TIBOR SPITZ
ALBANY–Colonie Chabad will host a free Holocaust lecture: “An Artist’s Journey, “at the Colonie Town Library, at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 14. Tibor Spitz, a 95-year old Holocaust survivor and artist, will recount his history.
He was 10 years old when the Slovak separatists joined with Nazi Germany and embraced the Nazis’ anti-Jewish laws. Jewish properties were confiscated, Jews were not allowed to work and their children were ot aallowed toattend public schools. The entire Slovak Jewish population was supposed to be resettled to Labor camps abroad. Because his father was in charge of Jewish burials, his family was supposed to be deported with the last transport.
Before their turn came to be deported, they ran away to the mountains, and dug out an underground shelter. They expected to soon be liberated by the advancing Red Army. However, the war continued and for seven months they had to survive the coldest winter of the century in the snow-covered mountains but also SS-patrols, army and militia combing the forests with orders to find and kill them.
After the WW2 Czechoslovakia became a Communist country. Spitz studied chemistry because the regime needed it and became an engineer and a scientist of glass making. Spitz and his wife (also a Holocaust survivor) escaped to the West.
Those planning to attend are asked to make reservations. [email protected].
