“My grandmother Erna and her husband Arnold did cross the border into Belgium, lived there for a few years, and then went into full hiding. They were stripped of their citizenship.” –Edna Southard on what her grandparents did in order to survive the Holocaust
Edna Southard can trace the lives of her family members across national borders in Europe, through Nazi concentration camps and years spent in hiding, to a military base in Cairo, Egypt, British Mandate Palestine, now Israel, and across the Atlantic to begin life again in the United States. Despite the many people and places that make up her family’s history, Edna preserves as many of their stories and belongings as she can. She understands the power objects can have in telling the stories of people’s lives, having served as Curator of Collections and Exhibitions at the Richard and Carole Cocks Art Museum at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
In this episode of Hear My Story, Edna shares the story of a family forever changed by the Holocaust. Her step-grandfather, Arnold Alexander, was captured in Brussels, deported to Auschwitz and never returned. Her grandmother, Erna, survived for years in hiding in Belgium. Other members of the family fled Europe, eventually rebuilding their lives in new countries.
Though her family’s story includes very dark chapters, Edna believes in the importance of preserving the objects, stories and memories they left behind — and passing them on to future generations.
This episode is part of the Cynthia & Harold Guttman Family Center for Storytelling.
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Read more about Edna’s story: https://www.journal-news.com/lifestyles/oxford-woman-s-family-history-part-of-holocaust-exhibit/article_6e6e746c-e8ed-5534-9089-2aaa6127bef7.html
