Presented by The Foundation of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation
Frances Penney OF BLESSED MEMORY
Holocaust Survivor, Author Written by Geoffrey Tomb of The Miami Herald
“In the very beginning I was guilty that I didn’t go with my mother. She never believed she was going to be murdered. I felt I had abandoned her. Now I know that I am here to tell the story to as many people as I can. Even now my heart beats louder when I think about my mother.” Those words, spoken in a newspaper interview in 1988, remain, captured, frozen. The person who said them, Frances Penney, died on April 13, 1994 in her 80s. Other than a tearful sister and other bereaving family, she leaves little. Except her words, the words of a witness. Born Franka Zilberman in Wasaw, she was 32 when the Nazis invaded her homeland and World War II began. Life changed forever for millions. Frances Penney lost her home, fled, spent two years in prison labor camps and finally, her head shaved, in concentration camps. She lived through nearly 2,000 days of constant fear and consistent degradation, surviving what is now called the Holocaust.
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