Charles Rotmil

October 29, 1932 –
Strasbourg, Alsace-Lorraine, France

Following Adolf Hitler’s nomination to chancellor, Charles and his family moved to Paris and then to Brussels. In 1938 they moved to Vienna. His father, Adi, was arrested during Kristallnacht. When he was released they moved to Marneffe, Belgium. His father was an art broker and wanted to live where he would find dealers and buyers of art. By 1940, Charles had lost both his mother and his sister in a train crash. His father was arrested and sent to Auschwitz and gassed upon arrival in 1943. Charles and his brother Bernard survived the war in hiding, sometimes together, and sometimes apart. Those who helped included Father Bruno Reynders, a monk who hid over 350 children; a farmer; and the Luyckx family, who hid Charles for over a year in Louvain, Belgium. It was a foggy dawn when Charles arrived to New York on December 11, 1946, on the Ile de France. He and Bernard stayed in Peekskill , New York with their aunt and uncle who sponsored them. Charles attended Temple University, went on to work as a photographer, painter, and filmmaker in New York City, and then moved to Maine in 1982 where he taught foreign languages to high school students. He earned a MFA degree from Goddard College in 1982. Charles has spoken to thousands of students in Maine about his experience as a Holocaust survivor.