Anita Winter is the Founder and President of the Gamaraal Foundation in Switzerland, which operates worldwide, in 26 languages. The foundation is engaged in Holocaust education and is dedicated to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive, as well as support Holocaust survivors living in difficult situations. Drooms has been working with the Gamaraal Foundation to preserve these important stories, testimonials and documents for future generations within a secure environment of the data room.
In this interview, we speak to Anita about her vision for the Gamaraal Foundation, the awarded ‘The Last Swiss Holocaust Survivors’ exhibition and some of the stories she has heard through her remarkable work.
Why did you start the Gamaraal Foundation?
I am a daughter of two Holocaust survivors from Germany. My mother was born in 1934 in Nürnberg. She survived by many miracles, for a part of the war she was hidden in a monastery in France after escaping from a deportation train. She lived with a false identity, her maiden name was Margit Fern, and her false identity was Marguerite Fontaine. My father Walter Strauss was born in 1922 in Heilbronn. He experienced the growing persecution of Jews in Germany, including the “Night of Broken Glass” in November 1938, where he hid alone in a cupboard in Berlin. He finally succeeded, albeit with many hurdles, to flee to Switzerland. My grandfather Jakob Fern had his whole family shot in the marketplace – he lost all his siblings, aunts, uncles, and parents in one day. After the war, he spent his whole life looking to find any surviving family.
I consider it our duty and obligation to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive and to constantly confront ourselves with it, especially with antisemitism still being present and unfortunately now on an incredible and unforeseen rise. In 2014, I started the foundation, and in 2016 I brought the “The Last Swiss Holocaust Survivors” exhibition to life – a multimedia traveling exhibition that showcases the portraits and stories of the last Holocaust survivors, who found a new home in Switzerland.
Unfortunately, we don’t have many survivors left with us today, which is why it’s so crucial to preserve their stories for future generations. We also want to raise awareness about the value and importance of tolerance. Through the biographies and portraits, the exhibition demonstrates what can result from antisemitism and serves as a warning of the consequences of racism and antisemitism.
How do you keep the stories alive for younger generations?
We archive all the films, tapes, photos, and documents we can, documenting the Holocaust. We have many testimonies from our survivors in our archive in the Drooms data room. Those portrayed there come from various European countries and today live in the German-, the French- or the Italian-speaking parts of Switzerland. Our portraits and stories have been exhibited in over 120 reputable venues across the world including the United Nations Headquarters in New York, the Swiss National Museum, the Swiss Embassy in Berlin, New York and Geneva, the United Nations in Geneva, the Memoriale della Shoa in Milano, the National Gallery in Singapore, and many more. In addition, we have five online museums that can be accessed on ‘The Last Swiss Holocaust Survivors’ website.
Our foundation also brings Holocaust survivors to school classes and universities to talk about their experiences. For a long time, barely anyone listened to them. For years, even decades, many of them could not or did not want to speak about their experiences. When our survivors give their lectures today, the auditoriums are always filled to the brim and even have a waiting list. Their stories are so impressive and powerful – the impact so strong that you could hear a pin drop.
What are your biggest challenges?
Time. The fight against time to preserve these stories. We don’t have many survivors alive today and if we don’t capture their stories, no one will be able to hear them ever again. That’s why our volunteers work day and night, together with our survivors to conserve and share the memories. They feel that they have a duty to the six million people who cannot speak and tell their stories anymore.
It’s incredible to see how much the foundation has grown. We are being approached by many survivors from all over the world reaching, who reach out to us to share their stories. And in 2018 we won the Dr. Kurt Bigler Prize Award for excellence in Holocaust Education. This recognises the hard work and importance of our work.
In the end, all the hard work is worthwhile. I have boxes and boxes of beautiful handwritten letters from survivors thanking us for our work. We have also received immense support from volunteers, banks, and organisations like Drooms, who want to donate their time, money and resources to help our projects.
