By Reporter staff
The Jewish Federation of Greater Binghamton will hold a hybrid Yom Hashoah program on Monday, April 17, at 7 pm. It will include recorded excerpts from the survivor testimony of the late Ruth Buschman and the participation of local rabbis. Buschman’s children, Suzanne Buschman-Erez and Steve Buschman, will join the program on Zoom. Temple Concord will host those wishing to participate in person. To receive a Zoom link for the program, click here.
“I’m honored that we will be featuring the testimony of Ruth Buschman, may her memory be for a blessing,” said Shelley Hubal, executive director of the Federation. “Ruth was a cherished and loved member of the Binghamton community. I found her testimony very moving and meaningful. When I asked her children about using their mother’s testimony, they were happy it is going to be shared with people who knew her and cared about her.”
During the interview, which can be found on the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection website, Buschman “discusses her childhood in Beclean, Transylvania, Romania, and her Orthodox Jewish upbringing; the occupation of her town by Hungarian troops in 1942; the confiscation of her family business; the family’s deportation to Auschwitz in 1944; her impression when she arrived at the camp; her separation from her mother; her experiences in Auschwitz; her transfer to camp Nurnberg; her immigration to the United States in 1946; and her marriage and family life.” The Bay Area Holocaust Oral History Project conducted the interview on November 20, 2002, and it was received by the museum’s Archives Branch in September 2003. It is part of The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive special collection.