Holocaust survivor Nate Leipciger recalls surviving seven concentration camps

Holocaust survivor Nate Leipciger is the author of “The Weight of Freedom” which was published by the Azrieli Foundation. The organization preserves and shares the memoirs written by Holocaust survivors who immigrated to Canada after World War II. Recently I visited Nate in his Palm Beach County home where he shared his story of survival.

“I was born February 28th, 1928 in Chorzów, Poland. The city is located in the Silesia region of southern Poland near Katowice. My father’s name was Jacob and my mother was Leah Percik. I had an older sister named Blima. My father was a merchant and tailor who came from an Orthodox background. My mother came from a liberal background, however her parents kept a kosher home. Most residents in our apartment building worked in the coal mine. Coal was the city’s lifeline. I remember the first day of class in the Jewish public school I attended. I received a cone full of candy and crayons from my parents even though we didn’t have much money. The cone was small in comparison to the ones the other children received, but to me it was the biggest and greatest. I attended cheder after my regular classes. Blima and I also belonged to a Zionist youth group called Akiba. During my summer vacations my family rented a farmhouse. In 1935, when I was seven, Christian friends I knew for years started to become hostile. They would attack me and other Jewish children and call us ‘Dirty Jews’. My father was a merchant who worked in the town’s market. He was attacked once carrying a suitcase full of merchandise. Jewish storefronts were smeared with paint – ‘Zyd’ (Jew) and ‘Don’t buy from Jews. In the summer of 1939 while my family was on vacation, my grandmother fell and broke her hip and died shortly afterwards. This was the first close relative I lost. Fearing an invasion from the Germans was inevitable, in August 1939, my father had my mother take us to Lodz. He stayed behind waiting to be called up by the Polish reserve. He felt it was his patriotic duty to serve.”

Nate recalled the Nazi invasion.

“As the Germans approached Lodz my family was forced to live in different homes. On September 8th, 1939 the Germans entered Lodz. The city was home to over 220,000 Jews. In the apartment building I was staying in, soldiers disrupted a prayer meeting and proceeded to cut off the men’s beards and beat them up. In October my grandfather obtained train tickets to take us back to Chorzów. My father anticipated vandalism and looting would soon occur so he brought merchandise home from my uncle’s store. My father was ordered to bring the store keys to city hall and the German government confiscated the store. In early October my father was forced to report for work in eastern Poland. Our city was annexed by the Third Reich and we moved to Sosnowiec. We adjusted to the new circumstances and lived in the Jewish district which was considered an open ghetto. My mother and sister made money running a home knitting business. Selling on the open streets was prohibited. Six men were made an example of after they were arrested for doing business in the Black Market. The Nazis convicted the men and executed them in a public hanging. In November 1939 all Jews were required to wear pull up Star of David armbands. By 1941 we would be forced to wear armbands sewn onto our clothing. In February 1940 my family found out that my father had escaped from his labor camp and was in his hometown of Czestochowa. After joining us in Sosnowiec, my father volunteered for labor work. During another work detail, my father was sent to another slave labor camp. At the age of 12 I enrolled in an electrical apprentice course. I obtained a job as an electrician’s apprentice in a shoe factory and learned to make shoes as well. The skills I learned as an apprentice would later save my life. On March 7th, 1941 I was bar mitzvahed in a basement unbeknown to the Nazis. After my father’s return he was assigned to the Jewish police force. My grandfather died from a stroke. I remember my mother being relieved that he had died before the deportations to the concentration camps began. In the summer of 1942 the Judenrat (Nazi established Jewish councils) issued a decree requiring all Jews to report to a local park. This was the first deportation destined for Auschwitz. Fortunately my family was released, however the threat of deportation was constant. In the fall of 1942 my family was ordered to move to a ghetto in Srodula.”

Nate recollects being deported.

“In the summer of 1943 my parents, sister and I were discovered hiding in our building’s attic along with other tenants. I remember hearing children cry, ‘Mommy, when are we going home?’ While being deported on a train for an unknown destination (that ended up being Auschwitz) I remember my mother saying, ‘Take care. Look after yourselves. If we get separated we will meet after the war. She also said, ‘What we once had no longer matters. We have each other’. As we got off of the train the SS shouted, ‘Men to the left, women to the right’. I was 15 and that was the last time I saw my mother and sister. After we were shaved of all body hair and tattooed, we were taken to our barracks. We were told that we were in the quarantine camp Auschwitz II, also known as Birkenau. I looked like a scarecrow in my oversized clothes. My father and I hid during selections for the gas chambers. The knowledge that people were being unsuspectingly marched to their deaths was unbearable. Our days were numbered and we knew it. The daily fight for life occupied my senses. My father told me if we are marched to our deaths we will do so with our heads held high reciting the Shema. The two of us endured three months in the notorious death camp before being selected for labor work at another camp. Our exit from Auschwitz was a reality. To avoid our separation, my father told the Nazis that I was trained as an electrical apprentice. I owe my survival to my father. His resourcefulness kept the two of us together throughout the duration of the war.”

