Photo by: Justin Edmond

Holocaust survivor Henry Lowenstein spoke last week about his and his family’s struggles to survive during the Nazi’s campaign in Germany and Europe to exterminate the Jewish people.

Approximately 60 people attended Lowenstein’s speech in the Sturm College of Law, which was hosted by DU’s Holocaust Awareness Institute, a part of the Center for Judaic Studies.

He illustrated his talk with slides of family photographs and documents and photos of his mother’s paintings, which depicted the misery their family experienced.

Lowenstein survived the Holocaust by being sent to England by his parents when he was 14 years old. His father was arrested by the Gestapo but later released. His mother was not Jewish. Eventually, Lowenstein and his parents were reunited.

Lowenstein related his experiences in chronological order, beginning in 1935 when he was 10 years old and living with his family in Berlin.

“By 1935 it became very clear that our life was going to be very difficult, and my life at school was going to be increasingly hard,” Lowenstein said.

A specific, memorable moment in Lowenstein’s childhood was when he and his best friend were forced to salute Hitler because they were too scared to do otherwise.

“This was something that stuck in my head for many years – cheering for the man who was our doom,” Lowenstein said.

At school, Jewish students were regularly and brutally abused by their German classmates with the permission of their teachers, Lowenstein said. One of Lowenstein’s teachers came to class wearing a SS Nazi military uniform and called Jewish children to do things that were demeaning.

Subsequently, Lowenstein attended a Jewish school that was established in Berlin. He showed a photograph of his two favorite teachers, Ardt and Baron, who died in the Holocaust. They were taken to concentration camps when Nazis ransacked Jewish homes, shops and villages on Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass). On Kristallnacht, Lowenstein discovered that his uncle, a lawyer, had been arrested and tortured. When he was released, he was a changed man. He had lost most of his fingers and toes and was “a completely ruined human being,” according to Lowenstein.

Lowenstein left for England in 1939. His parents brought him to the train station but before he boarded the train, a distant relative asked if he would bring her 5-year-old daughter with him. Lowenstein was so focused on getting the girl situated in the train that he never said a proper goodbye to his parents.

The girl, who was separated from Lowenstein upon their arrival in England, recently contacted Lowenstein after reading about his story in a California newspaper.

After Lowenstein escaped to England, the Gestapo arrested his father, who was a doctor and had served in the German army during World War I. He had been decorated for his service. He was later released under the command of Joseph Goebbels, the prime minister of propaganda. After the war, the Lowensteins immigrated to the United States.

Holocaust Awareness Institute Director Amy Berkowitz Caplan said she was satisfied with the event. She expressed her gratitude for Lowenstein’s speech and noted that his story is influential, especially in today’s society.

“I think it is impossible toB look at the Holocaust as just ‘history.’B It really does inform us aboutB current events in our worldB today. Mr. Lowenstein’s presentation, while not specifically political in nature,B highlights the issues around hate,B the gravity of following a leader, andB how critical it is that we must take a stand,” said Caplan.

“It is amazing that so many students would choose to attend a program related to the Holocaust on their lunch break. I would have liked Mr. Lowenstein to have more time just because his life experience is remarkable and he didn’t have time for questions and answers. I’m not sure that the attendees really understood how miraculous it is that Henry and his immediate family survived,” Caplan said.

The Holocaust Awareness Institute aims to promote Holocaust educationB because of the valuable lessons that future generations can learn from remembering the past, Caplan said.

For more information about the Holocaust Awareness Institute, visit http://www.du.edu/cjs/index.html.