Print Issue: March 7, 2002

Students Walk Through Tragedy With Holocaust Survivor

By Erika Anderson, Staff Writer

Holocaust survivor Andre Kessler holds up the identification card he had to carry as a boy in the 1940s during the persecution of Jews. (Photos by Michael Alexander)

DECATUR - Unlike most people who lose loved ones, Andre Kessler cannot simply go to a cemetery to pay his respects.

But in 1969, on a "very cold, blustery late autumn day," Kessler recited the Jewish prayer for the dead amidst piles of ashes at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the concentration camp where 3.5 million Jews died. Kessler himself lost 120 family members-nearly 80 percent of his family-during what has become known as the Holocaust.

On Feb. 21, Kessler recounted his tale of Holocaust survival to a captivated audience of fifth- through eighth-graders at St. Thomas More School, Decatur. Middle school teacher Terry Collis, whose eighth-grade students had been studying the Holocaust, invited Kessler to speak.

"I am both a child of Holocaust survivors, and I technically am a Holocaust survivor," said Kessler.

Kessler was born in Bucharest, Romania-"the only Axis country that voted 'no' to the Jewish question" and did not systematically deport Jews-in 1940.

His father was arrested in December 1942 and sent to a slave labor camp. A large man at 6 feet 4 inches and 246 pounds, Kessler's father returned from the camp in 1945 weighing only 132 pounds.

"They almost worked him to death," Kessler said.

With his father gone to the work camp, Kessler said that he owed his life to "two very special people."

One was Kessler's mother, whom he called a "very stubborn lady," who refused to sew the Star of David onto their clothes, as was required for Jews. Fortunately, Kessler said his mother "did not look like the stereotypical Jew with her blonde hair and blue eyes."

The other person Kessler believes saved his life was the superintendent of his apartment building, who forged documents and stood outside the building "from dusk till dawn," lying to troops that the apartment had been cleared.

"That's where I spent almost two years of my life, with the windows darkened and blankets and sheets under the door to block the sound," he said.

During those years, Kessler lived on bowls of watery soup.

Above, Fifth-graders Grace Sechelski, left, and Anna Schnorbus hang on the words of Holocaust survivor Andre Kessler as he shares stories of family members shipped off to the Auschwitz concentration camp by boxcar. Kessler lost 120 family members during the Holocaust.

"I think I was five years old before I knew what a glass of milk was," he told the incredulous students.

The students reacted strongly when Kessler recounted the stories of his family members who were taken to Auschwitz in boxcars.

"My mother was one of six children; my father was one of 13," he said. "I should have lots of first cousins. Well, I don't."

His grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins were all sent to Auschwitz. His grandfather and grandmother were put into separate boxcars, and when his grandfather vehemently protested, he was clubbed to death and his body was thrown into the boxcar with his wife.

In 1947, when Romania turned into a communist country, young Andre and his mother made a plan of escape. His father owned several factories that were nationalized, and he arranged for his wife and son to flee first to Hungary and then to Austria, escaping through gaps in the barbed wire fences that were on the countries' borders.

After being arrested in Austria, the Austrian police sent Kessler and his mother to Vienna on a bus once they learned they were political refugees. In the meantime, Kessler's father planted bombs on timers and blew up his factories. He then left for France to join his two brothers. It would be 14 years before Kessler would see his father again.

On Aug. 7, 1951, Kessler and his mother boarded "a very small troop ship" to the United States. The ship had separate men's and women's sides, so 11-year-old Kessler was forced to separate from his mother.

"At first it was very traumatic, but then I began to enjoy it. I could eat as much whenever I wanted," and he roamed the ship as he pleased, he said. "It was my first real taste of freedom."

Andre Kessler, a Holocaust survivor, speaks to students at St. Thomas More School, Decatur, about the perils of growing up Jewish in Nazi Germany.

Kessler said that living in America was challenging at first. He had to learn English, as it was not one of the four languages he spoke. His mother worked a job from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Kessler admits he "learned how to use his fists early," and "even ran with a gang."

When he would skip school, teachers would send letters home. Kessler would insist to his mother, who could not read English, that they were letters of commendation for learning English. But when his mother discovered the truth, Kessler found himself in hot water.

Eighth-graders (l-r) Semhar Kifle-AB, Maggy Deiters and Caitlin Eley laugh at how the 6-foot-5-inch tall Andre Kessler was intimidated by his mother's "left hook" growing up as an adolescent in America when he found himself tempted to do the wrong things. At the same time, he referred to his mother as one of the "special people" he owed his life to.

"My mother was a wonderful woman, but she also had a left hook that would fell a mule," he joked.

At 6 feet 5 inches tall, Kessler was a natural athlete and played baseball, soccer and track and was on the rifle team. Kessler said he received passing grades in high school because if he did not, there would be "five coaches yelling at the teacher." However, after getting into some trouble, he was given the option of either enlisting in the military or going to jail. He became a medic in the Navy and eventually attended New York University on a basketball scholarship.

He graduated from NYU in 1963 and was drafted by the Philadelphia Warriors.

"I know you have never heard of me, but I know you have heard of my roommate," he said. "He was a young man by the name of Wilt Chamberlain."

In 1965, Kessler married a Savannah woman. They have two adult children ages 23 and 25.

As he spoke to the students, he told them that he speaks about his experience because of the fear of it happening again in the world.

"The question I'm asked most often, is 'why do you take time out of your schedule to talk about this?'" he said. "The answer is that if we ever forget history, we are doomed to repeat it."

Kessler showed the children examples of pockets of repetitive history illustrated in articles about hate crimes that have happened around the country and the world.

"There are over 60 Web sites that deny the Holocaust ever even happened, and those sites will link you to hate groups," he said, adding that in 1994, Nazi paraphernalia appeared in his east Cobb County neighborhood.

He reminded the children that a total of 11 million people, both Jewish and non-Jewish, perished in the Holocaust, and ended his talk the same way he said he always does.

"Before you judge one of your fellow human beings by the color of their skin or the shape of their eyes or their religious beliefs, walk a mile in their shoes," he said. "Inside we are all the same. We are all God's children."

Collis said that in hearing Kessler speak, her students gained an experience they could not fully learn in their textbooks.

"I think Mr. Kessler's visit helped the students connect to the reality of the horrors of the Holocaust," she said. "It (the Holocaust unit) was a unit they wanted to continue, and of course we could continue it for a whole year, but Mr. Kessler's visit was a culminating event for them in the study of the Holocaust unit."