Hoffman was soul of local Generation After

   “Every one of us is a miracle. None of us were supposed to have been born.”

   It was 1980. Sandy Hoffman was speaking at the first meeting of Milwaukee’s chapter of Generation After, a national organization of children whose parents survived the Holocaust.

   Hoffman, who died unexpectedly on Aug. 4 at age 66, was still the group’s contact more than 30 years later, her e-mail listed on the Holocaust Education Resource Center web site.

 Hoffman, along with Jeannette Peckerman and Shelly Jubelirer, started the Milwaukee group. Prominent Jewish educator and Holocaust education pioneer Ateret Cohn, who had attended a national Second Generation conference the prior year, encouraged the trio.

   Hoffman, daughter of Holocaust survivors Franka and William Neufeld, spoke of the new group in a Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle story in the April 11, 1980 issue.

   “We want to educate the public to the positive aspects of being a survivor’s child — that survivor’s children feel a close family life and moreover, they feel a caretaking responsibility between generations,” she said.

   Co-founder Jubelirer said Hoffman did that and then some. She credited Hoffman with spearheading an effort to connect the Milwaukee group with the Holocaust Survivors Film Project, which trained volunteers to record survivors’ oral histories.

   Interviews the group conducted are now part of Yale University’s Fortunoff Video Archive, which contains more than 4,400 survivor stories. The local interviews are also part of Marquette University’s Holocaust collection.

   “Sandy was an amazing and constant leader,” Jubelirer said. “Sandy was always leading in any kind of program, any kind of film festival, any kind of lecture, any kind of anything and always kept us connected.”

   According to her husband, Dr. Stuart Hoffman, “She would stay up at night — anyone who had passed away in that (survivor) generation, she had a mailing list and would tell everybody what was happening. She would always get e-mails out about anything that had to do with movies, speakers, classes. She was always educating people.”

   “She had strength, and she was gentle. She was able to accomplish so much, but she did it in a quiet way,” he said.

   Bonnie Shafrin is the recently retired director of the Holocaust Education Resource Center. In a Facebook post, she wrote, in part:

   “Sandy Hoffman was a leader who led with her heart, her soul and her mind. All survivors were her parents, aunts or uncles.….While outwardly appearing quiet and gentle, Sandy was strong, steadfast and often headstrong — a gentle warrior.”

   And in an interview, Shafrin added, “There wouldn’t have been a Generation After if not for Sandy keeping it going.” Moreover, “She chaired the Yom HaShoah [Holocaust Memorial Day] Committee for many years. When you talk about ‘Never Forget,’ in our community, Sandy was a pillar of making sure no one forgot.”

   Amy Shapiro, Ph.D., preceded Shafrin as HERC’s director, serving from 1997 until 2005. In 2000, in her role as professor of philosophy and humanities at Alverno College, she taught a travel course to Holocaust sites.

   “Stuart and Sandy told me they were going to go on it,” Shapiro said, adding that she had initially envisioned it as a student-only trip, but was thrilled to have them along, as they had been to Poland before and she knew it would add an extra dimension for her students.

   When the group turned out to have some extra days in Warsaw, Shapiro arranged for an optional day trip to Lodz. The group went to the Jewish cemetery; but the Hoffmans went to the ghetto archives and obtain a list of the deportees, which included the names of Sandy’s mother and grandmother.

   Hoffman shared her experience with the rest of the group during the 90-minute ride back. Shapiro said that one of the people on the bus, who had observed the language Hoffman used in describing her family, pointed out that it was the first time she had heard Hoffman use the word grandmother; previously, Hoffman had always referred to her mother’s mother.

   “It spoke about the profound need Sandy had for proof that her grandmother had ever existed,” Shapiro said. “It was a profound experience for all of us — it was 13 years ago and I remember it like it was yesterday. She was so generous with her experience, what she felt and what it meant to her, and that is the epitomy of who Sandy was.”

   More than one person interviewed for this story echoed something Shafrin wrote in her Facebook post: “Who will step up to fill your shoes?”

   Shapiro and Jubelirer made similar comments, and the consensus was that it would probably take several people to do what Hoffman had done singlehandedly.

   In April 2008, Hoffman wrote an opinion article for The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle about Yom HaShoah, headlined “We are all survivors.”

    “Just as during Passover Jews across the world remember that ‘we were slaves unto Pharaoh,’ so too, it is incumbent upon all of us to remember the Shoah/Holocaust because we are all, in a sense, survivors,” she wrote. “In the years to come it will be up to us to give voice to the words that were on the lips of those who perished and those who survived — Never forget. Zachor. Remember.”

   In addition to her husband, she is survived by children Saul Hoffman, Shelley (Jeffrey) Dean, Seth Hoffman and Miriam (Joseph) Peltz; brothers Leo Neufeld and Steve (Kathy) Neufeld; and seven grandchildren.

   Goodman-Bensman Funeral Home handled arrangements. The funeral took place on Aug. 6. Burial was in Agudas Achim Cemetery.

   The family suggests memorial contributions to HERC.

   Amy Waldman is a Milwaukee-based freelance writer, coordinator of the ACCESS Program for Displaced Homemakers at Milwaukee Area Technical College and a winner of a Simon Rockower Award for Excellence in Jewish Journalism.