New Holocaust film and exhibit to premier in Valley

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

“A Survivor’s Journey from Ruin to Redemption” is the title of a new Holocaust film and traveling exhibition that will premiere at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Jewish Community Center, 505 Gypsy Lane. The event is free.

It features the life and legacy of Henry Kinast, who was born in 1930 in Lodz, Poland. When the Nazis invaded the country, his family relocated to a ghetto in Suchedniow, Poland. When he was 12, he worked as a slave laborer in a munitions factory in a concentration camp. There he became an expert machinist. Kinast and his father and brother were in Buchenwald concentration camp and all survived. Kinast came to Youngstown in 1955, and his machinist skills helped him start a business.

The film is the third documentary and second exhibit about a Valley survivor produced by the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation.

The federation’s Holocaust projects were initially funded by the Thomases Family Endowment of the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation and the Sherri and Gary Clayman family. The film and exhibit on Kinast were underwritten by the Kinast, Anderson, Malkoff and Levy families.

Jesse McClain is the federation’s Holocaust education specialist. He is using a film and exhibit on the life and legacy of Bill Vegh and film on a former local Jewish teacher, Esther Shudmak, in area presentations.

For information, call 330-746-3251.