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LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON
Holocaust survivor Ben Lesser held a gymnasium full of students in Fort Simpson spellbound last week as he told his cautionary tale against hatred, bullying and intolerance.

Ben Lesser, right, greets Rebekah Isaiah, one of the students who listened to his presentation in Fort Simpson on March 20. Lesser, a Holocaust survivor, shared a message of caution, remembrance and hope. - Roxanna Thompson/NNSL photo

"We have to learn to respect each other no matter who you are," he said.

"If you see someone being bullied, don't be a bystander."

Lesser, 84, has seen first hand what unbridled hatred can do. For three hours on March 20, Lesser captivated his audience of Thomas Simpson School students, as well as 11 students form Deh Gah School in Fort Providence, as he told them in graphic detail what he lived through between 1939 and 1945.

Lesser, who now lives in Las Vegas, survived the Holocaust during the Second World War. He told a harrowing tale of spending time in two concentration camps, Auschwitz and Dachau, as well as the Durnhau labour camp and being sent on a "death march."

Early in his talk, Lesser showed students photos of his Jewish family of seven.

Lesser was 10 years old when Germany invaded their home city of Krakow, Poland. By the end of the war, only Lesser and his sister Lola were still alive.

Standing at the front of the gymnasium in the recreation centre, speaking into a microphone and occasionally taking sips of water, Lesser explained how his family members died, the torture he endured and the atrocities he saw committed against Jews and non-Jews alike under the Nazi regime.

Thirteen-year-old Rebekah Isaiah of Fort Simpson said she was particularly struck by how Lesser and his family had to hide from the Nazis and how Lola's husband's family was killed.

At one point while living in a ghetto for Jews in Poland, Lesser's family received advance warning of a raid. They and other Jews spent a winter's night huddled in a small space between two buildings. They could hear screaming, gunfire and dogs barking all around them. Lesser said he will never forget what he saw when they emerged from their hiding place the next day.

Planning to hide from the raid

"We saw dead bodies all over the ground. Some women are still holding their babies, everybody dead," he said.

Lola and her husband Michael were planning to hide from the raid with his family in a space for seven that had been hollowed out of the ground under a dog house. A Jewish official, however, forced them to hide two of his family members, so Lola and Michael volunteered to find somewhere else to go.

They spent the night knee deep in freezing water in a water tank at a tannery while rats swam around them. The next day, they returned for Michael's family only to find they had been discovered and shot, their corpses left by the dog house.

For Garrett Bonnetrouge, 18, of Fort Providence, the most harrowing part of Lesser's story was what happened in the concentration and labour camps.

Lesser, his little brother, Lola and Michael had all been smuggled out of Poland into Czechoslovakia and then to Hungary. Lesser's parents were shot by soldiers while attempting the same trip after someone alerted the authorities.

However, Germany invaded Hungary in March 1944. Lesser, his little brother, his sister Goldie and an uncle and cousin were among the Jews who were ordered into cattle cars and set by train to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

"We had no idea what Auschwitz is," he said.

They heard screaming Nazi soldiers

When the cattle car doors opened, Nazi soldiers with dogs were screaming at them. Women and children were sent to the right and men to the left. Lesser never saw his little brother or Goldie again.

Lesser described the buildings with chimneys that had flames and ashes coming out of them.

The men thought they were smelting factories because we'd been told we were going to a labour camp, he said.

Later, the prisoner in charge of his barracks told Lesser and the other inmates that the factories were actually crematoriums and the ashes were all that remained of their wives, sisters and children.

"I couldn't believe what I heard," said Lesser.

He and the other men just held onto each other and cried.

It was really shocking what the Nazis did to the Jewish people, said Bonnetrouge.

Bonnetrouge said it was an honour to meet someone who had survived the Holocaust. Hearing about what happened from a survivor is more meaningful than reading about the Second World War in a textbook, he said.

Last generation

Those who hear his tale have a responsibility to remember, as this is the last generation who will be able to listen to a survivor, Lesser told his audience in Fort Simpson.

Remembrance is part of Lesser's goal. He's devoted the past 17 years to speaking about his Holocaust experiences to any school or other group that is willing to listen.

"We have to keep this world from acquiring amnesia," he said.

Lesser has also written a book about his life, Living a Life that Matters, and founded the Zachor Holocaust Remembrance Foundation.

Lesser cautioned students about what can happen if the evil that every human has inside of them is allowed to come out, but he also left them with a message of hope.

After being liberated from Dachau on April 29, 1945, at the age of 16, Lesser went on to immigrate to America at age 18. Despite not speaking English and having no formal education past the age of 10, Lesser built what he describes as a beautiful life for himself.

"There's no such thing as a deprived childhood," he told the students. "It's strictly up to you."

No matter what you've lived through you can choose to be miserable or choose to succeed, he said.

"You can do anything you wish. All you have to do is work hard and study hard."

The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs organized Lesser's tour, which also included stops in Inuvik, Norman Wells and Behchoko.

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