96 Years Young, Holocaust Survivor Ben Lesser is Living a Life That Matters

By Barbara Heimlich, Editor

There are few people that can be considered a human miracle, but Ben Lesser is one of them. Out of his immediate family of seven, Ben and his sister Lola were the only survivors of the Holocaust. He endured four concentration camps, two death marches, and two death trains. Ben spent five years in a living hell, as well as losing the majority of his family. As a testament to his strength and spirit, Ben dedicated his life to one main mission: educate, prevent and prevail. 

For Ben’s narrative on surviving we have the a video that prefaces the Stratford Crier interview.

Surviving Auschwitz

How I SURVIVED Four Different Nazi Concentration Camps | Ben Lesser

Q.  You were able to survive four concentration camps, two death marches, and two death trains How?

That’s a good question. I don’t know. I think I had some help from God. I should have been dead many times but it seems I always came out of it. I think God was wanting me to survive. Many of them, the Polish and Hungarian holocausts, and yet I survived, there must have been reason why God wanted me to survive.

Q.  How long you were not allowed to clean yourself?

Three weeks, no food, without water.

Q.  Do you still know your number and did you get a new one each time you were moved? 

Yes, I still know my number, and I always had the same number.

Q.  Did you know right away that you were liberated?

Yes, of course.

Q.  How did you know?

I saw the American soldiers, come in and they were shocked at what they saw, some of them couldn’t believe we were alive, but just barely, we were skeletons. Skeletons crawling because we couldn’t even walk. Some of the soldiers were throwing up.

Q.  What was the first thing the soldiers did for you and the others?

They offered me a can of Spam. They opened it up and it smelled so good and tasted so good. We were so hungry we had not eaten in weeks. My cousin and I ate it and then I came down with dysentery. My cousin died right there in my arms during the liberation, and I just barely survived. I fell into a coma a couple of hours later. I was in a coma for 5 weeks.

Q. Did they immediately take you to a hospital?

Yes, I woke up from my coma in a monastery in Bavaria; I opened my eyes—I was born there.

Q.  How long did it take you to dream again? Do you dream?

I don’t know the answer to that, most of my dreams are nightmares.

Q.  How long did it take you to enjoy good food?

I enjoyed food right away.  When I woke up they gave me liquids for a couple days, but then they gave me food again.

Q.  When did you come to the US?

December of 1947.  I came by myself on a boatload ship with other survivors. We came to New York harbor. It was quite an experience, we had never—Oh we were so excited— skyscrapers! I made a vow to myself, ‘Ben don’t ever forget the past, but from this day on you are starting a new life, you will be a success and make a beautiful life for yourself in this beautiful country America.’  It wasn’t easy but I made it. For 25 years I was driving a truck for UPS, and after 25 years I decided I wanted to go into real estate.  So I studied and I became a real estate agent salesman. And four years later I became a real estate broker and opened my own office. And I became pretty successful, even though with other real estate offices around me, here comes Ben Lesser, who is Ben Lesser? And all of a sudden I started to get listings and sales and I became pretty successful. It’s a story in itself. You are going to have to read my book to find out how I did it.

Note: At this point in the interview, his granddaughter Robyn Weber spoke up to remind him (in reference to my question about the first good food that he had) when, after his rebirth and he came out of the coma, he was with a bunch of  other survivors in July and they wanted to revisit a time when they would celebrate Purim. They knew he was a baker and asked him to bake…Ben begins the story.

I baked a lot of things for Purim. I decided since I had found out that 6 million of us had been killed, I decided to bake a Challah 6 foot long. That wasn’t simple, that wasn’t easy.

Q.  Where did you even find an oven that big?

Where we were had an oven 7 feet deep, that’s why I decided to do it. In St. Tertullian, it had an oven about seven feet deep. And they had sheet metal about 7 feet deep. So I had a hard time starting the Challah because it was at the other end, but I had girls that volunteered to help me so I asked the girls to hold the 4 braids on top of the sheet metal to hold it down, and then I asked them to get on top of the table, and I gave them each a braid, gave them each a number, and then asked number 1 to cross over to number 3, 3 cross over to 2. 

Anyway, so this is how we started, and halfway I could reach it to complete it, and then we put egg yolks on top and sprinkled sesame seeds.  Anyway four of us carried it into the dining hall, and the Rabbi was looking at us and when we uncovered the bread he said wow, he had never seen anything like that. I explained to him why it was 6 feet long, and he started to bawl, he was crying like a baby. And there were maybe a couple hundred people, and everybody was crying.

