FARMINGTON—Leading up to the Davis County Library’s special Holocaust traveling exhibit Sept. 30-Nov. 6, the library has educational events planned for the public. On Aug. 27, the Farmington Headquarters library hosted the livestream presentation “Living A Life That Matters – Ben Lesser's Holocaust Survival Story.” Lesser was in the hospital so his daughter Gail Lesser Gerber stepped in to take his place.

Lesser, 96, soon to be 97, was 10 when the war started. Only he and his sister Lola survived. He has made it his mission through his ZACHOR Holocaust Remembrance Foundation to spread awareness, to remember and to never forget. 

“This is his legacy,” said Gerber. “He wanted to educate the public about the Holocaust.”

Holocaust means engulfed in flames, she said. “The Nazis wanted everything they (Jews) had to burn and be gone from the earth.”

There are three types of humanity, Gerber said. “The killers (Nazis), the victims and the bystanders. If you see something wrong, speak up. Do what it takes to make a difference.”

Dad lived in a beautiful town in Poland, she said. “My dad’s first taste of the Nazis coming in was about 5 a.m. when they could hear pounding on the streets. It was soldiers taking over the streets.”

The Nazis lined his street with their tanks, said Gerber. “He was a 10-year-old. It looked like a parade to him. His father brought them all into the living room and said ‘you are not children anymore. No crying, listen to me – our lives depend on it.’ From that day forward Ben’s life was changed.”

Gerber said the Nazis started pistol-whipping Ben’s father. “They were telling him to give them all of his jewelry, money, everything valuable they had. They put everything they could find in the apartment of value in sacks.”

There was a curfew from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., she said. “If you were caught out they’d just shoot you. There were no judges, no pleading for your life. No laws were being enforced for the Jewish people. The Nazis gave them a choice, either leave Krakow or go to the ghetto.”

Lesser and his family left the city and about two hours out of Krakow the Nazis stopped them on the road and said “we want your literature,” said Gerber. “They had a book burning because they didn’t want any Jewish literature.”

They traveled to Niepolomice then to Bochnia Ghetto after being warned of an impending raid. There Lesser witnessed children being pulled from their beds in the middle of the night and put on a truck. “Their parents were running down the street and the soldiers just opened fire on the parents and the children were taken to a mass grave and shot.”

Lesser witnessed atrocities and endured his own in places like Auschwitz and Dachau. “On the train to Auschwitz conditions were horrible,” said Gerber. “There were 80 people per car and there were only two buckets of water. That’s all they had.”

When they arrived it was nighttime and it was cold, she said. “My father was given the number 141212. He was standing in line with his uncle, cousin, little sister and little brother. His brother and sister were pulled away from the line never to be seen again.”

They spent hours waiting, said Gerber. “A doctor would ask them if they were strong. If they were skinny they would send them to the left (line) but that meant they would go to the gas chamber.”

Dad was at Auschwitz for two weeks, she said. “They transferred him by truck to a rock quarry labor sub camp in Dachau. He was there for about a year.”

Dachau was liberated in April 1945, Gerber said. “He came to America with no money and didn’t know the language but he made a beautiful life for himself.”

There is a Jewish blessing, “May you live to be 120,” she said. “My dad will do 120 in spite of what Hitler did to him.”

For more information about Lesser and the foundation visit https://www.zachorfoundation.org/.