Education - Bensalem Township
Santarsiero to Host Webinar on Vaccines & Public Health
Director Heather Dune Macadam screens her award-winning documentary, ‘The Forgotten Girls’ of the Holocaust” in the Zlock Performing Arts Center at the Bucks County Community College (BCCC) Newtown Campus.
Edith Grosman was seventeen when Slovak officials ordered unmarried Jewish girls to register for work service. Filled with a sense of national pride, she joined hundreds of other innocent young women who were under the false impression their patriotic duty would benefit their families. Instead, they were deported to Auschwitz as expendable slave labor.
Edith Grosman is among those who tell their incredible stories of surviving the Holocaust in the award-winning documentary “999: The Forgotten Girls.” (Submitted by BCCC)
Grosman and others tell their incredible stories of survival first-hand in the award-winning documentary “999: The Forgotten Girls,” coming to BCCC at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 26. The free screening, supported by a Mark Schonwetter Foundation Grant, is presented by the College’s School of Social and Behavioral Science and the Holocaust and Genocide Studies certificate program, includes a question-and-answer session with Macadam.
The Slovak government paid the Nazis the equivalent of $3,000 to deport each girl. Through first-person testimony and rare archival material, we learn the little-known facts of the women’s camp in 1942 and how a handful of the girls managed against all odds to survive over three long years of hell on earth.
“Too many stories — especially those of young women — remain untold or overlooked,” said Paula Raimondo, Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies. “The first transport of Jewish girls from Slovakia to Auschwitz is not widely known, yet it reveals so much about deception, state complicity, gendered persecution, and resilience. When we bring these histories into the light, we not only honor the victims and survivors, we challenge ourselves to confront the systems that made such atrocities possible.”
Edie Valo (left) and Ella Rutman (right), photographed with friends in 1941, were part of the first transport of Jewish women to Auschwitz. Their stories are told in the documentary “999: The Forgotten Girls” (PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of the Rutman family)
Macadam spent over 20 years researching and interviewing families, witnesses, and survivors of the first official transport to Auschwitz. Her internationally acclaimed book “999: The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz” (published in 2020), on which the film is based, has been translated into 18 languages and was a PEN Finalist in 2021. The film was honored with the Human Rights Award at the Hamptons Documentary Fest, Best Documentary at the Miami Jewish Film Festival Audience Award, and as an official selection of the New York Jewish Film Festival.
Heather Dune Macadam, director, producer, and author, comes to Bucks County Community College March 26 to screen her award-winning documentary “999: The Forgotten Girls” about the first official transport of young Jewish women to Auschwitz. A Q&A will follow the film, presented by the School of Social and Behavioral Science and the Holocaust and Genocide Studies certificate program. (PHOTO CREDIT: Keith Barraclough)
“I am especially thrilled to offer this event in conjunction with our spring Rescue and Resistance course, in which students spend the semester examining moral courage, defiance, and survival under unimaginable circumstances,” added Raimondo. “Hearing this story — grounded in first-person testimony and Heather’s years of research — deepens that study in a profound way. It reminds us that resistance took many forms, including the daily, determined will to survive.”
Click here for a campus map and directions.
To learn more about the College’s Holocaust and Genocide Studies certificate program, contact the School of Social and Behavioral Science at sb@bucks.edu or 215-968-8270.
The date and time is set for the 2026 St. Patrick’s Day Parade celebrating Irish culture in Levittown scheduled to take place Saturday March 14 beginning at 10:30 a.m.
The parade kicks on from Conwell Egan Catholic High School and ends at New Falls Road in Levittown.
The 2026 Bucks County St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee has selected Jeff Sproehnle as Grand Marshal for this years parade. Sproehnle is a 39-year veteran of the Middletown Township Police Department. Prior to his retirement in 2011, he rose to the rank of Detective and managed many notable cases serving residents of Middletown Township and Bucks County.
Credit: Submitted
A long-time member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), Sproehnle served as Division 1 President for eight years, stepping down in 2025. He has been instrumental in supporting fundraising efforts such as the Hibernian Hunger Project and initiatives benefiting veterans in need.
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