'A Personal Experience of the Kindertransport  with Dr. Henry Landsberger' – April 8, 7-8 p.m., Yaeger Recital Hall

Dr. Landsberger is the grandson of Jakob Winter, the last Chief Rabbi of the famous Semper Synagogue in Dresden, Germany. The synagogue was destroyed on Kristallnacht, the infamous “night of broken glass,” on November 9, 1938.  Henry was 12 years old at the time. Deported to Buchenwald shortly after Kristallnacht, Henry’s father survived a one-month internment, but returned home a broken man. 

While his father was in Buchenwald, his mother made the fateful decision to send him from Germany to Britain  as a participant  in the Kindertransport, a program which helped save the lives of 10,000 Jewish children from Germany  by relocating  them to safe foster homes, hostels and farms, albeit separated from their parents. After eighteen months in London – during which he experienced the German bombings of that city, he was taken into a private home in the city of Lincoln, and a normal life as a teenager in war-time Britain began.  His parents managed to obtain a visa to emigrate to Chile shortly after the outbreak of war, and he was able to visit them after completing studies at the University of London, before coming to the United States in 1949. 

This event is part of the Days Of Remembrance 2013, Holocaust Remembrance Week at Elon University.  The U.S. Congress established the Days of Remembrance, April 7-14, as our nation’s annual commemoration of the Holocaust.  Elon University will observe Holocaust Remembrance Week with the rest of the country. 

For more information contact Nancy Luberoff, Hillel Director, at nluberoff@elon.edu