gabi Held was born in Encs on September 9, 1931 to the local grocers Abraham and Yolanda Held. The family grocery store also functioned as a creamery and a liquor store. As a child, he worked alongside his father in the creamery and his mother in the grocery store. […]
March 16, 2015
Edward Polidi was born on a cold winter day in Sofia, Bulgaria on December 23rd, 1935. It was an extremely cold day, with lots of snow which hindered transportation to the hospital. Because of this, Edward was born in his home. He remembers being told, "You will be a very lucky, fortunate and happy person". At […]
November 18, 2013
"I could never forget what an inspiration it had been to the victims of persecution, to my family, and to me during cruel and degrading years. I always remembered the thrill when I first walked the streets of New York City. Seeing a group of boys, I began to cross the other side to avoid […]