BRTC Holds Holocaust Survivor Series Virtually with over 1,100 in Attendance

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Steven Fenves, Holocaust Survivor and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum volunteer

POCAHONTAS, AR Nov. 22— Black River Technical College, in cooperation with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, hosted its 2021 Holocaust Survivor Series lectures via Zoom with over 1,100 in attendance.

Steven Fenves, Holocaust Survivor and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum volunteer, gave his personal history, chronicling his Holocaust experience. Fenves, born in Yugoslavia, described how his parents were forced out of their publishing house business and home. The business was given to a non-Jew and the family’s home was occupied by Hungarian officers.

Soon after the family was removed from their home, Fenves’s father was deported to Auschwitz, and Fenves, his mother, his sister, and his grandmother followed 10 days later. They were transported to Auschwitz by cattle cars with no food or water. When they arrived, Fenves, his mother, and his sister were selected to work, but his grandmother was sent to the gas chamber. Shortly after his grandmother passed, Fenves’s mother passed as well.

Fenves, his father, and his sister were separated into different camps where they remained for nearly a year before the camps were liberated by American soldiers. After they were liberated, the three were reunited in Yugoslavia. Fenves’s father passed away a few months after they were reunited, and Fenves and his sister immigrated to the United States. Fenves was drafted and served in the U.S. Army and then used his GI Bill earn a doctorate degree. He retired from Carnegie Mellon University in 2009 after a 42-year career developing computer software for civil engineers.

BRTC is grateful to the sponsors of the Holocaust Series who made this lecture possible: the BRTC Foundation; Brett and Karen Liebhaber; First National Bank of Walnut Ridge, Hoxie, Pocahontas, and Bono; and Mr. Ken and Dr. Jan Ziegler.

For more information about Steven Fenves, visit https://www.ushmm.org/remember/holocaust-survivors/volunteers/steven-fenves. For more information about the BRTC Foundation, visit https://blackrivertech.org/brtc-foundation.