Time is running out to preserve the stories of South Florida's Holocaust survivors.

See how their lessons are being passed on to the next generation.

Plus from isolation to poverty, we look at the biggest challenges facing this dwindling population.

That and more, stay with us as we dive into Your South Florida.

Hello and welcome to Your South Florida.

I'm Sandra Viktorova, filling in for Pam Giganti.

May marks 77 years since the end of the Holocaust.

When 6 million Jews and millions of others were systematically killed by the Nazi regime.

Remembering the atrocities of the Holocaust is especially poignant here in South Florida, home to one of the country's largest populations of survivors.

And as this community continues to age, they need to pass their stories on to the next generation, is as important as ever.

That's why for more than 30 years the Jewish Federation of Broward County has been connecting local high school students with Holocaust survivors so they can share their experiences and their lessons with a new generation.

They need to learn from history to reflect back on where we've come from as a civilization.

And to reflect out into the future so that the words never again continue to resonate, are very important to us.

We're seeing rising rates of antisemitism.

We're seeing consistently high rates of racism and bigotry in the United States and across the world.

This Holocaust learning center that we're sitting in, programs such as March of the Living, the many other Holocaust centers located in South Florida, are as timely now, if not more timely than ever.

The March of the Living program, is a program that began in 1988.

It was the idea that we needed to tell the story to another generation of kids.

If we didn't keep telling it, we were going to lose the story.

And by the same token, we wanted to tell a story that spoke of both preventing genocide, and also the rebirth in effect of the Jewish people and what it was like to go through a process that began with the Holocaust, but had a trip that then went on to Israel.

And talked about what it is to have a vibrant stage in a new land.

One of the very, very important events that take place while we're in Poland, is the actual March of the Living.

It's sort of in reminiscent of the death marches that the survivors had to take at that time.

And we walk from Auschwitz to Birkenau.

There's nothing more extraordinary than seeing a survivor go into one of the places that perhaps they never dreamed that they would go back to.

To say to the teams, "You can come in here, we get to walk out."

You know, too often, we look to the survivors as frail human beings.

And the teams are so worried about them.

But in the end, while we're on the march, the survivors are the ones that are there for us.

They give us the strength to continue on.

Unfortunately, this is the third year we have not had a march.

The first two years because of COVID pandemic.

And this year, because of the unrest in the area with Ukraine, it was difficult.

We tried during those past three years to continue to put forth information about the Poland, about the march, its activities and survivor stories.

The Nazis were strafing and strafing and strafing.

They were trying to kill everybody around.

Does that sounds familiar to you?

What's happening in Ukraine now, same tactics.

Same tactics.

You wanna know my life story?

Look at these kids in Ukraine.

It's the same thing.

We didn't learn our lessons.

Hearing any survivor's story is very important.

I've heard stories going to this school from sixth grade until now my senior year.

So hearing stories is very important.

You wanna be a witness to what has happened, and you wanna be able to pass this down to future generations, because there are only a certain amount of survivors left.

Over the years, we stay in touch with our alumni.

And we've seen that the march has made an impact on their lives.

Many of them have gone into Jewish communal service, because they felt the march helped them increase their Jewish identity and gave them a special affinity for Jewish organizations for what they stand for.

In addition, we find that many chose their families based on the march and the impact it had.

And are teaching their children, sending them to Jewish day schools, to Jewish preschools, to encourage their increased Jewish identity as well.

We had some alumni with us today who loved to share their memories of the march.

And that to me says that the march made a tremendous impact on their lives.

That 33, 25, 20 years ago, they still today remember their experiences.

It's been 22 years since I went on March of the Living, and it lives with you, it stays with you every day of your life.

And when I first got back, I actually spoke about it a lot at different events, through March of the Living, through my synagogue.

When I went to college, I did some speaking on it as well.

Just encouraging other people to actually go on the trip.

I think it's very important, especially as survivors are no longer gonna be with us as time goes on, it's really important to go with them and see their emotion and live it with them.

Having kids of my own now, who are young, it's important for them, that I, as they grow and become aware of what happened so many years ago, to just share with them my stories and my pictures, 'cause we won't have survivors to do that.

