Courtesy Photo | Alex Keisch, a Holocaust survivor, receives a gift of appreciation from Michael...... read more read more
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FORT LEE, Va. (May 5, 2016) -- “The single most unbelievable event of the 20th century is the Holocaust,” said Alex Keisch, a survivor of the genocide during his talk at the Fort Lee Holocaust Remembrance Day observance in the Lee Theater Tuesday.
Keisch, the son of Jewish partisans (freedom fighters), was born in the waning days of World War II on the site of the Nazi work camp Plaszov in Poland. He was the featured speaker at the Army Logistics University-sponsored observance. The theme was “Learning from the Holocaust: Acts of Courage.”
Jay Ipson, a Holocaust survivor and co-founder of the Virginia Holocaust Museum, was an honorary guest. He led a candle lighting ceremony. Lt. Col Robert Mann, 71st Transportation Battalion commander, welcomed the estimated 250 audience members.
“As we listen to our speakers, see the videos and review the documents displayed here, try to reflect on the struggles and hardships they endured,” Mann said. “It is easy to see the inhumanity of the Holocaust but as you reflect on the atrocities, also remember the courage and stories of survival from thousands who were able to overcome these hardships.”
Keisch noted, “It was the greatest wanton murder of people in the history of mankind. One Holocaust Survivor has said,‘dying was easy. Surviving was the hard part.’ Living for so many was an act of courage.”
During his remarks, he used humor, heart-warming descriptions and hard facts filtered through his personal perspective of the Holocaust. His vivid talk was aided by slides detailing a visual timeline of his family’s personal experiences as they witnessed atrocious events until their escape.
Keisch is a former captain in the Merchant Marines and commanded 10 ships during his career.
He recounted stories about the many Jews who performed acts of courage in the Holocaust including his father. “He was a big, strong Polish peasant from a large, poor family. They needed to have a big family on a farm to stay alive and everybody had to pitch in.”
When the Nazi regime took control of Poland in 1939, he said, Jews were required to wear a Star of David arm band to identify themselves as Jews. “My father never wore a star – he absolutely refused to wear a star.”
Keisch said, “As a Jew, the Nazis had a special title for us – ‘Life that’s not worthy of living.’”
Jews could not walk on sidewalks but only in the streets. “Many Jews said ‘don’t ask questions. It’s a storm. All storms pass.’”
Polish Jews lived under horrible conditions, widespread anti-Semitism and with little food.
His father did not believe it was a temporary situation, Keisch noted. His father and mother met in the woods in Poland where he was a partisan who along with other Jews fought German soldiers. “There were some 20,000-30,000 partisans fighting Germans. Many were city dwellers.”
He called his father “a man who had the ultimate courage.” He had 13 brothers and sisters, and his mother had one brother. “All 14 of my aunts and uncles, all my cousins, all my distant cousins, all grandparents – every last one of them were slaughtered in the Holocaust.
“That which you can take for granted, please don’t take for granted. Reach out today or tonight to your family,” he urged the audience members.
His father was captured one day while on a patrol, Keisch related. “His hands were tied behind his back along with other prisoners and they marched single file along a narrow path in a dense forest. As God would have it, coming in the other direction was a group of mourners walking single file in a funeral procession – they looked much like the prisoners. My father turned quickly and joined the funeral march and escaped. Life sometimes turns on a dime.”
Keisch and his twin brother Walter survived the rigors and perils of growing up in post-war Germany from a Red Cross displaced persons camp to a convent in Switzerland and eventually to safe refuge in America.
“I don’t want this room full of people to feel sorry for me. I felt sorry for myself long enough,” he said.
He urged community members to remember the acts of courage and messages of hope by Survivors. Keisch, who frequently talks to students about bullying, noted, “Genocides are the cumulative result of decades, generations and sometimes centuries of bullying. My message to them and you today is to focus on these five words, ‘We don’t allow that here.”
Rabbi Yossel Kranz of Chabad of Virginia, Richmond, gave the invocation and benediction and was among six who lit candles in memory of the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. Six ALU students recited a poem in memory of the victims. The Fort Lee 392nd Army Band played symbolic music prior to the observance.
| Date Taken: | 05.05.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 05.05.2016 11:32 |
| Story ID: | 197384 |
| Location: | RICHMOND, VA, US |
| Web Views: | 270 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Survivor cites acts of courage by family during Holocaust, by Terrance Bell, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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