Visiting Holocaust survivor to read from memoir at HMLC

Israel Unger, Holocaust survivor and author, will read from his book “The Unwritten Diary of Israel” at 7 p.m. Monday, March 3, at the Holocaust Museum and Learning Center theater in the Jewish Federation Kopolow Building, 12 Millstone Campus Drive. The program, sponsored by the Holocaust Museum and the Saul Brodsky Jewish Community Library, is free and open to the public.

In 1939, 25,000 Jewish people lived in Tarnow, Poland. By the end of World War II, only nine remained. For two years, Unger and his family hid in an attic crawlspace behind a false wall above a factory. Against all odds, they survived. 

After the war, Unger’s parents, witnessing virulent anti-Semitism in Poland, sent him and his brother as “orphans” to France. When the family reunited, they lived in France and England until they immigrated to Canada in 1951. 

Last year, after decades of silence, Unger, with Carolyn Gammon, co-authored his memoir recounting his family’s survival and renewal of life. 

Unger, dean emeritus of science at the University of New Brunswick, was one of 50 Holocaust survivors to be honored by Canada in 1998 in connection with the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

He also has been the educational adviser for Atlantic Canada for the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies.

For information, call 314-442-3714 or email [email protected].