Holocaust Museum education programs to feature documentary, book talk

Jaime & Tosha Abramowitz in a scene from Four Seasons Lodge. The Florida Holocaust Museum will present two special events as part of the Museum’s education and programming outreach in May.

The award-winning documentary, Four Seasons Lodge, will be shown on Saturday evening, May 8 followed by a book event Thursday, May 13 with Michael Hirsch, author of the book, The Liberators.

Both events are open to the public. There is no charge to Florida Holocaust Museum members; $14 for each program for non-members.

Four Seasons Lodge

From the darkness of Nazi-occupied Europe to the lush mountains of New York’s Catskills, Four Seasons Lodge documents what might be the final season for a community of Holocaust survivors, nearly all Polish Jewish who come together each summer to celebrate their lives.

This unexpectedly humorous film takes on sobering topics like aging and the legacy of the Holocaust in a uniquely life-affirming way. They come for the raucous poker games, the dancing that goes on till dawn and the long summer days spent with others who understand their pasts, and their unfathomable pain.

Author Michael Hirsh The film focuses on ten characters. Among them are Tobias and Lola, who met in a Nazi concentration camp but only recently became lovers and Genya and Olga, two women who’ve had a 65-year-long friendship.

Explains Fran Lask, 82, a survivor of Bergen-Belsen in the film: “This is our revenge on Hitler. To live this long, this well, is a victory.”

Filmmaker Andrew Jacobs has been a staff writer at the New York Times for the past 10 years. The idea for Four Seasons Lodge grew out of a six-part series Jacobs did for the Times about summer life in the Catskills.

In explaining the special appeal of the film, Jacobs said, “It is the story of Holocaust survivors who refuse to be victims, who chase after life with intoxicating zeal, and who have learned that there is no difference between friendship and family.”

The film, which debuted in New York in November 2009, was the 2009 audience award winner for best documentary at the Miami Jewish Film Festival.

The movie will begin at 7:30 p.m. on May 8 with a dessert reception following.

Presented in conjunction with the Generations After group, the film is sponsored by Michael Brudny in memory of his father and Holocaust survivor, Dr. Joseph Brudny. RSVPs are required.

The Liberators

Michael Hirsh will discuss his recently published book, The Liberators, American Witnesses to the Holocaust (Bantam Books) at the museum’s Book Talk event, beginning at 6:30 p.m. on May 13.

The Liberators is a riveting history of the liberation of hundreds of Nazi death camps, as seen through the eyes of the soldiers who were there. Hirsh interviewed more than 150 U.S. veterans who provided never-before published eyewitness accounts.

The book goes beyond an in-depth account of the liberations and reveals how deeply the young men were impacted by what they saw and how this life-altering experience has stayed with them to this very day.

Hirsh is a Vietnam combat veteran and author of three previous military books as well as the co-author (with Michael Schiavo) of the New York Times bestseller Terri: The Truth. During a 40-year career in broadcasting, he produced documentaries and specials for PBS, CBS, ABC, and HBO, receiving multiple awards, including the Peabody.

RSVPs are not required; seating is first come, first served.

***

The Florida Holocaust Museum is located at 55 Fifth St. S., in downtown St. Petersburg. For more information, call (727) 820-0100, or visit the museum’s website, www.flholocaustmuseum. org.