Last Whispers:
Our Holocaust Stories
A Storytelling Initiative by the Selfhelp Home
“We must be listened to: above and beyond our personal experience, we have collectively witnessed a fundamental unexpected event, fundamental precisely because unexpected, not foreseen by anyone. It happened, therefore it can happen again: this is the core of what we have to say. It can happen, and it can happen everywhere.” — Primo Levi
The Selfhelp Home was founded in 1938 to care for the aging Jews of Europe who found refuge here in Chicago. Home to Holocaust survivors and refugees to this day, the Selfhelp Home is opening its doors to all Chicago-area survivors and refugees to record and preserve their family’s stories of survival, perseverance, and hope.
On June 30th, 2019, a few brave members of the Selfhelp Home community and their family members came together to tell their harrowing stories of survival. Documented by a camera crew, their stories are ready to be released to the public.