New Nonprofit Focused on 3G’s - Third Generation Holocaust Survivors

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Los Angeles, California (October 2022). If You Heard What I Heard is delighted to announce its newly established nonprofit status, allowing the organization to continue capturing the stories of grandchildren of Holocaust survivors (3Gs) – the last generation to hear survivor stories firsthand.

Initially launched as an independent project in April 2021, If You Heard What I Heard started in response to a rise in antisemitism. If You Heard What I Heard’s mission is to educate today’s generation and future generations about the Holocaust by making the stories of survivors more relatable for today. The organization seeks to curb antisemitism, create a world that is more empathetic, tolerant, and compassionate towards all groups of people, and live up to the promise to Holocaust survivors everywhere that the world will #NeverForget.

“As the grandchild of two Holocaust survivors,” explains If You Heard What I Heard Founder & Chair Carolyn Siegel, “it’s very scary to see a rise in antisemitism because they always talked to me about the importance of warning signs leading to the Holocaust being possible - a rise in antisemitism being one of them. When I started If You Heard What I Heard, I thought about the fact that my future children will never get to hear the stories that I heard firsthand, over the course of decades, of what my grandparents lived through, what they lost, and how they rebuilt their lives after all of that. I wanted to do something to make stories like theirs more relatable for today, and I thought, if you could hear the story from someone like me, through social media and online, in a shorter form, we could create awareness about the Holocaust to try and curb hate, not just towards Jews, but towards any group.”

In an effort to offer a different way of educating about the Holocaust, If You Heard What I Heard hopes to reach new audiences and leverage the power of storytelling to make this part of Holocaust education feel a lot more personal. As a nonprofit, the hope is to be able to scale efforts in a larger way, so that every grandchild of a Holocaust survivor who wants to share their story through If You Heard What I Heard, can do so, continuing to create widespread awareness about the Holocaust.

This is the first nonprofit of its kind to focus on capturing the stories of 3Gs - third generation Holocaust survivors - by filming 30 minute interviews, which are available for free at www.ifyouheardwhatiheard.com.

About If You Heard What I Heard

If You Heard What I Heard is a collection of interviews of grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, recounting the pain, loss, and physical and emotional scars of their grandparents. What you’ll hear is a secondhand account of Holocaust survivors’ harrowing journeys, devastating loss and inspiring resilience. This is the first time in over 20 years that a project of this nature this has been produced.

For additional details please contact
Samantha Moray
samantha@moraygency.com