Peppy Margolis
Peppy Margolis. I was born in Frankfurt, Germany, my parents, David and Sara Schwarzberg, met and married in Zeilsheim, a DP camp in Germany. We migrated to the US in March, 1950, with the help of HIAS we were settled in Westwood, New Jersey. Both of my parents were Holocaust survivors whose families were decimated. My mother, a sole survivor from her family, survived two death camps and was saved by a Russian soldier on the death march from Auschwitz. My father survived 2 labor camps and was liberated in Buchenwald. His parents and 3 siblings were murdered by the Nazis. Since my parents could not talk, I was their voice. In 1984 I received a scholarship to study in Yad Vashem, Israel, where I began my career in Holocaust education: I subsequently wrote the first elementary curriculum in the US, which was endorsed by The NJ Commission on Holocaust Education. As the Director of the Raritan Valley Community College Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, I organized programs about the Holocaust. I produced 3 films, among which is “The Second Generation, Ripples from The Holocaust,” which examines the challenges of being a Child of Survivors. The film also illustrates the many contributions we made to our families and society.