To Bear Witness: Stories from Auschwitz to Cincinnati. The lives of Henry Meyer & Bella Ouziel

“We hear that in a lot of survivor stories... saying you're trained as something, that you're not, in a way, to survive.” - Trinity Johnson, Director of Holocaust Programs & Museum Experiences at the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center

This episode of our limited podcast series accompanies the upcoming exhibition Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away., opening October 2025 at Cincinnati Museum Center. We share the powerful local stories of two survivors: Henry Meyer, a violin prodigy from Dresden whose musical gift became his lifeline, and Bella Ouziel, a young woman from Salonika who endured loss but found strength in camp sisterhood and spiritual resistance. Their journeys of survival and rebuilding in Cincinnati illuminate the resilience of the human spirit. 

The opportunity to bring this exhibition to Cincinnati has been generously supported by Rhonda and Larry Sheakley, the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, the Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati, the Ohio Holocaust and Genocide Memorial and Education Commission and  

H.B., E.W. & F.R. Luther Charitable Foundation, Fifth Third Bank, Trustee  

Jacob G. Schmidlapp Fund, Fifth Third Bank, Trustee  

Helen G., Henry F., Louise Tuechter Dornette Foundation, Fifth Third Bank, Trustee  

Western & Southern Financial Group  

Les and Renee Sandler  

The Kanter/Knue Family  

The Neil Bortz Family  

Rosenthal Family Foundation  

Beth and Louis Guttman 

Interviews of Roma Kaltman, Rozalia Berke, Henry Meyer, and Bella Ouziel 

are from the archive of the USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education 

For more information: 

http://sfi.usc.edu/ 

 

To Bear Witness: Stories from Auschwitz to Cincinnati is part of the Cynthia & Harold Guttman Family Center for Storytelling. Special thanks to Julie and John Cohen for their support of this series. Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. was created by Musealia in cooperation with the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.  

Presented by NEON.  

Musealia  

https://www.musealia.net/  

Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum  

https://www.auschwitz.org/en/  

NEON  

https://www.neonglobal.com/en/ 

Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. ticket info, additional resources for both adults and students, travel itineraries and more  

https://www.cincymuseum.org/auschwitz/  

 Visit the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center https://www.holocaustandhumanity.org/ 

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