Inge Auerbacher is a German-born American chemist, author, and Holocaust survivor. Deported at age seven with her parents to the Theresienstadt ghetto, she was among the 1% of imprisoned children to survive. After immigrating to New York in 1946, she earned a chemistry degree from Queens College and spent 38 years in medical research.
Auerbacher has written memoirs such as I Am a Star and Beyond the Yellow Star to America, and lectures internationally on Holocaust history, antisemitism, and tolerance. She has received numerous honors, including the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and Germany’s Order of Merit. She is also the subject of the play The Star on My Heart, which premiered in Ohio in November 2015.
Inge began traveling to Sioux City for Tolerance Week in 2015, and her play was performed by the Sioux City Community Youth Theatre in 2017. She addressed the United Nations on Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 28, 2019, where the PS 22 Children’s Choir performed “I Am a Star,” one of her poems set to music.