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Holocaust survivor who suffered burns at Boulder attack: ‘It’s about what the hell is going on in our country’

By June 4, 2025 | updated 4 months ago

The Holocaust survivor who suffered from burns in Sunday’s attack on a march in Boulder told NBC News that “it’s about what the hell is going on in our country.”

“What the hell is going on?” asked Barbara Steinmetz, who is among 15 people who suffered injuries after an Egyptian national threw Molotov cocktails at a group pressing for the release of hostages still held by Hamas.

“We are better than this,” Steinmetz, 88, also told NBC News, adding she “wants people to be nice and decent to each other, kind, respectful, encompassing.”

The attack in Boulder occurred 11 days after two Israeli Embassy workers were gunned down and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington.

Steinmetz had recounted her family’s escape from Europe in an interview with the CU Independent in 2019. 

“I lived an idyllic childhood on the banks of the Adriatic,” Steinmetz told the paper. 

Born in Hungary on Nov. 26, 1936, her parents had operated a hotel on an island off the coast of Croatia, which at the time belonged to Italy. In 1940, Steinmetz’s father took the family back to Hungary, where they sought to convince other family members to leave the country, according to the Independent. 

“My dad encouraged the rest of my family to leave,” Steinmetz said. “They were scared — they simply couldn’t envision what was to come … or that their friends (and) customers would turn on them.”

The Steinmetz family left Hungary and settled in Nice, France. That summer, France fell to Germany.

During the winter of 1940-41, the Steinmetz family fled by train to Barcelona, then moved to Madrid and finally to Lisbon, Portugal, where Steinmetz’s father managed to book a passage to the Dominican Republic, the Independent reported.  

Mohamed Soliman — the man accused of attacking a group of people holding a weekly walk calling for the release of Israeli hostages — had sprayed gas on himself before allegedly hurling Molotov cocktails into the crowd, according to authorities. 

He “had planned on dying,” he told investigators. 

An affidavit released by authorities detailed how Soliman allegedly prepared for and carried out the attack, which occurred near 13th and Pearl streets during a “humanitarian walk” for hostages still being held by Hamas.  

Over the last year, Soliman planned the attack on an organization called Run for their Lives, according to the affidavit. He was waiting for his eldest daughter to graduate from high school to carry out his plan, the affidavit said. The daughter graduated on May 29.  

Soliman will appear in court at 3:30 p.m. Thursday in Boulder County, where charges are expected to be filed. 

The Denver Gazette

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