Start of Main Content

2023 First Person Series: Peter Stein

Conversations with Holocaust Survivors
Photos: Holocaust survivor Peter Stein in 1942 (courtesy of Peter Stein) and as an adult today. US Holocaust Memorial Museum

Photos: Holocaust survivor Peter Stein in 1942 (courtesy of Peter Stein) and as an adult today. US Holocaust Memorial Museum

The current surge in dangerous antisemitism underscores the importance of the Museum’s work to share testimonies from Holocaust survivors. They are our most powerful teachers about the consequences of unchecked antisemitism.

On his way to school in downtown Prague in the winter of 1943, six-year-old Peter Stein hurried off the tram, terrified the German SS officer who demanded his seat could sense his secret—that his father was Jewish.

During the German occupation, the Nazis forced Peter’s father to leave his family and build roads outside Prague. Eventually, they sent him to the Theresienstadt ghetto.

Watch to learn how Peter managed to survive the war with his mother, who was Catholic, and what happened to his father and other Jewish relatives.

Speaker
Peter Stein, Holocaust Survivor and Museum Volunteer

Moderator
Bill Benson, Journalist and Host, First Person: Conversations with Holocaust Survivors

Watch live at youtube.com/ushmm. You don’t need a YouTube account to view our program.

After the live broadcast, the recording will be available to watch on demand on the Museum's YouTube page.

First Person is a monthly, hour-long discussion with a Holocaust survivor that is made possible through generous support from the Louis Franklin Smith Foundation.

WATCH LIVE