We are a gathering
Officers
Shelli Klein, President
Shelli is the daughter of survivors who met and married in a DP camp in Austria, where she was born.
She is an educational assessment specialist and former teacher who has been involved with second-generation activities for many years, first as a member of Generations of the Shoah–Nevada and then as a member of The Generations After when she moved to Maryland in 2012. Shelli is an active member of the Book Group, co-chairs the Program Committee, and leads our Yiddish Conversation Group. As an educator and as a child of survivors, Shelli is committed to Holocaust remembrance and education.
Olimpia Sulla, Vice President
Olimpia is a child of a Holocaust survivor and is married to a 3G, giving her a generational perspective on the impact of the Shoah on families and future generations. She served on the Generations After Board as membership liaison and as treasurer and is currently an active member of the Membership and Finance Committees and the Book Group. She is a representative of The Generations After to the JCRC of Greater Washington’s Holocaust Commemoration Commission. Olimpia had served as a liaison to a Jewish Advisory group with the Polish Embassy, bringing our voice to the international arena. Olimpia is a lawyer by profession.
Susan Miles, Secretary
Both of Susan’s parents were survivors from Lodz, Poland, who lost their entire immediate and extended families. Originally from Queens, NY, Susan earned a BS in Elementary Education from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a JD from Catholic University, Washington, DC. After retiring from the Mine Safety and Health Administration, Susan and her husband moved to Bozeman, MT, to be near their daughter and son-in-law. Susan joined The Generations After in 1984, was a board member for a number of years, and co-led a monthly discussion group/book club. Susan remains an active member of the Book Group, Program Committee, and Nominating Committee. As a Board member, one of her interests is promoting the many Holocaust programs available nationally and in the DC Metro area.
Simon Sznurman, Treasurer
Simon was born in Lodz, Poland, in 1947. Both of his parents lost their families in the Shoah. He came to the US in 1963 and attended high school and college, the latter while working full-time. Now retired, Simon worked for Fortune 500 chemical/oil companies, primarily in the finance and supply chain areas. He and his wife of over 50 years, Nina, have three children and two grandchildren.
Board Members
Rachel Miller, Nominee
Rachel was born in Mittenwald, Germany, in 1948 to Polish parents. Her family immigrated to the US, settling first in Philadelphia and then Brooklyn, NY. She and her husband moved to Maryland in 2007 to be near their daughter and grandchildren. Rachel is a retired clinical social worker who worked in both private practice and NIMH schizophrenia research for many years. She has authored numerous articles, book chapters, and Diagnosis: Schizophrenia, a guide for families and professionals. Rachel has been an active member of the Generations After Program Committee, enjoys our Book Group, and participates in the Memoir Writing Group as well as the Speakers’ Bureau. She is currently working to bring our 2G memoir essays into the public domain. She also volunteers at Temple Shalom of Chevy Chase and for Montgomery Hospice. She is a visitors’ services volunteer and docent at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Michlean Amir
Michlean is the daughter of survivors who managed to escape from the Czech Republic just before the outbreak of World War II. Throughout the war, her father fought in the Czech Brigade within the British Army. She lost many close relatives in the Shoah, including three of her grandparents.
Professionally, Michlean was a librarian/archivist specializing in scholarly research in Jewish history, including 20 years dedicated to Holocaust studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. In addition to being a long-time Board member, Michlean is an active member of the Program Committee, Book Club, and Writing Group.
Anat Bar-Cohen, Past President
Anat is the daughter of two survivors from Poland and was born in the Turkheim Displaced Persons Camp. She helped start the 2G group CHAIM in Minneapolis; was a founding member and is on the Coordinating Council of Generations of the Shoah, International; serves as secretary of the World Federation of Jewish Child Survivors and Descendants; and has been on the Board of Generations After for many years. Anat has been involved in second-generation groups in Israel as well. She has lobbied for survivor welfare and given testimony on this issue to a Senate subcommittee. She helped start the Gen After Writing Group, edits the newsletter, and is a member of the Program Committee. After moving back to Minneapolis two years ago, where she previously lived with her family, Anat now co-chairs the 2G group in Minnesota and the Dakotas, Generations After MN-DAK.
She is retired from her work on public health and cancer issues.
Barbara Brandys
Barbara was born in Warsaw, Poland, to parents who survived the Lodz Ghetto after losing their entire immediate and extended families. She emigrated to Israel in 1968 and moved to Bethesda, Maryland, in 1985.
Barbara holds a B.Sc. in Chemistry, Physics, and Science Education from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an M.S. in Library and Information Science from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. She is retired from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Library, where she specialized in developing databases.
