Hilton Family Holocaust Education Center

08/20/2026

On August 20, 1941, the first Jewish prisoners arrived at Drancy, an internment camp in a suburb of Paris that would become the major transit camp for the deportation of Jews from France.

French authorities administered and guarded Drancy under German control until the German Security Police and Security Service took direct control in July 1943. Between 1941 and 1944, tens of thousands of Jews were imprisoned at Drancy. Approximately 64,000 Jews were deported from the camp, the vast majority to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Fewer than 2,000 survived.

Among them was Rajzel Rozencwajg, mother of local Holocaust survivor Charlotte Adelman.

Charlotte’s parents tried to protect Charlotte and her brother Max by placing them in an orphanage in Paris. During a visit to Charlotte, her parents were arrested by the Germans and sent to Drancy. They were scheduled for deportation to Auschwitz on August 31, 1942. Charlotte’s father escaped before the train departed, but her mother, Rajzel, was deported to Auschwitz and did not return.

Charlotte survived the Holocaust in hiding and was eventually reunited with her father after the war.

Charlotte’s story reminds us that Holocaust history lives in individual lives, names, families, and testimonies. As we remember the thousands who passed through Drancy, we also remember Rajzel by name and honor the story her daughter Charlotte has carried forward. 🕯

08/19/2026

Our "Building Memory" class with Hebrew High of Greater Phoenix begins in just a few short weeks, and limited space remains. If your 9-10th grade student is interested in exploring more about Holocaust history and getting a behind-the-scenes look at the Hilton Family Holocaust Education Center as it progresses, now is the time!

08/19/2026

Wilhelm Hosenfeld was born in a small village in Hessen, Germany, in 1895.

Raised in a Catholic, patriotic household, he served as a soldier in World War I before becoming a local school teacher. By the time World War II began, Hosenfeld had a wife, 5 children, and a life rooted in education, family, and duty.

He joined the N**i Party in 1935, but as the war unfolded, he grew increasingly horrified by the regime’s crimes against Poles and Jews. In diaries he sent home, Hosenfeld wrote about his disgust with the persecution he witnessed, including the oppression of Poles, the abuse of Jews, and the murder of the Jewish people during the Holocaust.

But he did more than write.

Hosenfeld actively helped victims of N**i persecution, including Jews, and later received recognition as Righteous Among the Nations.

His account reminds us of history's difficult complexity, and of the individual choices that mattered most: to follow, to look away, or to act with courage and humanity. 🌍✨

📸: Yad Vashem: World Holocaust Center, Jerusalem

08/18/2026

📜 History teaches more than dates and facts. It teaches us what indifference can cost. It reminds us why education matters. It challenges us to choose who we want to be when others need courage, kindness, and integrity.

Retired internist and local survivor Dr. Alexander B. White shares a message that deeply resonates. His message is simple, human, and needed.

Learn the history. Refuse to look away. Choose to be an upstander. 🕊️

🎶: Benztown Branding

08/12/2026

We're thrilled to partner with Hebrew High of Greater Phoenix for this new, interactive class for 9-10th grade students. In addition to learning more about Holocaust history, students will have the opportunity to learn about what it means to be memory keepers in today's world. Learn more, share, and sign up!

A first-of-its-kind learning experience is coming to Hebrew High.

This fall, Hebrew High is partnering with the Hilton Family Holocaust Education Center to introduce Building Memory, a brand-new, hands-on course for 9th and 10th grade students.

Students will explore what it means to become memory keepers for the next generation.

Through this unique partnership, students will go behind the scenes of Holocaust education in our own community, exploring survivor testimony, museum engagement, historical artifacts and the responsibility of preserving and sharing these stories in an increasingly digital world while learning from experts from HFHEC.

The first cohort begins August 25, and space is limited. A second cohort will be offered January through May 2027.

This is what we mean when we say Hebrew High is where Jewish learning grows up.

Learn more and register at bjephoenix.org/hebrew-high.

Hilton Family Holocaust Education Center

08/12/2026

📜 Artifact Spotlight

At first glance, it’s a uniform, but the account behind it reveals something much more complicated.

Dr. Joseph and Heinrich Remark, cousins of "All Quiet on the Western Front" author Erich Maria Remarque, served in the Wehrmacht during World War II. Displayed with a 1939 Luger and SS dagger, this artifact creates a stark contrast between Remarque’s anti-war voice and his family’s connection to N**i military service.

Artifacts like this ask us to look closer. To think about choice, responsibility, and how individual lives intersect with the darkest moments in history.

See this artifact and more when the Hilton Family Holocaust Education Center opens in 2027.

👉 Learn more: https://bit.ly/44rVOAH

08/10/2026

We were thrilled to be part of the Arizona Diamondbacks' and Center for Jewish Philanthropy of Greater Phoenix's Jewish CommUnity Day. We met new friends, talked about the exciting things happening with the construction and development of the Center, and most importantly, were honored to see Sam Wagman, a 91-year-old Holocaust survivor, receive a standing ovation as he threw the ceremonial first pitch. It was an incredible day of joy, camaraderie, and community!

Sam Wagman is a 91-year-old Holocaust survivor. He survived over a year of imprisonment in the Wengrow Ghetto before being deported to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp. After a harrowing escape, Sam and his mother hid for the next two years in the woods until they were liberated by Soviet troops at the end of the war.

Despite being born into an extended family of 50 people, he and his mother were the only family members to escape death during the war and the only known survivors of the Wengrow Ghetto. Sam immigrated to the U.S. in 1950 and graduated high school in New Jersey before serving in the United States Air Force.

He moved to Phoenix in 1970 where he spent his mornings hiking Camelback three times a day, hiking the mountain over 34,000 times. We are honored to have Sam throw the ceremonial first pitch as part of Jewish Community Day.

08/04/2026

If we held 1 minute of silence for each of the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, we would remain silent for more than 11 years.
11 years of silence for names, lives, families, futures, and entire communities destroyed.

That number is almost impossible to comprehend. But remembrance asks us to try.

To pause.
To learn.
To carry their memory forward. 🕊️

08/03/2026

It was a special day at the Phoenix Holocaust Association Pauline and Paul Staman Ice Cream Social this weekend. We had the profound honor of capturing handprints from Holocaust survivors in cement. These impressions will be embedded directly into the physical foundations of the Hilton Family Holocaust Education Center.

Their courage, resilience, and testimonies won’t just be remembered inside our walls. They will literally hold them up. As we prepare to open next year, we are reminded that remembering history isn't passive; it is a call to action for every single person who will pass through our doors.