The events that took placing during the Holocaust in the second world war are something that should never be forgotten. So many innocent lives were lost during that sad period of history, only the youngest survivors are still alive to tell their stories
Living a Life that Matters: From Nazi Nightmare to America Dream tells of Ben Lesser’s experiences living as a young boy in Krakow, Poland during these dark times.
Ben’s Story
Ben was only 11 years old when the Nazis invaded Poland, by March of 1941, Ben, his parents and his four sibling were forced to flee from Krakow to Niepolomice. After this day Ben’s life would never be the same. Ben and his family spent two years fleeing cities as the Nazi troops began to occupy more territory. In May of 1944 Ben and his entire family were forced to leave their homes and board crowed cattle cars for deportation to Nazi concentration camps.
Ben was first sent to the Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camp but was soon transferred to work at the Durnhau Labor Camps. In February Ben, who had now been separated from all his family members beside his cousin Isaac, was forced to participate in what became know as the Death March to Buchenwald concentration camp. Once arriving at Buchenwald he was only there for 24 hours before being packed into a train and sent to Dachau, this train ride became known the deadliest train ride in history. Ben was finally liberated from Dachau in April of 1945, four years after his family first fled their home in Poland.
Ben’s Life After the Holocaust
After liberation Ben spent two-months unconscious in the St. Ottilien Hospital, when he finally awoke, he moved to Feldafing, Germany. It wasn’t until December of 1945 that Ben was finally reunited with Lola and Mechel, the only other surviving members of his family.
In September of 1947 Ben and his family set sail to the United States in the hopes of finding a better life. Even after all Ben had been through, he never gave up on fighting for his life and was determined to find his happiness. In 1950 Ben was married and living in Los Angeles, but he swore to never forget the events he had been through. In 2009 Ben founded the ZACHOR Holocaust Remembrance Foundation and in 2011 he wrote Living a Life That Matters.
Why Living a Life that Matters?
After all that Ben had been through, it would be easy to never want to speak of it again, just ignore and try to move on, or be consumed with the anger of these terrible events, but instead Ben dedicated his life to sharing his story in hopes of spreading tolerance and preventing events like the Holocaust from ever happening again.
His book, Living a Life That Matters, is focused not only on his experiences of the concentration camps, but the actions people can take today to help the world become a more peaceful and loving place. The more he wrote, the more he understood the need to combat hatred through education, to prevent the world from “acquiring amnesia.”
Through Ben’s book, you will not only learn about his firsthand experiences, but also what small changes you can make in your life to improve the world around you.
Contact ZACHOR Holocaust Remembrance Foundation at Web online.
