About Liesel Appel

Seventy years have gone by and the Holocaust is still a bitter memory for survivors, their children and people like Liesel Appel, a perpetrator’s daughter, who was conceived in 1941 as a gift to Adolf Hitler. Her life has been extremely eventful.

Born in Klingenberg, she graduated from Teachers Training College, Limburg, at 17 to become a nursery school teacher. Then she fled her past and left her native Germany. Her quest for new identity took her to three continents and since 1980 Liesel has lived in the United States. During her unique journey through life she overcame many obstacles; she involved herself with rebel forces in post-colonial Africa and made a stand against bigotry in Palm Beach, Florida. Rabbi Freehling of Los Angeles said of Liesel: "She gives us reason to believe that we can overcome anything in our path."

Liesel has touched the lives of many people through her books, talks and lectures. Her mission is to get a small measure of justice for her former Jewish neighbors. Her point of view as to German redemption and at what point exoneration for past criminal behavior has been earned is: no blanket forgiveness can be achieved between Man and Man. The evil committed by the German people--her people--is a bottomless pit that no amount of good deeds and recent attempts to sanitize mass murder can fill.

Photo of the Meyer Family, circa 1939

The beloved Meyer Family:
Willi, Dora, Edgar, circa 1939

Forgiveness has to be asked for from the specific person who was wronged. Since the age of nine, Liesel has longed to reconnect with her former Jewish neighbors, the Meyer family of Bottrop, Germany, to ask their forgiveness. She made countless international efforts over the many years, but was unable to find any trace of Willi, Dora and their son Edgar Meyer. Her search came to an end in May of 2010 when a stranger from New York called solving the mystery. Within days Liesel was on a plane to Tel Aviv, Israel, and the small village called Ramat Hadar, outside Herzelya on the Mediterranean Sea. Here Edgar and his wife Marion have found eternal rest.

Willi is buried nearby in Ramut Hashavim. By paying her respects and placing stones with private, written messages from her heart on all the graves, Liesel’s lifelong mission is now completed to the best of her ability.

Liesel has raised several million dollars for charities, mostly Jewish causes. She has presented her story at educational seminars, the Steven Spielberg Library, and countless Holocaust Memorial Services, and she has appeared on radio and television. She travels the USA, Canada, and the world. Liesel was published in the Los Angeles Times, the Palm Beach Post, in Professor Alan L. Berger’s Second Generation Voices, and in Professor Charles Patterson's book, Eternal Treblinka. Large features about her have appeared in Mareev in Israel, Aufbau, the Jewish Times and the Asheville Citizen-Times.

Liesel lives in Palm Beach County, Florida.