So it's really important for us to show our kids and eventually my grandkids, what our family went through for them to have the life that they have now.

I have committed my entire career to the Jewish nonprofit world for the past 30 some years.

Is it because of the March of the Living?

I don't know, but it most certainly has a great push for me to motivate others to do their best, to move the world forward.

And if this trip can send you on a bit of an emotional roller coaster, where you can then come back, share your story, and it moves or perks emotions into somebody else's world, then yeah.

That's how we move the world forward.

One person at a time, one story at a time.

Jews don't own the subject of the Holocaust or genocide.

We experienced it.

We look forward to the partnerships with good people of all faiths and all backgrounds to say, "Here's something that my people happened to go through, but your people aren't immune from it."

And we need to be working together in building collaborations and partnerships with every community that there is to say, "Let's move forward.

Let's tell the stories of the Jewish Holocaust.

Let's tell the stories of other genocides that have taken place in Africa and Asia, other parts of the world.

Let's tell those stories together, so that we're not only preventing antisemitism but we're preventing any genocide and reducing bigotry and hatred everywhere in our world."

A 2018 study by the Blue Card Foundation, found that one third of the roughly 80,000 Holocaust survivors in the US, were living in poverty.

South Florida survivor community is no exception with thousands struggling with basic needs in Palm Beach County alone.

But unlike other seniors, the lifelong trauma of the Holocaust makes it even more difficult to connect survivors with the vital resources they need.

Now with their latest initiative, MorseLife Health System, and the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County, are offering a lifeline to survivors trying to ensure they live their remaining years with dignity.

The very beginning of remembering is the train from Belgium to France.

When they took us to the camps de Gurs camp.

I remember the wire fences.

I felt at the time we were in that camp, that it was a stop over before they took us to places like Auschwitz.

But before that could have happened, the underground, the Maquis, came and took several children out of the camp.

We never went back to the camp.

I believe God was there for me.

I really do.

I think that he was the big event in my life.

But the other reason why I survived, were because so many people were helping.

I heard of MorseLife.

Okay?

Most people have, but nobody really knows what MorseLife is about.

I can say that I was one of those people.

I knew MorseLife, and I knew that they helped Jewish people, Holocaust survivors, especially.

And this I have learned through Jenni Frumer.

NOW initiative was launched at the beginning of 2020, just before the pandemic.

And it was launched because there was a demographic study that informed the community that there are around 5,000 to 8,000 Holocaust survivors in our community.

And that 42% of them live in poverty.

And so then now, for Holocaust survivors initiative is really an important program that can offer expanded and additional services to Holocaust survivors and their family members.

from assistance in home, helping with bathing, helping with escort services to like doctors appointments, medical appointments, providing all of these services As part of the NOW initiative are really critical to aging survivors.

For many, many years, Holocaust survivors have sort of lived in the shadows and wait almost till the last minute to ask for help.

And so, we've really had to do significant outreach in the community to let Holocaust survivors know that we're here, and we're here to help them.

Obviously, we had a pandemic.

And during that pandemic it was very difficult because we couldn't do in-person programming.

So we looked at to find survivors in very creative ways.

One thing we did was put ads in the newspaper, to try to find survivors that were in need of maybe a holiday meal or a holiday package.

And so we were able to get phone calls of new survivors that were in need through that, you know, more creative way, which was very successful.

Another thing we did was Zoom gatherings.

Not with survivors, 'cause as we know that cohort isn't so tech savvy, but with just members of the community who know survivors.

So if they were able to spread the word and we were able to find survivors that way.

And in light of the world, that's opened up a bit, we're able to provide in-person programming.

And we have luncheons and holiday programs for survivors for them to get together.

Many survivors have reached out to me in the last week or two, just, you know, to tell me how traumatized they really are, and how it's bringing up so many memories for them.

Of many of the triggers they experienced in the Holocaust, especially the images of TV of the men staying to fight the war, and the women and the children trying to escape and running away, and trying to fight food and clothing.

And you know, only having one bag, you know?

These images bring back so much trauma for survivors.

