Holocaust Survivor Shares His Story

The man sitting across from me seems amiable enough. He appears to be in his mid-70­s, smiles often and is quick with a joke. Within seconds of sitting down he already has me cracking a smile as he pulls out his Starbucks card and offers to buy me coffee. In slacks and a wrinkled button-down shirt he looks like the type of professor who could make science or history seem more interesting than what you're doing this weekend, and while he was a teacher, that's not why he's being interviewed.

The man sitting before me is Leon Leyson, formerly Leib Lezjon, and he is a survivor of one of the worst tragedies in human history, the Holocaust.

Leyson, never discussed his experience for more than 45 years after the end of World War II.

Following World War II Leyson and his family spent three years in a refugee camp before being sought out by relatives in America. Upon his arrival in the U.S., he quickly came to the conclusion that people in America would never be able to understand what he had been through.

"When I first came to America, my relatives started asking me about my experience in the war," said Leyson. "I told them that I was hungry nearly all the time. One of my relatives said 'I understand, we could only eat meat three times a week.' It was clear to me then we weren't on the same page."

All that changed in 1993 with the release of Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List."

"There was this attitude of 'enough already we don't want to hear about [the Holocaust],"' Leyson said. "Then 'Schindler's List' came out and everything changed."

At the age of 13, Leyson was the youngest person Oscar Schindler saved. Schindler was a German factory owner who went to Poland planning to profit off of what amounted to Jewish slave labor under the Nazi occupation. After becoming aware of the Nazi's plan to systematically exterminate the Jewish people, Schindler decided to save as many as he could from the gas chamber.

"He couldn't accept [the extermination]," Leyson said. "He decided he wouldn't let his Jews die. He spent all his money, and risked his life trying to save his Jews."

Schindler and Leyson met only once following the war. When Leyson went up to introduce himself, assuming that Schindler would not recognize the man the little boy had grown into, Schindler took one look at him and exclaimed, "I know you, you are little Leyson!"

It was an emotional moment for Layson.

As the youngest worker in Schindler's factory, Leyson enjoyed a special bond with the factory owner.

"I used to stand on a box in the factory because I couldn't reach the equipment," Leyson said. "He would come up to me and ask how I was doing. We didn't have much in common, but he made a point to stop and talk to a kid like me because it was the right thing to do."

After coming to America, Leyson attended Los Angeles Trade Tech, a community college, despite having a limited grasp of the English language.

"I don't know how I got in," Leyson said, referring to an entrance exam he was required to take. "You may understand the whole question, but if you don't understand one word, you're screwed basically."

After graduation Leyson was once again put in mortal danger when he was drafted into the Korean War.

"[When I was drafted,] it was hard for my parents," Leyson said. "They'd lost their two oldest sons; my mother thought she should have at least one."

Leyson went on to become an industrial arts teacher at Huntington Park High School for more than 39 years. His wife, Liz, served as both a teacher and an administrator at Fullerton College.

When asked to weigh in on modern issues, Leyson is quick to share his opinions on everything from whom he believes to be the worst president ever, Jimmy Carter, to people who deny that the Holocaust occurred.

"There are two types of people who deny the Holocaust; those who don't know and are ignorant, and those who know and make a living from it - they are criminals."

Leyson becomes particularly animated when discussing modern Islamic extremism.

"They are using the same propaganda as the Nazis," Leyson said. "They even use the same terms for Jews, [like] pigs."

The most remarkable thing about Leyson, is his positive attitude. As a survivor of a genocide that claimed the lives of two of his brothers, his entire extended family and a total six million Jews, few would deny him the right to be bitter.

"I've been lucky all my life," Leyson said. "I survived a tragedy that claimed the lives of so many, and I've been treated in [America] like no other country in the world." After a recent speaking engagement at a Chabad Center in Yorba Linda, Leyson became a sought-after speaker, receiving requests to speak as far away as New Zealand.

He is quick to point out that speaking about the Holocaust is not what he "does," but he is encouraged by people's interest.

"I don't expect people to go around thinking about [the Holocaust] all the time, I don't do that," Leyson said. "While it is important, my basis for how I live my life is not based on my experiences in the Holocaust."

Leyson will be speaking in the Campus Theatre this coming Wednesday from 12:00 - 1:30 p.m. For more information visit the Cadena Transfer Center located in the College Center.