We Will Never Forget

The world Jewish community finds itself at something of a crossroads as it enters the first decade of this new millennium. By decade’s end, the majority of witnesses to the Shoah will no longer be alive. The question arises: Who will keep the memories, the horror and the miracles of the Holocaust in the consciousness of generations of Jews to come?

One answer might lie in a concept that will make its debut this summer: Chicago 2002: Living the Legacy, a June 30-July 2 convention that bills itself as the first conference ever designed not only to involve Holocaust survivors and their offspring, but also third and fourth generations of survivors. The four-day convention, to be held at the Palmer House Hilton Hotel in Chicago, is being organized by event chair Darlene Basch, founder and president of Los Angeles-based Descendants of the Shoah; and event executive director Michael Zolno, president of Association of Descendants of the Shoah-Illinois.

“This is the first conference of this nature that’s family oriented,” Basch said. She promises that this convention will not offer “the usual plenary and historical structure,” but emphasize “short presentations and large discussions” and a host of hands-on educational and cultural activities to bring various age groups together.

Chicago 2002 will be largely underwritten by several Chicago institutions, such as Sheerit HaPleitah of Metropolitan Chicago, University of Illinois and Magen David Adom. In addition to a $20,000 grant from The Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, through its Bureau of Jewish Education, has also contributed in the form of a $5,000 grant.

Both Basch, a New York-raised Angeleno, and Chicagoan Zolno have decades of experience in Holocaust community, an interaction that has informed their professional and community lives. Both share an interest sparked by the stories of their Holocaust-survivor parents.

Zolno’s Polish father and Czech mother both endured Auschwitz, but did not meet until after the war, in Salzburg, Austria. Zolno, who has two younger brothers, grew up having an interest in his parents’ Holocaust stories. At age 15, he assisted a Nazi-hunting rabbi who lived in his building. His involvement with Holocaust-related subject matter came “not out of a sense of guilt, but as in, this is what I need to be doing.”

Zolno has been involved with Association of Descendants of the Shoah-Illinois almost since the group’s formation 25 years ago by a band of 20 Holocaust survivor offspring, headed by Morris Applebaum and Esther Fink. Zolno, who served as the organization’s president during the 1980s, recently returned to the position, despite having dropped out of the group for several years after feeling that “the organization was heading in the wrong direction.”

But now he’s back with a renewed interest to see the Association head down a better path.

“It must be more public, rather than more insular,” Zolno said. “It’s time to be out. This has to be a true movement. We want to mobilize not just descendants, but the Jewish larger community.”

It was while working for the Studio City-based Survivors of the Shoah Foundation (1994-1998) that Basch convinced her mother to finally tell her story; a harrowing odyssey that included internment at Treblinka, Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen and Terezin.

“She was instrumental to the methodology of the interview itself, the training process, the reviewing process,” said Carol Stohlberg, director of major gifts at the Foundation, of Basch, who had a key role in developing policy at the Steven Spielberg-founded historical record organization.

For Basch, her years working with the community of Holocaust survivors and their descendants have “given me a place to belong, a sense of family and community. It’s given me the ability to be part of intergenerational discussion and learn how to talk to them about it.”

This area of scholarship has also invigorated Zolno’s life.

“It’s given me an outlet for energy and passion I have around the subject matter,” he said.

Basch and Zolno hope that the Chicago 2002 convention will kickstart a yearly tradition that will move families of survivors to pass on the legacy and responsibility of Holocaust awareness. The convention’s executive directors are already doing this in their own families. Basch, a therapist, has an older son, Michael, 17, who has already developed a keen interest in his mother’s lifework and his grandmother’s Holocaust past. Zolno, who sells collectibles for a living, has a son, Herschel, 16, and daughter Lori, 27, and he said that both of his kids have become involved community members because of their Holocaust connection.

“My daughter is protective of my grandparents,” Zolno said. “She went into social work because of it.”

The ultimate goal of Living the Legacy: Chicago 2002 will be to embrace and engage four generations of Shoah survivors and use the shared cultural tragedy to bond in a productive, forward-moving way, while keeping the experiences, lessons, and history of the Holocaust alive for generations of Jews to come.

“Part of our goal is to make sure that our legacy is for everybody,” Basch said.

Chicago 2002: Living the Legacy — A Gathering of Descendants of the Shoah and Their Families, June 30-July 2, Palmer House Hilton Hotel, Chicago, Ill. For more information, call (323) 937-4974; e-mail: chidos2002@aol.com ; or visit http://chicago2002.descendants.org .