Speaker Profiles

Aaron Elster - Child Survivor of the Holocaust

Aaron Elster is a child survivor of the Holocaust. He was born in 1933 in the small northeastern village of Sokolow, Podlaski in Poland. Aaron lived in the Sokolow Ghetto with his two sisters, mother and father until the liquidation of the ghetto in September, 1942.

He escaped the liquidation and hid in the surrounding forests and farms. Eventually, Aaron found refuge in the attic of a Polish family, where he hid for two years until the war's end.

He was educated in Chicago and served in the armed forces in Korea. Aaron has been married to his wife Jackie for more than 50 years. They have two sons, Steven and Robert, and two grandchildren, Sarah and Allison.

Harry Carl Schaub, J.D.

Harry Carl Schaub is the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Austria and Dean of the Consular Corps in Philadelphia.  During the early Cold War, Harry was with U.S. military intelligence, primarily monitoring Yugoslavia.

Straub’s upcoming book will be entitled Call Your First Witness, an account of Ervin von Lahousen, the first witness called by Prosecutor Robert H. Jackson of the U.S. Supreme Court.  An Austrian Catholic, von Lahousen witnessed the Holocaust in German-occupied Poland and turned against the Nazis.

Gloria Jean Chupp Pflumm

Gloria Jean Chupp Pflumm was born and raised in Sheridan, Oregon, where she spent her childhood through early adulthood. It was there that she learned and lived the simple Mennonite life style.  This life style stressed that "idle hands" were unacceptable and thus encouraged Jeannie to explore many artistic mediums.  These include music, needlework, drawing and painting.
 
Pflumm began formal oil painting at the age of 12 under the direction of Carl Franklin.  Franklin specialized in palette knife techniques that were later studied at the Kansas City Art Institute.  Simultaneously, Pflumm studied perspective drawing with Geneve Phillips, also a member of the Sheridan Art Guild.
 
In her early 20s Pflumm moved to Shawnee, Kansas and continued her interest in art with  several years of instruction with Susie Moore. The next 20 years were spent raising a family, enjoying a career, and completing graduate work at the University of Kansas.
 
Several years ago, Pflumm once more turned to her love of painting and began studying under Michael Fulton, CDP.  Soon after, she discovered international Chinese master sculptor and painter Kwan Wu and was accepted at his studio where she continues to study and work today.
 
At various times Pflumm has expanded her art education through workshops under such artists as Alisha Elizabeth Zeller, MA, a German Master Iconographer.
 
Pflumm's gift and love of art has been evidenced by her quick study and comfort with color reflected in her work that also spans a wide spectrum of subject and style.  She is quick to give God the credit for her gift as well as the excellent artists whom she has been privileged to study under.
 
Deep rooted childhood beliefs in faith, family and friends continue to be her inspiration for life and artistic expression.
 
In October 2008, Pflumm was accepted into the "Oil Painters of America" and the "Greater Kansas City Art Association."
 
Pflumm has been awarded a Blue Ribbon from the GKCAA, Patron & Best of Show from the Buttonwood Artspace at The Great American Western Art Show and has her work on display at the Kansas Governor's Mansion.

Mark Ludwig - Musician, activist and Holocaust scholar 

Mark Ludwig is the founding director of the Terezín Chamber Music Foundation (TCMF), a non-profit organization dedicated to documenting, preserving and advancing the resilience of the human spirit as expressed in the music and the arts created by victims of the Holocaust (www.terezinmusic.org). Founded in 1990, TCMF fosters and sponsors the commission of chamber music compositions by young emerging composers.  These commissions form an ongoing contribution to the chamber music repertoire and endeavor to act as agents of inspiration, healing, and transformation in the consciousness of future generations of artists and audiences. TCMF’s archives and education programs support the commission and performance of these works.

In 2002 the U.S. State Department asked Ludwig to produce fundraising concerts to assist 2002 flood relief efforts in the Czech Republic.  Under their sponsorship and the honorary patronage of President Vaclav Havel, Ludwig produced a series of chamber concerts with the Hawthorne String Quartet* in Prague Castle, the Spanish Synagogue and in Pamatník Terezín in November of that year.  Following the success of these programs, Mr. Ludwig was asked to direct and produce a Czech-American cultural program in the fall of 2004 by the Czech government and the US State Department.  This cultural initiative culminated in TCMF unveiling a memorial plaque at the Terezín concentration camp memorial honoring the “determination and courage of the amateur and professional musicians incarcerated in Terezín.” 

 

* Over the past twenty years the Hawthorne String Quartet has recorded an extensive and varied collection of compact discs.  Noted for championing the music of composers who suffered under the Nazi tyranny, their recordings have received the Preis der Schallplattenkritik Musik and Belgium’s prestigious Cecilia awards.  They have also premiered numerous works of contemporary composers from North and South America, Japan and Europe.


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