How I SURVIVED Four Different Nazi Concentration Camps | Ben Lesser

Buren was part of aitz Buren was all the killing was being done was in Buren now they opened the gate it was still night time and they yelled leave all your belonging where it is don't pick anything up women had children to the right men to the left and I'm holding on to my sister my sister Goldie a little brother Tuli and we're being just pulled apart never to see each other again my sister and my little brother went directly to the gas Chambers when we came to the Barrack the stuban Elder stad the man in charge of the Barrack walks out he was a Polish inmate and he says ha you Hungarian Jews you think you're here on vacation think again you see those chimneys those ashes that are flying those are your mothers your fathers your brothers and your sisters and if you don't behave and do exactly what you told this is how you going to wind up ashes I couldn't believe you mean my sister my little brother ashes this is the 20th century how is it possible you are about to Embark upon the great crusade to meet this mounting aggression and make no mistake about it good will prevail I had a nice life at home family of seven and um we went to school I all I know is that we went to uh Jewish school to is Shiva and and to other schools and all I did this most of the most of the day we studied day and night seven days a week that's what we did um my father had a wonderful um Chocolate Factory he was the first one to make chocolate covered wers like kidk only in the shape of little animals with tin foil on it every day he would come home from work for kids with searches pockets and he made sure he had some in there and then he also had a a wine and syrup manufacturing um both of these businesses were taken away immediately right right away at the very beginning things started to happen uh School stopped immediately they wouldn't let us go to school and on the fifth day of Li of occupation of the the city of k a truck pulls up to the gate we lived in a three-story building and they started to bang on the gate and the super came running out well what all they want us know is but the Jewish people lived and he was quick to oblige he showed our apartment and there was another young couple on the other side Jewish uh husband wife two daughters the mother gave gave birth to an empit little boy two months earlier and they came breaking down the door and beating us pistol whipping us we were in bed 5:00 a.m. in their hands they had open sexs and they were screaming throw in all your valuables money gold jewelry whatever they can find they threw in they're beating up my father to open up save while my father is opening the save we hear this terrible screaming from our neighbors apartment my sister Lola and I went through the back door to the kitchen to their kitchen and we came into their apartment and this is what we saw this monst was holding the infant by its legs and Swinging it and yelling to the parents make them make him shut up the parents are yelling and the daughters our baby our baby don't hurt their baby with a smirk on his face you can see he was enjoying what he was doing he smashes the baby's head into the doorpost killing it instantly it's a memories that won't leave me I get nightmares seeing that screaming infant and that sudden silent and what came out from me said my God my father was getting ready to go into the CCO ghetto because this whole family went in over 200 to CCO ghetto while he was packing a young man comes by the name of Michael and he says to my father Mr lesser you know how I feel about your daughter Lola someday I'd love to marry her said do me a favor come from the same Community said my parents are moving and my father gave him a choice to go into CA to NE small community he went to neam said was Miracle number one because all the people who went into the ghetto were taken out of the ghetto and taken to transported to belac and everyone was exterminated it was an extermination C so that was a miracle out of nowhere we lived in The Farmhouse uh the the farmer lived on one side and we lived on the other side and uh my father became a little baker so to feed the family and somehow it became a little AFA for him and he started to Bay for the community there was a baking of inside the house where we lived and I baked with him I was 12 years old at the time so life went on like this for about a year or so and then my sister Lola gets married to Michael and after they get married they move out of the house into a duplex they move into the duplex one side of the duplex they live the other side the owner lived who happened to be the mayor of that community so one day the mayor comes home he says Michael Lola save yourselves we heard the rumor there is going to be P laa a raid against the Jewish people either tonight or tomorrow night so Michael went out and he hired a wagon with the driver and We snuck out in the middle of a night and we left which was Miracle number two because that night after we left they went from house to house rounded up all the Jewish people put them in truck and took him to the forest and the man would give him shovels they dug a ditch and everyone