Henry Oertelt by the lake in Minnesota
Today around 9AM Central Time, my friend and mentor, Henry Oertelt, died at age ninety at his home in St. Paul, Minnesota. Henry had recent cancer treatments and started having increasing complications, weakening and needing more and more help with day-to-day care.
Today, coincidentally, is also the International Day of Remembrance and the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. In 2005, the United Nations General Assembly designated this day as International Holocaust Remembrance Day (IHRD), an annual day of commemoration to honor the victims of the Nazi era. Every member nation of the U.N. has an obligation to honor the memory of Holocaust victims and develop educational programs as part of an international resolve to help prevent future acts of genocide.
For the past few years, I have been privileged to get to know Henry and his family. I first heard about Henry when I met his granddaughter, Corey, in St. Thomas, in the Virgin Islands, of all places. Soon, I read his book. It changed my life and I felt a pull that I still can’t explain towards the material – his personal journey and its message. I wrote him a letter to ask if I could option his book, An Unbroken Chain, My Journey Through the Nazi Holocaust. Today, we have started a non-profit for Holocaust Education, Six Million for Six Million, and are developing a feature film with the same name.
Henry’s name comes up daily as I regularly discuss my project with potential investors, colleagues, family and friends. I even ended up joining the Phoenix Holocaust Survivor’s Association at their request. Many members ask me if I am a second generation survivor – why else would I show up? At one point, I said to him, “Henry, I might as well call you my adopted grandfather,” and he laughed and agreed.
Henry’s life story will do more than just inspire and educate young audiences. It will remind adults to be grateful for the blessings in their own lives. No matter what our daily challenges bring, there’s nothing that can put things in perspective more than considering the plight of a Holocaust Survivor who had everything, even their identity, stripped away from them.
Henry is an inspiration simply by the fact that he rebuilt his life, and had a family, including 3 great, grandchildren: Haylie, Taylor, and Chance. He and his wife, Inge, lived the American Dream in St. Paul, where they originally immigrated from Berlin. He told his story to groups at schools, churches, and organizations in the Minnesota, Wisconsin and Dakotas and earned three honorary doctorates from St. Olaf, South West State University and St. Cloud State University. He didn’t originally want to recount his story, but after one teacher persisted he relented, and continued – for forty years.
Oertelt was a member of the Jewish Community Relations Council’s (JCRC) Holocaust Education Commission, a recipient of JCRC’s “Volunteer of the Year” award, as well as recipient of the distinguished “Eleven Who Care” honor from KARE 11-TV in Minnesota. On April 23, 2006, St. Paul, Minnesota, honored him with the key to the city and proclaimed “Henry A. Oertelt Day.”
Additionally his story is one of only five highlighted on USC Shoah Foundations’ Surviving Auschwitz on line exhibit.
His family is asking that in lieu of flowers you donate to his local temple, Congregation Beth Jacob or Six Million for Six Million, (via my synagogue’s Congregation Eitz Chaim’s Holocaust Education fund for our film) to help make the movie about his life story.
I am forever grateful that I got to know Henry and his family and I am honored to carry on his mission of Holocaust Education and teaching acceptance and hope, for the rest of my life.
