Holocaust – Gidon Lev: “There is always tomorrow”

Mr. Lev, in December 1941 you, your parents and your grandfather were deported from Karlsbad to Theresienstadt. Did you have any idea what awaited you there?

First, my father and grandfather were sent to Theresienstadt by the Nazis. They were supposed to help set up the camp, the barbed wire, the sleeping places. Two weeks later my mother and I arrived there, but I never saw my grandfather again. He was ill, was taken to the infirmary and died there a year and a half later. I have documents to prove this. Father was in Theresienstadt for over three years, where he had to work in a mine. Ten days before the Red Army arrived, he was forced on the death march to Auschwitz. He died on the way. Only my mother and I survived.

Interview

Gidon Levborn in 1935 in Czechoslovakia, in Karlovy Vary (Karlsbad). After the liberation in 1945, he first went to the USA and Canada. In 1959 he moved to Israel and founded Kibbutz Hazorea, where he worked as a farmer. He was late in confronting his own suffering and that of his family during the Nazi era. His memoirs: “Let’s make things better!” were recently published on the German book market.

Did you know about the Nazi death camps?

The people in Theresienstadt knew nothing about Treblinka, Buchenwald or Mauthausen. Not me as a small child anyway. But we were all very afraid that there might be something bad in our food. Everything the Nazis said about the Theresienstadt camp was a lie.

They had to watch executions there. That must have been unbearable for a child.

In the first few months the SS issued postcards. It said: “It’s okay, we’re okay. Best regards!” That was a lie. There were young men who tried to send their own postcards with messages about the lack of food and the hard work. The Nazis found out. One day we heard terrible screams. The SS tortured people with lit cigarettes in a cellar so that they would tell who had smuggled out the postcards and letters. And then they hanged 16 people. The women and children had to watch this. The SS said this would also happen to them if they tried to send illegal letters.

And you had to see all of this as a child!

As the murdered men were being untied, my mother turned her head to the side. There were no gas chambers or shootings in Theresienstadt, but the only thing waiting for us there was death. Almost 35,000 Jewish people died there. They died of malnutrition, disease, overwork or despair. It could happen that you were working one day and the next day you received a message to report to the train station. Why? Who knows. The SS said they wanted to transport 155 young people. The Jews had to decide for themselves which of them should go. That was terrible.

How did the selection go?

An example: My mother had an abscess over her breast. The doctor in the hospital room had been our family doctor and my obstetrician in Carlsbad. The SS told him to take 155 of his patients to the train station the next morning. Mother was on this list twice, Dr. Feldmann deleted her name twice. But that meant someone else had to take her place. Or they would have taken the doctor with them themselves. Fear reigned in Theresienstadt the whole time. Everything was a lie.

How do you deal with children in the camp?

Men were housed in their own barracks. And anyone older than ten lived in a group and not with their parents. The children usually had an inmate who played with them or taught them. This wasn’t legal, but the Nazis didn’t know about it. They also sent children on the transports, and the Jews had to decide about that themselves. A terrible thing. I don’t want to think about it anymore.

What was the daily routine like in the camp?

My mother went to the warehouse yard at six in the morning, where the women were assigned to heavy physical work. I haven’t seen her all day. At eight in the evening she was so tired that she went to sleep immediately after the soup. During that time I tried to find a piece of bread or half an apple. Sometimes I stole six or seven apples from a truck. Once we children discovered barrels of jam, so we had something sweet on a piece of bread. This is how I survived.

Was it possible to talk to individual Nazi guards?

No no. Everyone was afraid of everyone. You never knew if someone really wanted to help you. This person could have been punished and transported away for this. It’s really hard for me to tell you this. Look, this photo shows my grandmother, she died in Prague in 1941. This is my father and my grandfather Alfred, and this is me on my third birthday. Everyone but me is gone.

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Did your mother explain to you in the camp that your father and many other relatives had been murdered?

First of all, she didn’t know it herself. And she wasn’t a mother who talked much to her son. But she always said: “Be careful!” Talking wasn’t her forte. Not then and not later either. Here is another interesting photo from October 1934. Hitler was already in power then. The picture was taken in Carlsbad on the promenade and shows my great-grandmother Rosa, my grandfather and my parents. I was still in my mother’s womb. Everyone looks happy. What happened in Germany was far away. We lived in Czechoslovakia. But soon the good life was over.

Jump in time: In 1985 you met a group of students from the Ruhr area in northern Israel. Was that your first encounter with Germans since 1945?

Yes. Nof HaGalil is the upper city of Nazareth, where most Israeli Arabs live. It is also a sister city to Leverkusen. A delegation of students and teachers came to us for ten days, and the mayor knew that I spoke German. So I helped interpret. Then the teacher asked me if I wanted to speak to his students as a Holocaust survivor. I thought, why not. It was the first time and very emotional, not only for me, but also for the young people who hugged me afterwards. I then did the same thing in schools in Nazareth.

After your liberation from the concentration camp, it took you more than 40 years to be able to tell your story. Was it a relief that you did this in front of young people from Germany?

Yes, you can say that. I had a large family, my life was focused on the present and the future, but this encounter with young Germans brought me back. After I spoke to these young people from Leverkusen, I didn’t think it was such a bad idea to look back at everything that had happened to me. I asked myself: What can I do to make the world a better place?

Your book contains the remarkable sentence: “Yes, there is a tomorrow!” Your lifelong motto?

As long as we live, there is always tomorrow. Hope is life. We are only a tiny part of this world, but we can make it a little better. And today and not just at some point.

You were the first Holocaust survivor to speak at an official diplomatic event in the United Arab Emirates. How was your speech received?

It was very moving and very special, for many reasons. I, an Israeli Jew, speak about the Holocaust in an Arab country. Most Arabs don’t know anything about it. And then little Gidon came and told them what had happened to him as a child. There were perhaps 200 men and women in the auditorium, including ambassadors. Because the Holocaust happened, we Jews deserved our own state. We live together with Arabs. I have Arab neighbors. We can and must live together. This is our future.

How often do you experience encounters between Israelis and Palestinians in everyday life that give hope?

The period since October 7th has been terrible for all of us, Jews and Palestinians, Muslims and Christians. We have to do it differently in the future. And we can do it too! I’m not the only one who thinks like that. Many thousands of others believe this too. Of course there are also those who don’t see it that way; but that’s not new. We have to do something to ensure that Israelis and Arabs can live together. We need to see each other as people.

Are you an optimist?

Yes. Because I know that things can always get better. I have experienced this myself. I had cancer, a transitional cell carcinoma in the bladder. After seven years my doctor said to me: “My dear Gidon, your cancer has grown. I could operate on you, but you should have the best doctor ever. I’ll give you the names of two specialists in Haifa. Pick one and let him operate on you.” And here I am, 14 years later.

Has humanity really learned from the Holocaust?

I don’t know it. I hope humanity has learned something from this. I think the Holocaust that we Jews suffered will never happen again. But there were other, smaller holocausts that are less well known. For example in Rwanda. We need to educate as much as possible. My partner Julie Gray is very good at it. Without them my book would not have been published. We want to make the world a better place together. Let’s make things better!

Gidon Lev/Julie Gray: Let’s make things better! A Holocaust survivor on the power of positivity. Mosaic Publishing. 224 p., hardcover, €22.