MEDIA RELEASE

Glendale Unified School District

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Distribution Date: April 26, 2021 

Glendale Unified Students Receive Opportunity to Learn from Two Holocaust Survivors’ Eyewitness Accounts

GLENDALE, CA – On Wednesday, May 5, the Glendale Unified community will have a unique opportunity to hear powerful eyewitness accounts from two Holocaust survivors. Joseph Alexander, 98, and David Lenga, 93, will share their experiences during a special Zoom webinar event open to Glendale Unified students, families, employees, and community members.

Joseph Alexander survived 12 concentration camps and David Lenga survived three concentration camps. In January 2020, Mr. Lenga flew to Poland to participate in the 75th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz ceremonies along with 200 Auschwitz survivors.

"I survived first the Ghetto in Strykow, Poland, then the Lodz ghetto, then Auschwitz KZ, then Dachau KZ, and finally the Kaufering slave labor camp. Six years of living Hell!” said 93-year-old Holocaust survivor David Lenga. “I know it’s hard to believe that a human being can survive such horrendous suffering."

April 8, 2021 marked the 78th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the greatest act of Jewish Resistance to the Nazis and the Holocaust. The Glendale Unified Board of Education adopted a resolution proclaiming April 8 as Holocaust Remembrance Day 2021. The resolution included a commitment that, “our community work together to promote human dignity and confront hate whenever and wherever it occurs."

What: Eyewitness Accounts from Holocaust Survivors Joseph Alexander and David Lenga

Date: Wednesday, May 5

Time: 1:00-3:15 p.m.

Registration: Register for the Zoom webinar at www.gusd.net/May5

Media Contacts:

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