A Holocaust Love Story
With Guest Speaker- Sheldon "Shelly" Bleiweiss- A Child Holocaust Survivor
As time marches on, aging Holocaust survivors are finding it increasingly difficult to travel and present their stories. The Holocaust Speakers Bureau (HSB), a component of the Center for Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Education of North Carolina (the Center), is shifting its presentation focus to the children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors  (known as 2Gs and 3Gs) and concentration camp liberators.

On March 14th, in the Johnston County Cooperative Extension Auditorium, Sheldon Bleiweiss, a child survivor of the holocaust, will be sharing a short 90 minute presentation about  how the Holocaust came to be and what led up to the murder of 6 million Jews, his parents survival stories, and lessons he learned along the way.  If you would like to attend this free educational program, please register here. 

Shelly Bleiweiss
The oldest child of two Holocaust survivors, Shelly Bleiweiss grew up in Houston, Texas, and now lives in Wake Forest. His parents were both from Poland, and survived using false identities as non-Jews. 

A retired mental health clinician and religious school educator, Shelly has been teaching about the Holocaust since 2000, and spent 5 years as a docent at the Houston Holocaust Museum.

In 2002, Shelly was one of the mental health counselors accompanying several thousand high school students on the week-long "March of the Living" trip to Poland as they explored the remnants of Jewish life there, and toured some of the death camps.

In 2004, Shelly was selected by the International School of Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, Israel, to participate in a two-week seminar on "Teaching the Holocaust".

Since moving to North Carolina in 2014, Shelly has traveled throughout the State, talking to teachers, hundreds of school students, and numerous church/community/civic groups. He has been the featured speaker at several community Holocaust Commemoration ceremonies, and Chairs the annual North Carolina State Holocaust Commemoration.

Shelly is a member of the North Carolina State Council on the Holocaust, and the Holocaust Speakers Bureau of North Carolina. He is a docent at Temple Beth Or in Raleigh, and teaches Holocaust courses for adult learners through the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute program at Duke University and the Adult Evening education program of Wake County Public Schools.

In addition to providing an overview of the Holocaust, Shelly shares his parents' stories of how they met, fell in love, and survived independently in the open as Polish laborers before reuniting and marrying after the war. Shelly also talks about what it was like growing up as a Child of Holocaust Survivors. 

More recently, Shelly has included discussion about Anti-Semitism then & now, the rise of hate groups, and why learning about the Holocaust remains relevant today. He also helps the audience learn what they can do to promote the concept of "Never Again".
NC State University and N.C. A&T State University work in tandem, along with federal, state and local governments, to form a strategic partnership called N.C. Cooperative Extension.

Extension's 4-H program is the largest youth development organization in North Carolina. We help over 247,000 young people grow into active, contributing citizens each year.

Accommodation requests related to a disability should be made a week before the event to Bryant Spivey at (919) 989-5380.