The Waukegan Historical Society is hosting a lecture on the occasion of International Holocaust Awareness Day. Dr. Karen Glinert Carlson, a lifelong educator and researcher, will present “How Albert Einstein Saved My Family and Why History Matters” on January 27, 2pm at the Waukegan History Museum at the Carnegie, 1 N. Sheridan Road, Waukegan, Illinois.
Dr. Carlson is the daughter and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors. She was raised in a culture of silence and until she was a teen growing up in the United States, did not know she was Jewish or how the Holocaust had affected her family. In her riveting talk, Dr. Carlson discusses how she learned that Albert Einstein was her cousin and how he saved her mother and her grandparents during World War II.
In 2018, she was invited to Ulm, Germany, birthplace of her mother’s family including Dr. Einstein, to discuss her family’s close connection to Einstein, thus beginning a seven-year search to uncover the fate of her family in fourteen countries. Her journey of self-discovery is filled with insights and reflections for anyone who wants to understand how the past shapes them today. She will discuss why it is important to remember what happened in the 1930s and 1940s, and why it matters today.
A Q&A/discussion will follow the presentation. The program is free, but registration is required. For more information and to register, visit waukeganhistorical.org/events.