They're telling me that they can't watch the TV, and they feel just as helpless.

And that makes them feel even worse, 'cause we think about how helpless we feel, but they actually experienced a trauma similar.

And they can't do anything about it.

So they're just so distraught.

That's another reason why I think it's so important to get them together, because they need to talk to each other about this.

Because they are having such a hard time processing it, and it's bringing up the trauma for them all over again.

When we talk about the Holocaust, and we talk about genocide, and we talk about what happened under the Nazi regime, we really talking about malignant trauma.

And that is the kind of trauma that one really never gets over.

Generally speaking, Holocaust survivors are afraid of bureaucracy.

They're afraid of institutions.

They're afraid of having their name on any kind of a list.

But when we can create trauma informed care, then survivors are more willing to trust us and come forward for help.

There are some basic principles about trauma informed care, such as creating a safe environment, making sure that there are ways through behaviors that we can create a sense of trustworthiness and deep respect.

A real deep sense of trying to understand the individual in their own environment, and what kind of historic or historical persecution they may have experienced.

The NOW initiative is special, because not only we are providing services, but we also are providing educational lessons in the schools by teaching the concept of civility.

Or teaching someone to be an upstander versus a bystander.

Mitigate bigotry and hatred.

In December, we merged with Next Generations, which has helped us develop the educational component which is so important with this initiative.

Because as you and I know, when you talk to any Holocaust survivor, they wanna make sure that you never forget.

And that goes along with the next generation, that people who will be continuing to help these individuals.

There are so many survivors who have truly left a mark on my life.

And for whom I will forever be grateful.

There's stories, while really sad, and so deeply traumatized, are so inspirational.

Marie was a child during the Holocaust.

She connected with the NOW for Holocaust Survivors Initiative, because she really needed help.

She had lost her son a couple of months before, and she was living in an apartment with a not so nice landlord.

And so the NOW initiative was able to help her with that.

But not only just give her the money, we actually helped by finding a realtor who works in the community in which she lives, who showed her around.

And because of Palm Beach being so high in terms of rentals, we also provide her some subsistence every month, so that she can sleep well at night, not worrying about the financial issues.

If it hadn't been for Jenni Frumer, I wouldn't even be here talking to you.

I wouldn't be living in this, what I finally have a home that I can call a home.

I can't explain to people what it is to have a home.

It's not a house, it's a home.

What they have done for me, I will never be able to thank till the day I die.

They've done more than I expected.

More than I even thought would be possible.

They have given, and given, and given, and I'll be truthful with you, I have taken.

But I'm hoping that in some way I can say, "Thank you.

Thank you for my life.

Thank you for giving me more life than the life I have.

Or had, because now it's so much better."

I think the only thing that I like to remind people, because I think it's so important, is that sometimes people say, "You're helping Holocaust survivors, but aren't they all going to be dead in five years?"

No.

Child survivors, those who were hidden, and those who were children during the Holocaust, are only in their seventies and early eighties.

And so we need to be here to help Holocaust survivors and their families for a couple of more decades.

Even though we know that we're losing Holocaust survivors every day, and that they're dying.

If you or someone you know, is a Holocaust survivor and is in need of assistance, you can contact MorseLife foundation at 561-771-5209, or visit their website, MorseLifeFoundation.org to learn more.

After the Holocaust survivors who settled in America made their mark on every aspect of culture including the art world.

An exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, explores the life and work of Polish born artist, Maryan, a Holocaust survivor whose work shows the power of art, and the strength of the human spirit.

Maryan has been the subject of a number of exhibitions.

And in numerous collections around the world, there has not been a deep dive into his practice.

Specifically, not outside a Jewish lens.

And this exhibition's efforts were really around reinserting Maryan into the art historical cannon where he belongs.

Maryan passed away prematurely at the age of 50, and his work for the most part has gone unknown, and under shown.

So this was really an opportunity to dig, research, and bring together works that have not been exhibited, let alone published before.

I was familiar with Maryan's work from a young age, I myself am a third generation Holocaust survivor.

My grandmother and grandfather were both survivors of the Holocaust.

And my grandmother was hidden in a convent in France during World War II with Maryan's wife, Annette.