was shot thousands of people were all shot we were lucky we left and the only place we could go was a place called BNA VNA had a ghetto inside the ghetto um had a very bad reputation every so often two or three dump trucks would come into the ghetto and they would pull out the children from their beds and throw them into these dump trucks in the middle of the night you can imagine the parents are screaming for the children the scream children are screaming for the parents they filled up these dump trucks and they started to move out of the ghetto the parents were running behind these trucks screaming for their children but these cultured people had machine guns at the end of each truck so they mow down the parents running behind his truck that resonated throughout Europe stay away from B GTO because of these atrocities but we had no choice one day a friendly Jewish policeman tells Michael my brother-in-law Michael I heard there's going to be a r tonight save yourselves now ever since those trugs came into the ghetto pulling out the children from their beds every house and every apartment had a hiding place they called it bunkers that's when I found out our bunker was this ornate piece of furniture where you hang your coats and jackets as you open the door you push the closing apart and the back panel would slide apart there was a hole in the wall and there was room for the 12 of us to crawl through that hole and stand between two buildings now the last person would Clos the door behind them put the clothing back closed the back panel and we stood there it was snowing lucky for us the outside of the buildings were connected but the the ceilings were open and it was snowing it was cold we heard all night long shooting dogs barking people screaming I never heard such screaming in my life towards morning it got quiet and we dared to come out when we came out this is what we found we couldn't believe people were laying in the snow half torn apart by dogs some of them were still a little alive and and blood all over the place um there were people going around in push guards and picking up these bodies and pieces of bodies put it in the pushard and then they were taking him to the ghetto Square piling them up as high as they could and these cultured people came with gasoline cans puted gazoline over the people and they started a b GTO bonfire of human bonfire B GTO do I have to tell you how it was that sting that smell my God that was true hell on Earth and we knew our sister was hiding in a dog house you heard ride the dogghouse you picked up the floor from the dogghouse there was a step ladder there was room for seven people for food and and bedding and everything waiting for them I went there to see what happened to her and I was shocked to found out my sister wasn't there but everybody else was in the snow with a bullet hole in the head all seven people were pulled out and shot now my sister Lola and her husband were saved by a Jewish policeman and he took because anyway it's a long story he took him into a different hiding place where it was a lather Tannery in a water tank in a lather Tannery they were standing kneed Deep in water all night long freezing and lucky they they heard the same thing shootings barking dog everything but lucky uh no one checked the tank and they survived it I ran away from Poland and a Truck double decker call on top between the col and the chassis 10 people would lay on the side sides and and they took us to the border and we were able to cross and then we had to cross the Czech border to Hung Hungary and we arrived into Hungary um days later it's I'm telling it so fast but we arrived in Hungary was a free country this was in 1943 in the summer of 43 and in March of 194 4 the Nazis marched into Hungary like they were invited guests when they came in they knew every Jewish people where they live their address and everything and within two months they were already shipping train loads of people to the de camps they told us said Germany needed workers we will all be relocated to German bring along your valuables that you can carry with you leave everything else behind anyone found hiding will be shot and they loaded us 82 kettle car pushed Us in these Kettle cars my sister and my little brother and I uh unbelievable story uh but I'm shortening it we're now inside the kettle car 0 two buckets of water water is gone no sanitary facilities no toilets uh one day two days three days those buckets were filled up with human waste and and it were kept overflowing um my God and now we were lucky we had bundles to sit on bundles instead of sitting on the human waist on the bottom 3 days and three nights and we arrived at a place called aitz uh it was called osim polish on the sign and it meant aitz but we didn't stare there and it continued going for another 3 kilometers and had arrived to a place called aitz um Burana Buren was part of aitz Buren was all the killing was being done was in burino they opened the gate it was still night time and they yelled leave all your belonging where it is don't pick anything up women and children to the right men to the left and I'm holding on to my sister Lola and my little brother my sister