' In 1941, when I was eighteen years old, my father told me to leave home and escape to Russia to save myself.  That was the last time I saw my family'

L. S. was born in Vilna in 1923. ‘My father was a builder of ovens in Vilna. By the way, he learned his trade in ORT too, recalled Sanders, ‘I followed in his footsteps. After seven years of elementary school, I went to the ORT school in Vilna- the Vilna Yiddishe Technicum- for four years. There I learned metallurgy and got an education’.  During the Second World War, S. escaped into the Lithuanian woods where he joined the partisan anti-Nazi force.' In 1941, when I was eighteen years old, my father told me to leave home and escape to Russia to save myself.  That was the last time I saw my family'- he recalled. As a member of the partisans, he was responsible for operating the radios, using the technical skills he gained in the Vilna Technicum. When the war ended he set out to search for his family. In a DP camp in Austria he met a girl who became his wife. On the day of their wedding found out that his sister had survived the Holocaust and was living in Milan. Senders and his wife went there immediately. In Milan L. S. enrolled into a course for repair of office equipment ran by ORT together with a typewriter repair company Olivetti. 'I was one of about fifty students, we learned how to operate office equipment and how to fix it. We had four hours of classes a day and the the language of instruction was Yiddish. I stayed in the school for a year'- he recalled. After graduation he and his family received visas to immigrate to the United States. They arrived in Washington DC on New Year’s day 1952. ‘The very next day I went downtown to find a job’-recalled S.-‘I walked into a typewriter company office right off the street, without an appointment, and asked if they could use a typewriter mechanic. I was hired on the spot’. Later, he set up a successful typewriter and office equipment company where he worked until his retirement. [1]

[1] Source: World ORT Archive: Syd Kasper ‘From Vilna to Washington’ (reprinted from ‘The Jewish Week’) ORT Bulletin vol. XXVII no.2 (Summer 1973), p.7 and interview by Katarzyna Person, May 2009