Holocaust Rescuer's Story To Be Shared In Forest Hills On Kristallnacht Anniversary

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS -- Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, is widely considered the opening event of the Holocaust. This year, the Central Queens Y will mark its anniversary with an ode to Suzanne Spaak, a well-known Holocaust rescuer who saved hundreds of children.

The Central Queens Y in Forest Hills will host author Ann Nelson to speak about her new book, "Suzanne's Children," on Nov. 6 at 1:30 p.m. The book tells the story of Spaak, a Belgian Holocaust rescuer who risked and ultimately gave her life to save hundreds of Jewish children in Nazi Paris from deportation to Auschwitz.

Kristallnacht, which happened on Nov. 9, 1938, is remembered as the night Nazi forces and German civilians rioted against the Jews, burning synagogues and ransacking or destroying Jewish homes, stores, hospitals and other buildings. The Central Queens Y, located at 67-09 108 St., tries to mark the night each year with an event to honor the memory of the Holocaust, Peggy Kurtz, director of the center's Cultural Arts and Jewish Heritage Programs, told Patch.

"I like to focus in particular on the Holocaust rescuers, those remarkable people who risked their lives to save others," Kurtz said.

Spaak was born a Belgian Catholic and married into the country's leading political family. When the Nazis occupied Paris, she joined the Resistance and used her social status to enlist allies. She worked with women from Jewish and Christian resistance groups to take hundreds of Jewish children, saving them from gas chambers. She was caught in the final year of the Nazi's occupation of France and executed shortly before the country was liberated.

"Suzanne Spaak was an extraordinary woman, who gave her life to save hundreds of children," Kurtz said. "Anne Nelson has done all of us a service in bringing this previously untold tragic yet inspiring story to light."

Nelson, an award winning author and war correspondent, is now an instructor at the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs. The talk about her new book is open to the public with an $8 voluntary donation is requested.

For more information, contact Cultural Arts at (718) 268-5011, ext. 151, or at pkurtz@cqy.org or visit www.cqy.org.

Lead photo via Lillie Paquette.