THE BLUE CARD - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
- HONORARY DIRECTOR
Job Titles:
- FIRST VICE PRESIDENT
- Member of the BOARD of DIRECTORS
Job Titles:
- PRESIDENT of the BOARD of DIRECTORS
Job Titles:
- SECRETARY of the BOARD of DIRECTORS
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the BOARD of DIRECTORS
Inge Auerbacher was the last Jewish child born in Kippenheim, a village in South-Western Germany located at the foot of the Black Forest, close to the borders of France and Switzerland. She was the only child of Berthold and Regina Auerbacher (nee' Lauchheimer.) Both of her parents came from observant Jewish families who had lived for many generations in Germany.
Inge's father was a soldier in the German Army during WWI. He was wounded badly and consequently awarded the Iron Cross for service to his country. Inge's father was a textile merchant and the family owned a large home in Kippenheim.
Christians and Jews lived peacefully together until the massive riot against the Jews in Germany and Austria on November 9-10, 1938. Inge was only three years old, but her memories of Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) are still vivid. Her maternal Grandparents had come to visit. They lived a few hundred miles away in Jebenhausen, an even smaller village than Kippenheim. Her Grandfather was arrested in the synagogue while saying his morning prayers. Her father, grandfather and other Jewish males over the age of sixteen were sent to Dachau concentration camp. Every window in their house was broken. They had to hide in their backyard shed to save themselves from the rioting mob. Their beloved synagogue was severly damaged. Miraculously, both men were released from Dachau after a few weeks. They had both been treated very badly.
Inge's family sold their house, and moved in with her grandparents in Jebenhausen in 1939. Here Inge had many Christian friends. Her grandfather soon died of a broken heart both spiritually and physically. He was bitterly disappointed in the country he loved.
Inge was only allowed to attend a Jewish school located a train-ride away in Stuttgart. She was forced to wear a yellow Star of David as a six year-old child. Her school career ended after six months when the transports to the "East" began.
All doors to the free world had been shut. There was no way to escape. The Holocaust was in full swing by the end of 1941. Her grandmother and other members of her family were sent to Riga in Latvia, where death by shooting awaited them; others were sent to Poland never to be heard of again.
Inge and her parents were deported in August, 1942. She was seven years old; the youngest in a transport of about twelve hundred people. Their destination was the Terezin (Theresienstadt) concentration camp in Czechoslovakia. She arrived clutching her beloved doll, Marlene.
Terezin was selected by the Nazis as a transit camp before inmates were to be deported to killing center further East, like Auschwitz. It consisted of large brick barracks, underground cells and broken down houses. It was sealed off from the outside world by high walls, wooden fences and barbed wire. Inge's life in Terezin was a nightmare. Death, fear and hunger were her constant companions. She saw most of her friends sent to the gas chamber in Auschwitz. She contracted serious illnesses and spent months in the so-called hospital. She was in Terezin when the International Red Cross came to inspect the camp. Inge also remembers when the children's opera "Brundibar" was performed.
Between 1941-1945, a total of 140,000 people were shipped to Terezin; 88,000 were sent primarily to the gas chambers in Auschwitz, and 35,000 died of malnutrition and disease in Terezin. Of the 15,000 children imprisoned in Terezin, Inge is among the one percent that survived.
After three long years, liberation came by the Soviet Army on May 8, 1945. Inge was 10 years old at the time.
Miraculously, Inge and both her parents survived. Marlene, Inge's beloved doll also made it through the terrible times. After a short stay in a Displaced Persons' camp in Stuttgart, they returned to Jebenhausen. They learned that at least thirteen close relatives were slaughtered by the Nazis as well as many more of her extended family.
Inge and her parents immigrated to America in May, 1946. Inge was stricken with a deadly disease caused by years of malnutrition in the concentration camp. She was hospitalized for two years, and fought a valiant battle for many years to regain her strength. Although she had lost many years of schooling she graduated with honors from Bushwick High School in Brooklyn, New York after only three years in 1953. She completed a college degree (BS in Chemistry) in 1958, and continued with post-graduate work in Biochemistry. Inge worked for over 38 years as a chemist with prominent scientists in research and clinical work.
