Bella Mischkinsky Memorial Lectures
About the Speaker
Frank Cohn, Holocaust Survivor
Frank was born on August 2, 1925, in what was formerly Breslau, Germany. He grew up in a comfortable middle-class family. His father, Martin, owned a sporting goods store. Violent anti-Semitism impacted Frank’s family, particularly after the Nazi party came to power in 1933. Under pressure from the state, Martin was forced to sell his business. Frank was harassed and ultimately driven from public school by members of the Hitler Youth.
The family fled their homeland, ultimately reuniting in the United States in late October 1938, only days before the state-sponsored anti-Jewish violence that swept through Germany beginning on November 9 (also known as Kristallnacht).
In 1943, Frank was drafted into the US military, where he ultimately served for 35 years, achieving the rank of Colonel. During World War II, he fought in the European campaign, playing a role in obtaining military intelligence, assessing captured documents and interrogating prisoners, especially in the interest of prosecuting Nazis war criminals.
After the war, Frank learned that 11 members of extended family were killed during the Holocaust. To honor the memories of those who died, he volunteers at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and speaks to audiences throughout the Washington, DC area.
Please join us to hear Frank share his remarkable journey of survival, service, and
hope.
Date: November 18th
Location: The ignITeHub, 900 Hungerford Drive Rockville, MD (map)
Contact: Professor Ken Jassie or the Paul Peck Humanities Institute
About Bella Mischkinsky and the Annual Memorial Lecture Series
Bella, a Holocaust survivor, was born in September 1922 in Lodz, Poland. She came
to the United States in 1946, moving later to Montgomery County, Maryland. She retired
to Clearwater, Florida to live near her sister Irene Glassberg, and other dear family
members.
Bella was active as a volunteer with the United States Holocaust Museum and with the
Montgomery College Alumni Association. Over the years, she developed deep ties to,
and lasting friendships with the College, our faculty and staff. Bella was also one
of our students. She and her husband Hank (Henry) Bermanis enrolled in Dr. Myrna
Goldenberg’s course, Literature of the Holocaust. She told Dr. Goldenberg that she
was taking to class to be sure that the class accurately portrayed the Holocaust.
Reassured by her experiences in class, she committed to a legacy of Holocaust scholarship
at MC. This series is supported by a generous gift from Bella’s estate.
Each year the Bella Mischkinsky Memorial Lecture brings a scholar, journalist, or
advocate to the College - to deepen our understanding about the history of the Holocaust—and
to help students make relevant connections across time, across disciplines and to
their own lives and actions.
The Frank Islam Athenaeum Symposia at Montgomery College
Bella Mischkinsky Memorial Lecture Speakers
Aviva Kempner - Director and Producer
Aviva Kempner is a Washington, D.C.-based filmmaker, creates successful and critically acclaimed documentaries about under-known Jewish heroes and social justice. In 2019, she premiered her fifth commercially-released film, The Spy Behind Home Plate. Her other films include Rosenwald, a documentary about how Chicago businessman and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald partnered with Booker T. Washington in establishing over 5,000 schools for African Americans in the Jim Crow South; Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg, about Gertrude Berg, who created the first television sitcom; and the Emmy-nominated and Peabody-awarded The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg, about the Hall of Famer who faced anti-Semitism during the ’30s. Both Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg and Hank Greenberg grossed over a million dollars at the box office and are highly ranked, along with Rosenwald, on Rotten Tomatoes. She also produced the award-winning documentary Partisans of Vilna, about Jews fighting the Nazis. Her most recent film, Imagining the Indian: The Fight Against Native American Mascoting, will be available on Apple iTunes and Amazon Prime on February 6, 2024. She is presently completing a documentary on screenwriter and political activist Ben Hecht in 2024. Kempner is also making Pissed Off, a documentary short exploring the struggles faced by female lawmakers in Congress who advocated for potty parity in the United States Capitol.
