Holocaust Liberator And Survivors To Share Stories With CWU And Community

April 20, 2004

Contact: Dr. Heidi Szpek (509-963-2839/fax 509-963-1822/e-mail: szpekh@cwu.edu)

ELLENSBURG, Wash.-- A Holocaust liberator and two child survivors will share their stories with the Ellensburg community as part of the Holocaust Speakers Series at Central Washington University this spring.

The series is being held in conjunction with the religious studies course, "The Holocaust: A Quest for Meaning," taught by Dr. Heidi M. Szpek, CWU philosophy professor.

"I want my students to not only listen to me and learn from lectures and written documents, but I want to them to hear first-hand experiences of the Holocaust," Szpek said. "I'd like to extend that opportunity to the community. This might be the last time survivors and liberators from the Holocaust make it out to Ellensburg to speak."

Each of the featured speakers is currently living in the greater Seattle area.

"They have a passion for spreading their story to those in our community," Szpek said. "They are extremely active and generous with their time. By educating the public, their hope is that this will not happen again."

The series' speaker will include:

Leo Hymas, a U.S. liberator of the Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald, who will share his story on Monday, April 26, at 7 p.m. in the Samuelson Union Building (SUB) Theatre.

Hymas was born in southern Idaho and raised in northern Utah. At age 18, he was drafted into the U.S. Army, joining the American military team that later liberated Buchenwald in April 1945. Hymas and his fellow soldiers fought past Nazi fire to destroy the barbwire fences that held the victims inside captive.

Hymas received the Holocaust Center's Excellence in Education Award in 2001. He speaks to students around the state about his war experiences, the Nazis, the victims of the Holocaust and tolerance.

Holland child survivor Peter Metzelaar will discuss his experiences on Wednesday, May 5, at 7 p.m. in McConnell Auditorium.

Metzelaar was born in 1935 in Amsterdam. In 1942, the Nazis seized his family but left him and his mother behind. Through the Dutch Underground, Metzelaar and his mother found shelter on a small farm in northern Holland. After frequent Nazi raids in the area, they dug a two-person cave in a nearby forest and spent much of their time literally hiding underground.

At the end of the war, Metzelaar and his mother were the only survivors in their family. In 1949, they both immigrated to the United States.

It was not until 1993 that Metzelaar returned to Holland. The incredible events that occurred during this visit made Metzelaar realize that he wanted to share his story. He has done so ever since in schools, universities, synagogues and churches.

Fellow child survivor Thomas Blatt, who also escaped from the Sobibor death camp, will speak Monday, May 24, at 3:30 p.m. in the SUB Theatre.

Blatt was born in Izbica, a small town near Lublin, Poland. In 1943, he and his family were deported to the Sobibor extermination camp. There, his father, mother and younger brother were executed. The Nazis spared Blatt's life so he could work as a slave laborer in the camp. Blatt soon became a member of the Jewish resistance group.

On October 14, 1943, he participated in a revolt that resulted in the deaths of nearly all the Nazi staff and the escape of more than 300 fellow slave laborers. Unfortunately, many of these escapees lost their lives in the minefields surrounding the camp.

Blatt and two young fellow prisoners successfully escaped Sobibor and found a farmer who agreed to hide them. However, the three were eventually betrayed and shot. Blatt, left for dead with a bullet in his chin, managed to escape once more.

Since the end of the war, Blatt has dedicated his life to accurately preserving the memory of the more than 250,000 Jews who were murdered at the Sobibor death camp. He regularly returns to Europe to give lectures, has authored several books and acted as chief advisor to the award-winning movie "Escape From Sobibor."

The Holocaust Speakers Series is sponsored by the CWU philosophy department, with support from the Diversity Education Center and the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center.

"All of the speaker coordination is due to the efforts of the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center, a non-profit organization whose goal is to educate," Szpek said.

For more information about the free, public Holocaust Speakers Series, or for persons of disability to arrange for reasonable accommodation, call (509) 509-963-2839 or (for the hearing impaired) TDD (509) 963-2143.