Cincinnati Shakespeare Company Hosts Local Holocaust Survivors in Conjunction with Production of THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK

The Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, in collaboration with the Center for Holocaust and Humanities Education, is pleased to present two special guest speakers during our production of The Diary of Anne Frank.
These talks, given by local survivors of the Holocaust, are open to all ticket-holders for The Diary of Anne Frank, so please feel free to attend one of these rare opportunities if you've purchased a ticket for another night. These talks will be held on Saturday, September 10 at 6:30 PM and Sunday, September 18, at 4:30 PM.

To purchase tickets to The Diary of Anne Frank, click here.

Saturday, September 10 at 6:30 PM
Conrad Weiner
Conrad was born in Storojinetz, a small town in Bucovina, once part of Romania (currently part of the Ukraine) in 1938. After a brief occupation of the region by the Soviet Army in 1941, Romanian authorities, in alliance with German forces, started a massive campaign of annihilation and deportation of Jews to Transnistria. They were taken by cattle car, a journey of two days and one night, and then forced to walk for two weeks in snow and mud to the forced labor camp, Budi. Conrad was 3 1/2 years old at the time and luckily, he had a strong uncle who carried him most of the journey. While in Budi, Conrad fell very ill. Many of the prisoners advised his mother to give up. Her response was that a mother does not give up on her child. Eventually, he was nursed back to health by his mother. In 1944, at the age of six, Conrad and the 300 surviving prisoners at Budi were liberated by the advancing Soviet Army and repatriated to Romania. In 1946, Romania became a Communist country. For this reason, his family's requests to emigrate to the U.S. were denied for fourteen years. Finally in July 1960, the paperwork was approved and Conrad's family was able to come to America. He settled in Cincinnati and in 1966, graduated from Indiana University with a B.A. in German and Russian Language and Literature. In 1968, he obtained a M.B.A. from the University of Cincinnati on a full-ride scholarship.

Sunday, September 18 after the 2 PM matinee (approximate time 4:30)
Al Miller
Dr. Al Miller was born in Berlin, Germany in 1922. His family owned a successful clothing company, and he has many happy memories of his early childhood. As an active youth, he enjoyed sports until one day he arrived at his favorite recreation center to find it forbidden to Jews. He also was an enthusiastic student. He remembers many of his childhood friends joining the Hitler Youth and wearing their uniforms with pride and cutting him out of their lives for being Jewish. He was the last Jewish student to remain in his class until it was made too uncomfortable for him to stay. In 1936, Al attended the infamous Berlin Olympics in which American runner Jesse Owens won four medals. As conditions became worse for the Jews of Germany, his family put together a plan to leave the country and resettle elsewhere. Al departed Nazi Germany in 1937 for Switzerland, while his brother was sent to England. His parents remained in Germany, enduring Kristallnacht and hiding in a friend's home. The family was eventually to reunite in England before immigrating to America in 1939. Al settled in Hamilton, Ohio where he practiced optometry until his retirement.