Digging up the Family’s Past: a Road to Reconciliation
Annual Bella Mischkinsky lecture by filmmaker Aviva Kempner
Date: October 29, 2024
Screening of “A POCKETFUL OF MIRACLES: A Tale of Two Siblings"
From Aviva Kempner, the director of Yoo-Hoo Mrs. Goldberg, The Life and Times of Hank
Greenberg, Rosenwald, The Spy Behind Home Plate and Imagining the Indian and the producer
of Partisans of Vilna.
“One of the Best Films of the Year 2023” -The Washington Post
October 5, 2023
Judith Cohen | "A Mother's Letter from the Grave: The Frank Grunwald Collection."
Judith Cohen is a graduate of Harvard University in History and Literature and received her MA from Brandeis in Contemporary Jewish Studies. She originally came to the Holocaust Museum in 1995 to work on the exhibition “Hidden History of the Kovno Ghetto” before moving to the Photo Archives where she later served as its director before becoming head of the Curatorial Acquisitions and Reference branch and chief acquisitions curator. She has curated web exhibits and written and co-authored articles on the Museum’s collection entitled “Memento Mori: Photographs from the Grave,” “Three Approaches to Exploring the Höcker Album,” ”Jewish Ghetto Photographers,” “The Mantello Rescue Mission,” “Roman Vishniac: A Different Kind of Holocaust Photographer” and “Virtual Tombstones: The Power of Holocaust Photography.” Following her retirement from the Museum in 2020, she worked as a part-time researcher for the museum’s permanent exhibition revitalization project focusing primarily on Jewish rescuers.
Robert F. Teitel | “Teitel Family: Through the Lens of the Holocaust”
Doron Ezickson, J.D. | “Understanding and Responding to Contemporary Antisemitism”
November 10, 2020
Dora Klayman, Holocaust Survivor | “Testimony of a Holocaust Survivor from Croatia”
Holocaust survivor Dora Klayman will talk about her life in Croatia during World War II. She will discuss the particulars of the persecution of Jews by the Ustasa, the Croatian allies of Nazi Germany, which cost the lives of thousands, including many of her close family members. Dora will also recount the challenges she experienced after the war, and her path to become an educator.
Theodora Klayman was born Teodora Rahela Basch in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, on January 31, 1938. Her father, Salamon, owned and operated a small brush manufacturing plant. Her mother, Silva, a teacher, grew up in Ludbreg, a small town in northwest Croatia, where her father, Josef Leopold Deutsch, served as the community rabbi for more than 40 years.
In April 1941, while Theodora—whom the family called “Dorica”—was visiting her grandparents and extended family in Ludbreg, Nazi Germany invaded Yugoslavia. Croatia came under the control of the fascist Ustaša regime, which collaborated with the Nazis. By June, Teodora’s parents and infant brother, Zdravko, were arrested. Their housekeeper was able to get Zdravko released from jail and his mother’s family then took him to Ludbreg. Teodora and Zdravko’s father was deported to the Jasenovac concentration camp and their mother to Stara Gradiska, a subcamp of Jasenovac.
The recipient of degrees from the University of Maryland in French and in teaching English as a second language, Theodora taught in the Maryland public school system for 30 years. She has two children and has volunteered at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum since 1999.
November 5, 2019
Edith Mayer Cord, Holocaust Survivor | “Finding Edith”
November 13, 2018
Myrna Goldenberg, Ph.D., Holocaust Scholar | “Before all Memory is Lost: Women’s Voices from the Holocaust”
Emanuel (Manny) Mandel, Holocaust Survivor | “The Holocaust and the Danger of Not Learning from History”
November 16, 2016
Henry Greenbaum, Holocaust Survivor | “Holocaust Survivor Testimony”
October 13, 2015
Samantha Lakin, Candidate for Ph.D., Holocaust Scholar | “Genocide, Justice, and Dignity: The Holocaust and Rwanda,”