Holocaust Remembrance Day event on April 18 commemorates victims’ lives and survivors’ spirit
Judy Batalion will share stories of Jewish women who risked death to save their faith, friends, and families.
In collaboration, Temple Beth Abraham and Rivier University welcome Judy Batalion, author of The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos, to speak at the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day observance. The event will be held at Rivier University on Tuesday, April 18, at the Dion Center at 7 p.m.
Judy Batalion’s book, The Light of Days, tells the story of Jewish women who risked their lives as couriers, smuggling weapons between locked ghettos, assassinating Nazis, forging documents, and rescuing Jews. Many of these women, still in their teens, were part of organized youth movements that promoted collectivism, socialism, intellectualism, and peace. When the war broke out, these movements transformed into underground militias in the ghettos.
Batalion has worked as a university lecturer, stand-up comic, MC, moderator, storyteller, actor, Yiddish street performer, and talking head for TV, radio, and podcasts. She is the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, and the author of White Walls: A Memoir About Motherhood, Daughterhood, and the Mess In Between.
In addition to Batalion’s presentation and a question-and-answer session, a candle-lighting ceremony will be held memorializing Holocaust victims. Temple Beth Abraham’s Zimria Choir will perform with the Nashua Community Interfaith Choir at this observance.
This Holocaust Remembrance Day event is free and open to the public. It is made possible with support from New Hampshire Humanities, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities. Additional information is available at New Hampshire Humanities.