Suburban interfaith group to honor Holocaust survivor

Steen Metz, a Holocaust survivor from Lincolnshire and frequent presenter to schools and groups, will receive the first Courage of Abraham Award from the Children of Abraham Coalition, which is comprised of Muslim, Jewish and Christian teens and adults.

The award was established to recognize those who have spoken out boldly against faith-based bigotry.

Members will gather at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 14, in observance of the 15th anniversary of the tragedies of 9/11. The evening will include a "Family Pot Luck for Peace" dinner, as well as a presentation by Metz, who was a child living near Copenhagen when the Nazis invaded Denmark.

The dinner will take place at Saint Viator High School, 1213 E. Oakton St. in Arlington Heights. Admission is free.

Metz and his parents were shipped in 1942 to Theresienstadt, a hard labor camp some 550 miles away in Czechoslovakia. Within six months, his father died of starvation, but he and his mother survived. They were liberated one month before the end of the war in 1945.

In 1999, Metz wrote a book about his experiences called "A Danish Boy in Theresienstadt: Reflections of a Holocaust Survivor." He began making public appearances in 2011, and over the last five years he has shared his story with more than 28,000 people.

Fr. Corey Brost, a Viatorian priest, helped to form the Children of Abraham Coalition in 2011 as a way to confront religious-based hatred. He drew immediate support from members of area temples and Islamic centers in the Northwest suburbs who were interested in interfaith dialogue.

"We can't stop all the religious-based hate in the world, but we can do our part," Fr. Brost says. "We can be people of peace in our corner of the world, especially on Sept. 11, a day that showed how deadly religious hate can be."

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