Friday Forum: Remembering the Holocaust

Millbrook convened for the first all-school forum of 2025 last Friday, filling the Chelsea Morrison Theater to listen as speaker Alison Berg shared memories passed down by her grandmother, a holocaust survivor with an incredible story.

To begin the forum, Millbrook Spanish Instructor Annabella Vizcardo Goshen shared her own family’s history with the holocaust and explained how such storytelling helps us learn from the past. She then introduced Berg, who is a board member at 3GNY, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the stories and lessons of the holocaust.

After explaining 3GNY’s mission, Berg relayed the poignant story of her Jewish-Hungarian grandmother, Anna Greenwood. Anna and her younger sister spent time in Nazi concentration camps Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen near the end of World War II. Her story is filled with horrific experiences, but also heroism. From saving her sister from the gas chamber to sabotaging Nazi bombers, Anna demonstrated awe-inspiring courage and resilience to survive the holocaust and eventually start a new life in the US.

Berg noted that her grandmother shared her stories with urgency, warning that the horrors she experienced could happen to anyone if hatred and intolerance toward any group are allowed to flourish:

“The most important lesson that she passed down to me is that it is only your values that define you, and that’s what makes you most similar to or most different from someone else,” Berg said. “It’s not your age, your gender, your race, your religion, or any other thing. You can always find shared values. … She taught me to always look for those shared values.”

Following Berg’s presentation, she and Goshen fielded questions from the audience and discussed the unique challenges of growing up in families traumatized by the holocaust. Then, students attended optional discussion groups facilitated by faculty members. The groups offered students a space to process emotions evoked by the forum’s weighty subject matter.

In addition to Friday’s forum, Millbrook honors Jewish culture in various ways throughout the year. For example, we host gatherings for Shabbat, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur and coordinate rides for students who wish to attend synagogue. We also have a Jewish Affinity Group that meets regularly alongside clubs organized around the many other cultures and faith traditions represented on campus.