NEW CANADIAN HOLOCAUST MEMOIRS SERIES DEBUTS ON OCTOBER 26

- Keynote Linda Hooper shows lessons of over 65 years ago are still relevant today -

TORONTO, Oct. 21 /CNW/ - "The mountains were over 2,000 metres high and we would have to climb to the peaks, where the paths were narrow and the ice was extremely slippery," writes Canadian Holocaust survivor Agnes Tomasov in her memoir From Generation to Generation. "One single misstep would mean certain death…in another three hours - the time it would take to walk to the village of Heľpa - we would finally achieve our liberation. It was March 12, 1945." 

The opportunity to hear Canadian Holocaust survivors tell their remarkable stories in person is an increasingly rare event. The Azrieli Foundation is giving us such an opportunity at the launch of Series 3 of their award-winning Holocaust Survivor Memoirs on October 26, at 7pm at the Toronto Centre for the Performing Arts.

"It is such a privilege to hear these powerful firsthand accounts of tremendous courage in the face of adversity read by the people who experienced them," said Naomi Azrieli, chair and executive director of the Azrieli Foundation. "Now is the time to really listen to what these authors have to tell us and understand that the lessons of the Holocaust are as relevant today as they were more than 65 years ago."

Series 3 of the Azrieli Series of Holocaust Survivor Memoirs consists of four new English memoirs and three French volumes. All are first-person accounts written by Canadian Holocaust survivors. The series, as well as Series 1 and 2, are distributed free of charge to libraries and educational institutions, at Azrieli Foundation events and on their web site as part of the Foundation's commitment to making the accounts widely available to Canadians. 

"It's hard for my grandchildren to understand the horrors of the Holocaust," said survivor Agnes Tomasov. "Telling these stories teaches them, and everyone else's grandchildren, to appreciate their lives today and to never take what they have for granted."

The October 26 event is free of charge; registration is required to reserve seats. The evening will include readings from the books by the authors and a highly anticipated keynote address by Linda M. Hooper, who, as principal of Whitwell Middle School in Tennessee, initiated the Paper Clip Project. In a mission to teach tolerance in America's Deep South, Hooper developed a project to help students understand the magnitude of the lives lost in the Holocaust.  The project garnered worldwide attention with over 30 million paper clips received. An award-winning documentary, Paper Clips, was released in 2004 by Miramax Films on this inspiring program.

To register for the launch of the Holocaust Survivor Memoir Series call 416.223.0003 or visit www.azrielifoundation.org.

The Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program was established by the Azrieli Foundation in 2005 to collect, preserve and share the memoirs and diaries written by survivors of the twentieth-century Nazi genocide of the Jews of Europe who later made their way to Canada. The program is guided by the conviction that each survivor of the Holocaust has a remarkable story to tell, and that such stories play an important role in education about tolerance and diversity. All books are free to download from the Azrieli Foundation website. Books can also be purchased as of January 20, 2011, in bookstores throughout Canada or directly from Second Story Press. For more information about the Azrieli Foundation visit www.azrielifoundation.org

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