Holocaust Survival Stories
Rudi Leavor
We were fully integrated and assimilated into German society, German culture, and my parents had many non-Jewish friends. So we considered ourselves to be Germans and we happened to be Jewish as well."
Rudi was born in Berlin in 1926 and spent his childhood years there with his parents and younger sister. Rudi's father was a dentist and the family lived in a flat with one room set aside as his father's surgery. The family were orthodox and kept a kosher home but were also fully integrated into German culture and society. Rudi's parents had many non-Jewish friends. Their best friends were non-Jewish and the lady of the couple taught Rudi to play the piano.
Rudi went to a German school from the age of six and only experienced one anti-Semitic incident during his four years at primary school. His main memory of the Nazis before 1936 is of seeing and hearing the marches of SS and SA men along the main road where he lived. Rudi found these marches, and the aggressive songs the marchers sung, terrifying.
Rudi pinpoints the time things changed for his family to an incident in 1936. As Rudi was setting off for school, two plain-clothes Gestapo arrived at the flat and pushed their way into the flat while his parents were still in bed. After Rudi had left, the Gestapo told his parents to be ready in 10 minutes to go to the headquarters of the Lodge. Rudi's father was President and his mother was Treasurer of the ladies' Lodge. They were told to bring with them any money they had that belonged to the Lodge. Once ready, they were taken to the Lodge where other members were already assembled, and made to stand silently in a line for hours. Towards the end of the afternoon Rudi's mother was forced to hand over the money she had brought with her which belonged to the Lodge. Finally the people were released and told to make their own way home.
After that, Rudi's parents decided they needed to get ready to leave. His father came to England five times, and his mother three times, in order to get entry visas for the family. His father also had to get permission from the dental board to work as a dentist. He was told to avoid going to London and Manchester, as there were already too many refugee dentists in those towns. However Rudi's mother had a distant relative in Bradford who was very helpful in enabling him to set up a dental practice there. The family moved to Bradford on 10 November 1937.
On arrival they had to start life again from scratch. Rudi's father had to start earning a living immediately, which wasn't easy, and they lived in a cold house. Thankfully his parents were able to ship their furniture out with them. Rudi's father enrolled him in Bradford grammar school where he made rapid progress in learning English, though he found it hard to make friends. However, although it was difficult at first, the family were very glad to get out of Germany and Bradford became home straight away.
Rudi did National Service in the Army and followed in his father's footsteps in training to be a dentist. He met his future wife Marianne after giving a talk to a youth group attached to a London synagogue. Rudi and Marianne settled in Bradford and in 1959 decided to change their name, from Rudi's original surname Liebowitz to the Anglicised version Leavor. For many years Rudi has been an active member of the Reform synagogue in Bradford. He and Marianne have four children and eight grandchildren.
Rudi was born in Berlin in 1926 and spent his childhood years there with his parents and younger sister. Rudi's father was a dentist and the family lived in a flat with one room set aside as his father's surgery. The family were orthodox and kept a kosher home but were also fully integrated into German culture and society. Rudi's parents had many non-Jewish friends. Their best friends were non-Jewish and the lady of the couple taught Rudi to play the piano.
Rudi went to a German school from the age of six and only experienced one anti-Semitic incident during his four years at primary school. His main memory of the Nazis before 1936 is of seeing and hearing the marches of SS and SA men along the main road where he lived. Rudi found these marches, and the aggressive songs the marchers sung, terrifying.
Rudi pinpoints the time things changed for his family to an incident in 1936. As Rudi was setting off for school, two plain-clothes Gestapo arrived at the flat and pushed their way into the flat while his parents were still in bed. After Rudi had left, the Gestapo told his parents to be ready in 10 minutes to go to the headquarters of the Lodge. Rudi's father was President and his mother was Treasurer of the ladies' Lodge. They were told to bring with them any money they had that belonged to the Lodge. Once ready, they were taken to the Lodge where other members were already assembled, and made to stand silently in a line for hours. Towards the end of the afternoon Rudi's mother was forced to hand over the money she had brought with her which belonged to the Lodge. Finally the people were released and told to make their own way home.
After that, Rudi's parents decided they needed to get ready to leave. His father came to England five times, and his mother three times, in order to get entry visas for the family. His father also had to get permission from the dental board to work as a dentist. He was told to avoid going to London and Manchester, as there were already too many refugee dentists in those towns. However Rudi's mother had a distant relative in Bradford who was very helpful in enabling him to set up a dental practice there. The family moved to Bradford on 10 November 1937.
