Obituary for Esther Bauer
16.11.2016
“My message to you: Don’t forget us and our history! Keep it in a safe place, and tell it to others. And what is most important: Learn the right lessons from it for your lives and for our future!” (Esther Bauer)
Esther Bauer, survivor of the concentration camps Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, Freiberg und Mauthausen, died in New York on 16 November 2016 at the age of 92.
In summer of 1942, Esther Bauer had first been deported with her family to Theresienstadt, and was subsequently transported to the concentration camps Auschwitz, Freiberg and Mauthausen. After the war, she emigrated to the USA and settled in New York. She married in 1948 and gave birth to her son Larry. All her life, Esther Bauer was active as lecturer at schools and universities in the USA and in Germany, and during commemorative ceremonies at former concentration camps.
The above citation comes from a speech which Esther Bauer held in 2003 during a commemorative ceremony at Loibl. In this manner, she wanted to show that she trusted the young generation, that she can entrust her history to the young generation of “another Austria”.
We mourn for Esther Bauer.