On March 20, 2017, Heather Dune Macadam visited Bardejov accompanying descendants of the Kornreich and Schützer families. She is a leader of the project “Rena´s Promise”, which is a chronicle of the women on the First Jewish Transport to Auschwitz. In 1942, all of the 999 prisoners in the first transport were young women ages 16-25. Among them was Rena Kornreich Gelissen - the survivor about whom Macadam wrote the book. The project has been collecting information about deportees from Eastern Slovakia in order to share and preserve the memories for future generations. “We discovered an excellent historian, Peter Hudak, in Bardejov. He was able to show us some family homes and shops, the synagogue where the Kornreich and Eigerman girls, who came to Slovakia from Poland in order to be safe, probably worshipped (the synagogue was across the street).“ said Macadam in her blog.

Ms. Macadam visited the Bardejov Holocaust Memorial and expressed gratitude for BJPC´s effort to honor the victims and preserve the memory of the Jewish Community of Bardejov. In Poprad, on March 25, 2017, she presented research results on the First Transport. Her presentation was during the 75th Anniversary Memorial Ceremony of the First Transport, at which time the Prime Minister Robert Fico was also present. This sad anniversary was also commemorated in Bardejov through interactive lectures about the Jewish past and culture made by Pavol and Peter Hudak, our associates in Bardejov.