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Friday October 27, 2006

Sigmund Strochlitz, survivor and worker for Holocaust causes, dies

by miles lerman & michael berenbaum
jta

Sigmund Strochlitz, who died at his home in New London, Conn., on Oct. 16 at 89 after a long illness, made major contributions to Holocaust remembrance.

Strochlitz was born in Bedzin, Poland, in 1916, and was raised in a Zionist home. He was deported with his family in August 1943.

His parents, sisters and wife were killed. Strochlitz spent 15 months in Birkenau and was evacuated in January 1945, ending up in Bergen-Belsen, where he was liberated in April 1945.

After liberation, Strochlitz married Rose Grinberg, a Polish-born survivor. They immigrated to New York in 1951. They had four children, 14 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren.

Strochlitz became close to Holocaust survivor and writer Elie Wiesel and worked with him on the President’s Commission on the Holocaust.

Among other things, Strochlitz served as the president of the American Friends of Haifa University and a founding member of the American Society for Yad Vashem. He endowed the Strochlitz Institute of Holocaust Studies at Haifa University and the Strochlitz Judaic Teaching Fellowship at Bar-Ilan University.

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