Selichot: We will show the movie, "Remembrance: A Holocaust Dialogue," with Fritz Ottenheimer z"i & Suzanne Ortner

A film featuring Fritz Ottenheimer, Holocaust survivor, author, and beloved Temple Sinai congregant (of blessed memory), and noted composer and clarinetist Susanne Ortner will be shown at a special program on Saturday, September 16 at 6:30 PM at Temple Sinai.  

For many years, Fritz worked with the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh to speak to students throughout Allegheny County about the Holocaust. He teamed up with Susanne for a presentation in which he told his story about his experience growing up in Hitler’s Germany as Susanne, a next generation German musician who grew up learning about the Holocaust in school, accompanies him with her hauntingly beautiful klezmer-jazz fusion music. Award-winning Pittsburgh filmmaker Ken Love captured one of these presentations in 2007, but the material was shelved as he worked on other projects. Recognizing that our Holocaust survivors are precious resources whose voices need to continue to be heard, he recently completed the film. Fritz, born in Constance, Germany, in 1925, was eight years old when Adolf Hitler came to power. In the years that followed, he and his family were subjected to the increased restrictions and hateful propaganda that were directed against Germany’s Jewish population. In May of 1939 (when Fritz was fourteen), just before the start of World War II, the Ottenheimer family was granted permission to immigrate to the United States. After Fritz graduated from high school, he joined the US Army and returned to his former homeland to take part in the allied drive across Germany near the end of the war.

Finally, in 1999, he published a book detailing his experiences: Escape and Return: Memories of Nazi Germany. Susanne is a serious researcher of Eastern European music, the founder of the German Klezmer Quartet “Sing Your Soul,” and collaborates with US klezmer and jazz musicians, mostly in the intimate duo- and trio-format. In addition to master classes and lectures at the University of Pittsburgh and Duquesne University, she instructed the klezmer band at the Agency for Jewish Learning, was the interim director of the Carpathian Ensemble at the University of Pittsburgh, and coached the CMU/Hillel klezmer band. Susanne is the co-founder of the Three Rivers Klezmer. She met Fritz when she was invited by the University of Pittsburgh to accompany Pittsburgh Holocaust Survivors at schools and universities creating the musical framework for their stories. 

Please join us to honor his memory with this showing and an oneg after the film. Light snacks will be served. This program is free of charge and open to the public. 

Other Selichot services today: 

7:15 PM Oneg        
7:45 PM Selichot Service