Goldie a little brother Tulie and we're being just pulled apart never to see each other again my sister and my little brother went directly to the gas Chambers um I didn't know about gas Chambers who knew but they took him there and I went with the man instead of with the children if I have gone with the children I was 15 and a half years old I wasn't a child and I wasn't a an adult either but I decided to go with my uncle my cousin I figured this is a labor camp they'll feed you better if you work so I went with them and it's good thing because I meant with my sister they would have sent me to G him okay so I went with them and now I'm coming forward and I see a doctor uh asking questions and he goes with his finger like that right left right left that was do mangela the angel of death he decided who should live who should die by a flick of a finger so when I came in front of him he asked a young man comes to 5 kilm La can you run 5 kilm or would you rather go by truck he said he had a bad knee he would rather go by truck poor soul not realizing that meant certain debt and they sent him to ride who knew doctors asking you that but it didn't make sense to me I see Barracks why would he ask you can you run 5 kilm I figured he's testing us to see if we're strong enough to work so I tell my uncle my cousin let me go first I spoke German and I so I been in front of him before he asked me a question I stretched myself out and I saluted him and I said I'm 18 years old I'm healthy and I can work so he as me con 5 kilm La can you run 5 kilm I said Y and they sent me to the left and my uncle followed and my cousin followed to the left and we went to away big Auditorium they told us to get on rest get out of your clothes out of your shoes and walk over over to those line of Barbers they'll cut your hair and then go into the showers all right I didn't tell you the whole story because I had diamonds in my shoes so my uncle gave me those diamonds in my shoes and his son had diamonds in the shoes they got out of them because we were ordered to I refused so I am naked with those beautiful black shoes and I walk up to these Barbers and they cut my hair and the Nazis walked back and forth checking us out no one said a word and they said they send me to the bed house with my shoes on if they had seen the shoes on me they would have killed me I disobeyed an order you know to show an example but anyway when we came to the Barrack the Sten Elder dead the man in charge of the Barrack walks out he was a Polish inmate and he says ha you Hungarian Jews you think you're here on vacation think again you see those chimneys those ashes that are fly those are your mothers your fathers your brothers and your sisters and if you don't behave and do exactly what you told this is how you're going to wind up ashes I couldn't believe you mean my sister my little brother ashes this is the 20th century how is it possible after 5 weeks they took us to DN how and the it was a rock quarry as they dynamited the mountain it was our job with sledgehammers to break those um Boulders into manageable pieces pick it up and throw it the mining cards run it down to the grinding machines to make gravel out of it and push those mining cards back very hard labor hard work I figured my uncle will never survive this so I bried the chef in the kitchen with my diamonds to give my uncle a job in the kitchen he took my diamonds and he did give my uncle a job in the kitchen it got easier for him and anyway every day we came back from work everyone had to go in line to be counted even the workers in kitchen had to go through the line so uh we came in line up in rows of five and they're counting us and counting and counting usually they count it and they let us go for our ration and go to our Barracks this time they keep counting and the commant comes down with his fr line with his girlfriend says I'm going to teach the schin Hun the lesson they'll never forget I'll teach those pig dogs a lesson they'll never forget what happened three inmates escaped and because of this he orders his henchmen to pull out every 10 person in line to receive 25 lashes so as they're pulling out every 10th personal line I see my uncle is going to be either a five or a 10 he was in front so I push him behind me and I took his place and I was a 10 they took me in the middle of the yard they call it in the middle of the yard all Us number tens and they brought down a bunch of hardwood Stakes and they bought brought down a saw horse you know what a saw horse is and this is what they ordered us do walk over to the saw horse tiptoe bend over but your stomach cannot touch it 2x4 your heel cannot touch the [Music] ground one man is pulling your trouser side the other one does the hitting you have to count out loud if you miscount you start from one again so any anything if even if if the heel touches the ground you start from one again if your stomach touches the 2x4 you start from one again the first one got up and he messed up of course he touched the ground and he touched to again and again and finally he falls and he falls the comant goes over kicks him in the face get up he couldn't he pulls out the revolver and shoots him his