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Holocaust Survivor Eva Olsson to speak with community at Richland Campus

Pennsylvania Highlands Community College is honored to provide community members with the opportunity to hear the moving and visceral story of Holocaust survivor Eva Olsson. On Tuesday, April 5th, Eva Olsson will return to Pennsylvania Highlands to give two free presentations to the general public: 9:30am and 6:30pm. All presentations will be held at the College’s Richland Campus, in the Auditorium. The Richland Campus is located at 101 Community College Way in Johnstown.

Eva Olsson was born in Szatsmar, Hungary in October of 1924 into a poor family of Hasidic Jews. This was the beginning of her lifelong struggle against other people’s attempts to control her.

She is a survivor… of a repressive religious upbringing, World War II, the deaths of many of her loved ones, bigotry and racism, and being ostracized because of her determination to live life on her own terms. Eva’s innate curiosity and need to develop along a different spiritual path would not be stifled and she struggled against this restrictive life.

The outbreak of World War II plunged Eva into the heart of the Holocaust concentration camps, slave labor factories, disease, and the deaths of millions, including most of her family. Eva’s strong faith in God and in herself has enabled her to maintain a positive focus throughout the rest of her life.

For 50 years she remained silent about her experiences during the Holocaust, partly out of denial and partly out of fear it might happen again. Since 1996, Eva has been speaking about her life in over 3,000 schools, churches, meeting halls, conference rooms, colleges and universities, and to over one-and-a-half million individuals throughout Canada, in the hope that people who hear her story will know that it is possible to survive the worst life has to throw at them.

For additional information on this inspirational presentation, please contact Trish Corle, Diversity Committee Chair, at 814.262.3841 or tcorle@pennhighlands.edu.

Eva Olsson, Holocaust Survivor.