ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) – A special exhibit has opened at the Florida Holocaust Museum that shares the incredible story of Tampa Bay’s Remarkable Woman in 2021.
When WFLA News Channel 8 honored Lisl Schick last year, she donated the thousand dollars she received for the award to the museum with the mission of making sure Floridians never forget the Holocaust.
“As I grew older and older,” Schick told News Channel 8, “I couldn’t believe that my parents had the nerve to put us on that train.”
Schick was just 11 years old when she and her younger brother escaped Nazi-occupied Austria in 1938 on the Kindertransport.
“And I kept saying to him, don’t worry, don’t cry because I’m gonna take care of you,” she recalled.
The Kindertransport was a humanitarian rescue effort that saved about 10,000 mostly Jewish children by allowing them to reside in Great Britain during World War II.
“And what’s unbelievably fortunate but sad is that my mother was one of 1,000 children who was able to see her parents again,” Schick’s daughter Nancy Greenberg said.
The new display features personal artifacts like a handkerchief Schick’s mother gave her before boarding the train to London.
“And the embroidery was done by my mother,” Schick said, “so there’s one or two handkerchiefs to remind us of her.”
For Greenberg, her mother has always been an inspiration.
“I’m incredibly lucky that my mother is my role model and my best friend,” she said, “and I thank god every day I was given the parents I had and it wouldn’t have happened if not for the kindness of strangers.”
You can visit the special exhibit on Lisl Schick’s remarkable story by visiting the third floor of the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg between now and June.