And my grandmother and Annette kept a longstanding friendship following the war.

They both immigrated to New York and kept in touch with a number of other girls that had been hidden with them.

When I started my career in the Arts in New York City at a commercial art gallery, Annette invited myself and my mother to her apartment on the Upper East Side.

And when I walked in, it was nothing short of a time capsule.

There were piles and piles and racks of Maryan's paintings, drawings, and cabinets.

Even his paint brush was sitting on a drafting table, as though it had not been moved since he last worked in the space 30 years ago.

Fast forward, nearly 20 years, and I am in Miami, and starting my work here at MOCA.

And walking through the Art Basel, Miami Beach Art Fair, and their hanging was Maryan's paintings.

I was completely blown away.

And you know, here I was just taking on this leadership at a museum that was located in the center of a highly populous immigrant community.

Thinking about the audiences that we serve, and also the work that we've been doing as an institution focused on underexplored artists, and stories that have maybe not been told.

And thought that there might be something there to further explore.

And it was from that moment that we brought Allison Gingeras onto the project.

Allison being an international curator with so much knowledge of this period, and her own connections to Paris and Poland and Maryan's original birth state, was able to go on this journey of investigating and putting together so many pieces.

And what this show has become, has been nothing less than thrilling.

It was a very deliberate choice to not want to over determine a viewer, especially a viewer who probably had never heard of Maryan, or his story with the extremely harrowing experience of his imprisonment during the Shoah.

And to me, it was important that we enter into the visual and emotional intensity of his paintings as he wanted to be perceived.

He, in his lifetime, multiple times articulated his desire not to be pigeonholed or put into a kind of ghetto of being a Holocaust artist.

That category he did not want to be affiliated with.

Yet, his work and that subject matter in ways that are both veiled and explicit, you know, reoccur constantly.

So I felt that it was important that the viewer traversed numerous galleries in which we can really get into his unique painting style, get into his subject matter, sort of have an overview of his visual and aesthetic universe, and then experience the more complicated history of what happened to him, but also how he processed that trauma in very specific and groundbreaking ways.

"Ecce Homo" is a film that Maryan made at the end of his life.

And he made that at the Chelsea Hotel with fellow artists, Kenny Schneider.

What it is, is a black and white experimental film from the late seventies, where he's giving a testimonial of his experience in the Holocaust.

But at the same time, he's introducing news and images from the news of that moment.

So we're seeing images from the Civil Rights Movement, the anti-Vietnam war movement, and other images of dictators.

And so for me, that was a real turning point, because it took Maryan's lived experience in trauma and really translated it into understanding his interest in social political issues, and the human experience in general.

And as a contemporary art museum, that film for us has been such a source of inspiration for exciting programs and discussions.

I think that because we are living in a period where democracy itself is in question in this country and in across countries, even in Poland, his birth country, in which we are seeing authoritarianism come back in the unbridled ways.

I think that his significance is not just as a witness, but as an artist who really tried to channel the drive to reconstruct one's self, and the very notion of human in all of his paintings and all of his drawings, and everything that he wrote and tried to create.

So I think that his work transcends even.

It's functioned as a part of the historical record.

I mean, I think he's really a thinker of the struggle to maintain humanity against the worst odds.

And the importance of expressing these things in whatever form one can.

Right now, this is the moment where the Holocaust is passing from memory to history.

And Maryan's work speaks, bears witness to that history.

And also speaks to our contemporary moment as we dive in and learn more about his practice, his biography.

You know, his various interests and inspirations.

There are so many entry points to the exhibition, and I think are so relative to our contemporary moment.

And you know, hope that our visitors continue to stay engaged with the exhibition, through our panel discussions, our conversations, and visiting and revisiting the show while we have it.

Coming to the museum right now is having the opportunity to see works that have not been on view publicly before.

And we're really proud of that.

"My Name is Maryan" is on display now until October 2nd, at the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami.

To learn more, visit MOCANoMi.org.

And we'll have all of this information and more on Facebook and Twitter, at YourSouthFL.

I'm Sandra Viktorova, thank you for watching.