The Holocaust Speaker Series, held each Wednesday at 11:00 am, features Holocaust survivors and descendants of survivors sharing stories of life before, during, and after the Holocaust. Join us on Wednesday, July 14 at 11:00 am via Zoom with Ray Warren.

Ray tells the inspirational story of his mother and father, both Holocaust survivors, and how it has impacted his life. His search for his parents’ history, repressed in part by his parents, takes him on journeys to Communist Poland and Israel, the internet, and ultimately swings back to his parents. Ray’s mother, Fannie, was born in the small town of Zwolen, Poland in 1916 and was one of five children born to Rubin and Mindel Hofman. She was married shortly after the war began in 1940. After working in a labor camp in Policzna, they were sent to an ammunitions camp at Skarzysko, where her husband was murdered. She was transported to another ammunitions factory in Częstochowa before being sent to Bergen Belsen (Germany) in the winter of 1944. She was finally liberated by the British army on April 15, 1945. Of her family, only she and her brother Chaim, survived.

Ray’s father, Max, was born in the city of Lodz, Poland in 1905, and was the youngest of six children born to Raphael and Kayla Worobejczyk. He was married in 1935, and a son was born in 1937. At the start of the war, Max was captured by the Russians in eastern Poland, and spent the next several years in prison in Bialystok and in Siberia. Of his family, only a nephew, Raymond, survived the war. Max and Fannie were married in Germany in 1947. They immigrated to the US in 1949.

Generously sponsored by Margaret and Michael Valentine and presented in partnership with the Harriet and Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Center and Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage.