Child Survivor of the Holocaust to Speak at The College of Wooster
Jacqueline Grossman, a child survivor of the Holocaust, will share her experiences of life on the run when she speaks at The College of Wooster on Tuesday, April 13, in recognition of Yom Ha-Shoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day). The lecture, which is free to and open to the public, begins at 7 p.m. in Room 009 of Severance (Chemistry) Hall (943 College Mall).
Grossman, the author of Chased by Demons: How I Survived Hitler's Madness in My Native France, was eight years old when Hitler's troops marched into her homeland. Originally, her Jewish identity was concealed, and she managed to win a national art award from the Vichy government, but fate intervened, and she found herself trying to elude authorities with her two younger sisters before being brought to the United States, where she became a community organizer, promoter, manager, entrepreneur, actor, director, painter/sculptor and fund-raiser. Dubbed a "Jackie of all trades" by a San Francisco peninsula newspaper, Grossman was featured on its front page for leading the community to a successful building-fund-raising conclusion where others had failed. Her activities often caught the attention of media photographers, including a flight in a helicopter for a groundbreaking ceremony as a patron "angel" (complete with halo, wings - and a shovel).
After raising her two children, Grossman returned to college and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, while also attending a community college full-time and serving as student body president so she could conclude her campaign for a re-entry students' campus child-care center. In graduate school, she received a President Carter Internship award. She holds three lifetime California college-level teaching credentials, and taught in several San Francisco Bay Area community colleges. She earned degrees or certificates in fashion design (in Paris), geology, public administration, management, and computer science.
Grossman also founded and ran Compuskil Enterprises, a computer instruction corporation in Silicon Valley, and later became a general contractor and built her own house in the country. Art then re-entered her life, and her expressionist sculptures placed her in juried regional art exhibits. She won grants from her county's Arts council, which honored her with a one-woman show under the name, 'jacquot.'
Grossman's visit to Wooster is sponsored by Hillel and Phi Alpha Theta history honor society, and made possible by the Kornfeld Fund. Additional information is available by phone (330-263-263-2448) or e-mail (jfriedman@wooster.edu).
