User:Calmer92/Helen Fagin

Helen N. Fagin
Helen N Fagin was born on February 1, 1922 in Radomsko, Poland, to Ewa and Soloman Neimark. After high school, Helen attended the Jagiellonian University in Krakow.

In September 1942, Helen’s parents  were  taken  away  in  a  raid  while  Helen  and  her  two  sisters managed to hide. Helen and her siblings never saw their parents again. Helen was just 21 when she and her sister were imprisoned in the Warsaw ghetto in Nazi-occupied Poland. While in the ghetto, Fagin taught a clandestine school offering Jewish children a change to learn. She focused on literary studies, reading books such as Gone with the Wind.

After  their liberation, Helen and her sister  returned  to  Radomsko  and  eventually  went  to a displaced persons' camp in Bad  Gastein,  Austria. Helen and her sisters declared themselves stateless around this time. Helen met  her  future  husband,  Sidney Fagin, in 1947.

Life in America
Helen arrived in America not speaking a word of English. She her  future  husband,  Sidney Fagin, in 1947. Together they moved to Miami, FL, where Helen went on to earn a Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Miami. Helen taught literature and Judaic studies for more than two decades at the same institution. Helen and her family retired to Sarasota, FL.

Honors
In 1979, Dr. Fagin was invited to serve as an education advisor to Elie Wiesel and later was appointed chair of the United States Holocaust Council’s Education Committee, in charge of developing an educational track for the future U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. In 1993, President Clinton appointed Dr. Fagin to serve on the Presidential Commission for the building of the World War II Memorial on the mall in the nation’s capital. For her work, she received a Distinguished Service Medal from the American Battle Monuments Commission. She also spearheaded the creation of the Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach.

After moving to Sarasota following her retirement from the University of Miami, Dr. Fagin became involved in the group the Sarasota-Manatee Holocaust Survivors. In 2006, to honor her as a survivor and for her work on Holocaust education, the group reached out to New College of Florida to develop the Dr. Helen N. Fagin Holocaust Collection, which was dedicated on January 20, 2008. In 2008, the New College of Florida's Jane Cook Library opened the Helen N. Fagin Holocaust, Genocide and Humanitarian Collection in her honor. The special collection includes books, documentaries, audio records and other materials pertaining to the Holocaust, as well as some of Fagin's own papers and collective writing.

In 2011, Fagin gave the commencement address at the graduation ceremonies of the class of 2011.

In 2019, the Helen N. Fagin Holocaust, Genocide and Humanitarian Collection was rededicated, renamed to the Helen N. Fagin Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Collection.

Personal Life
After arriving to the United States, Helen married Sid Fagin in 1946. In 1951, they moved to Miami, FL where Sidney worked as a building contractor, erecting office and apartment buildings, hotels and hospitals. Together they had two children, Judith and Gary. Sid Fagin passed away at the age of 94 on October 27, 2016 in Sarasota, FL. Helen Fagin is Neil Gaiman's cousin.