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New educational Holocaust Survivor exhibit unveiled in Youngstown

By Staff Report
A new JCRC traveling exhibit in Youngstown tells the life stories of Holocaust survivors Frances and Abraham Honigman and others, available free to schools and groups.
A new JCRC traveling exhibit in Youngstown tells the life stories of Holocaust survivors Frances and Abraham Honigman and others, available free to schools and groups. Picasa Courtesy

A new educational Holocaust Survivor exhibit was unveiled at the JCRC’s Shoah Ceremony (Holocaust remembrance) in April. The exhibit features a video and display that tells the life and love story of Frances (Kordelas) and Abraham Honigman. Their enduring bond inspired them to survive the Holocaust, and build a new future in Youngstown. It is the third traveling exhibit created by the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation. The exhibits tell the life stories of Youngtown-area Holocaust Survivors and are available, at no cost, to schools, religious institutions, and civic organizations. The exhibit follows Abe and Frances who were born in Poland in the early 1900s. When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, both of their families were uprooted. Eventually, both families were relocated to the Kielce Ghetto. Later, when many others in the ghetto were sent to the Treblinka death camp, Frances and Abe were married in a secret ceremony, a marriage that became a sustaining force for them through the Holocaust.

Both were ultimately sent to death camps. After liberation, they each believed the other had been killed. Abe finally learned Frances was alive and they reunited. They immigrated to the United States in 1953 and settled in Youngtown. Abe purchased and expanded a corner grocery store, and Frances worked alongside him to build the family business. Together, they had three children. The other exhibits tell the life stories of Henry Kinast and Bill Vegh. Henry Kinast was a Holocaust Survivor who, as a young boy, defied the odds of slave labor and the concentration camps and became the patriarch of a large family rooted in a family business. He married Inga Jonsson. Together, Henry and Inga immigrated to the United States in 1954. Eventually they settled in Youngstown, where they raised their four children. Bill Vegh was born in 1929 in Czechoslovakia. He survived the Auschwitz concentration camp, where most of his family died. He moved to the United States in 1948, and settled in the Mahoning Valley. He married Lucile Blau of Hazelton, Pa. Contact Jesse McClain at 330.746.3250 ext. 126 or jmcclain@jewishyoungstown.org for information on bringing the exhibits to a school, religious institution, or civic organization.