QCC speaker series commemorates liberation of Auschwitz

Main Train Track / Birkenau Concentration Camp, Oswiecim, Poland; Victor Koen, March 2004.

By Rachel Vick

Two local institutions are teaming up for a special conversation and commemoration to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. The event, hosted by the Harriet and Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Center at Queensborough Community College and the Queens Public Library, will feature a Holocaust scholar and a photographer whose work is inspired by his mother, a Holocaust survivor.

“Living in the Shadows of Auschwitz: 75 Years Later” will take place at the Kew Gardens Hills library branch at 2 p.m. on Jan. 26.

Scholar Jody Russell Manning will lead the conversation and discuss the traumatic legacy of the camp and the continuing impact of its existence as a memorial. Manning interned with the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust at the memorial site, and currently serves as program director for Rowan University’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

The event will also feature photography from Viktor Koen’s 2004 series, “SYLVIA / Auschwitz, Birkenau, Majdanek.”

Koen’s named the exhibition to honor his grandmother, Sylvia Sevi, who survived internment at Auschwitz. Koen photographed the camp through her eyes as Sevi  led a tour group through the camp, recounting her experiences. 

The event is part of the Drs. Bebe & Owen Bernstein Lecture Series. Tickets are free.