Hedy Epstein facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Hedy Epstein
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Hedy Wachenheimer Epstein in 2010
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Hedy Wachenheimer
August 15, 1924 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany
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| Died | May 26, 2016 (aged 91) St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
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| Occupation | Activist |
Hedy Epstein (née Wachenheimer; August 15, 1924 – May 26, 2016) was a German-born Jewish-American political activist and Holocaust survivor known for her support of the Palestinian cause through the International Solidarity Movement.
Born in Freiburg to a Jewish family, she was rescued from Nazi Germany by the Kindertransport in 1939. She immigrated to the United States in 1948, married Arnold Epstein (?-1977), and lived in St. Louis, Missouri, for many years.
Biography
Hedy Wachenheimer was born to a Jewish family in Freiburg, and in 1939 fled Nazi persecution via the Kindertransport to England. All but two of her family were killed at Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust. During World War II she worked in munitions factories and joined a group of left-wing German Jewish refugees who hoped to re-introduce democracy in their homeland – "the foundation of my political education which still stands me in good stead today," she said. Some 60 years later, she was interviewed about this experience for the film Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport.
After the war, Epstein worked with the Allied occupying forces in Germany, including working on the Doctors' trial at Nuremberg. In 1948 she immigrated to New York City, then moved to Minneapolis, and then to St. Louis, Missouri. .....
In 1982, in response to news reports of massacres committed by a Lebanese Phalangist militia during the 1982 Lebanon War, Epstein developed a different perspective on the Arab–Israeli conflict; she began to express opposition to Israel's military policies.
In 2001, she founded a St. Louis chapter of the Women in Black, an anti-war group that originally focused on Israel's occupation. In 2003 she traveled to the West Bank to work with the International Solidarity Movement. She returned once a year, saying that she had been strip searched and cavity searched in 2004 by guards at Ben Gurion International Airport.
Activism
In August 2008, Epstein planned to be on board the Free Gaza Movement's ship attempting to break Israel's naval blockade of Gaza, but had to cancel due to poor health.
In 2010, she embarked on one of the ships that intended to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, but decided in Cyprus not to take part in the trip. She reportedly had also planned to take part in the 2011 flotilla but did not. She was on board "The Audacity of Hope" ready to join the flotilla. However, they were intercepted by the Greek Coast Guard and turned back.
Epstein was supportive of the Black Lives Matter movement, and was arrested for failure to disperse on August 18, 2014, during a St. Louis protest against the killing of Michael Brown and subsequent police actions.
Death
Epstein died at her home in St. Louis on May 26, 2016, aged 91, of cancer. Hedy was survived by son Howard Epstein, and granddaughters Courtney and Kelly.
See also
In Spanish: Hedy Epstein para niños
- List of peace activists
- Israeli–Palestinian conflict
- Norman Finkelstein