And then I made the Hamotzi (a blessing said before eating bread, and is traditionally recited at the start of a Jewish meal). He gave me the honor to make the Hamotzi and start the challah. Oh, everybody cried because it reminded us of our six million dear departed ones.

Q. How did it taste?

It was delicious, and we had hamantash and a lot of good food.

Q.  Did you stay in New York City or were you relocated?

I stayed in New York City with my older sister Lola, who survived, the only one out of a family of seven that survived.  All of my family, and there were seven of us, were slaughtered. My father Blaza (sp?) Lesser, my mother Chari (sp?), oldest brother Moshe, and Goldie, my oldest sister, my little brother Tuli. They were all slaughtered by the Nazis. Yeah, it was, it was hell on earth, all I can tell you.

Q.  Where did you meet your wife?

I met my wife in Los Angeles. We were married for 72 years. It was the most wonderful marriage anyone could see. We never quarreled, she passed two years ago.

Q.  Why do you believe so many people today deny the existence of the Holocaust?

They know better. They know the truth because nothing in the world has ever been as documented as the Holocaust.

They know, but they say, they think if they repeat a lie long enough, some people, especially the young kids, will believe it. So, we have to fight it. This is why I started the Zachor Holocaust Remembrance Foundation, to keep this world from acquiring amnesia.

Q.  Do schools teach the Holocaust?

Well, most of the schools in the United States teach the Holocaust, but some don’t. There are about seven or eight, nine states that don’t teach the Holocaust. In fact, in Nevada, this is the first year that we were lucky to get the government to allow it to teach the Holocaust. Not just the Holocaust, any history, Black history, Indian history. History is history, how can you teach World War II and not teach the Holocaust? But they do.

Q.  So, what are your views on our country now that you have adopted as your home?

The United States, of course. I live in Las Vegas, Nevada. That’s quite a flashy place.

Q.  Hate crimes and anti-Semitic rhetoric have ramped up since October 7^th.  Why do you believe this is happening?

Why?  Why was the Holocaust happening? People hate us. Don’t ask me why.

Q. I don’t understand it at all.

Well, neither do I. The Jewish people have, well, I think it has to do with jealousy because the Jewish people are mostly successful. And, I don’t know, this may be a reason. But who knows? Anti- Semitism has been going on way before even the Holocaust. You’re talking about biblical times.

So, it, this is, this is something that’s been going on for years, centuries. And why it’s more apparent now today is because people don’t understand each other. That’s the biggest issue.

Q.  I look at it and my surprise at this, or I look at the young people in the college campuses that are demonstrating against Jews or against Palestinians. And if you were to say to them, what do you even know about Palestine? What do you know about Israel? They know absolutely nothing.  They would not be able to find Palestine or Israel on the map.

That’s right. And yet they’re out there being anti-Semitic, anti-Palestinian, anti-Muslim.  It’s mind-blowing to me. Yes, it is. This is why what I do is so important. What I do is the Zachor Holocaust Remembrance Foundation. Zachor (The Hebrew word zachor means “you shall remember” or “to remember”), we will not allow them to forget.

We do everything possible. You have no idea how much I’m doing.

Q  Could you tell me more about your foundation?

All right. My foundation is like no other in the world. We have a curriculum on our foundation that teaches all over the world about the holocaust, many teachers teach out of it.

We have a shout out program where you can shout out for freedom, for love you can add a picture to your shout out and it will remain for generations. We have curriculum’s and tools that teach about the holocaust. We have survivor stories that they can listen to. Teach tolerance.

Q.  What can each of us do to combat this disturbing trend of Anti-Semitism, Anti-Palestinian, Anti-Muslum, Anti-Black?

Teach the holocaust.

Q.  Final words of wisdom stop the hate.

Hitler and Natzi’s did not start with murder, it started with hate.

STOP THE HATE!

Footnote:  Ben Lesser’s autobiography entitled, “Living a Life That Matters: From Nazi Nightmare to American Dream”, highlights his liberation and the aftermath of the Holocaust. Ben made a PSA speaking out against antisemitism, called Stop the Hatred, available on youtube, which he hopes will reach six million homes.