{"id":29603,"date":"2026-09-17T12:00:26","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T16:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/?post_type=story&p=29603"},"modified":"2026-09-17T12:02:56","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T16:02:56","slug":"i-needed-to-tell-their-story","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2026\/09\/17\/i-needed-to-tell-their-story\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I needed to tell their story\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

Author describes generational impact of Holocaust in new book<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t until after his mother\u2019s death that Charlie Scheidt\u2019s family history was revealed to him. Tucked away inside an old armoire, he discovered a treasure trove of documents \u2014 letters, passports, identification papers \u2014 detailing his parents\u2019 escape from Nazi-occupied Europe prior to World War II and evoking the trauma of the Holocaust that echoes across generations. Secrets he hadn\u2019t known, emotions he hadn\u2019t experienced, connections he hadn\u2019t made, emerged from those pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All that rich and painful history comes alive in Scheidt\u2019s book \u201cInheritance: Love, Loss, and the Legacy of the Holocaust.\u201d Scheidt spoke in the Higgins Lounge at Clark on Sept. 10 about the decade he spent researching and writing his family memoir. He was joined via Zoom by his co-author and researcher, Kat Rohrer, an Austrian filmmaker. Rebecca Erbelding, curator and archivist at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, moderated the discussion, which was sponsored by the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Clark University Hillel, Temple Emanuel Sinai, and Congregation Beth Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scheidt recalled the story of his father, who in 1933 fled from Germany to Switzerland, one step ahead of the Gestapo who had been trying to apprehend him. Scheidt\u2019s parents would eventually make their way to Paris, then New York, settling in a close-knit German-Jewish refugee community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For years, Scheidt knew only the \u201cbasic outline\u201d of his parents\u2019 saga, including the fact that \u201cbad guys had been after my dad.\u201d But during his childhood, little attention was given to the past. Instead, \u201cthe emphasis was on my growing up in safety.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After his father\u2019s untimely death, Charlie, now a young man, stepped in to lead Roland Foods, the business his parents had founded, growing it into a leading imported specialty food company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weeks before his mother died, she told him about the papers she\u2019d saved in the armoire, hidden behind clothes. She told him, \u201cI just want you to know they\u2019re there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\u201cRebecca\"
Rebecca Erbelding and Charlie Scheidt in the Higgins Lounge, joined by Kat Rohrer on screen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Scheidt said he was unwilling to \u201cplunge into the past\u201d and left the documents alone for 20 years. But in retirement, he began to believe that, within those papers, there was a story to be told. Rohrer agreed. The two traveled throughout Europe, visiting places where his extended family had lived and consulting with archivists to fill in holes in the narrative. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is magic to being in a place where you imagine your family has been,\u201d Scheidt said. \u201cWalking in those footprints is very valuable.\u201d He noted that the railroad tracks his father had sprinted across to escape the Gestapo still existed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scheidt witnessed firsthand the traumatic effects of persecution and exile not only among his extended family \u2014 including an aunt and cousin who survived the Ravensbr\u00fcck and Bergen-Belsen death camps \u2014 but also among community members who had fled Europe to the United States. But the full impact was lost on him until he and Rohrer began researching and writing \u201cInheritance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnly by working on the book did I understand how scarred my family was,\u201d he said. He recalls conversations between his parents and an uncle during the McCarthy hearings of the 1950s as they pondered whether there would be a purge of U.S. citizens. \u201cThey were asking, \u2018Where do we go next?\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cI grew up around people who felt so vulnerable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy parents did not give details about their experience, and I respected their desire for silence,\u201d Scheidt said. \u201cBut did my mother want me to delve into those documents? That was the debate. Once I imagined my father fleeing across the railroad tracks, I needed to address a story that was not being told. I needed to tell their story.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charlie Scheidt shares enduring connection with the Strassler Center. He has generously funded several visiting professorships and, through the Scheidt Doctoral Fellowship in Genocide Studies, and is providing five years of full funding for a current graduate student. His support helps amplify and advance the Center\u2019s urgent and consequential work.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It wasn\u2019t until after his mother\u2019s death that Charlie Scheidt\u2019s family history was revealed to him. Tucked away inside an old armoire, he discovered a treasure trove of documents \u2014 letters, passports, identification papers \u2014 detailing his parents\u2019 escape from Nazi-occupied Europe prior to World War II.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":29604,"template":"","meta":{"story_color":"var(--clarku-color-dark-purple)","story_headerImg":29604,"section_label":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[245],"displayed_author":[235],"featured":[494],"topic":[624,669,323],"class_list":["post-29603","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-sciences","displayed_author-jim-keogh","featured-secondary","topic-holocaust-and-genocide-studies","topic-speakers","topic-strassler-center-for-holocaust-and-genocide-studies"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018I needed to tell their story\u2019 | ClarkU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2026\/09\/17\/i-needed-to-tell-their-story\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018I needed to tell their story\u2019\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It wasn\u2019t until after his mother\u2019s death that Charlie Scheidt\u2019s family history was revealed to him. 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