Mr. Stephan Lewy Shares His Story
May 16, 2008Mr. Stephan Lewy spoke to the students of St. Thomas on in an hour long assembly on Thursday, May 15, 2008. Stephan is a survivor of the Nazi Holocaust. His family tried unsuccessfully to flee from Germany after the 1938 Night of Broken Glass which initiated a new period of open hostility and harassment of Jews. The Christian side of Stephan’s family broke all ties with him out of fear.
When his father’s health prevented them from receiving visas to the U.S., Stephan was sent to France at the age of 15 in the hopes of saving his life. Then the Nazis invaded France and Stephan once again found himself under Nazi rule. After serving as labor for a group of Nazi soldiers, he was helped by a Quaker rescue group to escape to unoccupied France. In the mean time, Stephan’s parents had succeeded in getting to America and the Red Cross was trying to help reunite the family. In the end, Stephan’s mother wrote a letter to President Roosevelt appealing for her son to be granted a visa. Stephan’s journey included several narrow escapes and direct encounters with Nazis.
He attributes his survival to the decisions of a number of people, included Nazi soldiers and sailors who spared his life. Even in America and in the U.S. Army, he faced difficulties because of his German heritage and accent. He participated in the Liberation of the Concentration Camp at Buchenwald Germany and helped with the arrest of Nazis after the war. His message to the students stressed the common humanity of all people and the dangers represented by hatred, bigotry and discrimination. He showed us that these evils are present in our society today and the importance of all of us standing together to oppose such hatred.
A fuller account of his story can be found here. His story was also told in a play produced by Daniel Webster College in 2006: Surviving Evil: The Holocaust through the eyes of Stephan H. Lewy. The Lewy Holocaust Education Fund has been established at Daniel Webster College located in Nashua, NH. He encourages donations to this scholarship fund rather than accepting a speakers Honorarium.