A survivor of the Nazi Concentration camps will be the guest speaker at a church in western Iowa, Thursday evening. Steen Metz was a young boy living in Denmark when the Nazis conquered the country in 1940.

Steen Metz (Photo courtesy Museum of Danish America)

Tova Brandt, Curator at the Museum of  Danish America in Elk Horn (IA), says Metz and his family, along with other Danes, were arrested and deported to the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp in Czechoslovakia in 1943.

Some 15,000 children passed through Theresienstadt.  Brandt said Metz is one of fewer than 1,500 who survived. His father died of starvation and hard labor, at the camp. Like many Holocaust survivors, Metz kept his war experiences private for many years. Following his incarceration, he returned to Denmark and emigrated to America, where he’s lived for several decades. In 2011 he started sharing his story after he self-published a memoir.  He has spoken to over 250 groups, mostly students, over nearly the past five-years.

Thursday morning (Oct. 6th), Metz will make a presentation before students at the Elk Horn High School, and at 7-p.m., he’ll speak to an open audience at the Elk Horn Lutheran Church for about 45-minutes. A question-and-answer session will follow. There is no charge to attend. If you can’t attend, there is a social media option.

Brandt says they plan to record it and live stream the event on the Museum’s Facebook page. The presentation is organized by the Museum of Danish America. Contact the museum with questions at (712) 764-7001.