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Tapestry of Hope-A Holocaust Story

When:
Thursday, April 6, 2017, 2:00 PM until 3:30 PM
Where:
First United Methodist Church, Wesley Room
12555 SW 4th St.
Beaverton, OR  

503-746-5082
Additional Info:
Event Contact(s):
Ross Miller
Category:
Public Events
Registration is required
Payment In Full In Advance Only
No Fee
Tapestry of Hope—A Holocaust Story
Presenter:  Debbi Montrose
– daughter  of Holocaust survivors and popular speaker for area schools and community groups.   In word and picture, the speaker shares her mother’s odyssey from a Romanian village to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Bergen-Belsen, and, finally, to Portland. 


Please RSVP Viva Village Office 503-746-5082 or VivaVillageEvents@gmail.com

About the speaker: Debbi’s mother, Alice Koppel Kern, was a Holocaust Survivor. Transported in a cattle car to Auschwitz-Birkeknau from her Romanian village at age 21, she also endured the Death March to Bergen-Belson before being liberated by British and American Field Service officers in 1945. Recovering in Sweden, she met the man she was to marry, and who would become the father of Debbi and her three sisters.  Hugo Kohn Kern, a native of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire, was also a death camp survivor.  Alice Kern’s book, “Tapestry of Hope—a Holocaust Story,” was published in 1989. She was among the first Portland-area Holocaust survivors to envision an Oregon Holocaust Memorial.

Debbi has been active in carrying out the vision of her mother and other Holocaust survivors. She served on the board of the Oregon Holocaust Resource Center and on the Executive Committee of the Oregon Holocaust Memorial Coalition.  The Coalition found a site for the Memorial in Washington Park in a space made available by the City of Portland. It oversaw the design and construction of the Memorial and raised the necessary funds for its completion.  Debbi served as a liaison with OHSRAF Oregon Holocaust Survivors, Refugees and Families during this process to make sure the wishes and concerns of the survivors were honored. After the Memorial was dedicated in 2004, Debbi chaired a group called Friends of the Memorial to monitor upkeep of the Memorial and to create an endowment for its perpetual care. Friends of the Memorial built the endowment to over one million dollars. Debbi has been active with the Next Generations Group, affiliated with the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education (OJMCHE).  She often speaks to school and community groups as part of OJMCHE’s Speakers Bureau. Next Generation individuals, like Debbi, have “stepped up” to continue OJMCHE’s educational mission as fewer survivors are able and available.