Tiny Dancer: Retracing the Steps of Jackie Beer

This episode, written by historian Kevin Ostoyich, explores one woman’s struggle with the question of whether a Holocaust survivor can live a fabulous life. As Jackie Beer danced on stages around the world, she did not want people the know she was a Holocaust survivor.

Jackie had been born Zosia Beer in Eastern Europe. Her parents hid Zosia and her sister with different families. Her mother was eventually “murdered in a blood massacre.” Her father survived the Holocaust in body but not mind. Zosia and her sister were reunited with their father but were eventually put into various orphanages in Poland and France, because their father was not psychologically capable of raising the girls. It was in one of the orphanages in France that Jackie was introduced to ballet. In June 1951, at eleven years old, Jackie, her sister, and father immigrated to the United States. Speaking no English, she expressed herself through dance soon after arriving in Denver. People immediately took notice of her talent. She was sent to the American Ballet Theater company in New York and started her long career as a dancer, first in ballet, then in jazz. Dancing took her back to Denver then to Hollywood, Las Vegas, and the world. In 1980 Jackie’s right knee gave out. She had two operations and tried to get back on her dancing feet, but eventually she came to the realization that her dancing career was over. Jackie retired as a dancer at forty and began her career as a talent agent/manager. Over the years, she found her niche managing dancers, illusionists, and even orangutans.

When the COVID pandemic hit, Jackie’s career was put on hold. With extra time to reflect on her past, Jackie decided to seek help from the Holocaust Survivors Group of Southern Nevada. For decades, Jackie has been plagued by thoughts that Holocaust survivors should not dance, and thus has felt somehow her career has not been appropriate for someone with her past. Thus, she has felt disconnected to her past—to the point that she tells people that her life began at age eleven. The friends that Jackie has met in this group have helped her to open up about her past and come to terms with her “fabulous life.”

Jackie Beer appears throughout the episode via excerpts of recordings of various interviews conducted by Kevin Ostoyich. The episode also contains readings of the oral testimony Jackie’s sister Annique Dverin gave in an interview conducted by Brad Zarlin. The citation information for the Annique Dverin interviews is USHMM, Oral history interview with Annique Dveirin, Accession Number: 2019.253.281 | RG Number: RG-90.063.0281. https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn700641. The episode also features readings of the written account provided by Jackie’s cousin, Kalman Katz. The citation information for that text is Kalman Katz, Memories of War (Caulfied North Vic, Australia: Eskay Publishing, 1995).

The global dis:connect podcast is hosted by the Käte Hamburger Research Centre global dis:connect at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Episode idea and research: Kevin Ostoyich Written by: Kevin Ostoyich Podcast idea: Roland Wenzlhuemer & David Grillenberger (global dis:connect) Podcast concept: Roland Wenzlhuemer (global dis:connect) & Daniel Fürg (48forward) Production: The 48forward Studios