Nate recalled leaving Auschwitz.

“In October 1943 my father and I arrived at the Funfteichen Concentration Camp (a slave labor camp for Krupp). Several of my work duties included being a gofer for an electrician. In December 1944 air raids became frequent and on January 21st, 1945 we were evacuated from the camp after being there 15 months. Our next camp was Gross-Rosen where my father and I were selected to carry the dead out of the barracks and place them on pyres for burning. In our next camp called Flossenbürg (located in Germany) my father was severely beaten for taking a carrot that was sticking out of a truck. We were then sent to Mühldorf, a sub camp of Dachau located in the foothills of the Alps in Bavaria, Germany. I worked in the kitchen while my father worked in the village clearing debris from the Allied bombings. We were then sent to Waldlager (a forest camp). With each camp our desperation increased and our hope for survival diminished. On May 2nd, 1945 the American army liberated the camp. My father and I embraced, danced, laughed and cried with joy. The soldiers took photographs of me for documentation. The war ended on May 8th, 1945 and I was treated in the hospital for typhus. After leaving my father in Bamberg, Germany, I journeyed home to Chorzów arriving on August 29th, 1945. Where the synagogue once stood was a vacant lot. I did not want to stay. My family and community were gone.”

Nate recalled moving to Canada.

“My father’s only surviving brother, Dave, lived in Canada and I felt we should move there. I joined my father back in Bamberg and we finally received our visas on June 24th, 1948. We sailed for Canada arriving in Quebec City on September 28th, 1948. It was the first time my father saw his brother in 35 years. We moved into the heart of Toronto’s Jewish neighborhood. My father found work as a tailor in a women’s coat factory where my uncle was a senior designer. My father and I attended High Holiday services shortly after arriving in Toronto. Yom Kippur was painful and emotional especially, since we believed my mother and sister were murdered on Yom Kippur 1943. I enrolled in high school after having no formal education for 9 years. Fellow students made me feel uncomfortable and referred to me as the ‘DP’. My father married a woman from Poland named Toby. I could not come to terms with calling her mother, so we referred to each other by our first names. I continued to struggle with my identity in this strange new world. I studied electrical engineering at the University of Toronto and graduated in 1955. I married my wife, Bernice, during my senior year and became the proud parents of three daughters, nine grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren. After working at several engineering firms, I opened my own firm in 1962 and sold it after 45 years in 2007. My father died after suffering a stroke in 1972. It was the most traumatic experience for me since the Holocaust. He was the last connection to what I still considered ‘Home.’”

Nate reflected on his visit back to Auschwitz.

“In 1975, Bernice and I traveled to Europe which included visits to my hometown and Auschwitz. It was exactly 30 years since the war ended and evoked new and painful emotions for me. Tears welled up in my eyes. I was completely and emotionally exhausted. The trip reminded me of my obligation to bear witness to the atrocities of the Shoah and I have dedicated my life to doing just that. There is no more impactful way to tell the story of the Shoah than on the site where it took place. In 1982 I became chair of the Holocaust Memorial Centre in Toronto and became involved in other Canadian Holocaust organizations as well. I also helped oversee the creation of Holocaust Education Week by the Toronto Holocaust Remembrance Committee. The initiative is now recognized as the largest such Holocaust education project in the world. I went on my first March of the Living in 1998 and have participated several times since. I felt that Jewish continuity would be assured through these young people that accompanied us. As a survivor and educator, nothing can be more rewarding than telling my story in the barracks of Birkenau and seeing the understanding and compassion on the faces of the participants. Their dedication and commitment gives meaning to the slogan, ‘Never Again’. All of my grandchildren accompanied me on later marches. In 2007, I marched with three generations of my family.”

Nate shared his words of wisdom.

“My message to the next generation is to learn from the history of our people. Be a proud and committed Jew. We have the right to live with dignity, respect and freedom.”