Anne Frank's Story Moves WJR CONNECTIONS' Audience
On Tuesday 27th October, WJR's CONNECTIONS committee hosted an evening with Deborah Moggach, acclaimed novelist and screenwriter who recently adapted Anne Frank's diary for the BBC, and Eva Schloss, Holocaust survivor whose mother married the widowed Otto Frank. The evening was attended by over 50 people at the home of long standing committee member, Lady Jakobovits.
Eva Schloss talked about her wartime experiences and her friendship with Anne Frank in Amsterdam. Eva and her mother survived Auschwitz but sadly her father and brother were killed. After the war, Anne's father, Otto Frank married Eva's mother.
Deborah Moggach talked about the process of adapting a piece of work like Anne Frank's diary and how she tried to honour her memory whilst also being true to the young feisty teenager that Anne was when she wrote so maturely of her experiences in hiding.
The evening raised over £2,000 for CONNECTIONS' student scholarship programme, which has, to date, supported almost 300 students through their university education in countries of the Former Yugoslavia.
CONNECTIONS was established in 1990 by a group of women dedicated to playing a part in the challenging rebirth of Jewish life in Eastern Europe. Many university students living in former Yugoslavia have never known anything in their lives but conflict and volatility. A major part of CONNECTIONS' work is raising funds to pay for the education of Jewish students in Serbia, Bosnia and Macedonia who otherwise could not afford to study. With high unemployment, having a good education is one of the only ways they can get a decent job and support their families. To date CONNECTIONS has raised over £450,000 for young people in the region, giving them the opportunity to make a better life for themselves and their families.
Linda Rosenblatt, founding member of CONNECTIONS said: "Since we have been working with the Jewish community in the Balkans we have seen a remarkable change. There is now a sense of a real community and through our programme the young people are getting involved and taking on leadership roles. But life remains difficult in the region, with massive unemployment and few prospects for even the most capable people. There is still a lot of work to be done, and CONNECTIONS always needs more support, but we are delighted that we can play some small part in the rebirth of this wonderful community by giving young people hope and opportunity."
