Honorary degree recipient
The University of New Brunswick Saint John will award an honorary degree to an outstanding individual during its 30th Fall Convocation ceremony on October 19, 2012.
Vera Katz-Schiff
Born in
Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1926, Katz-Schiff’s life was disrupted by the Nazi invasion which stripped her of her rights, curtailed her schooling, and in 1942, she along with members of her immediate family, were imprisoned in a Theresienstadt concentration camp.
At the end of the war, Katz-Schiff attempted to resume her formal education but this proved difficult because of her ill health from three years of incarceration and starvation. Despite this, she has managed to become a first-rate educator through her own efforts and determination.
In 1996, she penned her memoirs in the award-winning book Theresienstadt: the Town the Nazis gave to the Jews; in 2002, Katz-Schiff's second book, Hitler’s Inferno: Eight Personal Histories from the Holocaust; in 2005, A Theresienstadt Diary: Letters to Veruska was published. Her latest book, The Theresienstadt Deception: The Concentration Camp the Nazis Created to Deceive the World was just released by Mellen Press this month.
Her detailed descriptions in evocative prose earned her the prestigious Elie Wiesel Writing Award. Katz-Schiff recently partnered with a UNB Saint John professor to revise her previous works for online publication for Scholar’s Pub, and to assist with work on additional manuscripts for publication.
Katz-Schiff has been involved in educational outreach programs run by the Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre of Greater Toronto and the Centre of Regional Jewish Communities of Ontario. She has the rare quality of being able to separate herself from her personal story and lecture with the analytical tone of a university professor while relating to experienced holocaust educators, students of all grade levels and the public.
Katz-Schiff's has received a number of awards including the Ontario Senior Achievement Award from the Ontario government, a Volunteer Recognition Award from the Ontario government, an Achievement Award from Canadian Friends of Yad Vashem and the Ontario Government.
