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Holocaust Survivor To Bring Story Of Hope, Tolerance To Wichita

A Holocaust survivor brings his story to Wichita this evening in a program to remember the Holocaust and teach future generations about it.

Sami Steigmann was just a year-and-a-half old when he and his parents were taken into a slave labor camp in Romania. Almost all of his terrible life there was learned long after the camp was liberated.

Credit Sami Steigmann
Sami's parents, Reghina and Nathan.

At 76, he is one of the youngest survivors of the horrors of the Jewish imprisonment and extermination.

"To tell the truth, I really don't remember. For me, it is a blessing in disguise I don't have to remember those horrors every single day," Sami says. "And I also teach young people that for a lot of the survivors, the older generation, in a practical sense, the war has never ended."

Sami's life was saved by a German woman who found him close to starvation, and now, after 63 years of silence, he has become a motivational speaker to school children in the States.

Tonight's program, titled "Remembrance, Hope, Tolerance," is at 7 p.m. at the Hughes Metropolitan Complex at Wichita State University. Partners include the Mid-Kansas Jewish Federation, Newman University, Wichita State University, Inter-Faith Miniseries, Congregation Emanu-El, Shaarei Tikvah Synagogue, Ahavath Achim Hebrew Congregation, and the Terezin Composers Project Foundation.

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Follow Aileen LeBlanc on Twitter @Aileen_LeBlanc

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