They had the misfortune of seeing them, swastika-bearing banners flying above the streets of their towns.
They couldn’t help but hear them, youngsters their age dressed in Hitler Youth attire and singing Nazi Party anthems.
“I hate the songs,” Edith Leuchter says in a video in which she and her husband, Kurt, recall their childhoods amid the 1930s rise of the Third Reich.
Recorded in 2020 and available for viewing through the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh at hcofpgh.org, the video features a presentation by Deborah Stueber, their daughter, who describes the Leuchters’ resilience in living through the Nazi reign of terror, resettling in the United States and reuniting by chance in New York City.
She will share the details during a Hampton Community Library program at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 15. Her parents, both in their mid-90s, plan to join virtually.
According to the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, there are about 245,000 Holocaust survivors in the world. But the time frame for personal testimonials is limited.
“Who will tell their stories, if not for the next generation? It’s my responsibility to carry their torch,” Stueber said. “When people attend my presentation, they become witnesses to my family’s story, and I hope they share it with others.”
Suffice it to say that Edith and Kurt remember hiding from Nazis and enduring stays at internment camps until their rescue by the French Children’s Aid Society (Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants). They first met in 1942 at an orphanage in France, eight years before their American encounter led to their marriage.
Other members of their families were among the 6 million victims of the Nazi pogrom against Jewish people.
“I also think about all the stories that nobody will ever know, because they didn’t survive,” Stueber said. “Had their lives not been snuffed out, can you imagine the novels that could have been written or the diseases that could have been cured or the inventions that could have been created? It’s mind-boggling.”
Stueber, who lives in Blawnox, has given more than 50 presentations to 1,500-plus people about her parents.
The impetus for sharing originated when her younger son was studying the Holocaust at Fox Chapel Area’s Dorseyville Middle School and volunteered to relate Kurt Leuchter’s narrative for the benefit of classmates and then-student teacher Scott Vensel.
“My father sent it to us in writing,” Stueber recalled, “and Nathan read it for the end-of-the-curriculum project.”
After he was hired full time, Vensel continued to teach the curriculum, and, for years, Stueber visited Dorseyville to continue what Nathan started. Later, she became part of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh’s Generations Speaker series, a collection of stories from survivors and their families.
Most of her presentations are through libraries, schools or churches, but she recently embarked on appearing at a new type of venue, with the hope of capturing the attention of a different demographic.
“My two passions are craft beer and Holocaust education,” she said, “and now that I’m speaking at breweries, I’m able to connect the two.”
