Reading, Pa.- Albright College invites the public to spend “An Evening with Severin Fayerman,” a Holocaust survivor, humanitarian, and the founder of Baldwin Hardware, on Tuesday, December 7, 2010 at 6 p.m. in the F. Wilbur Gingrich Library. This event is free and open to the public.
Fayerman, of Reading, Pa., will discuss his experiences during World War II including internment in Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen concentration camps. He will also talk about his newfound freedom when his German captors fled from American forces. Fayerman emigrated from Poland with his family in 1945 and immediately began working at a tool and die shop in lower Manhattan.
In only a year after arriving in the United States, Fayerman and his father, Henry Fayerman, co-founded what was to become Baldwin Hardware in Newark, N.J. By 1952 the company had expanded to Canada and Hillside, N.J. Following Henry’s death in June 1964, Severin became the president of the company. By the early 70s, Baldwin was adding 100 new products to its line each year.
Fayerman has chronicled his personal history in a short memoir called, A Survivor’s Story. In it, he writes, “Although I believe good luck was a factor, there was an overwhelming inner drive to survive, which propelled me through many difficulties and helped me negotiate incidents during my incarceration.”
This event is co-sponsored by the F. Wilbur Gingrich Library at Albright College and the American Red Cross, Berks County Chapter.
For more information or disabled assistance please call College Relations at 610-921-7256. The Gingrich Library is located on the Albright College campus at 13th and Bern Streets, Reading, Pa.
Founded in 1856, Albright College is a nationally ranked, private college with a rigorous liberal arts curriculum with an interdisciplinary focus. The College’s hallmarks are connecting fields of learning, collaborative teaching and learning, and a flexible curriculum that allows students to create an individualized education. Albright College enrolls more than 1,660 undergraduates in traditional programs, another 500 adult students in accelerated degree programs, and 100 students in the master’s program in education. Albright College is located in Reading, Pennsylvania, about 60 miles west of Philadelphia.
