Re-scheduled from February
Join us for a multimedia presentation exploring the life of the late German-Jewish actress, Hildegard Zander, who will be portrayed by JoAnne Brasil, author of a novel based on her story.

Hildegard Zucker was born in 1908 and grew up in a prominent Jewish family in Dresden. Exposed to the arts as a child by her grandmother, Hildegard fell in love with the theater at an early age. At 17, she took the stage name Hildegard Zander and got her first acting job. In the late 1920s and early 1930s she joined a theater company and traveled from town to town in the Rhineland.

In 1938, fleeing the German Third Reich, Hildegard left Dresden and immigrated to the United States with her husband and child.

Under the destructive power of the Third Reich and the massive Allied firestorms of 1945 Dresden was reduced to ruins and ashes. It now stands as a symbol of the horrors of Western barbarism, of genocide, and war.

But this is a survivor’s tale, a tale of loss but also of hope. Whenever possible it is told in Hildegard’s own words. It is a true story of art and love, wandering through time and continuing.Athenaeum member JoAnne Brasil is a writer living in Salem. She has worked as a news reporter for the Brattleboro, VTReformer, wrote an astrology column for Poets & Writers,was a letter writer for Smithsonian, and hosted The Practical Philosopher for WBUR. She has written short stories, novels, and plays, and is currently the publisher of News in Advance.