Nightingale was honored to welcome Holocaust survivor Marion Ein Lewin as our 26th annual Werner Feig Holocaust Memorial Lecture speaker last Thursday. Ms. Lewin was born alongside her twin brother Steven Hess on January 14, 1938, in Amsterdam. Their once-happy childhood was shattered in 1943 when they were torn from their home with their parents and sent to Westerbork, a Nazi transit camp, before enduring the horrors of Bergen-Belsen. Miraculously, they survived the Holocaust against all odds and moved to America in 1947.

In her powerful address to the Nightingale community, she recounted her memories of Westerbork and Bergen-Belsen with unflinching detail, drawing stark images of what she had lived through. Despite starvation, abuse, and grave uncertainty about the future, her parents always held out hope that their family would survive. Sharing her story honors their courage and determination.

Leaders of the Upper School Jewish Culture Club joined Ms. Lewin on stage at the conclusion of her address for a Q&A session. When asked how her story has shaped her outlook on life, she responded, “There is no day in my life when I don’t count my blessings. There is no day in my life where I don’t remember my history and the history of not only my parents, but really all the people who had this experience and how miraculous it is that not only I survived, but my whole family survived...So you are more grateful and you realize that the precious thing in life is to have a life, but then to make that life worthy, and generous, and kind. It gives you a sort of responsibility.”