Every so often, you come across a person who is truly awe-inspiring. Hank Schwab’s life story is like none I’ve ever heard. He has accomplished so much in his 94 years. He’s been a civil rights activist, businessman and even a Hollywood
Every so often, you come across a person who is truly awe-inspiring. Hank Schwab’s life story is like none I’ve ever heard. He has accomplished so much in his 94 years. He’s been a civil rights activist, businessman and even a Hollywood talent manager, landing at the epicenter of African-American history-making events time and again.
Mr. Schwab has counted among friends some of the most notable African-Americans of the modern age, from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to Joe Louis, to Dizzy Gillespie and Julian Bond. He has many noteworthy achievements, not the least of which was translating a German poem about two forlorn lovers into English and publishing it as a book a couple years ago. But one label he still wears with the most pride is his 50-plus year membership in the Chicago Urban League.
You might be surprised to learn that Mr. Schwab is not African-American but a European-born Jew. And, this summer, he plans to attend his 51st National Urban League conference here, in Chicago, July 29-August 1 at McCormick Place.
Mr. Schwab has donated to the Chicago Urban League a treasure trove of priceless civil rights and Urban League memorabilia from his personal collection. There are news clippings, program booklets and photographs he took at a 1964 civil rights rally with King, Whitney Young and former Chicago Urban League President Edwin C. “Bill” Berry.
The story of how Mr. Schwab wound up in Chicago is both harrowing and frightful. “Hans” Schwab and his entire family barely escaped Nazi Germany before “the real atrocities started,” he said. At his Hyde Park apartment, he recently talked about the five weeks he spent in Buchenwald concentration camp, a horrific symbol of the Holocaust that President Obama recently toured with Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. But as luck would have it, Mr. Schwab’s immigration application was already being processed when he was captured, and he was released for one reason only: “The Nazis wanted to get rid of Jews in any way they could; even if they had to kill them,” he said.
Mr. Schwab came to New York, made his way to Gary, Indiana and then Chicago. He launched a successful insurance business and dropped the “S” in his name to become “Hank.”
He arrived in Chicago just as the Civil Rights Movement was stirring to life. Schwab said he couldn’t help but to draw comparisons between the plight of Blacks here and Jews in Nazi Germany.
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