Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Week 2025

12:00pm – 1:30pm
333 Curry Student Center

Joseph Berger, born September 20, 1937, is a Hungarian Jew and Holocaust survivor. He was born in Subotica, Yugoslavia, but spent his early childhood living in Belgrade, with his mother, father and sister, where his father was a practicing physician. In 1941, Yugoslavia was invaded by the Nazis and he and his family fled back to Subotica and later to Budapest in hopes of seeking anonymity.  In 1944, Joseph and his family were sent to Bergen Belsen concentration camp. Then they were relocated to Switzerland where he attended school for the first time at the age of 8. The Bergers moved to the United States in  1947 with the help of a sponsorship from a family friend. Joseph went on to become an OBGYN and lives in NYC with his wife Esther. He has one daughter named Daniela and two grandsons, Noah (a current student at Northeastern University) and Ethan (a current student at Tufts University).

For any questions, contact Grace Dolan at m.dolan@northeastern.edu.

5:30pm – 7:00pm
ISEC, Room 102
805 Columbus Avenue, Boston, MA 02120

Max Berger, Northeastern’s 2024-2025 Gideon Klein Scholar: A Poetic Revolt: The Oyneg Shabes Archive and The Art of Written Resistance 

Gideon Klein’s Lost Works and The Legacy of Czech Musical Modernism: A performance by string trio Avery Morris (violin), Sameer Apte (cello), and Rachel Haber (viola).

The story of a heroic group who dared to document the Warsaw Ghetto’s realities, and the poetic verse that became a defining record and a critical mode of resistance. Through a digital exhibition, Max Berger unearths how the Ghetto’s underground preserved Jewish peoplehood and secured a distinctly Jewish vantage on the final chapter of Polish Jewry — a historic act of defiance.

Max Berger is Northeastern’s 2024-2025 Gideon Klein Scholar, and an undergraduate studying Business, Design, Policy, and Jewish Studies. He is the founder of Hatikvah Magazine and an independent researcher of cultural and political history.

For any questions, contact Grace Dolan at m.dolan@northeastern.edu.

5:00pm – 6:30pm
ISEC, Room 102
805 Columbus Avenue, Boston, MA 02120

Dr. Daniel Stone: Missing Children: The International Tracing Service’s Child Search Branch after World War II

At the end of World War II, the Allied occupation authorities discovered far more unaccompanied children than they expected in Germany. The newly-established International Tracing Service soon set up a Child Search Branch, both to assist these children in finding relatives and in helping those who were searching for missing children. This talk explains how they went about this process and, through a selection of case studies, tells the stories of some of the children involved.

For any questions, contact Grace Dolan at m.dolan@northeastern.edu.