Holocaust survivor and inspirational speaker, Eva Olsson will be in Sudbury on May 12 and 13, 2008 to speak to Sudbury Catholic District School Board’s secondary students and the general public re her experiences in the Holocaust-concentration camps during World War II.
The outbreak of World War II plunged Eva into the heart of the Holocaust-concentration camps, slave labour factories, disease, and the deaths of millions, including most of her family. Eva’s strong faith in God and in herself has enabled her to maintain a positive focus throughout the rest of her life. For fifty years she remained silent about her experiences during the Holocaust, partly out of denial and partly out of fear it might happen again.
Eva Olsson was ostracized because of her determination to live life on her own terms. She was born in Szatsmar, Hungary in October of 1924 into a poor family of Hasidic Jews. This was the beginning of her lifelong struggle againstt other people’s attempts to control her. Eva’s innate curiosity and need to develop along a different spiritual path would not be stifled and she struggled againstt this restrictive life.
Since 1996 Eva has been speaking about her life in hundreds of classrooms, churches, meeting halls, conference rooms, colleges and universities, in the hope that people who hear her story will know that it is possible to survive the worst life has to throw at them. The response has been overwhelming. Thousands of letters from students have confirmed her hope that telling her story could make a difference in their lives.
Dr. Olsson will be speaking on the following dates and times:
Monday, May 12, 2008, Marymount Academy, (9:30 a.m.), St. Benedict CSS (1:00 p.m.)
Monday, May 12, 2008, Marymount Academy, (Community presentation at 7:00 p.m.)
Tuesday, May 13, 2008, Bishop Alexander Carter CSS, (10:00 a.m.)
Tuesday, May 13, 2008, St. Charles College (12:30 p.m.)
Please RSVP Dan Bartolucci, Marymount Academy, Teacher/Program Leader, by phone or email at 674-4231, Ext. 202, bartold@scdsb.edu.on.ca.
