Holocaust Survivor, GI Liberator To Speak At Duke April 11
Free public talk takes place in Gross Hall
A Holocaust survivor and one of his U.S. Army liberators will share their experiences Wednesday, April 11, at Duke University.
The public talk for Holocaust Remembrance Day begins at 6 p.m. in Gross Hall, Ahmadieh Family Auditorium, Room 107 on Duke’s West Campus. Admission is free and parking is available in the Chemistry Lot behind Gross Hall. A public reception with guest speakers Ernie Gross and Don Greenbaum will follow the event.
Gross, a Romanian Jew, was 15 in April 1944 when the Hungarian government deported him and his family to a ghetto for three weeks and then to Auschwitz, where Gross lost his parents and younger siblings. Within days of their deaths, he was sent to the first of several labor camps where he would spend nearly a year. When Gross was no longer strong enough to work, the Nazis sent him by train to the Dachau concentration camp.
Greenbaum served in World War II as a forward observer, operating on the front lines. He earned a Purple Heart in Germany on Nov. 9, 1944, and after his release from an Army hospital fought in the Battle of the Bulge under the leadership of Gen. George Patton.
Greenbaum was also among the American troops to liberate Dachau concentration camp, on April 29, 1945.
The two do not think they met when the camp was liberated. They met in recent years and began sharing their stories at schools and organizations.
Greenbaum’s grandson, Andrew Distell, is a senior at Duke.
This event is made possible by Duke Center for Jewish Studies, the Coalition for Preserving Memory at Duke, and Jewish Life at Duke.