Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
CHICAGO, May 30, 2006 (UPI via COMTEX) -- A Chicago businessman who survived the Nazi holocaust had an "emotional" meeting with a Dutch author who traced his family's history, a report said Tuesday.
The parents of Michael Lowenthal, born Heinz Michael Levy, died at Germany's Bergen-Belsen concentration camp about five months before it was liberated in the mid-1940s.
"It was quite emotional," Lowenthal, 69, told The Chicago Tribune of his meeting this month with "Rachel's Children" author Erik Besseling.
Besseling's 3-year-old book tells the stories of Jews in Edam, the Netherlands, who became holocaust victims and includes a picture of Lowenthal and his family.
Lowenthal's father started a breastworks in Edam before the family was sent to Dutch and German concentration camps.
Lowenthal said Besseling knew more about his history than he did.
"I couldn't stop wondering," Besseling told the newspaper. "What happens after the story breaks off?"
Lowenthal said he learned of Besseling's book during a visit to Edam last year and, with help of the publisher, invited Besseling to Chicago.
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2006 by United Press International
