The Wiener Holocaust Library and the Holocaust Research Institute at Royal Holloway, University of London, through its Holocaust and Genocide Research Partnership, in partnership with Jewish Renaissance and the Hellenic Institute at Royal Holloway, are pleased to co-host this in-conversation event featuring the authors Michael Frank, Bart van Es (The Cut Out Girl: a Story of War and Family, Lost and Found), and modern Greek history specialist Paris Chronakis in discussion on Frank’s latest book, One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World.

About this Event:

Frank’s book features the remarkable story of ninety-nine-year-old Stella Levi whose conversations with the author over the course of six years bring to life the vibrant world of Jewish Rhodes, the deportation to Auschwitz that extinguished ninety percent of her community, and the resilience and wisdom of the woman who lived to tell the tale.

One Hundred Saturdays is a portrait of one of the last survivors of a community drawn at nearly the last possible moment, as well as an account of a tender and transformative friendship between storyteller and listener, offering a powerful “reminder that the ability to listen thoughtfully is a rare and significant gift” according to The Wall Street Journal, which named it one of the ten best books of 2022. The book has received a Natan Notable Book Award, two Jewish Book Council Awards, and the Sophie Brody Medal for outstanding achievement in Jewish literature.

About the Speakers:

Michael Frank is also the author of What Is Missing, a novel, and The Mighty Franks, a memoir, which was awarded the 2018 JQ Wingate Prize and was named one of the best books of the year by The Telegraph and The New Statesman. The recipient of a 2020 Guggenheim Fellowship, he lives with his family in New York City and Camogli, Italy.

Bart van Es is Professor of English Literature and a Fellow of St Catherine’s College. His books include Shakespeare in Company, which traces the influence of the playwright’s fellow actors on his writing style. In 2014 he began to look into his family’s wartime history, knowing that his grandparents had been part of the Dutch resistance. This work has resulted in The Cut Out Girl: a Story of War and Family, Lost and Found, which was the winner of the Costa Book Awards in 2018.

Paris Chronakis is Lecturer in Modern Greek History at Royal Holloway, University of London, where he teaches and researches on the history and memory of the Modern Mediterranean. His work explores questions of transition from empire to nation-state bringing together the interrelated histories of Jewish, Muslim and Christian urban middle classes from the late Ottoman Empire to the Holocaust. His research and publications have recently expanded to post-imperial urban identities, Balkan War refugees, Zionism and anti-Zionism in interwar Europe, the Holocaust of Sephardi Jewry and digital Holocaust Studies.

Moderated by:

Dr Toby Simpson is the Director of The Wiener Holocaust Library.