In support of the Polymnia Choral Society and their performance of the Anne Frank choral arrangement, Annelies by James Whitbourn, the Melrose Public Library will be hosting a Holocaust survivor speaker.

Alfred “Fred” Schoenfeld is a Holocaust Survivor who endured the Nazi regime as a young boy in Slovakia. During World War II, the citizens in his hometown of Presov turned against their Jewish neighbors, and anyone over the age of 9 was ordered to wear the Star of David on their shirt. In April 1942, his grandfather was put on a train and sent to Auschwitz. It was the last time he saw him.

Fred tells the story of how he and his father Simcha survived by hiding in the attic of a warehouse, and how the Schoenfelds eventually escaped into the Tatra mountains, immigrated to the United States in 1948, and settled in Pittsburgh, PA when Fred was 14 years old. In 1998, at the urging of his sons, Fred made a return trip to Europe to see his childhood home.

Through the Holocaust & Human Rights Education Center, over the past five years he has been talking to middle and high school students in New York City about the series of events that beset his family and the Jewish people, and their lingering impact.

To learn more about the Polymnia Choral Society visit their webpage.

Please register below.

This program is generously supported by The Friends of the Melrose Public Library.