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Talk and Q&A with Holocaust Survivor Peter Stein
September 24, 2020 @ 9:00 am - 10:00 am
Join a special session of UNC’s ARTS 290 course taught by faculty Gesche Würfel. This event is virtual.
Peter Stein is a Holocaust survivor who will share his story with you today.
Peter was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia three years after Hitler seized power in Germany. He is the child of a Catholic mother and a Jewish father who was forced into slave labor and later disappeared. His childhood memories are of Nazi-occupied Prague, Jewish relatives vanishing mysteriously, portraits of Hitler everywhere, food shortages and ration cards, and several Allied bombings.
At age 12 Peter and his mother finally came to the U.S. After learning English and experiencing American culture Peter graduated from the City College of New York and then earned a Ph.D. in sociology from Princeton University.
At UNC in Chapel Hill, he became active in the Holocaust Speakers Bureau and served as Holocaust Scholar for the NC Council on the Holocaust. Peter and his family now live in Washington, D.C. where he’s a Survivor Volunteer at the USHMM and lectures to school and adult groups.
As a young professor he faced a Holocaust denying colleague which led him to write the memoir A Boy’s Journey: From Nazi-Occupied Prague to Freedom in America. Sadly, Holocaust denial and antisemitism still continue today in the United States and globally.
ARTS 290 Special Topics: Exploring the City through Visual Arts, is a course developed by Gesche Würfel with support from a JMCE Faculty EU Research and Travel Award. The award is made possible by a Jean Monnet Center of Excellence grant from the European Commission.
This event is co-sponsored by the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies.
Portrait of Peter Stein by Gesche Würfel.