Chris Berdy Shares His Family’s Holocaust Survival Story
President Nancy Goedecke with Rotarians Ed Christian and Chris Berdy
This week, Temple Emanu-El hosted the Rotary Club of Birmingham (RCB) for a meeting featuring Rotarian Chris Berdy, Butler Snow LLP Partner and Alabama Holocaust Education Center (AHEC) Chair. Following the meeting, members and guests toured the temple’s newly renovated sanctuary and took time to experience AHEC’s interactive Holocaust education exhibition.
Berdy shared the history of his grandparents, Sigfred Berdiche and Annie Feldstein, who were living in Vienna when Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938. His grandparents fled Vienna, eventually meeting and marrying in Lyon, France, where they survived the Nazi occupation and spent much of the war hiding in their apartment.
Berdy traced his family’s journey from Vienna to France and, after the war, to the United States, where they arrived in 1949 with their possessions carried in a single trunk. He discussed his family’s efforts to preserve and reconnect with their history, including reclaiming Austrian citizenship in 2023. Berdy encouraged attendees to learn their own family histories and share those stories, emphasizing remembrance, justice, freedom, peace and the importance of living with one another rather than against one another.
Bio for Chris Berdy
Chris Berdy is a second-generation Holocaust survivor and dual citizen of both the United States and Austria. He shares the story of his father’s survival in occupied France, following his grandparents’ and extended family members’ expulsion from Vienna after the Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938. Chris is a partner in the law firm of Butler Snow LLP. Active in the community, Chris is on the Board of Directors of the Alabama Holocaust Education Center, and he is the current AHEC board president. A frequent speaker and author, Chris was recently awarded a 2024 Burton Award for his essay “The Nuremberg Trials: A Story for Trial Lawyers.” Chris and his wife Katherine have been married for 24 years and have two children.
Berdy Family Holocaust History
When he turned 50, Chris began piecing together the fragmented and rarely-discussed story of his family’s Holocaust survival. The story is one of survival and resilience forged through countless difficult choices made under unimaginable circumstances. Chris’s father was born in Lyon, France in 1942 to Austrian Jews. Although they grew up just miles from each other in Vienna’s Jewish district, Chris’s grandparents Anne Feldstein and Siegfried Berditschevsky did not actually meet until their arrival in Lyon. They, along with parents and siblings, were forced to flee Vienna after the German’s March 1938 annexation of Austria. Members of their family endured the forced “sale” of property and possessions, imprisonment in Dachau, destruction of their synagogue, loss of their home, family and friends—events strung together by unimaginable fear. An unlikely pairing, Anne and Siegfried survived in what would become occupied France by aiding the Resistance, building a hiding place in their flat, and appearing Christian in public. After the war, they immigrated to the United States with Chris’s father.
About the Alabama Holocaust Education Center
The mission of the Alabama Holocaust Education Center is to educate about the history and lessons of the Holocaust to create a more just and compassionate world recognizing the humanity of every individual. ALHEC's 8,300-square-foot center is dedicated to immersive Holocaust education. Visitors step into powerful, interactive exhibits, encounter authentic artifacts, hear firsthand stories of courage and resilience, and connect with knowledgeable staff.