#WeRemember

Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This past year has been full of the Holocaust for me. Since publishing “Tutti’s Promise” 11 months ago I have been speaking about the Holocaust and sharing what my mother experienced during those dreadful years. I have spoken at high schools and middle schools, public schools and private schools,Continue reading “#WeRemember”

Training Ground of Hate

On a cold gray day in October I stood alone on Nuremberg’s Zeppelin Field and looked up at the high podium where Adolf Hitler spat his words of hate. A short distance away our tour guide told us how Albert Speer designed this area to be built with white stone so it would gleam inContinue reading “Training Ground of Hate”

The Student Becomes the Teacher

A high school classmate, enthused about Tutti’s Promise, introduced me to a current teacher at our former school, Eric LaForest. Eric is the Director of the Norton Center for the Common Good at Loomis Chaffee School and he invited me to spend a day teaching. We spoke on the phone, exchanged emails, and came upContinue reading “The Student Becomes the Teacher”

Captured Time

I received a delightful postcard from Europe yesterday. One of my primary sources is a woman who, like my mother, was also in Westerbork as a child. She had previously written and thanked me for sending her a copy of Tutti’s Promise. This time she was writing to tell me what she thought of it.Continue reading “Captured Time”

Actions Speak Louder

I went to two Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) events in April and I noticed that different communities handle this important day in different ways. Each has a different tone and audience but essentially accomplishes the same thing. I watched University of New Haven students do a short performance of Pavel Friedmann’s poem Butterfly. IContinue reading “Actions Speak Louder”

Radio Broadcast

Today (Tuesday April 25, 2017) I will be a guest on Vermont Public Radio on Vermont Edition. It is a special program for Yom HaShoah. I encourage everyone to listen at noon, but if you only have a few minutes I should be entering the conversation at about 12:25. Here is a link for peopleContinue reading “Radio Broadcast”

First Publicity

Here’s the first newspaper article about Tutti’s Promise and my upcoming launch in West Hartford, CT. It appears in the Connecticut Jewish Ledger March 29, 2017. Tutti’s Promise tells the story of the Holocaust through a child’s eyes By Stacey Dresner WEST HARTFORD – When K. Heidi Fishman was growing up in West Hartford herContinue reading “First Publicity”

A Teacher, a Student, and a Lesson Plan

A few weeks ago my husband handed me a book. He told me I should read it before I finished writing all the discussion questions for Tutti’s Promise. He has been working in schools his entire professional life and knows something about education. The title is Understanding by Design and it is written by GrantContinue reading “A Teacher, a Student, and a Lesson Plan”

The Hotel Bristol – Berlin

  Tutti’s Promise contains a scene in which a concentration camp guard lets my grandfather smuggle vegetables out of a root cellar to his wife and children. This really happened and my mother remembers it well. She has told me that my grandfather even said that he would have testified for leniency for this particularContinue reading “The Hotel Bristol – Berlin”