About this Event
The story of Anne Frank and the Secret Annex is well known around the world. But Berkeley resident and Holocaust survivor Marion Seidemann Fredman has her own family’s version of hiding from the Nazis in Holland.
In 1938, Fredman’s newly married German-Jewish parents fled to Holland to escape Hitler. They lived happily until 1942, when the Nazis began mass roundups and deportations of Jews in Holland. Two selfless Catholic sisters allowed the couple to hide in their attic. Fredman was born near the end of the three years her parents spent there, posing a new risk but also instilling hope. She tells her family’s saga in her recent book,
Fredman will share her family’s inspiring account of courage, loss, and resilience at Arts & Culture on Wednesday, December 2, at 7 p.m. She’ll be in conversation with her daughter Juliana Fredman, who contributed some of the artwork in the book. They will be joined by Elisa Kleven, an award-winning author and illustrator, who did many of the other drawings.
Tickets for this program are $5 for club members and students and $10 for non-members.
A Time To Hide blends historical documents, family photos, keepsakes, and a collage of paintings and illustrations to make this terrible period in history accessible to readers as young as nine. Yet Fredman doesn’t sacrifice the emotional truth of one family’s experience, which included hunger, fear, and narrow escapes.
Publishers Weekly describes the book as “Assembled from inherited memory, it’s a piercing narrative that feels like a preserved family archive — fragmentary yet affecting.”
When Fredman was six weeks old, Holland was liberated; her parents immigrated to the United States when she was two. She passed down her story to the younger generations in her family, but always believed that it should reach a wider audience. In fact, she started working on the book more than thirty years ago, but, she says, “It always seemed to end up on the back burner. When I reached my late seventies, I knew it was now or never.”
Fredman long has been devoted to children, including her own four and her nine grandchildren. For nearly two decades, she owned Such a Business, a children’s clothing and toy store with three locations. Later, she worked for the Museum of Children’s Art (MOCHA) in Oakland. Her home and garden are neighborhood legends, filled with her own whimsical art work and collections of memorabilia — not to mention her chicken and goose coop.
Elisa Kleven, an award-winning author and illustrator of over thirty books, is known for her intricately detailed and emotionally resonant artwork. Her books have received numerous accolades and honors, and her collaboration on A Time to Hide adds profound visual depth to the narrative.
Juliana Fredman is an attorney, a documentary filmmaker, and a painter. Her contribution to her mother’s book is the first time she has been an illustrator.
You won’t soon forget Fredman’s story. Be sure to register early, and consider bringing pre-teens and teens along.
Event venue & nearby stays
Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Avenue, Berkeley, United States
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