Photo by Tom Stoelker
Ask Mathilde Freumd her age and she offers a demure response, “It should be a secret!”
The 96-year-old has reason to be proud of her age, but modesty forbids. She has met some of life’s toughest challenges and has witnessed history’s darkest moments. She is a holocaust survivor who arrived in New York with her mother, her daughter, and a wedding ring hidden in the hem of her skirt. Her newlywed husband died at Buchenwald. Her brother was shot on orders from Klaus Barbie.
Freumd takes a highly philosophical perspective of these events, much of it culled through literature read as a student in Fordham’s School for Professional and Continuing Studies’ College at 60 program. She has been a Fordham student in the program for 35 years. View a video of this remarkable woman online through January, at www.fordham/edu in Top Stories.
