Maureen Feran Freedland is the daughter of Holocaust survivors and granddaughter of Holocaust victims from Czechoslovakia. Her father freely shared his perilous journey aboard a schooner to British Mandate Palestine leaving three days before the Czech borders were sealed. Her mother was steadfastly silent telling how she avoided deportation with her family on June 13, 1942 to Terezin Transit Camp and then to a death camp that same day, and how she ultimately survived the war living not far from her Czech hometown. After her mother’s death in La Crosse in 2016 and during the years of COVID quarantine, Freedland endeavored to put together her mother’s story from scraps of untranslated documents and unidentified photos she left behind. A pipe dream to travel to the Czech Republic to unravel her mother’s story became reality in 2024 with the help of her ever-supportive husband, and an inquisitive and persistent Czech native who served as her guide and dogged researcher. What she ultimately learned about her mother, the Holocaust, and even herself is both ordinary and extraordinary.
Freedland is mindful of the compelling need to continue telling the horrific story of the Holocaust after the survivors are no longer with us. She and her husband Robert Freedland, MD, established two funds for Studies of the Shoah with the La Crosse Community Foundation in 2007 and 2015 in La Crosse area public and parochial schools that supply resources to teachers, students, and the community including the development of curricula and opportunities to attend this Viterbo Workshop. She has been elected to the La Crosse County Board of Supervisors since 2005. She has a background in public interest law and is currently involved with grassroots advocacy to further community development, interfaith collaboration, the environment, and welcome to Ukrainian newcomers to America during their tragic war. Her BA is from Emory University and JD from Loyola University. Maureen’s community recognitions include the 2017 Bethany St. Joseph Iverson Freking Ecumenical Recognition Award.
TITLE: My Journey to Discover My Mother’s Holocaust Survival Story