UMD News Releases

Dr. Sabina Zimering, retired physician, author and Holocaust survivor, will be the featured speaker for this year's Baeumler-Kaplan Holocaust Commemoration Lecture on Thursday, April 6 at 4:00 pm in the UMD Weber Music Hall. The title of Dr. Zimering's talk, "Hiding in the Open," is based on her experience and the memoir she has written.

Thanks to the bravery of a Catholic family, Sabina Schwartz, a Jewish teenager in Poland, obtained false identification papers during World War II. Posing as a Catholic, she worked from 1943 - 1945 in a posh hotel in Germany - surrounded by Nazi officers. For more than 50 years, Dr. Zimering, of St. Louis Park, had been unwilling to tell her too-painful story. When she retired as an ophthalmologist in 1996, she was determined to remember and write her story. Signed copies of her book will be for sale.

Dr. Zimering's lecture will be preceded at 3:30 pm by a musical introduction. Alexander Chernyshev and Betsy Husby will play relevant selections, including Kol Nidrei, three pieces "From Jewish Life" by Ernest Bloch and Meditation Hebraique.

The annual Baeumler-Kaplan Holcaust Commemoration will also feature the movie, "The Nazi Officer's Wife" on Sunday, April 2 at 7:30 pm, in the UMD Music Weber Hall. This film, from award-winning filmmakers Rory Kennedy and Liz Garbus, recounts how one Jewish woman survived the Holocaust. Susan Sarandon narrates. Discussion will follow the film's presentation.

This year, for the first time, the Baeumler-Kaplan program is co-sponsoring, with the UMD Medical School, DOC TALKS, on Tuesday, April 11 at 7:30 pm in Room 142, UMD Medical School. Dr. Patrick Ward, M.D. and head of the Department of Anatomy, Microbiology and Pathology will present "Auschwitz 2005: A Photo-essay." Dr. Ward toured Auschwitz with colleagues and a professional guide in 2005, and will present his photos and impressions as well as some historical background.

The Baeumler Kaplan Holocaust Commemoration Program was established by Walter Baeumler, Goldie and Walter Eldot, and Mortrud Kaplan, to insure that the lessons of the Holocaust could be disseminated to the public at large, and especially to young people, in the Twin Ports area. All events are free and open to the public.