“Meet Marie: Holocaust Survivor” – Virtual Program

In partnership with (www.hcplc.org), Holocaust Survivor Marie Silverman will tell her story which includes her life in hiding, internment, escape, and emigration.  The talk will be followed by audience Q&A.

Marie Silverman (née Berkovic): Marie was born in 1931 and lived with her sister Jeannette and their parents in Antwerp, Belgium when World War II began. After Germany invaded Belgium, the family escaped to France. For a while, non-Jews hid them on a farm but when the roundups began, the family was captured and separated: the sisters with their mother were placed in an internment camp at Rivesaltes, France while their father was sent to a different camp. After 9 months, Marie and Jeannette’s mother managed to smuggle her daughters out of Rivesaltes. They were hiding with other refugees in Vence, France. They were then briefly reunited with the parents who managed to escape but the father soon died as a result of the mistreatment he had endured in the camp. Two partisan couriers took the sisters across the Pyrénées Mountains on foot from Vence to Barcelona, Spain. Marie and Jeannette lived with their aunt and uncle and then came to the United States. Once here, they were placed in an orphanage and with foster families until their mother was able to reunite with them in 1949.

For more information and to register, please visit the library website: https://hcplc.org