Inaugural Edward D. and Regina Rechnic Holocaust Series speaker set for September 28

The University of Southern Indiana Foundation is hosting the inaugural speaker for the Edward D. and Regina Rechnic Holocaust Series from 7-8 p.m. Wednesday, September 28 in Carter Hall on the USI campus. The series will feature a presentation, "They Survived the Holocaust: The Rechnics of Evansville and Their Family," by Charles L. Berger, Esquire, followed by a Q&A session with audience members. A reception will follow, and the event is open to the public at no charge. Seating will be capped at 650 and is first come, first serve. 

Berger, the 2022 Regina Rechnic Holocaust Series keynote speaker, was born in Evansville in 1947. He graduated from the University of Evansville in 1969 and received his law degree with honors from Indiana University School of Law in Indianapolis in 1972. After law school, Berger returned to Evansville and went into practice with his father, Sydney, who founded Berger & Berger, LLP in 1946, a firm known for representing the working class in Evansville.

His presentation, "They Survived the Holocaust: The Rechnics of Evansville and Their Family," will take attendees through the story of how the Rechnics experienced and survived the Holocaust perpetrated by Nazi Germany in Poland and other areas of Europe from 1935 through 1945, as well as what happened to others in their family. The story spans many years and exemplifies the tragedy of the brutal treatment carried out by the Nazis and their collaborators, and it tells of some of the triumphs of those who survived. Berger would also like to extend recognition to Lezlie Simmons for her research in preparing the presentation and being a longtime friend of Irene Rechnic.  

"I knew Irene and her parents-witnessing the arrest and imprisonment of her parents and then being a 'hidden child' forced Irene to grow up quickly," Berger says. "She had a lifelong passion for learning and was determined to do everything she could to make sure no one forgot the atrocities Hitler perpetrated on the world. Irene wrote, 'I am fully aware there have been other holocausts since World War II, however, those pale in magnitude to the Nazi extermination of a whole people and the world's indifference to their fate.'"  

This series is made possible by the late Irene C. Rechnic, daughter of Edward D. and Regina Rechnic, and honors her parents' struggle to survive the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp during WWII, where 960,000 Jews were executed. After the Allies' liberation of its survivors, the Rechnics were reunited with their daughter Irene who had been hiding with a Catholic family. The Rechnics then settled in Belgium, and in 1953, migrated to Evansville where they started a family. 

"As the daughter of two Holocaust survivors and as one who went through the trauma of saying goodbye to them as she became a 'hidden child,' Miss Rechnic had a lifelong passion for ensuring the destruction of the European Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators must never be forgotten," says David A. Bower, USI Vice President for Development.  "Irene's decision to establish a perpetual endowment to host a Holocaust speaker for an annual presentation on the USI campus will serve as a permanent legacy to fulfill her goal."

For questions on the presentation, contact Bower at bower@usi.edu.