frine his girlfriend walks over to the Comon gives him a hug and a kiss he just performed a heroic act he killed him number two the same way he too fell and commant kicked his face he couldn't get up he shut him number three was a little younger and he messed up too I mean couldn't he so he yelled out please have mercy on me don't shoot me so the comment on say then stand up and come over here and face me the poor guy try to stand up he takes five steps his knees gave out from under him he falls the minute he falls we com down shoots him now it's my turn Ben lesser next to line I remember going up to that thing and saying to myself Ben this is it you want to live in another 5 or 10 minutes you better do exactly what you're told and I walk over tip to bend over without touching the 2x4 one man is pulling my trousers and I start to kind I dry Fe and every time they hit me I feel a line of blood coming through my BS six seven finally I I made it you could hear a pined drop in the Camp No One Believes that anyone could survive this the man who was pulling my trousers says to me in yish go over and thank him so I stand up blood is running down my legs and I walk over to him I salute him D her coming down when he hears that he puts his hand on my shortt col twist me around facing the number 10 who are still to be beaten he says now I told you could be done if you do it like this y you have nothing to worry about while this is going on there's a commotion at the gate they caught those three inmates blooded you couldn't recognize them they were pulling them in by the hair and they came in and when the comment down that just like a child gets sick of a toy he simply ordered all of us number 10 to go back in line and he tells his henchmen to bring in a portable Gallow to hang those three men and then yet to go back in line and watch if if you dare to close your eyes got whipped you had to watch how they hung each one and I remember the third one was a little younger they put the news around him and um he started say a prayer there is a Jewish prayer that's five words sh Isel five words and they heard it they kicked the stool out from under him after the third W and they wouldn't let him complete God is one uh two words um there such say this from Z Now be marched seven weeks seven weeks we marched TOA 460 kilom from dur learn how to Bal in bald we were accepted counted they put us in the Barrack and we slept there next morning we had to leave because Bal is also being evacuated so we lined up and they took us to a bunch of kettle cars 82 cattle car and I tell my cousin I push him up I says find a spot against the wall that we can rest our back against the wall I remember going to aitz with people all around you was terrible anyway he did after an hour inside the kettle car they opened the door and they threw in 80 breads 80 loaves of breads a loaf of bread for each person pictured this those people who were next to the door were grabbing four or five Breads and I my cousin against the wall we had nothing we don't know where we going for how long so I started to climb over the sitting inmates to see if I can get to the door and wrestle out the bread from somebody who had several of them and while I'm climbing this inmate had the pocket knife and he stabs me I feel a stab I feel my mouth is filling up with blood but I can't stop I have to get a bread I continue anyway I got a bread I came back to my cousin he says happening just Ben you bleeding I put my finger here and went right through my tongue I have big GH anyway uh one week two week I had enough sense I rationed that bread between my cousin and I behav a half size of a half neck each day for two weeks it lasted everybody is dying around me dying there's no water and no food and after 2 weeks I'm out of breath too and it it wasn't another week of travel and we arrived at a place called da and we arrived to D they ordered everyone who can walk to walk out of the bar out of the kettle car and and four of us walked out of the 80 of us everybody else was dead and we arrived inside and how what we saw inside is unbelievable anyway 3 days later we were liberated um and after Liberation out two GIS walked up to me and they handed me a can of spam and they opened it up it smelled so good we made a mistake we ate some of it and became came down desia my cousin dies in my arm the night after Liberation from deser I don't know what he died from but he died why why was I chosen to survive all that hell the only answer I seem to find is that God needed a witness someone who can talk about it tell the story because most of us couldn't even most survivors can't talk about it it hurts me too I have sleepless nights but someone has to do it and I devoted my life the last 25 years I do nothing else but travel and speak on Zoom who every have the world Listen keep the world from acquiring Amnesia remember remember this happened for

Channel: American Veterans Center

Views: 173,083

Keywords: AVC, American Veterans Center, veteran, veterans, history, army, navy, air force, marines, coast guard, military, navy seal

Id: Ur5YTaXzhoE

Length: 34min 42sec (2082 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 23 2024