Paul Schwarzbart, Holocaust Survivor, Tells His Story

Paul Schwarzbart, husband, father, respected teacher, and Holocaust survivor, visited our middle school students to tell his incredible story today.

Paul fled to Belgium with his parents when Austria was annexed in 1940. When the Germans reached Brussels where his family was living, his father was taken. With surreptitious help, he "hid" as a student at a Catholic School in the forest near Luxembourg for over 2 years. After reuniting with his mother, the two eventually came to the United States and settled in Petaluma.

He received his undergraduate and graduate degree at UC Berkeley. His teaching career spanned 45 years, and he spent many years teaching French at Tam High in Mill Valley. (In fact, our social studies teacher, Marianne Kabir, was his student back in the '80's.) He has spoken over 200 times about his life as a hidden child during World War II. (At the end of his talk, he insisted that our students asked the best questions of any talk he's ever given.)

Paul Schwarzbart has written two memoirs, which are available for purchase at school tomorrow for $20 and $30 respectively, if your child is interested. Volume I can also be checked out from the library.