Guest Speaker Lily Maier at Temple Solel

What do a 75-year-old Los Angeles based rocket engineer and an eleven-year-old schoolgirl from Austria have in common? Not much at first glance, but Arthur and Lilly influenced each other’s lives in a fateful way.

When Arthur Kern knocked on the door of the house where he grew up as a boy in Vienna, Austria, an eleven year old girl opened. Neither of them knew that this chance encounter would change both of their lives forever.

In 1939, Arthur‘s Jewish parents sent their son abroad on a so-called Kindertransport (“children’s

transport”), hoping to save him from the Holocaust.

The separation is a traumatic experience for the ten-year-old. Although he is rescued – from Austria via France to the USA – his family is murdered by the Nazis. He never sees them again.

Sixty-five years later: During a visit to his parents‘ former apartment in Vienna, Austria, Arthur Kern – by now a retired rocket engineer involved in the moon landing – meets eleven-year-old Lilly Maier. A decisive encounter for both of them, which not only shapes Lilly’s further life, but also leads to Arthur receiving a long-lost legacy from his parents.

A moving tale of two lives that fatefully cross paths, and an immensely knowledgeable insight into an unknown Holocaust story: the rescue of hundreds of Jewish children to America on a Kindertransport.

We hope you can join us for Shabbat services on Friday December 1st, where Lilly Maier will speak on her newly published book Arthur and Lilly, the Girl and the Holocaust Survivor.

Historian, writer and Fulbright Alumna Lilly Maier has been a guest on numerous TV talk shows and has been featured dozens of times in print media throughout Europe.

She was born in Munich, Germany, in 1992 as the daughter of Austrian journalists. She holds an MA in Jewish History from University of Munich and a second MA in Magazine Journalism from New York University, where she studied as a Fulbright scholar.

Hear Lilly Maier at Temple Solel Friday December 1st! A limited number of signed copies of her book will be available after the service. A donation to Rabbi Stiel’s discretionary fund is requested from those who take a book.

There is a light oneg in the temple lobby at 5:30PM, and services begin at 6:15PM.

Read more about Lilly and Arthur in Jewish News.