Edie Loebenberg, Florida Holocaust Museum co-founder, dies

Edith (Edie) Loebenberg, who along with her husband Walter co-founded what is now the Florida Holocaust Museum, died April 19. She was 84.

Both Holocaust survivors themselves, the Loebenbergs conceived the idea of creating a living memorial to those who suffered and perished at the hands of the Nazis. They, along with a group of St. Petersburg business people and community leaders, crystallized the concept into development of a museum dedicated not only to remembering those who perished in the Holocaust, but also working to help ensure such atrocities could never happen again.

The museum began in 1992 as a small endeavor at the Jewish Community Center, then located at the former Kapok Tree restaurant in Madeira Beach. At first the small museum was simply an exhibit centered around a collection of 10 Holocaust posters that the Loebenbergs had acquired over the years. The first major acquisition for the museum was a boxcar from Poland that carried Jews to the concentration camps.

These were the cornerstone of what is today considered one of the foremost Holocaust institutions in the United States, as well as a leader in adding Holocaust studies to the Florida public school curriculum.

Through the years, the Loebenbergs’ name became synonymous with the museum, as the couple devoted much of their lives to the museum, side-by-side. Rarely was the museum referred to without reference to “Edie and Wally.”

During its first five years, the museum attracted more than 125,000 visitors and by 1998, the museum, then called the Tampa Bay Holocaust Memorial Museum, had outgrown its space at the JCC.

In a major move, the museum bought a building in downtown St. Petersburg, changed its name to reflect its statewide reach and eventually expanded its mission to include other recent examples of genocide such as in Darfur and Rwanda.

Edie Loebenberg remained a constant presence at the museum, speaking to thousands of fifth graders about how, as a youngster, she personally experienced discrimination and came to understand it before she and her family fled Germany in 1938 as refugees from the rising anti-Semitism.

She was born Edith Lowengard into an Orthodox Jewish home in Darnstadt, Germany, where her father was in the iron and steel business.

After arriving in New York City, she and her family subsequently moved to Chicago, where Edie and her sister attended public school. Her father became a night watchman in an iron-steel factory and her mother opened a neighborhood dining room featuring German-style cooking.

In 1944 she became a U.S. citizen. Four years later, she married Walter Lobenberg, who had fled Germany in 1939. They moved to Encino, CA, and then to St. Petersburg.

In 2003, she and her husband were honored by the Holocaust Museum with the establishment of the Loebenberg Humanitarian Award, recognizing their accomplishment of making the Holocaust museum a reality.

Each year, the award recognizes an individual(s) who has made an outstanding contribution to the Florida Holocaust Museum and has furthered the museum’s mission to prevent future genocides.

The Loebenbergs were also honored by the Jewish National Fund with the Tree of Life Award and the Golda Meir/Kent Jewish Center with its annual Humanitarian Award.

Besides the Holocaust Museum, she and her sister were jointly the major contributors to the establishment of the Ida and Jules Lowengard Synagogue at Menorah Manor, named in honor of their parents.

She was a member of Congregation B’nai Israel and its Sisterhood and Temple Beth-El, both in St. Petersburg; Hadassah and the Jewish National Fund, serving on its board of directors.

Survivors include her husband of almost 62 years, Walter; three children; Michael Loebenberg, David Loebenberg and Sandra Mermelstein; daughter-in-law Teresa Loebenberg; Sandra’s partner, Kent Bontly; sister, Marion Lowengard Samson-Joseph; eight grandchildren and one great-grandson.

The family suggests memorials may be made to the Florida Holocaust Museum, 55 Fifth St. S., St. Petersburg, FL 33701.

(David C. Gross Funeral Homes, Beth David Chapel)