Samuel Goetz ’55

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If Sam Goetz has his way, future generations not only will have a profound understanding of one of the bleakest episodes in human history, but will also be prepared to better combat hatred, racism and injustice wherever they encounter them. As a founder and past president of the 1939 Club, a Los Angeles-based charitable organization made up of Holocaust survivors, Goetz has tirelessly promoted the scholarly study of the Holocaust for over 25 years. In the late 1970s, under his careful guidance, the 1939 Club endowed a chair in Holocaust studies at UCLA, a chair that now forms the nucleus of the University’s outstanding Jewish Studies program. Goetz was also the driving force behind a remarkable video archive recording the testimony of Holocaust survivors. Totaling more than 100 hours, the videos are now part of the Research Library’s special collections, and copies are on deposit at Yale and Yad Va Shem in Jerusalem.

An optometrist in private practice, Goetz is a life member of the Alumni Association and has served on the Alumni Scholarship Committee; since 1982 he also has served on the Dean’s Council in the College of Letters and Science. Still, his mission remains his greatest contribution – a passionate commitment to preserving the past in order to safeguard the future.