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Holocaust survivor, 92, killed after being hit by car

Alter Wiener spent three years in Nazi labour camps

Zamira Rahim
Thursday 13 December 2018 10:55 GMT
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Alter Wiener died on Tuesday
Alter Wiener died on Tuesday (Hillsboro Libraries)

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A Holocaust survivor who was imprisoned in five Nazi concentration camps during the Second World War has died after being hit by a car in Oregon.

Alter Wiener was crossing Northeast Brighton Street in Portland on Tuesday afternoon when he was struck by a Honda Accord.

The 92-year-old was taken by ambulance to Emanuel Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Hillsboro Police said.

The driver of the car remained at the scene and will not face any charges or citations.

By the time of his death Mr Wiener had shared his life story with around 975 audiences at venues including schools, universities and churches.

He was born in 1926 in Chrzanow, a Polish town close to the country's border with Germany, according to his website.

At the age of 15 he was deported by the Nazis to Germany, where he was imprisoned at Blechhammer, a forced labour camp for Jewish people.

Mr Wiener was moved from camp to camp for three years until the Russian Army freed him in May 1945.

More than a hundred of his family members were murdered in the Holocaust.

Mr Wiener married after the end of the war and eventually travelled to New York, where his cousins lived.

When he moved to Hillsboro, Oregon, 18 years ago the Oregon Holocaust Resource Center asked him to share his story, according to Oregon Live.

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The Holocaust survivor went on to write a memoir of his experiences, "From a Name to a Number: A Holocaust Survivor's Autobiography".

In September, he testified before the Oregon senate education committee, where he pushed for all school students to learn about the Holocaust and genocide.

"Fanaticism, extremism, it might happen again," he told KATU at the time. "My point is, educate."

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