Helene Berr: A Stolen Life, March 2013 at the Addlestone Library - College of Charleston Libraries

Why Do We Continue To Read Holocaust Journals? The Case of Helene Berr, Theodore Rosengarten
Addlestone Library, Room 227 Tuesday, March 12, 6pm

In 1942, at age 21, Helene Berr began writing a journal describing a world that brutally ostracized her for being a Jew. She wrote in her journal every day until March 1944 when she was deported to Auschwitz. Berr died in Bergen-Belsen in 1945, just days before the camp was liberated, yet her journal surfaced seven years ago. Dr. Rosengarten will consider Berr’s life and journal in the context of contemporary Holocaust representation. Co-sponsored with the College of Charleston’s Friends of the Library, Jewish Heritage Collection, Yaschik/Arnold Jewish Studies Program and the Zucker/Goldberg Holocaust Education Initiative.

Helene Berr: The Exhibition
Addlestone Library Rotunda March 1-27

Helene Berr, A Stolen Life gives life anew to its subject, a budding French scholar of English and literature whose life was brutally cut short in the Holocaust. Berr left behind a journal of extraordinary beauty and value both as literature and history, one that provides a rare view of how French Jews perceived persecution. Through texts and photographs, the exhibition, organized by Memorial de le Shoah, in Paris, vividly narrates the life story of an accidental author and the afterlife of her inestimable journal.

This exhibition, curated by Karen Taïeb and Sophie Nagiscarde, was designed, created, and circulated by the Mémorial de la Shoah (Paris, France) and made possible through the generous support of the SNCF. Co-sponsored with the College of Charleston’s Friends of the Library, Jewish Heritage Collection, Yaschik/Arnold Jewish Studies Program and the Zucker/Goldberg Holocaust Education Initiative.