GREENSBURG, PA- The Seton Hill College National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education (NCCHE) will present Holocaust survivor and educator Marga Randall with an honorary doctorate of humane letters in recognition of her exemplary work in Christian-Jewish relations and Holocaust education. Randall will be presented with the honorary degree during the Kristallnacht Remembrance Service on Monday, November 5th held in St. Joseph Chapel on campus from 3:30 p.m.- 4:30 p.m. Randall, a resident of Pittsburgh, PA and author of How Beautiful We Once Were, was born in Lemforde, Lower Saxony, Germany. She experienced Kristallnacht (“the Night of Broken Glass”) as a child in Schermbeck, Germany.
“I am completely honored to be receiving this degree from Seton Hill College,” Randall said. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime honor that will signify 20 years in the field of Holocaust education. I have formed close ties with the staff of the Holocaust Center. Their work is absolutely moving, loving and necessary. They have my admiration for the entire establishment, both here and in Israel, because they offer the hope we need for a better tomorrow.”
Randall’s father died when she was four and she was later separated from her mother who went to work as a housekeeper. After surviving Kristallnacht, she fled to Berlin in 1939 and lived in semi-hiding there until she as able to leave Berlin in 1941 with legal papers… in a locked train, under heavy guard. She traveled through Paris, the Pyrenes Mountains, to Spain and finally Lisbon, Portugal where a small converted cattle boat carried her to America and then to Pittsburgh.
Randall has given presentations about the history of the Holocaust to synagogues, churches and schools in the United States, Israel and Germany. She lectures year-round at schools and teachers’ workshops on how to teach the lessons of the Holocaust and has participated in a number of seminars/ workshops including Seton Hill College’s 13th National Workshop on Christian-Jewish Relations in 1993; a workshop for Contemporary American Jews and Germans; Conference to Honor Rescuers of Jews in Washington, DC; lecturing at Nes Amim, Israel; and “History of the Holocaust” course at Yad Vashem Summer Institute in Israel. Randall also delivered a paper titled “Remembering for the Future” at a Berlin conference in 1994 and played a major part in the German documentary “Who Walks Here Now.”
Randall has been the recipient of a number of awards for leadership from local community organizations including the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh, the Temple Emanuel in the South Hills and was inducted into the Western Pennsylvania Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. In addition, her book, How Beautiful We Once Were, has been translated into German and is used as a textbook in Germany. Both her book and video documentary are available at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC and the Heinz Museum in Pittsburgh.