Peter Feigl, the only child of Ernst and Agnes Bornstein Feigl, was born on March 1, 1929, in Berlin, Germany. His father, a mechanical engineer, worked for a multinational company selling automotive equipment throughout Europe while his mother stayed home to raise Peter in an upper middle class environment. When the family, who were non-practicing Jews, moved to Vienna in 1937, Peter was baptized in the Catholic Church in the hope he would be shielded from the virulent antisemitism in Germany and Austria.

In March 1938, Germany annexed Austria. Peter’s father fled to Belgium. When Germany invaded Belgium on May 10, 1940, his father was arrested as an enemy alien. Peter, his mother and grandmother fled to France where they were detained in Gurs as enemy aliens.

In June 1940, Peter and his mother were released from Gurs. With the help of local nuns, they settled in Auch, west of Toulouse, where Peter's mother was given part-time work in a food distribution center operated by American Quakers and the Swiss Red Cross. This helped the family move into a one-room apartment in Auch. Peter’s father, who also had been interned in Gurs, was released for health reasons and was allowed to join Peter and his mother in Auch in the spring of 1941. Meanwhile, Peter’s grandmother joined Peter’s aunt in Spain. They eventually obtained visas to the U.S. However, for Peter, his mother and father, several attempts to obtain U.S. immigration visas were unsuccessful.

In summer 1942, the Vichy government, in collaboration with the Nazis, began rounding up Jews and deporting them to German concentration camps in Poland. On August 26, 1942, unbeknownst to Peter who was in a Quaker summer camp, his parents were arrested and deported to Auschwitz where they were killed within a month of their arrival. With the help of the Quakers, Peter was sent to the predominantly Protestant village of Le Chambon sur Lignon. In the area surrounding Le Chambon nearly 5,000 people seeking refuge, among whom 3,500 were Jews including many children, were sheltered. In the village, Peter was given false identity papers and sent as a boarding student to a high school in Figeac, France. From there, after escaping arrest in May 1944 when Germans raided Figeac, Peter escaped to neutral Switzerland over barbed wire fences with the help of the Jewish underground.

Peter immigrated to the United States in July 1946 where he served three years in the U.S. Air Force. For 35 years, Peter pursued a career in international sales of aircraft and related services in the private sector and spent over five years as a Senior Negotiator in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Since retiring, Peter has traveled around the world speaking about his experiences and two diaries he wrote detailing his experiences during the Holocaust. In 1954, Peter married Leonie Warschauer and had two daughters. He is now a volunteer at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Darryle Clott earned a bachelor’s degree in 1966 and a master’s in 1971 from The University of WI—La Crosse. She retired from La Crescent (MN) High School in 2004 where she taught a comprehensive unit on the Holocaust for several years in her English classes. The classes inspired her to attend the Teachers’ Summer Institute on Holocaust and Jewish Studies and Jewish Resistance in Poland and Israel in 2001, and she is currently on their Alumni Advisory Board. As her interest in the Holocaust grew, Clott became a member of the American Friends of the Jewish Fighters Museum Consortium of Holocaust Educators and is the founder of the Midwest Holocaust Education Consortium. She is a Teacher Fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C

Darryle leads Holocaust Educator Workshops and is an associate of the Ethics in Leadership Institute at Viterbo University. She is a member of the Chancellor’s Community Council at the University of WI—La Crosse. She is instrumental in bringing Holocaust survivors to the La Crosse community at Viterbo University including Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel, Presidential Medal of Honor winner Gerda Weissmann Klein, and Otto Frank’s step-daughter Eva Schloss.

Darryle was a participant in the 2006 Educators’ Seminar of the Educational Program on Yiddish Culture at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York City. She is on the Editorial Board of Yeshiva University’s PRISM: An Interdisciplinary Journal for Holocaust Educators. Darryle was honored with the Gregory P. Wegner Holocaust Education Award at the Congregation Sons of Abraham Synagogue in 2008 and 2014 and is the Graff Distinguished Alumnus Award winner for 2008 at the University of WI—La Crosse. In 2009 Darryle was chosen to be part of a League of Women Voters project, “The Road She Traveled”, for local women who have had a significant impact on their community.

Darryle is the 2009 La Crosse Toastmasters’ Communication and Leadership award winner. In October 2010, she was one of ten American Holocaust educators chosen to travel to Poland to study Holocaust pedagogy with Polish Holocaust educators in a program sponsored by the Polish Embassy in Washington D.C. The La Crosse area YWCA Tribute to Outstanding Women Trailblazer Award was presented to Darryle in November 2010. In May 2011 Darryle was given the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. The medals are presented on Ellis Island to American citizens of diverse origins for their outstanding contributions to their communities, their nation and the world.

In April 2014 Darryle was honored by Fort McCoy with the Patriotic Civilian Service Award in appreciation for exceptional support to the Fort McCoy community of soldiers and civilians.

Darryle received the Pope John XXIII Award for Distinguished Service from Viterbo University in May 2017. The award, the highest non-academic award conferred by Viterbo, is given to those who have distinguished themselves through outstanding leadership and through service to higher education, to community and to humankind. In January 2018, Darryle received the Iverson Freking Ecumenical Recognition Award which recognizes the dedication of people to ecumenical endeavors and who reflect a positive commitment to Coulee Region communities.

had the honor of working at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in Washington, DC from 1996 to 2011. From 1996 to 2000, he was the individual responsible for the development and implementation of the Museum Teacher Fellowship Program. As Director of the National Outreach program at the USHMM from 2000 to 2009, he was responsible for the creation, design, and implementation of the Museum’s entire national educational outreach program. He was the Special Assistant for Education Programs in the National Institute for Holocaust Education (NIHE) at the USHMM from 2009 to 2011. In this capacity, he coordinated NIHE’s International Educational activities as well as directing the USHMM’s teacher education programs in California, Florida, Texas, and Illinois.

He was a member of the United States delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) from 1999 to 2011, working extensively with the IHRA Education Working Group. In addition to conducting teacher training programs across the United States, he has also coordinated or participated in programs in Europe, South America, Africa, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.

He joined the USHMM’s staff in Washington in 1996, but had been an educational consultant for the Museum since 1990. He is the co-editor, with Dr. Samuel Totten, of Essentials of Holocaust Education (Routledge, 2016) and Teaching and Studying The Holocaust (Allyn & Bacon, 2000).

Prior to his work at the Museum, he was a Social Studies teacher in public and private schools in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Paris, France. He also served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco (1968-1970) and Thailand (1974-1975). Mr. Feinberg received his bachelors’ degree in history from UCLA and his masters’ degree from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education.