Now More Than Ever: The Kohlmeier-Mikulencak Scholarship

Awarded through the Ray Wolpow Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity, the Kohlmeier-Mikulencak Scholarship has an important mission: to reward a student who possesses not only strong moral courage, but someone who stands up for an individual or group in the face of great opposition. The ideal recipient is someone who is not afraid to face the consequences of speaking out despite intense pressure to stay silent.

Bernhard Kohlmeier has an intense interest in ensuring that future generations learn the most important lessons from the Holocaust and make a difference in the lives of others. His parents were children in Nazi Germany, and educated in Nazi-controlled schools. “They were indoctrinated every single day.” That indoctrination colored Kohlmeier’s experience growing up—the casual prejudices, the insistence that it wasn’t “all that bad” and instilled in him a need to see that indoctrination broken. He and his wife Lisa Ann Mikulencak established this scholarship because, “If you have a generation who aren’t critical about their circumstances, they pass it on.”

Awarded in honor of Arthur Poznanski, a Holocaust survivor, the scholarship is for someone who embodies Poznanski’s tremendous spirit. Poznanski was a teenager in Nazi Germany, wounded while escaping a train to a death camp, saved by the fortuitous placement of a spoon in a pocket, and lived in the U.K. dedicating his life to his community and to educating youth about discrimination and bigotry.