Tagged Birkenau

Tucson teens, local survivor join defiant ‘March of the Living’

The Tucson March of the Living delegation marches from Auschwitz to Birkenau on April 24. [Courtesy Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona)

It takes a special kind of courage to revisit your worst memories. When Holocaust survivor Pawel Lichter of Tucson accompanied a group of Jewish teens on the 29th annual March of the Living, April 19-May 3, he stepped back to 1939. In a basement on Warszawska Street, in his… Read more »

For Tucson teen, March of the Living trip is heartwrenching, empowering

Michaela Davenport at the Birkenau concentration camp in Poland. (Courtesy Michaela Davenport)

                      Walking through the famous gate “arbeit macht frei” at Auschwitz, I felt sick to my stomach. I’d seen that gate, with its infamous Nazi inscription, “work makes you free,” in history textbooks, photos and movies, but seeing it… Read more »

Guiding teens, Tucsonan finds joy on March of the Living trip

Tucsonan Bill Kugelman and teens from the Western region of the United States lead the March of the Living from Auschwitz to Birkenau in Poland on April 19. (Courtesy CJE)

Holocaust survivor Bill Kugelman has been to Birkenau before, once on a previous March of the Living trip in 2006, and as a prisoner of the Nazis. From 1939 to 1945, Kugelman, 88, spent three and a half years in concentration camps, including Birkenau, and two and a half… Read more »

‘The Debt,’ remake of an Israeli Mossad thriller, far surpasses the original

Academy Award-winner Helen Mirren stars as retired secret agent Rachel Singer in John Madden’s espionage thriller "The Debt." Laurie Sparham/Focus Features)

      A taut, beautifully crafted thriller with an Israeli accent, “The Debt” is easily and best appreciated as edge-of-your-seat entertainment. At the same time, though, the English-language remake of the 2007 Israeli film “Ha-Hov” echoes a question raised far more egregiously by “Inglourious Basterds” but otherwise rarely… Read more »