Biography of Zella Karen Brown
Ms. Brown participated in a panel discussion at UMass Amherst in April 2005,
commemorating the Office of Jewish Affairs' tenth anniversary—"One By One:
Descendants of the Third Reich and the Holocaust in Dialogue"
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Zella Karen Brown was born on April 29, 1947 in a displaced persons camp in Heidenheim, Germany to Barbara and Wolf Kaplansky, both survivors of the Holocaust.
She is a founding member of One by One, Inc., a non-profit organization founded by those whose lives have been deeply affected by the Holocaust. Since its incorporation in 1996, Brown has served as an active Board member, its Speakers Bureau Chairperson, and co-liaison for its New York chapter.
As a professionally trained actress, Brown fine-tuned her storytelling skills specifically for the One by One audiences. With her speaking partner, Marga Dieter, a German child of the Second World War, she offers a rare glimpse into the life of the eldest daughter of two Polish Holocaust survivors and what it took to overcome her painful legacy.
Dialogue and peacebuilding is an art that needs to be taught and cultivated in the schools and in the hearts and minds of all of us, especially children. Brown is most proud of the stories of transformation that inspire young people to take action and see “the other” from a different-colored lens. As a result of her dedication to this transformative work, she sees herself as a peacemaker and is proud to serve as one in our still-troubled world.
Brown has lived with the daily reprimand, “Write it down so you shouldn’t forget” and swore on her soul that she wouldn’t forget. It was only natural that she developed hatred towards the German people after hearing stories from her father that defy description. After noticing that her father was starting to tell the same stories to his grandson (her son) and that he remained full of rage, she knew the hatred was not going to end with her.
To get beyond the legacy of hate and its bitter consequences, Brown had to confront this past with the hope of finding a way to heal her own personal wounds. And so her journey of transformation began in the town of Neuenberg, Germany, where One by One first met in February 1993.
Photo by Rebecca Reid.