Inge's hobby is writing. More than 50 of her poems and numerous articles have been published. She was silent about her war experiences until 1981, when she wrote the lyrics "We Shall Never Forget." The music was written by her Christian friend, Rosalie Commentucci-O'Hara. This was the only original song presented at the first "World Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors" in Jerusalem in 1981. More of her lyrics have been set to music by James Donenfeld, Barney Bragin and Cantor Sol Zim. Some have been recorded.
Inge has been lecturing on the Holocaust since 1981, and has spoken to thousands of people in the USA, Canada and Germany. She is fluent in German and English. Her audiences consist of school children, college students and adults of any ethnic background. She has appeared on many radio and television programs both in the USA and abroad. Prize-winning documentary films have been made about her, which have been shown in the USA and all over the world.
Her most recent film: "The Olympic Doll" based on her book "I Am A Star" was especially made for middle school children as a lesson of tolerance.
Inge is the Author of the following best-selling and award-winning books:
"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
She has been awarded the following prestigious awards for her work teaching tolerance and human rights:
Job Titles:
- Principal of the Kippenheim School
Job Titles:
- EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
- Member of the BOARD of DIRECTORS
Job Titles:
- TREASURER of the BOARD of DIRECTORS
Job Titles:
- ASSOCIATE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Job Titles:
- Chief Economist Emeritus of the New York Stock Exchange
Dr. William Freund, an immigrant from Nazi Germany, is the chief economist emeritus of the New York Stock Exchange, where he was Senior VP and chief economist for 20 years.
He served as a professor of economics at Pace University's Graduate School of Business in New York City where he also directed the Freund Center for the Study of Securities Markets.
He received his doctors degree in economics from Columbia University.
He is author of the best-selling book Investment Fundamentals, co-author of the book People and Productivity, as well as numerous other books and articles. He has been an advisor to business, governments, and financial institutions, as well as four governors of New Jersey.
His report Productivity and Inflation was published by the Joint Economic Committee of the United States Congress.
He recently wrote two children's books based on his family's history. Available on Amazon, they are *The Cookie That Saved My Family, and *The Towel That Saved Elizabeth.
Robert was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1938. When the Nazis invaded Budapest, his father was forced to enlist in the military. Robert and his mother were almost separated, but instead were forced into a ghetto instead of a concentration camp since Robert was still a child and his mother looked old and sickly after a surgery she just had. Robert remembers having very little food and that he would only have meat on the occasion his mother and other women were able to find a dead animal in the street. No one was allowed to leave the ghetto without proper papers. It wasn't until 1945 when the Russians liberated the ghetto that Robert's family was able to go back to their apartment. Unfortunately, their apartment was occupied by a Hungarian Nazi family, so Robert and his mother had to move into his grandmother‘s small apartment.
Robert's mother had two sisters who were in Auschwitz and other concentration camps: fortunately, both survived. Robert's father never came back after the war and was listed as a missing person.
Robert left Hungary after the Hungarian uprising in 1956. He traveled to Austria and Germany before he finally received permission to go to United States. He arrived in the U.S. in January 1957 on an American Navy ship and was reunited with his uncle. Robert lived in the Bronx with his uncle's family until he was able to rent his own apartment in Brooklyn. In 1962 Robert moved to the Upper West side and became a U.S. citizen in 1964.
One of his first jobs was at B. Altman's store as a cashier. Then he worked for another department store, E. J. Korvette, where he started as a salesman and very soon became a manager and a buyer for the record department. Later, he worked at Columbia University Faculty House as a waiter and a bartender until retirement.
After receiving his citizenship Robert was able to visit his mother in Hungary once a year until she passed away in 1972. His mother also visited Robert in New York a number of times.
Robert now lives alone, but he has a few close people in his life. His first cousin Peter, who is also a Holocaust survivor, and his wife Trish live in Boston and are in touch with him on a regular basis.