Week 11: Starstruck

In the past two weeks, I have been given more opportunities than imaginable. I know I say that every week, but each week continues to amaze and surprise me. Seeing as how I've worked at the USHMM for about a month now, I have found what I excel most in and where I lack skills or ambition. I absolutely adore talking to people and telling them what to do. When a group of people listen to my instructions, a sense of all-powerfulness washes over me and I feel just like Oz, the great and powerful wizard. Although I've also realized I do lack the necessary skills to be ordered by people or do favors for them. This is my pride and ego talking. Working in coat check is the worst job I've ever had, solely because my own pride won't allow me to move past the fact that I am acting as a servant to these visitors. Pride is something I have come to acknowledge and am still learning to maintain.

So enough of what I've learned and on to what I've done. Last week I was fortunate enough to receive a 2.5-hour shift working a First Person event. First Person is an event held through Spring and Summer that is both free and open to the public. The event is a conversation with Holocaust survivors, when two times a week different survivors come to recount their stories. It is hosted by journalist Bill Benson and offers time at the end for the audience to ask the survivor questions. The day I worked, I was helping Susan Warsinger give her presentation. I made pamphlets, ushered, and gave assistance to those who had questions when she finished her talk. Susan and her younger brother were smothered out of Germany after the events of Kristallnacht to Paris, France. From Paris, she fled to Versailles and spent a few months as a refugee living in the Palace of Versailles. HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, found Susan and her brother and they were given permission to go to the United States. They boarded a ship sponsored by the former first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, with fifty other children. Susan told the story with such personality and humor, that the audience couldn't help but instantly fall in love with her.

Starting from right to left:  Diane Ackerman (author),
Angela Workman (screenwriter),
Jessica Chastain (lead actress), and Niki Caro (director)

Than yesterday, an opportunity came that I wouldn't have expected in a thousand years: a movie premier equipped with stars and major Hollywood directors, screenwriters, and authors. The USHMM catered to a crowd of over 400 people who were all there to see the film premier of The Zookeeper's Wife, a new film starring Jessica Chastain about a couple who hid Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto. Not only was I able to see Jessica Chastain, but the author of the book, the director of the movie, and the screenwriter. It was a stunning and extremely inspirational all female team. We were originally told we had the chance to go the event, but we would have to work it. As the event started, my fantastic boss told us to take off our jackets and join the party. We could eat, drink, and socialize with all the attendees. When the movie started, they saved seats for us interns at the very front of the theatre. There was nothing more surreal than watching a movie about an event from the Holocaust inside the National Holocaust Museum and amongst the creators, stars, and Holocaust survivors. The movie doesn't premier until March 31 and I highly encourage anyone reading this to go and watch it. It is a truly amazing film. A taping of the brief panel discussion between the author, director, screenwriter and Chastain- which occurred before the movie- can be found on YouTube.

Thinking that my week couldn't get any better than going to a movie premier, today I had the pleasure in assisting with a survivor facilitation. This was a personal survivor presentation between Ms. Theodora Klayman and a small group of sixth graders. Susan, the survivor I listened to last week, happens to be best friends with Dora and was in the audience to listen to her speak. Dora and her younger brother were smuggled out of Yugoslavia, now Croatia, to a small town on the northern tip. One day, the Nazi's came into their home and took her whole family, but left her and her brother behind. Her parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles all perished in the ongoing years of the Holocaust. As if it couldn't get worse, just as the War was coming to an end, her younger brother died of scarlet fever. These kids were enthralled and moved to tears by her story, as was I. At the end of the facilitation, I talked with Susan and Dora for a few minutes and saw how quickly they acted like young girls together.

Very few interns have been given the chance to witness these talks and I do not know what has made me so lucky, but I thank the universe every day for the opportunities I am given.

I know I have written a lot, but would like to share one more story. Today, while doing my sweep of the Hall of Remembrance, I met a woman and her brother who were both Jewish. We began a conversation about Passover and continued to talk from there. She is what is known as a third-generation Holocaust survivor, as her grandfather lost nine of his kids in the Holocaust. Her father was the only one to survive. In honor of them, she told me that she has nine kids, one for each that Hitler took away. That was a story that really struck a chord and I wanted to share it with all of you.