Legacy of Naomi Warren Lives on Through Gifts to Museum

Naomi Warren was a woman of strength, grit and courage. She endured and survived three concentration camps — Auschwitz-Birkenau, Ravensbruck and Bergen-Belsen — before her liberation in 1945 by British troops.

Naomi was one of the first Holocaust survivors to receive a visa to America. She joined her maternal uncle and her sister in Houston.

Naomi married Martin Warren in 1949. They had three children, Helen, Geri and Benjamin. When her children were young, Naomi never talked about her experiences during the War. But eventually, when she became part of the group who made the Holocaust Museum Houston a reality, she gave testimony to what had happened to her and so many others.

"When this museum was opened, it was like an epiphany for her," Benjamin adds. "It gave her the comfort to start talking about what she experienced and she did that by sharing her story with students."

In celebration of Naomi's 80th birthday, her children established the Warren Fellowship for Future Teachers, a week-long training for pre-service educators to deepen their understanding of the Holocaust and equip them to teach this history in the classroom. Today, more than 400 teachers have taken part in the Fellowship.

"A significant purpose of my life is to make sure her spirit, the flame of her life, her memories, her vision are flames that inspire future generations of students to live on," Benjamin says. "That's the foundation of the Warren Fellowship for Future Teachers."

Benjamin firmly believes the Fellowship gave his mother another decade of life because it offered her purpose. He believes the Fellowship has a ripple effect. It inspired him, along with his wife Joy, the Warren family and friends, to endow in their mother's and grandmother's honor the Endowed HMH Holocaust and Genocide Education Chair — Celebrating the Life of Survivor Naomi Warren.

Like the Warrens, you can plant the seeds for a legacy that will last for generations to come with an endowed gift. Contact Colton Larsen at 713-527-1612 or clarsen@hmh.org to learn more about this type of giving.