Due to the amount of time that has passed since the Holocaust, many survivors are no longer with us, making first-hand accounts of the Holocaust increasingly difficult to obtain. In light of this, Debbie Stueber, a daughter of two survivors, has begun carrying the torch, retelling her parents’ inspiring stories. She is the daughter of Kurt and Edith Leuchter, two survivors of the Holocaust who share their own stories to inspire others and spread awareness.
“I feel an intense responsibility to carry on my family’s story. Who’s going to tell the stories if the children and the grandchildren do not? One of my hopes actually, is to take my story and share it with somebody outside, outside my world, you know, so that one day when I’m no longer here, somebody can share it. One of my dreams is to speak alongside a World War II veteran or a descendant who knows the story,” Stueber said.
To help reach more people, Stueber is part of the Generations Speaker series at the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh. The series is a collection of stories from Holocaust survivors and their families. Not only are speakers getting harder to come by, but the amount of education taught on the subject is just not enough.
“Most Jews know either something or a great deal about the Holocaust. I want to reach non-Jews. Only 25 states in the United States require Holocaust education, and Pennsylvania is not one of them. It’s highly encouraged, and as far as I know, just because it’s required, there aren’t supposedly any requirements. You develop your own curriculum or, you know, you say one thing during a class or whatever. Since 2020 when COVID hit, I said to myself, ‘I need to start seeking out my own presentation,’” she added.
Her mother Edith was born in Bruchsal, Germany, while her father was born in Vienna, Austria. Her mom was deported from Bruchsal, Germany, to France on October 22nd, 1940. Her father left Vienna for Belgium in 1939 before ending up in France. In France, they met in an orphanage as children. Kurt was hidden in a boys’ correction home to avoid the Nazis, and eventually became part of the Maquis (French resistance fighters). After the war, they emigrated to the United States in 1946 and met once again, which interestingly occurred in front of the Museum of Modern Art. Her father also went on to fight in the Korean War.
Debbie makes it very clear that the problems Jews faced over the Holocaust never disappeared. Even though the Holocaust was officially over in 1945, the ills of prejudice and anti-Semitism are still prevalent today. Most notably, this is seen through the ongoing war between Israel and Palestine.
“I have family in Israel. Luckily they’re safe, but it doesn’t matter if I have family or not. The population in the world of Jews is 0.2% of the whole world population. Everybody knows somebody there who is affected directly by it, whether kidnapped or murdered,” Stueber said.
Another issue running rampant today that Kurt and Edith want people to tackle head on is misinformation. Given that they speak on such an impactful subject, they know better than most how common it is. In this day and age especially, it is not only important to be informed but also to have that information come from the right sources. The messages and the points of presentations are lost if the information holding them up is biased, fabricated, or inaccurate.
“My father’s message to students every single time when they join us for our Q&A, to students specifically: don’t just look at one website, don’t just read one article, don’t just watch one program, watch all of them. Make your own decision as to what is right and what is wrong.”
Even if some things in the world are up for interpretation for what is right and what is wrong, this is not the case with anti-Semitism. Nothing should ever come close to the horrors of the Holocaust.
“Three out of four of my grandparents were murdered in Auschwitz. I have a much smaller family because of what happened, but I also consider myself extremely fortunate because my parents survived,” Stueber added. “So, I will speak until I can no longer speak.”
