Curtis Sittenfeld was only seven years old when the Holocaust first began to leave its destructive mark on history. Now a father, grandfather, accomplished businessman and war veteran, Sittenfeld accounts his harrowing past on how he became a Holocaust survivor. On November 9th, 1938, violence broke out across the Jewish population. This came after Herschel Grynszpan, a Jewish student studying in France, was informed his parents were detained and tortured by German officials. Seething with venom and anger, Grynszpan marched up to the German embassy in France, where he shot Ernst vom Rath, a German official. Vom Rath succumbed to his injuries on November 9th, 1938, which prompted Hitler to call for “counter measures against the Jews, [to] specifically burn down as many homes as possible, burn down as many synagogues as possible and [to] destroy [Jewish] businesses
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In 1947, the family acquired visas for the United States and shortly thereafter left for New York, where the family shared a small apartment with eight other relatives. Sittenfeld later enrolled in a high school, graduated as valedictorian and attended the University of Pennsylvania for chemical engineering. Soon after graduating, Sittenfeld was drafted into the army and was shipped off to Korea where he was then transferred to Germany to assist generals in learning the language. Sittenfeld believes the most important take away from his experience is that people understand Jewish people were not the only ones affected by the Holocaust. “The most important thing that I would like to convey to you, you are at an age with this is important, the Holocaust was not perpetrated just but the Nazis…there were six million Jews that were killed, plus anywhere between three and five million others, including gays, people with disabilities, sick
In 1947, the family acquired visas for the United States and shortly thereafter left for New York, where the family shared a small apartment with eight other relatives. Sittenfeld later enrolled in a high school, graduated as valedictorian and attended the University of Pennsylvania for chemical engineering. Soon after graduating, Sittenfeld was drafted into the army and was shipped off to Korea where he was then transferred to Germany to assist generals in learning the language. Sittenfeld believes the most important take away from his experience is that people understand Jewish people were not the only ones affected by the Holocaust. “The most important thing that I would like to convey to you, you are at an age with this is important, the Holocaust was not perpetrated just but the Nazis…there were six million Jews that were killed, plus anywhere between three and five million others, including gays, people with disabilities, sick