2015 LC SUMMER MAGAZINE

sther Bauer, a Holocaust

survivor, recounted her

harrowing story of survival

during a presentation at

Lycoming College this past

spring.

Bauer, who was born

in Hamburg, Germany in

1924, began the narrative by

describing her early years as a

daughter to Dr. Alberto Jonas,

the principal of the Jewish

Girls School, and her mother,

Dr. Marie Anna Jonas, who

was a medical doctor. She

then related how successive

efforts gradually reduced the

family’s standing and led to

most of their deaths.

Her mother was initially

stripped of her ability to

practice by the Reich Citizen

Law. Then, she and her

parents were deported to

the Theresienstadt ghetto in

Czechoslovakia, where they

were treated like prisoners.

Her father died six weeks later

of meningitis. After two years

in the ghetto, she married

her friend before he was

shipped off with many others,

ostensibly to build a new

he Institute for Management Studies welcomed alumnus

J. Richard Stamm, vice chairman and global tax leader for

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), to campus this spring to give

a presentation on “A Global Perspective: Predicting the Path

Ahead.”

During the presentation, Stamm discussed the challenges

world economies will face in the future and encouraged

students to become part of the solution. He recommends

that students consider global trends when considering career

options, increase global acumen and learn more about different

cultures and backgrounds from around the world.

His presentation was part of the James W. Harding

Executive Speaker Series that provides students with the

opportunity to meet and network with some of America’s top

business executives from numerous internationally-recognized

companies and firms.

A certified public accountant, Stamm is responsible for

building the capabilities of tax practices across the PwC

network of firms, as well as interacting on tax and business

issues with many of the firm’s larger clients. Stamm previously

served as the vice chairman of the U.S. subsidiary of the

firm and as the national industry leader of the consumer and

industrial products group. He has served multiple companies

including large inbound and outbound multinationals, large

domestic companies, and family-owned businesses across a

variety of industries.

The James W. Harding Executive Speaker Series is named

for the 1938 Lycoming graduate and native of Montoursville,

Pennsylvania. Harding was an executive with Kemper Insurance.

The James S. Kemper Foundation endows the series.

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ghetto in the city of Dresden.

However, he and the other

men wound up in Auschwitz,

where most were murdered.

Spouses of the deported

men were encouraged to

follow them and also found

themselves in Auschwitz. In

1944, the Germans deported

Bauer’s mother to Auschwitz,

where she too, was murdered.

Bauer managed to survive

until she was liberated, when

she committed to “live each

day, have fun and be a human

being.”

Bauer speaks as often as she

can so that people will “learn

what happened, and see that

it never happens again.”

The Lycoming College

Campus Activities Board, a

student-run organization,