The 16th annual Holocaust Remembrance program was held on Wednesday, April 29, 2009, at 11:30 am. The theme for tthe program was We Survived. We Live On. Our speakers were Annette Lantos and Dr. Edib Korkut.
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 Annette Lantos went into hiding in her native Hungary in 1944 when the Germans occupied the country. She and her mother were able to escape to Switzerland. On their return to Hungary at the end of the war, she found that most of her family, including her father and grandparents, had been killed by the Nazis. She was reunited with her childhood friend, future Congressman Tom Lantos, and they were married in 1950. Congressman Lantos died in February 2008, after more than 27 years in Congress. |
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  Dr. Edib Korkut is the great nephew of Dervis Korkut, a Bosnian Muslim who was the Chief Librarian of the National Museum, where the Sarajevo Haggadah was on display. The Haggadah is the text of the Passover Seder, the retelling of the exodus from Egypt of Moses and the Jewish people. In 1941, a high-ranking Nazi officer asked to see the Haggadah. Worried about why the officer wanted to see it, Dervis Korkut hid the Haggadah, and later smuggled it out of the city. Dervis Korkut also saved a Jewish girl named Mira Papo in 1942 by bringing her home and passing her off as a Muslim servant. Dervis Korkut died in 1969, at the age of 81.
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 Kerry Kennedy, our host, is a daughter of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy. She is the founder and on the board of directors of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights. Ms. Kennedy wrote “Speak Truth to Power,” a book of interviews with 50 human rights defenders from around the world, including Elie Weisel. Ms. Kennedy speaks regularly about human rights issues. |
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The Sarajevo Haggadah is the oldest Sephardic Haggadah known to exist; it originated in Barcelona, Spain around 1350 and is written on bleached calfskin, with illuminations in copper and gold. It was probably taken from Spain during the expulsion of the Spanish Jews in 1492. It is now on permanent display in the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo. In 1991, it was appraised at 700 million dollars; in other words, priceless.