Dr. Simon and his son Jeremy, an Oberlin College student, traveled to Europe and Israel in 2014. Michael’s mother, Hildegard Lustig Simon was born in Vienna in 1928. Hildegard and her immediate family fled Vienna following the Anschluss in 1938. They went to Nagykanizsa, birthplace of her father. Hildegard’s mother died when Hildegard was only 13. She was then deported to Auschwitz in May of 1944, then soon after was sent to a slave labor camp in Germany. Hildegard was finally liberated from Allach, a sub-camp of Dachau. Michael’s mother is the sole family Holocaust survivor. Planning “to walk in Hildegard’s footsteps” in 2014, Michael and Jeremy traveled to Munich, Vienna, Budapest, Nagykanizsa, Israel and many places between. Michael will use his mother’s Spielberg testimony, family letters, historical documents and reflections to recount this story of his mother and his family.

This is the second lecture in the series of nine Distinguished Lectures.