HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL CENTER
ZEKELMAN FAMILY CAMPUS

NEWSLETTER

28123 Orchard Lake Road
Farmington Hills, MI 48334

248.553.2400 • Fax: 248.553.2433
info@holocaustcenter.org
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2011 no.2

New Exhibit Recognizes Local Holocaust Survivors

By Dr. Charles Silow

Portraits of Honor: Our Michigan Holocaust Survivors is an
electronic exhibit developed by the Program for Holocaust
Survivors and Families, a service of Jewish Senior Life of
Metropolitan Detroit, in cooperation with the Holocaust
Memorial Center Zekelman Family Campus.
Portraits of Honor began in 1999 under the direction
of Dr. Charles Silow, the son of Holocaust survivors. Its
purpose is to document the lives of our Michigan Holocaust
survivors for education and for posterity. Portraits of Honor
is an interactive, electronic learning tool about survivors with
photographs, biographies, and educational media.
As you look at the portraits of our survivors, you will see
faces of pain and tragedy as well as beauty, resilience, and the
triumph of human spirit. As you read the biographies and
learn about the suffering they endured, you appreciate their
strength through overwhelming adversity.
Portraits of Honor cherishes and honors each and every
Michigan survivor. For too long, the Holocaust survivors of
our community have not been celebrated for their remarkable
history and what they have gone on to accomplish.
Portraits of Honor was dedicated on May 1, 2011, with a
database of 400 Michigan survivors. We plan to add more
biographies in the future. We ask survivors or their families
to please contact Dr. Charles Silow at 248.661.2999 for
inclusion in this permanent exhibit.

Mrs. Shari Ferber Kaufman
and Mr. Leo Eisenberg

Ms. Carol Rosenberg of Jewish
Senior Life greets the audience

Dr. Charles Silow demonstrating the
interactive functionality of the exhibit

Holocaust Memorial Center Plans Unique Exhibit
with an Equally Unique Reunion

On July 24, 2011, the Holocaust Memorial Center will host the first-
ever reunion of the surviving members of a little-known World War II Army
Intelligence Unit comprised primarily of Jewish soldiers, mostly refugees from
Nazi-controlled Germany. The occasion is the opening of a large-scale exhibit,
entitled Secret Heroes: The Ritchie Boys, the nickname given to these remarkable
service men and women.
Their accomplishments, highlighted in the widely-shown 2004 film The
Ritchie Boys, included the gathering of information from enemy prisoners of
war — crucial for the Allied war effort — the devising of propaganda materials,
psychological warfare, helping in the planning and execution of the "D-Day"
invasion, and the uncovering of war crimes. The film, directed by the late
Christian Bauer, was nominated for an Oscar and won a top award at the Israeli
Film Festival.
The exhibit is being planned by HMC Executive Director Stephen M.
Goldman, and guest curator Dr. Guy Stern, Director of the Holocaust Memorial
Center's International Institute of the Righteous, himself a Ritchie Boy. The
museum is making a concerted effort to assemble objects, photographs, docu-
ments and other memorabilia of the era which demonstrate the techniques and
means employed by the Ritchie Boys while they were contributing to winning
the war in Europe.
Most of the Ritchie Boys attained important positions within their chosen
professions after the war. Many of them, now in their eighties or nineties, will
likely attend the reunion — the very first — nearly 70 years after their wartime
service.

They Came To America To Be Saved.
They Helped America Save The World.

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Rapptom:

July 24, 2011 to Feb. 5, 2012

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HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL CENTER

A CAPTURED GERMAN GIVES MAP
COORDINATES TO ONE OF THE JEWISH
RITCHIE INTERROGATORS, SHOWING
THE LOCATION OF GERMAN FORCES

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ZEKELMAN FAMILY CAMPUS

28123 Orchard Lake Rd.
Farmington Hills, MI

