WP Session 2015
Women in Displaced persons camps after the Holocaust – The Italian story and its contemporary lessons
Women’s Parliament 90th session was hosted in Getto Fighters House in December 16th 2015, and dealt with the subject of women in displaced persons camps after the Holocaust.
The moderator was Nili Alon-the councilor of the Municipality’s head on women’s issues.
Greetings:
Dr. Anat Livne – general director of Getto Fighters House
Michal Zeevi – member of the Women’s Parliament Advisory Committee
Yoram Israeli-head of Mateh Asher Regional Council
During this evening the documentary movie “Shores of Light” was screened (Watch trailer here >>)
A discussion took place after the movie:
– Professor Yael Katzir – the director of the movie – Point of view of a woman artist on hope and humanity after the darkness
– Shuni Lifshitz – initiator and co-producer of the movie – Giving birth without a mother, the feminine personal story in and behind the movie
– Dr. Lilach Rosenberg-Friedman – Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, Bar-Ilan University – Identities in Conflict: The female emissaries to the displaced persons camps
Lior Inbar – a researcher and guide at the Ghetto Fighters’ House – The attitude of the local population in Italy towards the survivors
WP Session 2012
Mother is a surviving woman – Daughters, Mothers and the Holocaust
The second session took place in June, in the Getto Fighters House. It was hosted by Yehuda Shavit, the head of regional council and was organized with the cooperation of Nili Alon, the councilor of the Municipality’s head on women’s issues. The topic of the session was: Mother is a surviving woman – Daughters, Mothers and the Holocaust.
Tsipi Naveh convened the discussion and the panelists were: Dr. Batya Brutin, Tal Bashan and Tali Shner. Shoshi Ben-Chamo’s documentary “my roots are in two different landscapes”, about the trip of Laila Hundart and her daughters to Grodno was presented after the discussion. In the end of the event the participants were offered a guided tour, related to women in the Holocaust, in the museum.
In the discussion it was argued that women who survived the Holocaust brought into their motherhood the pain and experience of being deserted, the loss, the traumas, the anxieties and the repressions. However, it was suggested that the women also brought into their motherhood the strength of survival.
Another claim was that “second generation” sons and daughters received an unconscious message from their parents that they have to experience the Holocaust. They feel enforced to go backward and forward into the Holocaust and come out alive time and again. The silence and silencing, a phenomenon associated with Holocaust survivals, was not always the case. In Ruth Bondy’s case it was different, perhaps because she wrote about the Holocaust. Her daughter, Tal Bashan said that the subject was never present as something that entailed being cautious when talking about it.
WP Session 2003
Women’s Struggles During the Holocaust: Survival and Resistance
Women’s Struggles During the Holocaust: Survival and Resistance (April 2003, Beit Berl College). Dr. Miri Freilich convened the discussion and the panelists were: Leah Shinar, Vitka Kobner, Bat Sheva Dagan, Prof. Dalia Ofer, Leah Balint and Batia Brutin.
The personal stories and theoretical perspectives that were presented in this event raised issues of survival from women’s point of view. The descriptions of struggles for personal survival and for saving others, children in particular, focused on female characteristics. Women’s participation in active resistance as well as their artistic expressions, during the Holocaust, was described as another significant perspectives of women’s survival.