Liliane “Lil” Dresner, a longtime local resident and Holocaust survivor, passed away on Friday, Feb. 27. The Towson resident was 93.
A native of the Belgian city of Antwerp, Dresner was a child when the Nazis invaded Belgium in May of 1940. She and her mother, Alice Menkin, along with her grandfather, went into hiding.
They came out of hiding after the Allies liberated Antwerp in September of 1944. More than 28,000 Belgian Jews perished during the Holocaust.
After the war, Dresner and her mother lived in a displaced persons camp until 1947 when they relocated to the United States.
In New York City, Dresner graduated from high school, and in 1952 she met her future husband, Jules, also an Antwerp native.
In 1955, the Dresners moved to the Baltimore area when Jules was hired by what was then known as Westinghouse Aerospace.
After their children were old enough to attend school, Liliane Dresner began working in the community. “Her most fulfilling job was the twenty years she spent as a school secretary at Fort Garrison Elementary School,” her family wrote on the memorial page of Sol Levinson & Bros.
Posted Owings Mills resident Phyllis Lewkowicz: “I was not only a Fort Garrison parent and an active PTA member but when I returned after a long medical leave of absence, I was a classroom teacher at Fort Garrison for two years. Liliane was such a caring individual. She cared for the children and the staff and the parents. … Liliane was a beautiful lady and she had a heart of gold.”
In their spare time, Liliane and Jules Dresner frequently traveled and enjoyed spending time with their family and friends.
“When Jules passed away in 1999, she rebuilt her life, culminating in her move to Edenwald [Senior Living] in 2015,” wrote her family.
Liliane Dresner is survived by her son, Jerry Dresner (Kim Berney), and her daughter, Vicki Glaser (Lawrence); her grandchildren: Stuart Glaser (Jen Bennett), Eli Dresner (Danielle), Dr. Jeffrey Glaser (Martha), and Amy Swartz (Jordan); and, her great-granddaughters, Goldie Lillian Dresner and Bernie Dresner.
She was predeceased by her husband of 47 years, Jules Dresner.
Services were held on Thursday, Mar. 5, at 10 a.m. at Sol Levinson’s Chapel, 8900 Reisterstown Road in Pikesville. Interment was at Baltimore Hebrew Cemetery, 318 Berryman’s Lane in Reisterstown.
Donations in her memory made be sent to the charity of your choice.
For shiva information, visit sollevinson.com/memorials/liliane-dresner/4407380/#details.
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