MOULTRIE, Ga. — A survivor of the Holocaust will bring his story to South Georgia Nov. 1.

George Rishfeld, a native of Poland, was a child when his family fled to Lithuania to escape the German invasion of Poland, but less than two years later Lithuania fell to the Nazis too, according to a press release about the upcoming event.

“The Nazis and their Lithuanian collaborators formed mobile killing squads which murdered thousands of Jews in the Ponary Forest outside the city [of Vilna, Lithuania],” the release said. “They also established two closed ghettos in the city, one for Jews considered suitable for forced labor and one for Jews deemed not capable of work. That ghetto was liquidated a month later. Residents of the first ghetto were often hungry and conditions were unsanitary, especially during winter.”

Rishfeld’s parents gave him to a Catholic friend, who raised him as his own child until the end of the war. Although his father and mother were separated, they were able to reunite with each other and their son after the war and the family emigrated to the United States in 1949.

After service in the U.S. Army, Rishfeld finished college and began a successful career in the electronics industry. He and his wife, Pamela, live in Atlanta. They have two daughters and six grandchildren.

Rishfeld will share his experiences during a presentation 7-8:30 p.m. Nov. 1 at Withers Auditorium, 1800 Park Ave. in Moultrie.

The free event is sponsored by The Georgia Commission on the Holocaust and the Colquitt County Gifted Services.

For more information, contact Emma Ellingson, public education manager for the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust, at emmaellingson@holocaust.georgia.gov or (770) 206-1555 or Noel Giles at noel.giles@colquitt.k12.ga.us or (229) 890-6185.