Les Aigner - Surviving the Holocaust

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Central to any Holocaust Memorial Program must be the testimony of some representative of those few who survived the genocide and are still today able to give testimony on what they saw and experienced. During the war, Les Aigner endured the horrors of Auschwitz and Dachau. Eva, who during these years was a teenager living in Budapest, narrowly escaped death at the hands of Hungarian fascists. More than forty years then passed before they chose to speak publicly of their wartime experiences. The video for this presentation was damaged , but survivor testimony is too valuable to lose - so, we dubbed in a still photograph from the evening and present the audio here in its entirety. Unfortunately, Eva was ill this evening and Les gave their presentation alone however, Eva and Les also spoke for us during HMW 1998.

At OSU, we have observed Holocaust Memorial Week every year since 1987. This program grows from the belief that educational institutions can do much to combat prejudice of all kinds, and to foster respect for the diversity that is America, by promoting an awareness of the Holocaust, perhaps the most horrific historical indicator of the high cost of prejudice. It is particularly important to teach young people about the Holocaust, so that coming generations will not forget the lessons that a preceding one learned at such cost. This emphasis recalls the motto of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: "For the dead and the living, we must bear witness."

Holocaust Memorial Program | | Oregon State University

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