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Arthur and Lilly: The Girl and the Holocaust Survivor
09 September 2024, 6:30 pm–8:00 pm
What do a 75-year-old Los Angeles based rocket engineer and an eleven-year-old schoolgirl from Austria have in common? Not much at first glance, but Arthur and Lilly influenced each other’s lives in a fateful way. This is an In-person event at UCL. The venue will be sent to you after registering.
This event is free.
Event Information
Open to
- All | UCL staff | UCL students | UCL alumni
Availability
- Yes
Cost
- Free
Organiser
-
Sara Benisaac
Location
-
UCL campusGower StreetLondonWC1E 6BTUnited Kingdom
When Arthur Kern knocked on the door of the house where he grew up as a boy in Vienna, Austria, an eleven year old girl opened. Neither of them knew that this chance encounter would change both of their lives forever.
In 1939, Arthur‘s Jewish parents sent their son abroad on a so-called Kindertransport (“children’s transport”) to France, hoping to save him from the Holocaust. The separation was a traumatic experience for the ten-year-old. Although he was rescued – from Austria via France to the USA – his family were murdered by the Nazis. He never saw them again.
Sixty-five years later: During a visit to his parents‘ former apartment in Vienna, Austria, Arthur Kern – by now a retired rocket engineer involved in the moon landing – meets eleven-year-old Lilly Maier. A decisive encounter for both of them, which not only shapes Lilly’s further life, but also leads to Arthur receiving a long-lost legacy from his parents.
A moving tale of two lives that fatefully cross paths, and an immensely knowledgeable insight into an unknown Holocaust story: the rescue of hundreds of Jewish children to America on a Kindertransport.
Videos showing Lilly Maier and Arthur Kern: http://youtube.com/@lillymaier_author
About the Speaker
Lilly Maier
Historian at Fulbright alumna
She was born in Munich, Germany, in 1992 as the daughter of Austrian journalists. She holds an MA in Jewish History from the Ludwig-Maximilians- University in Munich and a second MA in Magazine Journalism from New York University. Arthur and Lilly was originally published in German in 2018. Since then, she has written a biography of the Austrian educator Ernst Papanek who rescued hundreds of children during WW2 – one of them Arthur Kern. She is currently finishing her Ph.D. thesis about Jewish women who rescued Jews during the Holocaust.
For over ten years, she has worked as a journalist for several American, German, and Austrian publications, including the Jewish Daily Forward, the Columbus Dispatch, and PolitiFact.com. Since 2012, she has been working as a museum guide for the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site.