The Library's Community Room was at capacity as the audience of mesmerized listeners were told Leon Malmed's true story of his and his sister Rachel's escape from the Holocaust in Occupied France. It's a long, emotional and heartwarming story, one that needs to be heard.
When their father and mother were arrested in 1942, their French neighbors volunteered to watch their children until they returned. Leon's parents were taken to Auschwitz and they never returned. Meanwhile their downstairs neighbors, Henri and Suzanne Ribouleau, gave the children a home and family and protected them through subsequent roundups, threats, air raids, and the war's famine.
Leon is here today, only, as he shared, because of the kindness of strangers. He is the most grateful and kindest person I have ever met. While this is the second time I've heard his story, and having read his book, a gained even more insight into the tragedy and ultimate survival of this incredible man.
Leon shared with us The Promise. A group of advanced animation students, at College of the Canyons, spent the entire Spring 2017 semester bringing to life his memories, resulting in this exceptional animated documentary. The film brings to life his experience as a child during those years of the Holocaust in a unique and powerful way.
Leon's book, We Survived... At Last I Speak, is a narrative of love, joy and courage set against a backdrop of tragedy, fear, injustice, prejudice, and the greatest moral outrage of the modern era. It is a story of goodness triumphing once more over evil. Needless-to-say, this was an emotional evening with many tears, however, Leon's positiveness had me departing with a deep sense of hopefulness.
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