Holocaust Survivor Lined Up for Days of Remembrance

With mere days to spare, organizers have lined up a local Holocaust survivor to speak at the on Sunday, May 1.

Fred Baron, an 88-year-old Golden Valley resident, will be speaking at around 3:15 p.m. on Sunday, closing out the first official Holocaust remembrance event for the City of Edina. Baron, who was only 15 when German forces marched into his Vienna home in 1938, survived captivity at both Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen during World War II.

John Cashmore, who is heading things up for the Human Rights and Relations Commission, said he's thrilled Baron agreed to share his perspective on the Holocaust.

"He's spoken at schools, churches and synagogues all over the place," Cashmore said. "He's a pretty accomplished speaker."

Cashmore joked it started to get scary when a few days before the event they didn't have a featured speaker lined up. But ask and ye shall receive. Cashmore reached out to John Simon, who initially proposed the event, to see if he knew of any survivors willing to speak.

"He knew somebody who knew Fred and it just worked out," Cashmore said. "I originally said he could speak for 10 minutes and someone laughed and said he won't come unless he can speak for 45. So that's what we're doing."