Hundreds of students, faculty, and BG community members came to hear Leslie Schwartz’s presentation on his experience during and after Dachau and Auschwitz concentration camps on Thursday, February 5th in the Math Sciences Building. “An Evening with Holocaust Survivor, Leslie Schwartz,” was a joint effort between the BGSU History Department and BGSU Hillel, and was so packed with participants that two presentations were needed.

For more on the event, please read the BGNews article on the presentation. For our previous article announcing the event, please click here.

Included are Joan Eardly’s photos from the event:

Leslie Schwartz surrounded by: Tina Thomas, Dr. Beth Griech-Polelle, Joan Eardly, Michael Ginnetti, Travis Snyder, and Judge Fred Pepple

Leslie Schwartz and Dr. Beth Griech-Polelle

Leslie Schwartz, a Holocaust survivor and co-author of the new book, Surviving the Hell of Auschwitz and Dachau: A Teenage Struggle Toward Freedom from Hatred, will speak in the Math Science Building, Room 210 on Thursday, February 5th, at 7:30. The event is free of charge and open to all. Books will be made available for signing after the event, for those interested. The event is a collaboration between the History Department at BGSU, the BGSU History Society (advised by Dr. Beth Griech-Polelle), and the BGSU Hillel.

Born in Hungary in 1930, Leslie Schwartz was a teenage survivor of the horrors of Auschwitz and Dachau who lost his entire immediate family in the Holocaust. His lifelong search for wholeness has led him back to Germany where his dream now is to leave a legacy of healing and conflict resolution. The book, Surviving the Hell of Auschwitz and Dachau, documents Leslie’s experiences as a survivor of the Holocaust. In 2013, Schwartz was awarded Germany’s highest civilian honor, the Federal Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. For more on Leslie Schwartz, please read this interview, conducted in 2014.

For more on Dr. Beth Griech-Polelle’s research and teaching, please visit her faculty page.