A Board member for 20 years, Barbara has chaired the Remember a Child (RAC) Committee since 2016—an initiative GenAfter inherited from the Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Friends of Greater Washington. RAC has grown into a nationwide program, memorializing over 750 child victims by matching them with current bar and bat mitzvah students, both children and adults. Her mission as a Board member is to preserve the memory of the 1.5 million child Holocaust victims.
Genie Glucksman
Genie, the daughter of Holocaust survivors from Poland, grew up in a large survivor community in Queens, NY. She has been actively engaged with issues related to the Holocaust since her college days, when she was part of a 2G group. Genie is a retired Jewish educator and a lapsed sociologist. She conducted videotaped interviews in the Washington area for the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, taught courses on the Holocaust, and helped plan Yom HaShoah Commemoration programs in Chicago, the San Francisco Bay Area, and, for many years, Greater Washington.
She has been a member of Generations After for 20+ years, having served as co-president with Anat Bar-Cohen and as vice president. Genie is a member of the Book Group and one of the Writing Groups and co-chairs the Speakers’ Bureau. She has also helped train speakers through the Jewish Community Relations Council’s Maggid program. Genie has brought her years of experience interviewing Holocaust survivors to Teach the Shoah’s Lesaper program, which pairs college students and recent graduates with Holocaust survivors to learn to tell their stories.
Dena Litow Hirsh, Past Vice President
Dena is the daughter of two survivors who fought as partisans in Poland in an area that is now Belarus, including one year with the Bielski partisans. Her mother was the only survivor of her family. Her father survived with three siblings and several cousins. Dena started a group for children of Holocaust survivors in the Poughkeepsie, NY, area and helped organize and run several Yom Hashoah programs there before moving to Maryland with her family in 1995. A Board member since 2015, she serves on the Program and Nominating Committees. Dena is a member of the Book Group, coordinates the Writers’ Groups, co-chairs the Speakers’ Bureau, and serves as a liaison between GenAfter and the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington’s Holocaust Commemoration Commission. She is a speaker and coordinator for Teach the Shoah and a member of the JCRC’s Speakers’ Bureau.
A former newspaper writer and editor, as well as a freelance writer, Dena is a retired corporate manager of licensing and education and Potomac office manager for Washington Fine Properties.
Louise Lawrence-Israëls
Louise was born in Haarlem, Netherlands, in 1942. She and her family were in hiding during the war, and she was three years old when they were liberated. After the war, they lived in Stockholm, Sweden, for two years. She then lived in the Netherlands and came to the US in 1967 after her husband finished medical school in Amsterdam. After he retired from the Army in 1994, they settled in Bethesda, and she became involved with Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Friends of Greater Washington, as well as volunteering at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Louise took over the Remember a Child program from the older survivors when they needed help. When she joined the Board of The Generations After and needed help to continue the program, GenAfter took over.
Steven A. Sherman
Steve is an attorney and CPA, having spent most of his career with the U.S. Department of Justice and as a clerk for a U.S. District Court Judge. He also served in the White House Counsel’s Office during the Clinton Administration and was a past chair of the Federal Bar Association – Tax Section. Steve was a representative of the Justice Department on the Federal Inter-Agency Holocaust Committee that puts on an annual program. His Generations After contributions include acting as the principal architect of the organization’s revised Bylaws passed in 2018. Both of Steve’s parents were Holocaust survivors from Poland.
Pauline Steinhorn
Pauline is the daughter and granddaughter of Holocaust Survivors from Poland who survived several Hasag slave labor camps and the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Her mother, Harriet Steinhorn-Roth, was a passionate Holocaust educator and speaker who was committed to remembering those who lost their lives and speaking out against hate. In embracing her mother’s mission, Pauline talks to students and adults about her teenage mom’s experiences and her grandmother’s role in saving lives in the camps.
Earlier this year, Amsterdam Publishing published her book, Dreaming of the River: A Mother and Daughter’s Fight for Survival During the Holocaust, based on her mother and grandmother’s journals of their wartime experiences. Pauline is an award-winning filmmaker and writer whose documentaries aired on PBS, The Discovery Channel, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Smithsonian.
Pauline has been a member of The Generations After’s Book Group, Memoir Writing Group and Speakers’ Bureau. She is also a member of the Jewish Community Relations Council’s speakers’ program.
Sara Vogler
Sara is a filmmaker and writer with a strong background in storytelling. She works for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Having been born and raised in Krakow, Poland, as were her grandparents, she has a deeply personal connection to the stories of Holocaust survivors. Her work extensively in the 3G space has provided her with a profound understanding of the evolving landscape of storytelling and exploring these narratives through media. Her experience includes writing and producing documentaries with her father, Pavel Vogler, a writer and filmmaker. These projects equipped her with a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities in telling the stories of her grandparents.
She is particularly drawn to the mission of the 2G Board and its commitment to fostering innovation and collaboration among 2G and 3G members.