On Wednesday April 9 at 7 p.m. Holocaust Survivor Esther Bauer spoke about her experience in the Granite State Room of the MUB. Bauer, now age 90, was 18 years old when she was first brought to a concentration camp. This first camp claimed her father’s life after just six weeks. Her and her mother left two years later for Auschwitz, it was there that her mother died. In Aushwitz she met her first love, a Czech soldier, who helped her survive the camp by getting her a desk job and getting her additional medical care. She married him and after just two weeks he was transferred to a different camp and she never heard from him again, she later found out he had died before liberation. She then was transferred to a camp where she made airplane parts for Nazis; after they ran out of materials there she was sent to her final camp in Austria. At the camp Mautahousen in Austria she was liberated by the Americans at the age of 21. After the war she returned to her hometown in Germany where she stayed for a few months until moving to New York. In New York she met and married her husband, a young American soldier, who passed away after 46 years of marriage. She now continues to live in New York. Esther was a powerful speaker with an obvious sense of style, she was the first 90 year old I’ve ever seen to rock a sequined sweater and brought her self-proclaimed “boy toy” who sat front row during her speech. The turnout for this event, a packed GSR and live stream in the Strafford Room, is a testament to just how powerful and moving Esther’s story is.