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Publications from CHAI

Angie's Story Marks Third Book Launch for CHAI

The Center for Holocaust Awareness and Information (CHAI) of the Jewish Community Federation launched Angie’s Story, a memoir by the late Rochester Holocaust survivor and popular lecturer Angie Suss Paull, in October 2004. The book tells Mrs. Paull’s story of courage, resilience and resourcefulness during the darkest days of Hitler’s rule.

Angie Suss Paull spoke at the launch, which took place at Nazareth College in Rochester, as did Martin Rumscheidt, a theologian who wrote the afterward to her book. Dr. Rumscheidt had family members connected to the Nazi regime and has spent a lifetime exploring questions of guilt and repentance, mourning and reconciliation. Dr. Rumscheidt was particularly moved by Angie’s story and her dedication to rebuilding her life without hate.

Dr. Peter Marchant, Professor Emeritus at SUNY Brockport, and Barbara Appelbaum, former director of CHAI, both of whom worked with Angie on her story, also made remarks at the launch. 

The book is already an important resource for Holocaust educators and provides a compelling account of the Holocaust from a local survivor of the Lodz Ghetto, Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen, for all readers.

On September 8, 1939, the day Angie Suss Paull (born Andzia Szpilman) turned 17, German troops occupied Lodz, Poland. With the Nazi invasion, life as she knew it ended abruptly. Angie could no longer attend school and fulfill her dream of becoming an accountant. Her family’s home and business were taken away. They were forced into poverty in the crowded conditions of the Lodz Ghetto.

Four years later, her mother having been deported to the Chelmno death camp, Angie was sent with her remaining family members to Auschwitz. Only her sister survived with her. They were shipped to Bergen-Belsen, the same concentration camp Anne Frank and her sister Margot had gone to from Auschwitz. Unlike Anne and Margot, Angie and Barbara survived and worked as forced laborers in a German ammunition factory.

The book details her life after liberation, searching in vain for surviving family members and returning to Germany where she met her husband Jacob. It describes the beautiful life they built together with their two sons in Rochester, NY.

For more information contact CHAI at the Federation, 461-0490 or director Bonnie Abrams, babrams@jewishrochester.org.

Also  published by CHAI:

CHAI Publishes Local Survivors' Stories in Perilous Journeys

You can also find Perilous Journeys on the web at www.perilousjourneys.org.

In 2001, The Center for Holocaust Awareness and Information (CHAI) published Perilous Journeys, a book which relates the compelling stories of how ten local survivors escaped Nazi Germany and Austria, seeking refuge around the world. 

While one family risked living underground in Hitler's Berlin, entrusting their lives to friends and neighbors, nine others traveled to places like India, Africa, China, England and the United States. These stories, illustrated by survivors' photographs and documents, are the fruit of many hours of interviews with Democrat and Chronicle reporters, organized by Doug Mandelaro, former religion writer for the D and C, and other local writers.

The book, edited by Barbara Appelbaum, the Center's past Director, and author Barbara Lovenheim, is used in connection with the Center's "Survivors in the Classroom" project in which survivors speak to over 10,000 students a year. Publication and distribution of the book is made possible through a restricted fund created by Barbara Lovenheim at The Foundation for the Jewish Community. It is being distributed to local schools and colleges and to Holocaust Centers and museums nationwide. 

Ronny Frishman and Marion Kobrin are heading up a group of educators and writers from National Council of Jewish Women who have written a study guide to accompany the book. For information about the guide, contact babrams@jewishrochester.org.


Survival in the Shadows is Second Publication for CHAI

In March 2003, CHAI launched the US publication of Survival in the Shadows, Seven Jews Hidden in Hitler's Berlin, by local author Barbara Lovenheim.

Ellen and Erich Arndt, the locally-based survivors whose story is told in the book, shared about their remarkable experiences hiding in Berlin, just two miles from Hitler's bunker. The author, professors Paul Morris and Susan Nowak also gave brief remarks. The launch, which included a book signing, was co-sponsored by Nazareth College. CHAI published Survival with support from the Barbara Irene Lovenheim Restricted Fund of The Foundation for the Jewish Community.

Survival in the Shadows is available through Barnes & Noble.

For more information about the books, please contact Director Bonnie Abrams, 461-0490 or babrams@jewishrochester.org.