I had the great pleasure, along with my brother and his wife, Sandy and Diane Shindleman, to attend the 2015 USC Shoah Foundation Ambassadors for Humanity Gala. Held in Detroit, Michigan on September 10, 2015 this year’s gala honored Ford Motor Company Executive Director William Clay Ford Jr., great-grandson of Henry Ford. The event was held at the impressive Henry Ford Museum where one can take a stroll through the history of life in the Americas over the past centuries. The museum itself was worth the trip.
Past honourees have included President Barak Obama and George Clooney. There were over 700 people in attendance including several from Hollywood: World renown Director, Filmmaker and Founder of the USC Shoah Foundation, Steven Spielberg; Steve Carell, host of this year’s event; and special guest Halle Berry. Special entertainment was provided by James Taylor.
The greatest impression left on us from this event was the opportunity to hear first-hand from a number of Holocaust survivors including Pauline Kra—a talented lady who has contributed so much to her field of expertise in 18th Century French Literature. Pauline was one of the survivors who lived thru the horrors of the ghetto in Poland during World War II.
Steven Spielberg founded the USC Shoah Foundation after finishing the movie, Schindler’s List, in 1994. He felt it was important to record on film the life experiences of Holocaust survivors as a lasting memory to what happened to them during those terrible years. It is up to each of us to remember the horrors of the past, so as not to allow them to be repeated in our and future generations. The Foundation’s Visual History Archive now contains nearly 53,000 testimonies in 39 languages from 62 countries.
We were very proud and honoured to be in attendance at the gala and show our support for the USC Shoah Foundation and its important work in preserving history, as well as the dedication of our friend and gala co-chair, Mickey Shapiro, a Detroit-area developer and member of the Institutes Board of Councilors. You can view photos from the event here.
Robert W. Shindleman
Executive Vice President and COO
