Holocaust Speaker Series: Walter Frank

The Holocaust Speaker Series, hosted every Wednesday at 11 a.m., features Holocaust survivors and descendants of survivors sharing stories of life before, during, and after the Holocaust. The series is sponsored by Margaret & Michael Valentine. This week’s speaker is Walter Frank.

Walter C. Frank was born in Kaiserslautern, Germany, February 10, 1937. His father and mother decided to flee Germany from fear of what the Nazis might–and eventually did–do. They tried to persuade Walter’s father’s parents, brothers, and sisters to leave. The family had for centuries worked in the livestock trade in their hometown in Northern Germany. Because of their long-term relationship with their neighbors and customers, they could not envision any real threat. Because Walter was very young, he has limited memories of the war. He and his family arrived at Union Terminal in Cincinnati, Ohio. Cincinnati had a number of German Jewish immigrants who formed a tight community around the New Hope Synagogue.