Holocaust Survivor Fred Amram to Speak at SMSU on Nov. 14

Published Wednesday, October 26, 2022

Mr. Fred Amram

Southwest Minnesota State University is honored to host holocaust survivor, Mr. Fred Amram on Monday, November 14. Mr. Amram will give a presentation in the Fine Arts Theatre at 6:30pm. A reception following the presentation will be held in the William Whipple Gallery.

Fred M. B. Amram is a retired award-winning professor of communication and creativity. He has authored books and articles about creativity, inventors, robotics, and communication. Amram has been the curator of exhibitions about creativity and woman inventors throughout the United States. He has provided worldwide consulting services to industry, government agencies, and educational institutions. He is also an inventor. In presenting Mr. Amram the Patent and Trademark Office’s prestigious Excellence in Education Award, the Commissioner of the PTO referred to Amram as “excellence in education personified.”

Mr. Amram was born in Hannover, Germany, where he experienced the early years of the Holocaust. Even though he was a child during the Holocaust, his memory of events is surprisingly clear. And while the transition to a new language and culture was difficult, the alternatives were worse. With this outlook in mind, his adopted country truly became a land of opportunity where one could build a new life and become more than a “survivor.” The loss of uncles, aunts, a grandmother, and many more relatives has motivated him to share his story and to speak against genocide everywhere.

Mr. Amram’s popular memoir, We’re in America Now, became his recent transition from scholarly writing to storytelling. His coffee-table art book, Lest We Forget, provides further insights into his experiences in Nazi Germany and in America. He is currently working on a novel.

In addition to the presentation and reception, the William Whipple Gallery will have the traveling exhibit “Lest We Forget—a survivor’s stories” on display from October 24 through November 28. The exhibition documents Mr. Amram’s journey to the United States during World War II.

“Lest We Forget” is a touring collection of twenty-four 3D multi-media works of art with short literary vignettes. Two artists, Sandra Brick and Holocaust survivor, Fred Amram, explore a Jewish youngster’s coming-of-age, first in Holocaust Germany, and then as a refugee in the United States.

The exhibit chronicles the Holocaust, which did not begin with Kristallnacht in 1938 or with Auschwitz in 1940, starting as early as 1933, when Fred Amram was born in a Catholic Infants Home because Jewish mothers no longer had access to public or Jewish hospitals. In the collection of multi-media works, textile artist Sandra Brick translates Amram’s stories into visual art. Learn about the early days of the Holocaust and about a Jewish refugee family coming to America, absorbing a new language, and adapting to a new culture.

Partnerships and sponsors include Southwest Minnesota State University History Club, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Access Opportunity Success, Newman Club, Social Justice Club, and Communication Studies Program along with Minnesota West Community & Technical College and Marshall Senior High School.

The presentation, reception, and art exhibit are all free and open to the public.

For more information, contact Dr. Erin Kline, SMSU Office of Diversity and Inclusion at erin.kline@SMSU.edu or 507-537-7223. At Minnesota West, contact Dr. Anita Gaul at anita.gaul@mnwest.edu or 507-372-3475.