Education for Justice & Leadership is an integral component of a Notre Dame education, helping to form young women for compassionate and socially-just leadership. The program is defined by four core concepts developed across the curriculum: personal engagement and responsibility, stewardship, solidarity and advocacy. One key element of the program is Notre Dame's Speaker Series, which allows students to hear, first-hand, from individuals who have lived these concepts. This year’s sophomore class was able to share a virtual session with Leon, who provided a moving account of a childhood of struggle and loss. He shared personal drawings that chronicle his experience, prompting thoughtful questions from students. He also shared a photo of his great-grandson who was named after his favorite uncle who died during one of the death marches.

Leon was born in Czernowitz (Churn-o-vitz), Romania (now Ukraine) and was ten years old when the Nazis invaded in 1941. He and his family were deported to a ghetto in the Transnistria region. He and his family lived there for three years, surviving enormous hardships that included illness and starvation. They were liberated in 1944, first by partisans and then by the Soviet Army. After liberation, he and his family walked over 200 miles to return to Czernowitz. They ended up in four different Displaced Persons (DP) camps in Germany before they were able to immigrate to the United States in 1951.

His story will certainly stay with students long after the end of their education at Notre Dame.