Media Mayhem with Allison Hope Weiner
Episode 189
Europe’s Forgotten Holocaust Survivors Get Help From the Survivor Mitzvah Project
Actress and TV comedy director Zane Buzby explains what prompted her to found the Survivor Mitzvah Project – a charity organization that provides support to forgotten Holocaust survivors.
Buzby says she was moved during a visit to Eastern Europe about 10 years ago while she was during research on her ancestors in a remote area of Belarus.
“I was in this hay cart, and I was looking around me and it was like going back in time, like 200 years or something – I mean everything looked like the war happened yesterday. There were bullet holes everywhere, there were empty little villages, there were old wooden synagogues leaning, there was no one around.”
She recalls being given names of needy individuals by a language professor who was doing charity work before she entered Belarus and decided to look them up and see if she could help. She came upon one man who was living in a small hut with very few belongings and no modern conveniences.
“He had nothing, I mean there aren’t even windows in the hut, just the air blowing through. No medicine, no glasses, no blanket, no nothing, and this guy is trying to survive totally on his own.”
Zane said she found similar people all around the area – all of them Holocaust survivors who recounted amazing stories about experiencing the horrors of World War II and still making it out alive.
“I was just amazed, so I came back and though, well someone’s got to help these people, so there’s got to be a million charities already doing this, this is a no-brainer,” she said, adding that after doing her own research, she didn’t find any organization providing the direct financial assistance they really needed.
“So I just started sending money to them, in little envelopes, and I though if they don’t know who I am, who cares. At least they’ll know someone’s out there.”
She explains that the professor who first asked her to contact Holocaust survivors and provide help traveled around to various countries and gave her names for a list of people that just kept getting bigger.
“The list began to grow from eight people to 80 to 200 to 500 to 1,000 – now we’re over 2,000 people in eight countries,” Zane said.
“And I go visit them in all these different countries and bring them aid and friendship, and just let them know, ‘we got ya, you don’t have to worry anymore. You’re not going to be alone ever again – and I watch the years melt away, and the thankfulness and at the end of their lives to know that finally, someone cares, it’s just the biggest thing in the world.”
Watch the full interview to hear more about the plight of these Holocaust survivors across Eastern Europe and to hear letters read from some of those benefitting from the charity works of the Survivor Mitzvah Project.
Episode Breakdown
00:01 Welcome to Media Mayhem.
00:10 Introducing Zane Buzby, director and actress, founder of The Survivor Mitzvah Project.
01:00 How and why Buzby founded The Survivor Mitzvah Project.
07:45 The people who benefit from The Survivor Mitzvah Project.
10:30 Clip explaining why people get involved and help others in need.
13:05 Buzby’s explanation of why these people are “the unluckiest generation.”
18:35 The incredible empathy of survivors.
22:30 Clip of Buzby giving a presentation.
24:55 Some of the people that Buzby met and the situations they are in.
33:05 Letters read aloud that were written by those who have been helped.
34:25 How the Holocaust of the east was different than the Holocaust we know.
36:40 Reasons why those affected never left the area.
38:40 Buzby’s call to action.
41:10 Thank you and goodbye.
Guest Bio
ZANE BUZBY is a successful TV director, producer, and committed humanitarian. Having directed over 200 episodes of network television including such hit comedies as Golden Girls, Newhart, and Married…with Children, she has produced and directed TV series and pilots for CBS, ABC, NBC, HBO, FOX, Columbia Pictures, Warner Brothers, Universal Pictures, Disney, Comedy Central and Paramount Pictures. Ms. Buzby began her professional career as a classically trained actor in New York. Discovered by Carl Reiner, she was cast in Oh God, and shortly thereafter in the cult comedy classic Cheech & Chong’s Up In Smoke, and hailed by critic Pauline Kael for her performance. Ms. Buzby co-starred opposite Jerry Lewis in Cracking Up, and appeared in Rob Reiner’s hit comedy, This Is Spinal Tap. Prior to her acting career, Ms. Buzby worked at the Beatles’ Apple Films as an assistant film editor working with George Harrison and Bob Dylan on the feature, The Concert for Bangladesh.
Zane Buzby’s life took a dramatic turn during a “roots” trip that she made to Eastern Europe. With help from Professor Dovid Katz in Lithuania, she connected with elderly Holocaust survivors who were ill and alone, living in poverty. Expanding the search for other survivors in dire need, these initial aid efforts served as the catalyst for the creation of “The Survivor Mitzvah Project”. In constant correspondence with the survivors the SMP helps, Ms. Buzby has created The Survivor Mitzvah Project’s Holocaust Educational Archive of life histories and Holocaust testimonies, and is currently making a documentary, FAMILY OF STRANGERS, about the survivors visited on SMP’s humanitarian aid expeditions, and the story of The Survivor Mitzvah Project’s efforts to bring emergency aid to the last survivors of the Shoah.
Ms. Buzby is the 2011 recipient of the KCET LOCAL HERO AWARD for her humanitarian efforts to help elderly Holocaust survivors, and was named HERO AT HOME by KTLA television news in 2012.
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