Program Description: While the term ‘liberation’ conjures up celebrations and champagne glasses, it was nothing like that for those who were barely alive in 1945. The prisoners woke up one morning and suddenly discovered that their Nazi guards were gone and watched with worried anticipation as their liberators appeared. After 5 years of terror and abuse, what did the next five years have in store for Ettie’s family and tens of thousands of other displaced persons?  Without social media or telecommunications, how did they reunite with the ‘surviving remnants?’ How did they deal with their liberators, rehabilitate, and navigate the new dangers of a war-torn and divided Europe… and then find and arrive in a new home?

Signed copies of Dr. Zilber's book A Holocaust Memoir of Love & Resilience: Mama’s Survival from Lithuania to America will be available for purchase.

Biography: Dr. Ettie Zilber was born in a Displaced Persons camp in Landsberg, Germany to Lithuanian parents who survived the Holocaust. As a second generation, she was marked with a special responsibility. Retirement from her career as head administrator in international schools has given her the opportunity to fulfill that responsibility - to research, document, and publish her family’s Holocaust experiences, reflect on their impact on the next generation and share the stories and educate adults and youth at schools, universities, and conferences in the U.S.A. and other countries (including Germany and Lithuania).

Dr. Zilber serves on the Board of the Phoenix Holocaust Association and serves as a docent at the Arizona Jewish Historical Society Museum. She also interviews Holocaust survivors as a representative of the USC Shoah Foundation. Ettie originally hails from Brooklyn and Long Island, and has lived and worked in 5 countries before 'settling' in Arizona.  She is married, has 3 children and 3 grandchildren.