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Holocaust survivor coming to Morrilton, Conway
By The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
This article was published February 28, 2010 at 2:43 a.m.
RIVER VALLEY and OZARK AREA — The University of Arkansas Community College at Morrilton and the University of Central Arkansas are bringing an individual to the area who survived one of the most horrific events in history - the Holocaust.
Margit Meissner will present accounts of her experiences on Wednesday, March 10, and Thursday, March 11. The first presentation will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 10, at UCA’s Reynolds Performance Hall. Presentations will also be at noon in H.B. White Auditorium at Morrilton High School and at 7 p.m. in the UACCM Fine Arts Auditorium on Thursday, March 11. The events are free and open to the public.
Meissner was born Feb. 26,1922, in Innsbruck, Austria, and she and her family moved to Prague, Czechoslovakia, shortly after her birth. Her father was a banker from a religious Jewish family in Bohemia, and her mother came from a Viennese family of Jewish origin. Meissner spoke a number of languages with her family, including Czech, French, German and English. In 1938, attacks on Jews in central Europe escalated, and her parents decided she should leave secondary school in Prague and set out alone for Paris, France, where she would study dressmaking.
Eventually, her mother moved to France as well, only to be captured and sent to a detention camp on the Spanish border when Paris fell to theGermans in 1940. At this time, Meissner fled to the unoccupied south of France via bicycle, narrowly escaping death in a refugee building that was attacked. She eventually set out alone in search of her mother. After Meissner reunited with her mother, the two fled, via Spain and Portugal, tothe United States, where they settled in 1941.
Seating will be especially limited for the Thursday evening presentation at the UACCM Fine Arts Auditorium. For more information, contact Jacob Ward at (501) 977-2142 or at ward@uaccm.edu.
River Valley Ozark, Pages 144 on 02/28/2010
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