Helen Degen Cohen, Miriam Brysk and John Guzlowski’s lives became inter­twined after the Holocaust through artis­tic expression.

These three sur­vivors of the Holocaust are part of a series of events begin­ning tonight to dis­cuss art in rela­tion with their expe­ri­ences dur­ing the Holocaust.

Holocaust Art: A Panel Discussion of Art, Literature, and Music is the event that brings these three artists to Big Rapids as a part of the “Art in the Holocaust” series in the Festival of Arts. The panel will talk about the inter­ac­tion between art and the Holocaust and allow the audi­ence to ask ques­tions throughout.

Miriam Brysk, a painter, and Helen Degen Cohen, an award-winning writer and poet, are Jewish sur­vivors of the Holocaust. John Guzlowski, a writer, is the son of non-Jewish Holocaust sur­vivors that were cap­tured dur­ing WWII by the Nazis.

Cohen is the mother of Dr. Scott Cohen, a pro­fes­sor of music and the direc­tor of mul­ti­ple music pro­grams at Ferris. Dr. Cohen helped coor­di­nate this event and many oth­ers for the Festival of the Arts.

Brysk and Cohen were held cap­tive together dur­ing WWII. Cohen escaped exe­cu­tion dur­ing that time and the two lost con­tact for 60 years. They were finally reunited in 2008.

“Until my mother and Miriam came into con­tact a cou­ple years ago, nei­ther one of them knew whether the other was alive or not,” said Dr. Cohen.

Guzlowski was born right after the war in a Displaced Persons Camp that Cohen was being held in after the war. He later became a fan of her writ­ing and once met her very briefly at a conference.

“The week of February 22 will be quite a reunion for these three artists,” said Dr. Cohen.

Dr. Cohen said, “I think it is a good idea to have an event like this because it’s an oppor­tu­nity to share with peo­ple that under the worst imag­in­able con­di­tions, the human spirit can endure and thrive through the arts.”

Maryanne Heidemann, pro­fes­sor of lan­guages and lit­er­a­ture, said the Holocaust was a prod­uct of Hitler’s Nazi Germany, which ended in 1945. She said that in the 65 years since then, the Germans have worked to under­stand and over­come this hor­rific part of their past.

“Some of the con­cen­tra­tion camps have been turned into memo­ri­als so that peo­ple in gen­eral can think about ways to pre­vent such a thing from ever hap­pen­ing again,” said Heidemann.

This event will take place Feb. 24 at 7 p.m. in IRC 120. Admission to the event is free.

Two more events relat­ing to the Holocaust will take place on Feb. 25 as part of the “Art in the Holocaust” series. One event will fea­ture art depict­ing the “Children of the Holocaust” and the other will be a poetry read­ing by Helen Degen Cohen detail­ing her life.

Cohen has received numer­ous awards for her writ­ing and poetry. Her read­ing will include many dif­fer­ent pieces from her works includ­ing “On a Good Day One Discovers another Poet,” “Habry,” and many others.

Brysk was a pro­fes­sor before becom­ing a writer, lec­turer and artist on the Holocaust. The art being por­trayed at the fes­ti­val was inspired by a Jewish rite of pas­sage called a Bar Mitzvah. Most of the chil­dren in the Holocaust never had a Bar Mitzvah and the art­work is a gift to those chil­dren from her in mem­ory of that.

Dr. Cohen said, “Hopefully stu­dents will learn a lit­tle more about the Holocaust and be touched by the art­works that resulted from these expe­ri­ences with it.”