Meet Peter:

Peter J. Stein was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, two years before the Nazi occupation of Prague, to a Jewish father and a Catholic mother. His father was forced into slave labor and later deported to Terezin (Theresienstadt) which he survived. His father’s mother, sisters and brother, and their spouses and children were all killed in concentration camps. The fact that his father loved and married a Christian saved his life because he was sent to a camp years after the rest of his family perished.

During the war Peter attended a school in Prague where photos of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi flag were displayed in every classroom. He dealt with antisemitism and lived through air raid drills and bombings by Allied aircraft.

With his mother, Peter arrived in New York Harbor in November 1948 and was overwhelmed with the lit-up sights of the Statue of Liberty and downtown Wall street. He attended public schools in New York City, learned English, graduated from the City College of New York (CCNY) and earned his Ph.D. in sociology from Princeton University.

Stein taught at several universities, conducted research and wrote and co-authored a number of books. For the past ten years Peter served as Associate Director for Aging Workforce Initiatives at the UNC Institute on Aging in Chapel Hill retiring in 2017.

Peter and his family now live in Washington, D.C., where he is a Survivor Volunteer at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum lecturing to school and adult groups. Stein is a recognized Holocaust educator and speaker who has brought his message to audience of all ages. His recent book A Boy’s Journey: From Nazi-Occupied Prague to Freedom in America, published by Lystra Books & Literary Services, covers the first 15 years of his life.