Woman struck by train was Holocaust survivor

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Jun 21, 2007 | by Angela Woodall

OAKLAND -- Lucie Buchbinder, who escaped the Holocaust during World War II and later became a life-long advocate for fair housing policies, died Tuesday afternoon after she apparently stepped across the tracks at Jack London Square Station in Oakland.

Buchbinder, 83, who fled from Austria in 1939 during the Nazi occupation, was fatally struck about 4 p.m. by a train while crossing over the tracks with another group of pedestrians, an Amtrak spokeswoman said.

The four people riding in the train at the time of the collision were not injured, said Amtrak spokeswoman Vernae Graham.

Buchbinder was taken to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead, according to the coroner's bureau.

It appears she did not notice the train heading toward her, said her husband of 20 years, Martin Dreyfuss.

She had been widowed twice before meeting Dreyfuss.

Buchbinder, her parents and a brother lived briefly in New York after fleeing Nazi-controlled Austria, Dreyfuss said.

The family then settled in Sacramento, where Buchbinder graduated high school.

She went on to earn her bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley, followed by graduate studies at University of California, Los Angeles.

Buchbinder, a public housing specialist, worked for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Dreyfuss said.

As executive secretary of the Eden Area Council for Hope and Opportunity during the 1960s, Buchbinder railed against discriminatory housing policies.

She later co-founded The Bread Project, a program that gave low- income individuals access to the job market by training them in the food service industry.

After retiring in about 1989, the Oakland resident turned to philanthropy to help fund the program.

She organized a fundraiser June 10, and was preparing the next one Sept. 9, Dreyfuss said.

In addition to her husband, Buchbinder is survived by her children, Ann Buchbinder, Janet Buchbinder, Eric Buchbinder and Joan Sommer, as well as a brother.

The family is still making arrangements for funeral services.

Staff writer Angela Woodall can be reached at awoodall@angnewspapers.com.