Kurt Herman

You can easily download and print his biography here (pdf)

Kurt Herman was sent to America as part of the US Kindertransport program, one of only 1,000 children of the Holocaust saved this way. Born in Austria, Herman was ten when his mother answered a newspaper ad looking for children to immigrate to America. She brought young Kurt to an interview, where he was tested by a nurse and a pediatrician. His rescuers chose only children who were in good health, intelligent and could be separated from their parents. Of 600 children interviewed then, young Kurt was only one of 50 to be selected to travel to America.

Herman remembers the indignities he and his family suffered after Kristallnacht-- the coordinated, violent attack on Jews and their property in November 1938, when he was eight. After that night, Jewish children were segregated from former playmates. Herman’s former friends began calling him names and wearing swastikas. Adult men were in the most danger. They were being picked up from the street, never to be seen again. Herman’s father and maternal grandparents fled to Cuba, but were denied entry and were returned to France.

Although he was sad to be separated from his mother, Herman realized that he was lucky to be given the chance to leave. He treated traveling on an ocean liner as an adventure. At first Herman was assigned to a children’s’ summer camp, and finally place with a foster family in Allentown, PA. In two years, Herman was reunited with his parents. His grandparents, however, had been killed in the Auschwitz concentration camp, Poland.

Herman is forever grateful to Brith Shalom, the organization that paid for his freedom. He feels a great responsibility to act in ways that pay respect to the memory of his family. Herman has three daughters and eight grandchildren. He is a retired financial officer and a frequent speaker to school groups and others about his experiences during the Holocaust.

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