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Dustin Luca
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PEABODY, MASS. – A free event at the Peabody Institute Library next week will explore the life and work of one of the North Shore’s most influential survivors of the Holocaust.
Peabody Institute Library and Salem State University’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies have partnered to host The Life and Work of Holocaust Survivor Sonia Schreiber Weitz: A Retrospective in Photographs and Documents. The event runs at Peabody Institute Library on Monday, Nov. 3 from 6:30 to 7:30 pm.
Born in Kraków, Poland in 1928, Schreiber Weitz lived and grew up in Poland prior to World War II. She was 11 when Germany invaded her country, and she lost almost all of her family in the years that followed as she herself survived and passed through five death camps. Persevering, she was liberated alongside her older sister Blanca in May of 1945, and the two moved to Peabody in 1948.
For more than 30 years, Schreiber Weitz worked to preserve the memory of the Holocaust and advance knowledge and awareness by telling her story and encouraging other survivors to do the same. Through her work co-founding the Holocaust Center, Boston North alongside Harriet Tarnor Wacks, Schreiber Weitz gave voice to the voiceless and touched the lives of countless students, teachers, and individuals across the North Shore. In 2004, she published a memoir, I Promised I Would Tell, and she also published a collection of poetry, after first beginning to write at the age of 12.
“Sonia’s tireless work on Holocaust education with students, teachers and the community was the inspiration for the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Salem State University,” said Christopher Mauriello, director of the Center. “We are carrying on the mission that she and Harriet started at the Holocaust Center, Boston North in Peabody.”
Copies of Schreiber Weitz’ work, manuscripts, papers, and memorabilia will be on display around the Peabody Institute Library the week preceding the program, and in the library’s Sutton Room the night of the program.
The event will be held in the Sutton Room of Peabody Institute Library, 82 Main St., Peabody. Please visit this page for more information and to register.