A Survivor’s Return to Auschwitz 80 Years Later

Speakers

• Ruth Cohen

  Survivor of Auschwitz and Museum Volunteer

  Ruth was born on April 26, 1930, to Herman and Bertha Friedman in Mukachevo, Czechoslovakia. She had an older sister, Teresa, and a younger brother, Aharon. In 1938, Ruth’s hometown became part of neighboring Hungary, an ally of Nazi Germany. Antisemitic laws were imposed that put restrictions on the country’s Jewish population. In March 1944, Ruth and her family were forced to live in the Munkács ghetto. The following month, they were made to board rail cars destined for Auschwitz.

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  Upon arrival, Ruth, her sister, and their father were selected for forced labor. Ruth and Teresa were sent to concentration camps, first in Germany, then in Czechoslovakia before being liberated by the US Army in spring 1945. The two sisters made their way back home where they reunited with their father.  The family immigrated to the United States in 1948 and settled in New York City. Ruth volunteers at the Museum by translating documents and other materials for the National Institute for Holocaust Documentation and speaking to visitors about her Holocaust experiences.

• Dr. Rebecca Erbelding

  Historian, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

  Rebecca has been a historian, curator, and archivist at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for the past 21 years. In 2007, the Museum received a photographic album showing how the Nazis at Auschwitz spent their leisure time. The research Rebecca and her fellow curators conducted to provide historical context to the photographs is featured in the award-winning play,  Here There Are Blueberries, which was a finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for drama.

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  Rebecca served as the lead historian on the Museum’s special exhibition, Americans and the Holocaust. She holds a PhD in American history from George Mason University. Her first book, Rescue Board: The Untold Story of America's Efforts to Save the Jews of Europe (Doubleday, 2018), won the National Jewish Book Award for excellence in writing based on archival research.

  Rebecca and her work are featured in the 2022 PBS documentary “The U.S. and the Holocaust,” directed by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, and Sarah Botstein, a film for which she served as a historical advisor. She is currently writing Shelter on the Lake: 982 Holocaust Refugees and an American Small Town on the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter (1944-1946), which will be published by Simon and Schuster in 2026.

  Photo: Tim Coburn