St. Pete is celebrated for its fabulous weather, beautiful vistas, world-class food scene, and thriving cultural atmosphere but the people of St. Pete truly make this city something special. In appreciation, each month Green Bench shines a light on one of the many people who make St. Pete unique.
Driven from her home after the Nazis annexed Austria, Lisl Schick considers herself to be lucky to have survived so she could live a bountiful life. The proud mother of four children, 14 grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren has spent much of her life as a volunteer. She and her late husband, Dr. Alfred Schick, a board-certified radiologist, arrived in Pinellas County in 1959. They established a home and immediately became active in many civic and philanthropic organizations. After her husband’s death in 1993, Schick continued her volunteer work, and St. Pete has benefited greatly, in particular from her devotion to the Florida Holocaust Museum.
Overnight Everything Changed
Born in 1927, young Lisl Porges and her extended family lived a happy life in Vienna until the Nazis arrived in March 1938. Overnight, her world changed. For months, she endured hateful taunts and threats of violence at school and in public as Austrian Jews lost their citizenship, jobs, and homes. Some lost their lives. Even so, she believed in her 10-year-old heart that things would be okay. The violent horror of Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) demonstrated the true nature of their reality, especially when her father, Paul Porges, admitted that there was “nothing he could do.” One month later, their growing fear led them to make the inconceivably difficult decision to separate the family and send young Lisl and her younger brother Walter in hopes of safe-keeping as part of the Kindertransport program. A few months later, the two children boarded a train to Great Britain, one of the only places willing to take Jewish youngsters as long as no parents or adults joined them. It would take seven years and an ocean crossing before the family was reunited. Still, Lisl Schick says, she considers herself “lucky.” The vast majority of Kindertransport’s 10,000 Jewish refugee children never again saw their families.
A New Life in the United States
As the war drew to a close in early 1945, the Porges family finally reunited in New York City. The following 50 years were filled with moments Lisl Schick frequently describes as “lucky.” A chance meeting between her mother, Charlotte Porges, and a childhood friend on a New York City street eventually led Lisl to meet the man she would marry. Over the next 40 years, they established a happy life that gave them four children and brought them to Tampa Bay, where Lisl Schick would embark on a volunteer path that has culminated in many honors including being named WEDU- PBS’ Volunteer of the Year in 2016 and Tampa Bay’s Most Remarkable Woman in March of 2021 by WFLA-TV Ch. 8. An avid Tampa Bay Rays fan, Schick was thrilled to throw out the first pitch at the sold-out July 4, 2019, game against the New York Yankees, which yielded a $10,000 donation to one her most passionate causes: the Florida Holocaust Museum.
Lisl and the Florida Holocaust Museum
Founded in the early 1990s, the mission of the Florida Holocaust Museum (FHM) is to teach “members of all races and cultures the inherent worth and dignity of human life in order to prevent future genocides.” Considered a founding member, Schick has served on its board since its beginnings and has been on the “frontline of making sure that the museum and its mission will endure.” According to Elizabeth Gelman, FHM’s executive director, Schick has helped raise a substantial amount of money. Every week, for many years, Schick volunteers to speak to young people about her childhood experiences as a survivor, continuing even through the COVID-19 pandemic by embracing virtual technology. Believing that children have to be taught to hate, she hopes to personalize the consequences of racism and hate for students as a way to inspire empathy and discourage bullying. Forward-looking and outwardly focused, Schick says she has great confidence in the next generation. As a survivor, she knows she has made it her mission to inspire others to believe they also can rise above anything.
