The Presidium | The Coordinating Office | History | Member Organisations & Structure

The Presidium of the IAC

The members of the Presidium are elected by the General Assembly. The Presidium includes former detainees of the Auschwitz concentration camp as well as younger members who represent various Auschwitz foundations. The Presidium consists of nine members.

President

Noach Flug, Jerusalem Born in Lodz, Poland in 1925 In 1939 he was forced to move with his family to the ghetto of Lodz; hard labour In August 1944 he was deported to Auschwitz, Gross-Rosen, Mauthausen and Ebense. Liberation in Ebense by American units on 6 May 1945. After the war he finished secondary school in Lodz and studied economics in Lodz and Warsaw. In 1958: immigration to Israel together with his wife and two daughters. He worked as an economist and a diplomat in Zurich and Bonn, among other cities, before he retired in 1987. He is a member of the Board of Yad Vashem and AMCHA and General Secretary of the WJRO. Chairman of the Organization of Holocaust Survivors in Israel since 2003. President of the International Auschwitz Committee since 2002.

Honorary President

Julius Goldstein, Berlin Born in 1914 As a Jew and Communist he was expelled from Germany in 1933 and went to Spain, via Luxembourg, France and Palestine. As a member of the International Brigades he fought against the Franco fascism. After Franco’s victory he was interned in France. Under the German occupation he was extradited to the Nazis and deported to Auschwitz. On 17 January 1945 he was evacuated from Auschwitz and sent on the “Death March” to Buchenwald. After the war he was politically active in the Ruhr area. In 1951 he moved to the GDR where he worked until 1978 as a journalist and director of the radio station “Voice of the GDR”. In 1976 he became Vice-president of the IAC. In 1996 he was awarded the honorary title “Freeman of the Republic of Spain”. Honorary President of the IAC since 2003. In 2005 he was awarded the Order of the Federal Republic of Germany, First grade. Up to date he gives lectures to school classes, in youth centres and at various political events.

Vice-Presidents

	Kazimierz Albin, Warsaw Born in 1922. A Polish resistance fighter he was captured on 14 June 1940 and deported to Auschwitz with the first transport. In Auschwitz Albin was given No 118, his bother No. 116. In 1943 he successfully escaped from the camp and went underground. Under false identy he again joined the AJK resistance movement in Krakow. After the war he studied at the College of Technology and graduated as an engineer for aircraft construction. He is a member of the Board of TONO, the Polish Association for the Maintenance of the Auschwitz Memorial Site and lives in Warsaw.
	Prof. Felix Kolmer, Prague Born in Prague in 1922 and deported to Terezín at the age of 19. Detainee in Auschwitz and Friedland (branch camp of Gross-Rosen). Hard Labour. After his liberation he studied and became a professor of physics. Worldwide research and lectures (in acoustics); President of the Terezín Initiative, member of the Jewish Community in Prague; Continuous work for the compensation of hard labour survivors and camp detainees. Numerous lectures for school classes and groups of young people throughout Europe.
	Raphaël Esrail, Paris Born in 1925, he spent his childhood in Lyon. At the age of 11 Raphaël joined a Jewish boy scouts group. The idea of the scout movement had a formative influence on him and finally led him into the resistance movement. After the occupation of Lyon by the Germans Esrail specialized in the falsification of personal documents within the resistance movement. In 1944, at the age of 19, he was arrested and deported to Auschwitz. On 18 January 1945 he was sent on the “Death March”. He was liberated by the Americans in Dachau on 1 May 1945. Raphaël Esrail worked as an engineer. He is married with one daughter and he has got two grandchildren. Today he is General Secretary of the “Union des Déportés Auschwitz” (Association of Auschwitz Deportees) and an active member of the Foundation for the Remembrance of the Deportation and Shoa in Paris. Raphaël Esrail considers his cooperation with history teachers and young people in schools a task of particular importance.
	Roman Kent, New York Born in Lodz, Poland in 1929. After the invasion of Germany in Poland he was deported to the ghetto of Lodz, later to the concentration camps in Auschwitz, Merzbachtal, Dornau and Flossenbürg. In 1946 he was admitted to the USA on the basis of children’s quota in the framework of the “Displaced Persons Act” of the US government. Roman Kent lives with his family in New York as a businessman. He is Chairman of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Treasurer of the Jewish Claims Conference.
	Henri Goldberg, Brussels Henri Goldberg has survived the Nazi occupation in Belgium as a “hidden Jewish child”. He lives in Brussels and works as an engineer. He is General Secretary of the “Fondation Auschwitz” (Auschwitz Foundation).
	Carry van Lakerveld, Amsterdam Cultural-Historian and author. She has designed many exhibitions on the history of Auschwitz and several meetings between young people and camp survivors. She is a member of the Board of the Dutch Auschwitz Committee. Together with Victor Levy Carry van Lakerveld has designed the new Dutch exhibition at the Auschwitz memorial site.
	Christoph Heubner, Berlin Born in 1949, Executive Vice-President of the IAC. Vice-Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for the International Youth Meeting Centre in Oswiecim/Auschwitz. In June 2004 the Polish Prime Minister Belka appointed him to the International Auschwitz Council, a body called on by the Polish government for consultations which is headed by Prof. Wladyslaw Bartoszewski. For many years Christoph Heubner has accompanied groups of young Volkswagen trainees as a coach and instructor during their seminars and maintenance works at the Auschwitz memorial site. Author of many poetry and prose publications. In 1998 decoration with the Member’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland. In 2003 decoration with the Order of the Federal Republic of Germany. In January 2005 decoration with the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.

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