Retired SUNY Plattsburgh Professor & Holocaust Survivor Vladimir Munk received a special honor this week from the New York State Education Department for the many years he has spent teaching & sharing his story of how he survived the Nazi concentration camps during World War 2. The Board of Regents this week honored Dr. Munk with the Louis Yavner award that’s given to teachers & individuals who have made outstanding contributions to education about the Holocaust and the mass genocide that took place during World War 2. He was presented the award by Assemblyman Billy Jones during a ceremony via zoom at the Lake Forest Senior Living Community in Plattsburgh, where Dr. Munk lives. Munk, now 98, was a SUNY Plattsburgh professor for more than 20 years. Regent Roger Catania said over Zoom that after Munk retired, he and his late wife, Kitty, would visit local schools to share their Holocaust survival story.
In 2020, Munk and other Holocaust survivors visited Auschwitz for the 75th anniversary of the camp’s liberation. His journey was the subject of a documentary Return to Auschwitz: The Survival of Vladimir Munk that won a regional Emmy this summer. You can watch that documentary coming up on Saturday, October 14th at 6pm, on Mountain Lake PBS.