Ann has a Ph.D. from University of Pennsylvania in Education, Culture and Society, focusing on narratives, life studies and culture of Holocaust survivors. In addition, she holds graduate degrees from the Annenberg School for Communications where she specialized in visual and political communication and also Drexel University where she specialized in research techniques, as well as library service to adults, young adults and children. Her BA is from the University of Rochester, where she majored in English and got certified to teach – as virtually every other English major also did at the time! Though she never stayed in one classroom, Ann has taught classes in schools and universities all over the country — and beyond, as well. Her goal is clear, though not so simple–to open minds, and in the process, open hearts.

In her Annenberg research, she investigated the impact of Holocaust images on public and private school students. In 1994, she introduced new research “Imagining the Unimaginable: Archival Photos from Auschwitz” at a conference in Berlin, co-sponsored by Humbolt and Oxford Universities, titled “Remembering for the Future.” In 1989, she premiered her documentary film, Eyes from the Ashes, in Jerusalem.

“An old man rushed up to the podium when I finished my speech in Israel. He pointed to one of the photos, a beautiful image of a bride and a groom, and said “I danced at this wedding!” At that moment, though I had believed that bringing these photos to Jerusalem had completed my work, I realized that, in reality, it had only begun. From that day until this day, I still search for names and stories, and most of all, people, who might belong to the photographs. In fact, just recently, on the night of the book’s premiere in Philadelphia, a man stood up and recognized his teacher! The story continues, and continues.”

“Each time a discovery is made, I feel as if, in a sense, a life has been reclaimed. Although I know it is not like restoring the dead to the living, I do know that each identification is important. The Nazis wanted their victims to be dehumanized— dead and dehumanized. They took away their names, replacing them with numbers. They destroyed their personal photos so that we could not see their faces. Not only did the Nazis destroy their lives, but they even tried to destroy the memory of their lives. With these photos, they can be remembered as people, not bodies, and in this sense, they live.”