Denver, CO, July 30, 2025 – The Colorado Authors' Hall of Fame has announced the 13 new Inductees to this year's Hall of Fame Gala taking place on Saturday 6, 2025 at the Double Tree Hilton Denver Tech Center. Among them is Oscar "Osi" Sladek, a child survivor of the Holocaust, folk singer / songwriter, author and respected Jewish community leader. When he talks of his troubled WWII childhood in Slovakia and Hungary, he touches his heart and says, "I can't not talk about it. The Nazis took away all of our citizenship rights and slowly but surely, they stripped us of everything."
Osi has been publicly speaking about his story of survival for more than 50 years. A significant percentage of Sladek's extended family was killed during the Holocaust. Eleven of his cousins, his grandparents and several aunts and uncles perished in the genocide. He was smuggled between borders and amazingly survived in the bitter cold Tatras mountains along with his parents. He wants people to understand that the Holocaust felt like it was in slow motion as he lived through it. "It didn't happen overnight."
Sladek arrived in Colorado in 1959 with his newly-wed wife, Denverite Selma (Rosen) Sladek. Already an established composer and folk artist who performed throughout Israel, Venezuela and on stages in Hollywood, Sladek notably headlined the 1960 Colorado Folk Festival, sharing the bill with Odetta, Judy Collins, Josh White and other folk luminaries. He has dedicated the past sixty years to community leadership in Colorado and California, Holocaust education and has touched the hearts of countless people with his voice and music.
Now 90 years old, Sladek's 2024 childhood memoir, Escape to the Tatras: a Boy, a War and a Life Interrupted (Amazon/Audible) was co-written with Corinne Joy Brown and praised by National Book Award winner James Carroll as "…a masterpiece of love and survival." When he speaks to groups, he reveals, "I always tell young people don't hate. Don't learn how to hate, because it's going to kill you in the end," he said. "That's one lesson I share with most young people."
IN 2019, Governor Jared Polis presented Sladek a community service award at the 2019 Mizel Institute Annual Dinner. He was honored for his "commitment to inspire understanding, moral courage and social responsibility".
More about Osi's story at www.escapetothetatras.com
Osi's April 25, 2025 extended interview with Colorado Public Radio's Ryan Warner can be found here: https://www.cpr.org/show-episode/april-25-2025-holocaust-survivor-and-folk-musician-osi-sladek/ Oscar "Osi" Sladek and 12 others will be inducted into the Colorado Authors' Hall of Fame on September 6.
Tickets are open to the public to purchase tickets to attend the gala at Colorado Authors Hall of Fame®
About Colorado Authors' Hall of Fame®
Authors' Hall of Fame® strives to educate the people of Colorado and the country about the stories of the authors who shaped their works using their personal presence and the environment of our State with courage, leadership, intelligence, compassion, and creativity. Inductees are authors who've made a major impact on others with their words. The Authors' Hall of Fame® recognition endeavors to ensure their legacies never die.
The 2025 Induction of the Hall of Fame® will be held September 6th at the DoubleTree Hilton Denver Tech Center. Additional information about the upcoming Induction event, inductees, donations, events, and board members is available at www.ColoradoAuthorsHallofFame.org
The public is invited to visit the website, read the criteria for nominations, and encouraged to nominate authors who they believe would be ideal to include in the next Induction 2027 celebration.