West Virginia Northern Community College will host Holocaust survivor, Judah Samet, at 11 a.m. Wednesday, April 4, at Weirton Madonna High School. The event is free and open to the public.
Samet, 79, will share his courageous story of living in the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp for 10 months when he was only 7 years old. An estimated 50,000 people, including Anne Frank and her sister, Margot, perished there. Samet’s family of six was rounded up and moved from Debrecen by the German Gestapo agents and sent to Bergen-Belsen in Northern Germany in 1944. When the Samets arrived they found 7,300 people being held in the concentration camp. The number swelled to over 60,000 just one year later.
The family made the daring decision to board a train with 2,500 other prisoners to an unknown destination after being in the camp for 10 months. Fortunately, the Samets arrived in Berlin where they were rescued by Americans. About a week after being rescued, Samet’s father died of typhoid, and the family eventually was put on a boat bound for Israel. Judah lived in Israel from 1946-1961. While there, he graduated from high school, worked as a teacher, served in the Israel Defense Forces and managed two towns for the Israeli government. Samet lived in Toronto and New York before moving to Pittsburgh and attending Duquesne University.
The event is sponsored by West Virginia Northern Community College. Anyone interested in attending must RSVP to Sara Wood by Wednesday, March 28, at 304-214-8917 or by emailing her at swood@wvncc.edu.