By Sandy Scheller
SAN DIEGO — I toured Holocaust observances at various venues in San Diego County, starting on Tuesday with a visit to Seacrest Village Retirement Communities in Encinitas. Among the residents are Charlotte Marx, who is the oldest at 104; Debby Stauber, Marguerite Morris, and Lee Drasnin. They watched a video that was presented at Sunday’s Yom HaShoah observance at the Lawrence Family JCC in La Jolla, and shared with me their ideas for Holocaust education, awareness, and a permanent Holocaust museum.
Farther south, at the San Diego Jewish Academy in Carmel Valley, Mike and Manya Wallenfels met students who portrayed them in a student-written play about the Holocaust. Following the performance students and survivors joined together for lunch, questions and answers, and also painted ceramic butterflies as part of The Butterfly Project’s quest to paint and exhibit around the word 1.5 million butterflies to memorialize the Jewish children murdered by the Nazis.
Continuing south in San Diego, Robert Hicks, who serves as San Diego region’s assistant director of the Anti-Defamation League and I, in my capacity as curator of the RUTH: Remember Us The Holocaust exhibit, met with students and employees at San Diego Mesa College to discuss both the Holocaust and the current threat of antisemitism. The program was arranged by Rabbi Laurie Coskey, who is the vice chancellor of development and entrepreneurship for the San Diego Community College District.
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Sandra Scheller, daughter of the late Ruth & Kurt Sax of Chula Visa, is a member of the Second Generation of Holocaust Survivors. She is curating a year-long exhibit on the Holocaust that will be displayed starting next month at the Rancho San Diego branch of the San Diego County Public Library.