A Shortage of Grandparents with Susan Meier Moss Katz

Presented in Partnership with Books & Books

Commemorate Kristallnacht at The Hub while hearing from one of Temple Beth Am’s very own, Susan Moss Katz, about her new book, A Shortage of Grandparents. A Shortage of Grandparents is an inspiring story of loss, discovery, and the importance of remembering the past so it may never be forgotten. Perfect for readers of Holocaust memoirs, family histories, and those seeking to understand the lasting effects of history on personal lives.

A Shortage of Grandparents is the realization of her dream to unlock the secrets that led to the tragic deaths of her grandparents, Sophie and Berthold Meier, at the hands of the Nazis, and to the tragic early death of her father, Arthur Meier. Her late father’s pictures, letters, postcards, and artifacts were always there—a hidden, untranslated part of her life, serving as a painful foreshadowing of the story of the Meier family and the fates that befell them.

A slow, winding trail of events over twenty-five years, beginning with a visit from a French grandmother to her office at Beth David led Susan to Serge Klarsfeld and eventually to Camp de Gurs in 2000. A river cruise in 2017 led to the Stolpersteine in Regensburg which pointed her to Martin Ruch, and, with his help, turned this little old Jewish Bubbie into a detective. The trail led, finally, after seven years of research and writing, into the graphic memoir you will hold in your hands—the story of the Meier family of Gengenbach and the woman who finally got the luck and courage to play detective.

Susan Meier Moss Katz grew up in what she calls the “Reading Railroad” area of Pennsylvania. In her late 20’s, with her husband and son, she moved to Miami, Florida, where she has lived for over 50 years. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Education degree from Westchester State University and a Master of Science in Educational Leadership degree from Barry University. She taught elementary education in public schools for six years and then, beginning in 1972 at Temple Beth Am Day School where she also served as the Curriculum Coordinator and the Director of the Writing Program. Beginning in 1994, she became the founding Head of the Gordon Day School at Beth David Congregation. In 2001 she became the Director of Academics at St. Thomas Episcopal Parish School where she worked for 12 years until her retirement in 2013. Children’s writing became her passion in the 1980’s and she founded writing programs in four schools in Miami.

Tickets: $32 General Admission 1 Seat and 1 Paperback of A Shortage of Grandparents; $10 General Admission 1 Seat (no book)