On arrival they had to start life again from scratch. Rudi's father had to start earning a living immediately, which wasn't easy, and they lived in a cold house. Thankfully his parents were able to ship their furniture out with them. Rudi's father enrolled him in Bradford grammar school where he made rapid progress in learning English, though he found it hard to make friends. However, although it was difficult at first, the family were very glad to get out of Germany and Bradford became home straight away.
Rudi did National Service in the Army and followed in his father's footsteps in training to be a dentist. He met his future wife Marianne after giving a talk to a youth group attached to a London synagogue. Rudi and Marianne settled in Bradford and in 1959 decided to change their name, from Rudi's original surname Liebowitz to the Anglicised version Leavor. For many years Rudi has been an active member of the Reform synagogue in Bradford. He and Marianne have four children and eight grandchildren.
Eva Mozes Kor
Eva Mozes Kor and her twin sister Mariam grew up in a small village in Romania in the 1940s. They were the only Jewish family in that region. When the holocaust started their father comforted them saying that the Germans wouldn’t come there just for six Jews. But unfortunately they did come. At the age of 10, Eva was loaded on to a crowded cattle car with her family and relocated at Auschwitz. There were no toilets and ventilation.
The sight of Auschwitz made her feel like she was in hell that was placed on earth. Thirty minutes after she and her twin got down, they lost their family who were sent to the gas chambers to be murdered. Eva and her sister were taken to the experiment part of the camp where Dr. Mengele would experiment them. The sight of dead children made her make a pledge that she would do everything she can for her sister and herself so they wouldn’t end up like those children.
Eva’s pledge was tested over and over again through her captivity, by Dr. Joseph Mengele.
Mengele performed horrific experiments on his victims, studying the effects of drugs and poisons on twins, using a human like a guinea pig. He injected Eva and Mariam three times a week with all kinds of germs and drugs and chemicals. After one of those injections Eva became terribly sick. Later the doctor gave her a verdict that she will live only for another two weeks. Eva refused to accept that verdict. For the next two weeks Eva was in and out of consciousness, often waking up on the floor or crawling to a water faucet- never making it, but somehow convincing her to survive.
And she did survive, spoiling Mengele’s experiments and making sure to keep up her pledge. After nine months of experiments in captivity, Eva and her sister were liberated from the horrors of Auschwitz by Russian troops. Though free, Eva was held captive by a different kind of prison, one of bitterness and unforgiveness. She remained in her invisible cell until the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. While visiting the camp where so many horrible events shaped her life, Eva made another kind of pledge. She forgave.
Today, Eva runs her own Holocaust museum in Terra Haute, Indiana, in the memory of her sister Miriam, who died of cancer in the 90s. She also shares her experiences from her time at Auschwitz, and the lessons she learned on the path to forgiveness.
Her message now is simple – forgive – even your worst enemies.
The sight of Auschwitz made her feel like she was in hell that was placed on earth. Thirty minutes after she and her twin got down, they lost their family who were sent to the gas chambers to be murdered. Eva and her sister were taken to the experiment part of the camp where Dr. Mengele would experiment them. The sight of dead children made her make a pledge that she would do everything she can for her sister and herself so they wouldn’t end up like those children.
Eva’s pledge was tested over and over again through her captivity, by Dr. Joseph Mengele.
Mengele performed horrific experiments on his victims, studying the effects of drugs and poisons on twins, using a human like a guinea pig. He injected Eva and Mariam three times a week with all kinds of germs and drugs and chemicals. After one of those injections Eva became terribly sick. Later the doctor gave her a verdict that she will live only for another two weeks. Eva refused to accept that verdict. For the next two weeks Eva was in and out of consciousness, often waking up on the floor or crawling to a water faucet- never making it, but somehow convincing her to survive.
And she did survive, spoiling Mengele’s experiments and making sure to keep up her pledge. After nine months of experiments in captivity, Eva and her sister were liberated from the horrors of Auschwitz by Russian troops. Though free, Eva was held captive by a different kind of prison, one of bitterness and unforgiveness. She remained in her invisible cell until the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. While visiting the camp where so many horrible events shaped her life, Eva made another kind of pledge. She forgave.
Today, Eva runs her own Holocaust museum in Terra Haute, Indiana, in the memory of her sister Miriam, who died of cancer in the 90s. She also shares her experiences from her time at Auschwitz, and the lessons she learned on the path to forgiveness.
Her message now is simple – forgive – even your worst enemies.