Holocaust survivor shares story

By Tony Wade | Special to the Daily Republic | March 18, 2010 23:05

VACAVILLE - Stephen Spielberg's 1993 motion picture 'Schindler's List' recounted the story of Jews who escaped the Nazi death camps by being placed on a work list by German businessman Oskar Schindler.

Thursday night in Vacaville, Leon Leyson, the youngest person on Schindler's famed list, spoke about his first-hand experiences.

Leyson, now 80, refers to himself as 'the most fortunate person on the planet.' He asked the near-capacity crowd at the Vacaville Center for Performing Arts Theater how many had seen the multiple Oscar-winning movie and nearly every hand rose.

'You already know my story!' he joked.

With the atrocities committed by the Nazis on Leyson and his family, laughter seemed inappropriate, but as he informed the audience, gallows humor was used extensively by the captive Jews.

Leyson shared a joke about a Nazi with one glass eye who loved to shoot Jews and told a Jew that if he could guess which one of his eyes was glass he could live. When the Jew answered correctly, the Nazi asked how he knew. The Jew said he saw a glimmer of humanity in one eye and so knew it was the glass one.

Leyson detailed how little by little Jewish rights were taken away. When he was a young boy and was told that Jews could no longer go to school, he was at first elated.

'But there is a difference between not going to school because you are late or are lazy and not going to school because you are not allowed to.'

In hindsight, all can see how the Nazis meticulously planned out the execution of Adolf Hitler's Final Solution to the Jewish problem, but it was more difficult at the time, Leyson said.

'No one in his right mind could believe that a sophisticated, cultured country like Germany with philosophers, musicians and scientists would turn into a nation of killers,' he said.

At the end of Spielberg's film, the picture turned from black and white to color and the survivors sang a Jewish song, but in real life when the war ended Leyson and many others were 'stunned and didn't know where to go or what to do.'

Leyson ended up in Los Angeles with relatives. He taught for nearly 40 years in the LA County school district. He didn't start sharing about his war-time experiences until the making of the film.

The event was sponsored by the Chabot of Solano County. Rabbi Chaim Zaklos said he feels a calling to preserve and share the history of what really happened during the Holocaust.

'It's very important especially for the younger generation. There's no better way of educating them than bringing in someone who is part of living history,' Zaklos said. 'The consequences of people who don't believe in human sanctity are printed on his arm.'

Buckingham Charter School student Janet Lewis, 14, said she was affected by Leyson's talk as her studies of the era left out the personal, human touch.

'When you read about it in history, it doesn't seem like it's real,' Lewis said.

After a prolonged standing ovation, a question-and-answer session followed. When asked his opinion of Holocaust deniers, Leyson was unequivocal.

'You cannot make a logical argument to people who are illogical," he said.

A small child in the front row raised her hand and asked 'How many people were killed?'

Leyson paused and said '6 million.' He added, 'I don't understand 6 million. Nobody does. I understand people. My family and friends were killed.'

Reach Fairfield freelance writer Tony Wade at [email protected]