Marilyn Sinclair

Fighting Hatred and Protecting Freedom

Marilyn Sinclair will never forget the day her father gave his testimony to USC Shoah Foundation. “It was the first time we came together as a family to discuss my father being a Holocaust survivor,” she recalls. “When he passed away in 2010, I realized the days of having actual witnesses to provide live testimony were numbered.”

She became committed to furthering the Institute’s mission and serving on its Next Generation Council after learning that the Institute could share her father’s testimony — and tens of thousands of other accounts — through its IWitness program.

A past chair of the Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre in Canada, Sinclair understands the power of testimony. Her father was among the many speakers of the Centre’s Holocaust Survivor Speaker Bureau. Over the years, he addressed thousands of students.

“The Institute is new to Canada,” Sinclair says. “I want to help bring its power to the Neuberger and other institutions in the country for the betterment of all the organizations and, most importantly, the students.”

Her father’s gravestone features a saying he used to end his speeches: “We must fight hatred and protect freedom.” According to Sinclair, “These testimonies teach students their civic responsibility to protect the democracies they live in — or to fight for the democracy they are entitled to. What could be more important?”