Jewish prisoners being deported from the Kraków Ghetto. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
As time goes on, the Holocaust survivors are dying out. Since this month we commemorate them, I think we owe a responsibility to retell their stories.
Recently, I visited the Holocaust Museum in Miami. A Holocaust survivor, Isaac Klein,was telling his personal story and answering questions.
Stern started out by describing his family life before the Holocaust. His parent’s names were Simon and Pepi Klein. His twin brother Tsvi and him were the eldest of eight children. Before 1938, the family were farmers, and led a normal happy life.
When the Germans took over Czechoslovakia in 1938, the family’s farmland was taken away, and their citizenship revoked. Isaac and his family were deported to Poland.
After a few years they were allowed to return to Czechoslovakia where they worked under Hungarian military officials doing hard labor.
In 1944, their luck ran out. They were put on cattle cars, and were transported to a concentration camp in Auschwitz-Birkenaus. .
Dr. Josef Mengele, known as the “Doctor of Death”, kept the boys in D-lager camp with other sets of twins. He did experiments on them. Most of them were done under anesthesia, so Klein doesn’t remember the specifics.
By the end of March 1944, the Germans knew the Russians were close, so they forced the prisoners on a death march. The destination was Melk, Austria. Somehow Isaac and his brother both survived. On the march they received no food, water, or shelter.
In 1945, they were liberated by the Americans, but that wasn’t the end of Klein’s story. His bother and him went back home to find any relatives, but there weren’t any left.
They both decided to emigrate to Israel. They were smuggled on a boat to Haifa. After the British captured the boat, they were held in a detention camp for 8-10 months. They were finally released into the population.
He served in the Israeli army, navy and merchant marine.
In 1962, he moved to the United states, got married, and raised a family.
Four years ago, he took the path of the March of the living dead with youngsters from all over the world. He thought it was important for them to know about it.
“Who says there’s no life after death,” said Klein.
Klein still believes in God, and is grateful he survived.
My Life in my 60's 
This is so interesting. Not many survivors around to share their story. Thank you.
Yes, they’re disappearing. I think it’s important to spread the word.
I had shivers running down my spine as I read this. I would like to visit the museum one day. Great work!
It is an impressive museum. Thank you for commenting!
Thank you . I am sort of behind on my comments. I have a new blog called the grandmother diaries because I have been a grandmother for 6 months. Gradmamabarbie @ WordPress com .
So important. Kudos for this post~
There are countless stories like this. Thank you for commenting.
Thank you for your important message. It’s so important to not forget and to keep the stories alive.
Barbara – do you mind if I reblog your story on my site?
Please do! It’s not my story, it’s Isaac Klein’s and we want it retold!
Thank you Barbara. I would be happy to share his story. I will let you know as to when I get it reposted.
You are welcome!
Barbara – I reblogged your post on WordPress.com and I’m not sure how this works. Have you received any notification of the reblog?
No,not yet. I’m not sure how it works. I think it just shows up on your blog. I’ve reblogged posts before and never got a thank you, so I think it just shows up. But thank you!!!
Okay – I reblogged it twice thinking the first time didn’t work. Hope you don’t have duplicates messing things up.
Thank you. I’ll wait to see what happens.
Barbara – I have a commenter (Renee Sabljak) from your guest post of this story I hosted (http://plaintalkandordinarywisdom.com/?p=1497) asking if I knew if Isacc Klein speaks at schools and how he can be contacted. She is a middle school teacher in Miami.
I gave her the link to this post on your site to contact you if she likes. Please let me know if there’s anything else you want me to do. Thank You!
I heard him speak at the Holocaust Museum in Miami. He was speaking that day, and I interviewed him on the spot. There was no other relationship. I’m sure if she contacts the people who run the Holocaust Memorial, they can give her more information.
That’s a great idea.
Thank you Barbara. Don’t know if you heard back from her or not (Renee Sabljak) back in April ’13. I haven’t heard back either. Hope she was able to get the information she wanted for her middle school classes in Miami.