Events

We are writing to thank you for your participation in the 28th annual Holocaust Education Week. We very much value your commitment and support, which contributed considerably to the success of our event. You have our sincere appreciation for your support of our mission to teach and safeguard the lessons of the Holocaust.

Hi, Liesel. I heard you speak at the Emunah tea in Woodsburgh yesterday. It was an incredibly interesting and compelling talk. You spoke softly and humbly but had an amazing story to tell us. . . . I was wondering when you are available to speak in New York.

Thanks so much for coming to the HILDA STERN CHAPTER of EMUNAH in West Hempstead last night and presenting your awesome life story to my community. We received raving reviews.

Hello Liesel: Thank you so much for agreeing to speak for Emunah on June 7th. The Five Towns Chapter of Emunah on Long Island heard about your talk to the Holocaust Program and would very much like to host you at Shabbat, June 14th. Would you be free to speak to a large group of women (150-200) on Shabbat afternoon? Thank you so very much.

We thank you for being able to share your story and for helping us realize that there is always more we need to understand about the Holocaust and its long range effects on individuals, countries, continents, a people, the world. Your message of love and tolerance is very important.

Liesel Appel is committed to dialogue between Germans and Jews across the generations. She spoke powerfully about her own quite remarkable experience to the participants in Florida Atlantic University's Annual Teacher Training Seminar, which educates teachers about the Holocaust and its contemporary lessons. Liesel's talk was viewed as outstanding on the conference evaluation sheets.

You've set an example for young people and reinforced lessons for us older ones. We all know right from wrong. We all have choices to make--some simple, others decidedly more significant. Each of us needs to examine what we do, what our responses are. Are we just followers? Confronted with reality, do we have the courage to act appropriately? Obviously, you can! You are a hero--whether you like the label or not.

Your words and your presence at our Holocaust Memorial Service are still remembered by our congregation and the other guests we had that evening. Your message had a lasting impact on us all. I can not thank you enough for being here that night, telling us your story, and presenting your unique perspective on a dark time in the history of the world.

Your presentation was thorough and enlightening. Because you shared with the teachers the story of your childhood and the painful events surrounding your family's involvement in the Nazi party, they were better able to understand another aspect of the Holocaust and its implications and ramifications. We admire your courage and strength as well as your willingness to talk about your experiences with us. We know that it can't be an easy thing to discuss.

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Your testimony will be heard for years to come by many people, including teachers, students, and scholars, in the fervent hope that such a tragedy may never happen again.

Besides being an inspiration for all of us, I would like to recommend this book to any school library, to any college and university and to anybody who wants to know why the Germans, a highly literate and civilized people, most of them baptized Christians who had been taught the Ten Commandments, lowered themselves into cruel, life-destroying barbarity.

Our January brunch with Liesel Appel, who spoke about her life and her book, The Neighbor's Son, was a huge success with some 60 people in attendance. Special thanks to Ms. Appel for her compelling presentation and for donating her honorarium to the Rabbi's Discretionary fund. Liesel's beautiful, absorbing work brings this period--and her efforts for tikkun olam--to vibrant, emotional life.

Because of the intense nature of this job which has been mine since July 2002, although your book has been on my desk since it first arrived late last October, it has only been read in starts and stops until yesterday when I was able to complete it.

Now, with a heart filled with gratitude, I can finally write to tell you that it is a fabulous piece of writing - most certainly, my thanks are being shared by every person who has had an opportunity to read all that you have experienced and written about in THE NEIGHBOR'S SON.

Yours is an extraordinary life's story and you've told it so very well. Hopefully, it's being widely circulated, because it's a memoir that deserves many a reader's attention.

During your years, you've traveled down some amazing paths and - as a result of your faith and courage - you have remained undaunted and ever-ready to surmount one challenge after another.

Hooray for you and Don - plus everyone who gains immeasurably from being in your orbit!