What Matters Now to Adir Miller and mom Marianne: Getting the last laugh after the Holocaust

Welcome to What Matters Now, a weekly podcast exploring key issues currently shaping Israel and the Jewish World, with host deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan speaking with comedian/filmmaker Adir Miller and his mother Marianne Miller, a child Holocaust survivor.

On January 27, Marianne -- a well-known Israeli speaker and educator -- will address the United Nations General Assembly on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Born in wartime Budapest, Marianne will speak in New York about her survival story, surrounded by three generations of her family, as she was last year while leading a March of the Living delegation from the city of her birth to Auschwitz.

As a baby, Marianne was saved by her mother, who tore off her yellow star and, holding her daughter, ran away from a transport for mothers and children to certain death. They evaded capture after Marianne's mother bribed an Arrow Cross Hungarian Nazi soldier with a simple golden ring.

Son Adir, one of Israel's most celebrated comedians and artists, used his mother's stunning survival story as the basis of his recent movie, "The Ring," which he wrote, directed and starred in. "The Ring" is playing now in Israeli theaters with some 240,000 viewers so far. It will be screened in New York on January 28 at a special screening hosted by the Israeli-American Council (IAC).

This year marks 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz, where over 1.2 million people, including 400,000 Hungarian Jews, were murdered.

So this week, we ask Adir and Marianne Miller, what matters now.

What Matters Now podcasts are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves. 

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