Cutline: Michael Korenblit spoke at the Northern Oklahoma College Carl and Carolyn Renfro Lectureship Program Thursday night in the Renfro Center. Pictured (L-R): Sheri Snyder, Vice President for Development and Community Relations; Carl Renfro, Brenda Renfro, Michael Korenblit, Cheryl Evans, Northern Oklahoma College President. (photo by John Pickard/Northern Oklahoma College)
Author Michael Korenblit shared the account of his parents’ escape from German Concentration Camps Thursday night at the Northern Oklahoma College Carl and Carolyn Renfro Lectureship Program in the Renfro Center.
Korenblit is the author of “Until We Meet Again: A True Story of Love and Survival in the Holocaust.”
He is a native of Ponca City where his parents, Meyer and Manya, immigrated after their release from German occupation.
Korenblit started his lecture reflecting on his time as an elementary student when other students would talk about times visiting with their relatives.
Korenblit wondered why he didn’t have any relatives to visit. He would later learn that he didn’t have any living relatives because they were all murdered by the Nazi’s, though they would later learn that his mother’s brother was still alive and they would see him 38 years later.
He also saw as a child the markings on his parents’ wrists and learned those were the numbers given to them by their captors in the camps.
Korenblit told harrowing stories of his mother and father’s time together in their youth and their times of separation and how his father would risk capture to visit his girlfriend that would later become his wife and David’s mother.
He explained that both his parents would cheat death over and over again.
They spent nearly two years in various camps and though they were separated, Meyer and Manya vowed to meet up again at some point.
They would later be liberated by United States troops. Meyer and Manya would later immigrate to the United States and settle in Ponca City.
Korenblit also stated that although people say that an event like the murder of six million Jews will never happen again, he gave numerous examples of genocide throughout the world since World War II and challenged the audience to not let it happen again.
The lectureship program provided free copies of Korenblit’s book and the author personalized copies for those that stayed after the event.
He is a co-founder of the Respect Diversity Foundation (RDF), a non-profit, tax-exempt educational organization, founded to teach respect, tolerance and acceptance for all people. He worked 19 years for the Close Up Foundation, an educational organization in Washington, D.C. He directed Close Up’s Television and Video Department, where he produced the Ace Award winning television series which aired on the Cable Satellite Public Affairs Network.
He produced numerous award winning documentaries including Democracy and Rights about the 1957 desegregation of Little Rock High School.
Thursday’s lectureship was the 22nd since the program’s inception.