Backer escaped the Holocaust through Sir Nicholas Winton’s Kindertransport
Bethlehem, Pa., April 12, 2016— Ivan Backer '49, author of the recently published memoir, “My Train To Freedom - A Jewish Boy's Journey from Nazi Europe to a life of Activism,” will speak at Moravian College on Tuesday, April 26 at 4:00 p.m. in Reeves Library’s After Words Café. The talkis open to the public and admission is free of charge.
In 1939, Backer was one of the 669 Czech children who were saved from the Holocaust by Sir Nicholas Winton's “Kindertransport.” Winton sought English “sponsor” families where he placed the Jewish Czech children before the Nazi's closed the Czech borders. The final train was canceled on September 1 when Hitler invaded Poland. The 250 children scheduled for that train were left on the platform and later transported to concentration camps and presumably perished.
Ivan Backer came to the United States via England in 1944, where he eventually became a driving force for revitalization in Hartford, Connecticut’s blighted Frog Hollow. Ivan received his B.A. from Moravian College and earned degrees from Union Theological Seminary and General Theological Seminary, both in New York. He was employed in the business sector and in parish ministry until 1969, when he became Trinity College’s first Director of Community Affairs. In 1975 he became the Director of Graduate and Special Programs where he helped develop a masters program in Public Policy Studies and created numerous community–bridging activities. He helped to form a neighborhood issues committee with Hartford Hospital, Trinity College, and the Institute of Living; and he became the founding Executive Director and President of SINA, Southside Institutions Neighborhood Alliance. SINA grew to also include Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, and Connecticut Public Television and Radio, also in Hartford. In 2003, Backer was awarded with the Haupert Humanitarian Award presented by Moravian College for his outstanding service in the cause of human welfare.
In Backer’s memoir he recounts his journey as a ten-year-old Jewish boy, his boyhood in England, his perilous 1944 voyage to America, and his mantra today. He has been influenced by his Jewish heritage, his Christian boarding school education in England, and the always-present question, “For what purpose was I spared the Holocaust?” My Train to Freedom was thoroughly researched and shaped by Backer’s own memories. It includes interviews he conducted in 1980 in Czech with his mother and her sister, later translated into English; a collection of conversations he had with his older brother and cousin; insights gained from the Czech film, Nicky’s Family, about the Kindertransport; and concludes with never-before-published death march accounts by two family members.
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