Remembering the Past: Educating the Future
VIEW EVENT DETAILSEvening Dialogue with DOV LANDAU, Holocaust Survivor
Drinks Reception 6:30pm,
Dialogue 7:00pm,
Close 8:00pm
As the world on January 27 remembers victims of the genocide on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Asia Society Hong Kong Center presents Dov Landau, one of the few remaining survivors who will share his harrowing story during those years. Mr. Landau is the real life figure behind the character of the same name in the 1958 book “Exodus” by American novelist Leon Uris on the establishment of the State of Israel and the 1960 movie starring Paul Newman. Join the dialogue with Mr. Landau and Mr. Ronnie C. Chan, Co-Chair of the Asia Society.
Born in Brzesko, Poland in 1928 to an Orthodox Jewish family, Dov Landau is the oldest of four brothers. In 1941, synagogues in Brzesko were set ablaze and all males aged 13 and above forced to labor for the German war effort. About a thousand people - including his mother and a brother - were rounded up and transported to an unknown destination, never to be heard from again. Meantime, the Jews in his town were ordered to move to a designated ghetto area, although Mr. Landau and some family members managed to escape to Bochnia. In 1943, he was moved to Szebnie labor camp before being transferred to Auschwitz-Birkenau for four months. In January 1945, Mr. Landau took part in the infamous “Death March” going without food or water for four days, after which he was moved to Gross-Rosen and Buchenwald concentration camps. He was 17 years old in April 1945 when the American troops liberated Buchenwald. Following the war, Mr. Landau went to what would become the State of Israel and later fought in the Israeli War of Independence. During his army service, he was captured and imprisoned in Jordan for 11 months.
Ronnie C. Chan is Co-Chair of the Asia Society, Chairman of the Asia Society Hong Kong Center and Chairman of Hang Lung Properties. In addition, Mr. Chan serves as Chairman of the One Country Two Systems Research Institute and the Better Hong Kong Foundation, Convenor of the Hong Kong Development Forum, Governing Board member of the China-United States Exchange Foundation, Advisor and former Vice President of the China Development Research Foundation in Beijing. He is Director of the Board of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, member of the Council on Foreign Relations and former member of the governing boards of the World Economic Forum. Mr. Chan holds an M.B.A. from the University of Southern California. (Moderator)