Area 8th Graders to Meet Terezin Survivor Inge Auerbacher Virtually

Wednesday, April 28 – 9:30 – Virtual 8th Grade Event with Terezin Concentration Camp Survivor Inge Auerbacher
Area 8th grade students will see Inge Auerbacher’s 2019 United Nations Holocaust Remembrance Day Speech and listen to her comments.  8th-grade teachers are encouraged to share Inge’s book I Am a Star, Child of the Holocaust with students to prepare for this important event.  Contact Lou Ann Lindblade if you need a copy.  Each class is invited to submit two questions for Inge to Lou Ann Lindblade at [email protected].  This event will remain on the YouTube page National Tolerance Week for 9th-grade students whose Tolerance Week events were canceled last Spring.

Dr. Inge Auerbacher was born on December 31, 1934, in Kippenheim, Germany as the last Jewish child born in the village. She remained an only child. She experienced Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass) as a 3-year-old child. Her father was a disabled war veteran from WWI , and awarded the Iron Cross, which did not save him from being deported to the Dachau concentration camp on November 10, 1938. Her grandfather suffered the same fate, but luckily they both were released from their torture after a few weeks. She was imprisoned from 1942 -1945 in the Terezin concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. Inge and her parents survived these terrible years –a miracle. But, at least 13 immediate members of her family were killed, and many more distant relatives bringing the total to at least 20. Inge is the only child survivor from the State of Wuerttemberg who was deported from Stuttgart, Germany to the concentration camps.

Inge and her parents immigrated to the United States in 1946. She suffered many years from tuberculosis—the result of the terrible conditions in the concentration camp. Years of hospitalization, chemotherapy, and the loss of 8 years of schooling followed. Despite all this, she graduated from Queens College in New York City with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry. She worked for 38 years as a chemist in medical research and clinical work. She is retired and travels to many countries to speak about the Holocaust, tolerance, and human rights. She has been the subject of documentary films, and the recipient of many honors including: New York State Woman of Distinction, Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Long Island University, New York City, Ellis Island Medal of Honor, Louis E. Yavner Citizen Award from the Board of Regents of New York State, Queens College Alumni Star Award, The Cross of Merit from the Republic of Germany, the Medal of Merit from the State of Baden-Wuerttemberg, the Medal of Honor from the city of Goeppingen, German, and many other citations of honor from various governmental agencies. She is the subject of a play: The Star On My Heart.

Inge is the author of the following 6 books, and has been published in 9 languages: I Am A Star —Child of the Holocaust, Beyond the Yellow Star To America, Running Against the Wind, Finding Dr. Schatz—The Discovery of Streptomycin And a Life it Saved –Co-author Dr. Albert Schatz, Highway To New York, and Children of Terror –Co-author Bozenna Urbanowicz Gilbride. Many of her poems are published and set to music.