JSU's Commemoration of the Holocaust of World War II Scheduled for April 1

Mr. Max Steinmetz

March 15 -- The annual Jacksonville State University commemoration of the Holocaust of World War II will be April 1 at 7:30 p.m. in Stone Center Theater. The keynote speaker will be Max Steinmetz of Birmingham, a survivor of Auschwitz (Birkenau) and Dachau.

Steinmetz was born in Romania in 1925. In 1943 he was placed in a ghetto and then in the Fall was taken to the local railroad station.

"We were put in boxcar that was used to transport animals," remembers Steinmetz.

He traveled for three days, having been given a third of a loaf of bread for the journey.

Finally they were sent to a number of concentration camps, the most notorious being Auschwitz and Dachau. In the spring of 1945 he was assigned to a "death march" to the Tyrolian Mountains.

Surviving that march, he was liberated by American troops on May 2, 1945. He came to the United States in 1948 and moved to Birmingham in 1955. He is the father of three children and grandfather of six.

Others participating in the remembrance, which is sponsored by JSU's Student Government Association, are from the university community and the community at large. The public is invited.

For further information, contact Max Steinmetz at 205-967-3723 or Dr. Steven Whitton at 782-5414.

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