What Do We Tell Our Children about the Holocaust?

This week on The Historians Podcast, Meryl Frank in her book Unearthed: A Lost Actress, a Forbidden Book, and a Search for Life in the Shadow of the Holocaust (Hachette Books, 2023) tells the story of her cousin Franya Winter, a celebrated Yiddish stage actress in Vilna in Eastern Europe who died in the Holocaust.

As a child, Meryl Frank was the chosen inheritor of family remembrance. Her aunt Mollie, a formidable and cultured woman, insisted that Meryl never forget who they were, where they came from, and the hate that nearly destroyed them.

Over long afternoons, Mollie told her about the city of Vilna, the theater, and, above all, Meryl’s cousin, the radiant Franya Winter who cast off the restrictions of her Hasidic community to play roles as prostitutes and bellhops, lovers and nuns.

You can listen to the podcast here.

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