VIEW LARGER Paula, age 4. Paula Bronstein
November 21, 2024
Featured on the November 21, 2024 edition of ARIZONA SPOTLIGHT with host Mark McLemore:
- “Children of the Holocaust” is a living-history project launched by AZPM. Project producer Laura Markowitz interviewed 20 survivors who were children during the Holocaust, and later settled in Southern Arizona. This week, hear the story of Paula Bronstein, a survivor who escaped the Nazis by hiding in Holland. It saved her life, but cost her her childhood. Bronstein passed away earlier this month, at age 87.
VIEW LARGER Paula as a toddler playing on a sled in Eindhoven before the war. Paula Bronstein
VIEW LARGER During the German occupation of Holland, adult Jews were required to wear a yellow star on their outer garments. In this photo, Paula (age 4) and her mother were on their way to the hospital to bring flowers to an aunt who had just given birth. It was risky. They could have been picked up off the streets by the Germans and sent to a concentration camp. Soon after this photo was taken, they went into hiding separately.
VIEW LARGER When she first moved in with the Ruiters, Paula (center) played with neighbor children. Then they started asking her why she didn’t have blonde hair or blue eyes.
Paula Bronstein
- And, our featured storyteller this month is Beth Colburn Orozco, a writer who teaches at Cochise College southeast of Tucson, who also hosts a monthly Open Mic Night event in Sierra Vista at Urbano Bar and Bistro. She shares an emotional story about adoption, remorse, anxiety and the joy of finding out how life and love can persevere.
VIEW LARGER Beth Colburn Orozco participates in and hosts an Open Mic Night at Urbano Bar and Bistro in Sierra Vista. The Open Mic Night is every Tuesday of each month from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. courtesy of Beth Colburn Orozco
Beth Colburn Orozco in AZPM's studio reading her story, "The Search."
Tony Paniagua
VIEW LARGER Beth Colburn Orozco (right) stands with her daughter Kelsey (left). Kelsey lives in Wisconsin with her husband and children. courtesy of Beth Colburn Orozco
Web page by Sophia Hammer.
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