Holocaust Survivor Will Speak at Morrilton
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Nat Shaffir, second to left, with his family. Courtesy of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. |
Mr. Nat Shaffir was born on December 26, 1936, in Romania to
a family that owned a large dairy farm. The farm prospered until November 1942
when a Romanian fascist group, the Iron Guard, visited the family. An
accompanying priest identified the family as Jews. The Iron Guard confiscated
the farm, and forced Nat’s family to pack their belongings and leave. Nat’s
father was sent to a forced labor camp, while Nat’s grandfather and 10 aunts
and uncles were transported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau and Buchenwald concentration
camps. After Nat’s father was liberated, he took his wife and children to
Israel where Nat lived until 1961. He has lived in the United States for almost
60 years and now serves as a volunteer with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
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(L to R): Lily, Anton, Fany, Nathan, Simcha Wax and Sara Spitzer. |
“One
of the most powerful ways people understand history is to engage with someone
who witnessed it,” says Diane
Saltzman, the Museum’s director of constituency engagement. “Holocaust
survivors who volunteer at the Museum and speak to various communities
nationwide provide that unique connection. They bring an incomprehensible past
alive and add a powerful dimension to an encounter with Holocaust history.”
The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany estimates the number of
living Holocaust survivors worldwide has fallen to 400,000, around 100,000 of
whom live in the United States. Many are in their 80s and 90s.
Nearly
80 Holocaust survivors serve as volunteers at the Museum, sharing their
personal histories, engaging with visitors, acting as tour guides, translating
historic materials, and more. Their presence is an invaluable asset, and their
contributions are vital to the Museum’s mission.
“As we move further away from the Holocaust,
the importance of this presentation program ever increases,” Saltzman says.
“The personal link forged at this event ensures that the experience of these
survivors has a lasting impact.”
For the past 11 years, UACCM has partnered with the national
museum to bring a survivor volunteer to the community, and each speaker has
provided a unique and memorable experience of suffering, loss, and survival. As
each year passes, our opportunity to hear these moving, first-hand accounts
from survivors becomes a more rare and treasured honor.
The program is being funded in part by a Giving Tree Grant
from the Conway County Community Foundation.
Schools that would like to make arrangements to bring
student groups to the event at Devil Dog Arena should contact UACCM Director of Marketing and Public Relations Mary Clark at (501) 977-2011 or clark@uaccm.edu.
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