Past Events 2023

The Durham/Chapel Hill Jewish Community Yom HaShoah Holocaust Commemoration — Resistance & Survival: A Jewish Partisan of the Parczew Forest

Ludwig Wurzelmann, born in 1926 in Warsaw, became one of the few Polish Jews to survive World War II and the Shoah. His dramatic story — of growing up in Poland, being confined in the Wlodowa Ghetto, fighting as a partisan in the Parczew Forest — will be shared with us by his son, Dr. John Wurzelmann, a retired physician who lives in Chapel Hill. In addition to Dr. Wurzelmann's talk, this year's commemoration will feature candle lighting, along with music by the Triangle Jewish Chorale and other local artists. Rabbi Daniel Greyber of Beth El Synagogue will chant El Male Rachamim and lead the Mourner's Kaddish. Admission is free, and all are welcome.

For more information, contact [email protected] or [email protected].

New Scientific Research Makes the Story of the Dachau Ashes Buried in the Durham Hebrew Cemetery in 2014, More Complex and More Sinister

Join us at Beth El Synagogue on May 16 at 7pm to hear Dr. Edward Halperin discuss the story including recent revelations. On May 25, 2014 a funeral took place at the Durham Hebrew Cemetery, attended by several hundred community members and presided over by Rabbis Greyber and Feldman, for the burial of ashes from the Dachau Concentration Camp crematoria. The presence of human remains in the ashes was confirmed by laboratory tests at the New York City Medical Examiner's Office. Nine years later additional research shows the story of the Durham ashes is more complex and more sinister than originally described. This program is co-sponsored by Beth El Synagogue and The Center for Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Education of North Carolina.

Dachau to Durham Interfaith Educational Event

Members of Beth El Synagogue & members of the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church are invited to learn about the journey of ashes from Dachau to Durham that ended with a funeral in the Durham Hebrew Cemetery 9 years ago. A sculpture was placed on the burial site of the ashes along with a permanent descriptive marker 11 months after the burial. Research has since uncovered a fascinating addendum to the story which will also be discussed at this gathering.

Farewell Mr. Haffman — Film Screening

Screening followed by a talk back with our own Rose Mills (daughter of Holocaust survivors). 2021, France; 116 minutes, French with English subtitles. Directed by Fred Cavaye. In this acclaimed, engrossing drama set in Paris during the Nazi occupation, beloved French actor Daniel Auteuil stars as Joseph Haffmann, a Jewish jeweler who sends his family away to safety. After Haffmann returns home, the Merciers agree to let him stay in their basement, but they strike a deal that will change the course of all their lives. Based on a play by Jean-Philippe Daguerre, Farewell, Mr. Haffmann is a twisting, turning, and satisfying tale that reveals the complex and contradictory sides of humanity pushed to its darkest limits.

Women's Resistance in the Holocaust — Film Screening and Discussion: She Wouldn't Take Off Her Boots

Commemorate Kristallnacht and women's resistance during the Holocaust with a screening of the documentary film She Wouldn't Take Off Her Boots which features survivors' stories along with documentation of the making of the monument. The screening will be followed by a discussion with the film's award-winning producer, Jenny Kaiser, and one of the survivors featured in the documentary, Shelly Weiner. The monument is named in honor of Eva Weiner and Sofia Guralnik, the brave women who saved their children by hiding them in Nazi-occupied Poland for almost two years. The sculpture was designed and created by Victoria Milstein, who recently completed North Carolina's first women's Holocaust Monument, located in Greensboro. Brought to you by: Center For Holocaust, Genocide, And Human Rights Education of NC; Jewish for Good; Women of The Shoah.

Questions? Madeline Seltman, Jewish For Good. [email protected]

Survival Through Song with Saul Dreier

Chabad of Duke & UNC present an evening of learning and song with Saul Dreier of the Holocaust Survivor Band, followed by Q&A. Admission is free, but seating is very limited. Event Sponsors include our Center, Jewish for Good, SRL, & AEPI.