Hate is Our Enemy

Tuesday evening I went to the HeartStorm Farmstead where gracious owners Kim and Mike, Rabbi Raskin from Chabad of Southern VT, and Baltic Truth Holocaust Documentary, were hosting Holocaust survivor Elly Gotz, who was there to tell his miraculous story of survival. Gotz was 13 years old and living in Kovno (Kaunas) Lithuania when warContinue reading “Hate is Our Enemy”

Searching for Stories

My mother tells how Heinz Lichtenstern, her father, escaped a transport to Auschwitz in 1944. Notified that he, along with all men aged 16 to 55 then in Theresienstadt, would be leaving soon, he had said his tearful goodbyes to his family. At the transport, before boarding, Heinz once again showed the family’s Paraguayan passport.Continue reading “Searching for Stories”

An Unnecessary Divide

We live in a time of labels and hyperbole and I don’t like it. Too many groups are being defined by labels that are then used to stereotype and marginalize. This tendency has been brought to my attention with two particular groups since my trip to Switzerland. The groups in question are the Poles andContinue reading “An Unnecessary Divide”

This Is a Plan I Can Live With

Last Wednesday I spoke with 130 seventh and eighth graders in St. Albans, Vermont. They had recently been studying the Holocaust and had already both read and watched The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and read The Diary of a Young Girl. I told them my mother’s story, using a PowerPoint presentation with a timelineContinue reading “This Is a Plan I Can Live With”

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”

Dicey Splicing

This spring Tutti’s Promise will be published as a paperback and in e-book format. I love the idea of saving paper and lightening the loads in kids’ backpacks. It seems everyone has a iPad or a Nook or some sort of e-reader. Even my 88 year old father reads on a Kindle. One advantage ofContinue reading “Dicey Splicing”