About the discussion
Sunday, October 25, 6 to 8 p.m.
Guest: Sidney Zoltak
Moderator: Isabelle Abdel-Sayed
Venue: Arts Café, 201 Fairmount Ouest (@ De l’Esplanade)
It has been over 60 years since the Holocaust. The passage of time has not made the enormity of it any easier to grasp or the atrocities any easier to comprehend. Over the past several decades a dwindling population of Holocaust survivors around the world have bravely shared their stories and memories, testifying to all who would listen to inform, educate, but mostly with the hope of ensuring that never again such a thing would happen. Yet, as events in many parts of the world have shown, genocide continues to occur. In this public conversation, we will discuss the role that survivors and each new generation play in revisiting and remembering this dark fragment of our global history, in hopes of understanding our present and better preparing for the future we want. Together with Sidney Zoltak, a Holocaust survivor and our guest for the evening, we will explore what it means for survivors to share their story and what spaces we need to create so as not to forget.
Guest:
Sidney Zoltak was born in a small town in Eastern Poland. He was eight years old when on September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. For the next several years Sidney experienced occupation by the Germans, Russians, and Germans again, imprisonment, escape and hiding until liberated by the Red Army in the summer of 1944. He and his parents then headed West, via Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Austria, and Italy, to finally arrive in Canada in May, 1948. He was married to Ann for 53 years, until she past away last year. Sidney has a son and three grandchildren.
Moderator:
A passionate advocate of creative expression and self-created contentment, Isabelle Abdel-
Sayed facilitates change through Self-Transformation Coaching. She draws immense joy from meaningful conversations, the “aha” moments that arise from them, and from connecting with others around what makes us whole.