BRTC’s 21st Annual Holocaust Survivor Series Guest Speaker Named

Emanuel “Manny” Mandel, Holocaust survivor and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) volunteer, will be the Black River Technical College Foundation’s (BRTCF) 21^st Annual Holocaust Survivor Series guest speaker.

According to the USHMM website, Emanuel “Manny” Mandel was born in May 8, 1936, in Riga, Latvia. His family returned to Hungary after his father accepted a position as a Jewish chief cantor in Budapest.

In March 1944, after the Germans occupied Budapest, 7-year-old Manny and his family were part of a group of 1600 Jews whom Adolf Eichmann offered to the Allies in exchange for materials. The group had been promised to be sent to Switzerland, but complications in the agreement found the Jews on a train for Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp. Finally, Manny and his family were transported in late 1944 via Nazi transport to Switzerland.

In late 1945, Manny and his mother, Ella, emigrated to Palestine. They were reunited with his father, Yehudah, in 1946. Together they moved to the United States in 1949 and settled in Philadelphia. Manny graduated from Central High School, Gratz College, Temple University, and the University of Pennsylvania. He married his wife Adrienne in 1958. He was a practicing psychotherapist in Maryland until he retired in 2014. Manny is a volunteer at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Manny will be giving an in-person, first-hand account of his Holocaust experiences. He will be speaking on Wednesday, October 22 at 9:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., and on Thursday, October 23 at 9:30 a.m. The sessions will be held at the Randolph County Development Center on the Black River Technical College Pocahontas campus.

To register for the BRTC Foundation’s Holocaust Survivor Series event use the link below https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/JHM887K.

For more information, contact Shawna Lepard, Development Specialist for Institutional Advancement, at (870) 248-4026 or Shawna.lepard@blackrivertech.edu.