Schindler's
List. The sheet of paper, a photocopy, is folded and faded. The original meant
the difference between life and death for those fortunate to have their names on
it more than 60 years ago.
To more than 1200 Jewish people Oscar Schindler was all that stood between them and
death at the hands of the Nazis. But Schindler remained true to his Jews. He
kept the SS out and everyone alive.
Leib Lejzon was one of them. One column of numbers and names, No. 69128,
Eisendrehergeh., it says in German next to his name.
Leon Leyson
Leib Lejzon - today Leon Leyson, retired Huntington Park High School teacher - was the youngest survivor of Oscar Schindler's
List. He was born on September 15, 1929, in Narewka, a peaceful town 150 miles
northeast of Warsaw.
Here Moshe and Chana Lejzon led a happy life, highlighted by the births of their
five children, Hershel, Tsalig, Pesza, David and Lejb. The Lejzon family's
feelings of security collapsed, however, when in 1939, Germany invaded Poland,
and the brutality of the Nazis accelerated with murder, violence and terror - the family was herded into Kracow's Jewish Ghetto.
In 1941 Hershel, the oldest, fled Kracow but was killed by the Nazis in a
massacre in Narewka. By then, Moshe and David were working for Oscar Schindler
at his enameled-goods factory Emalia, Deutsch Emailwaren Fabrik, close to
the Jewish ghetto.
But slowly the seeds of the Nazi's plan for the total extermination of the Jews
dawned on Oscar Schindler in all its horror - he came to see the Jews not only
as cheap labor, but also as mothers, fathers, and children, exposed to ruthless
slaughter.
He decided to risk everything in desperate attempts to protect his Jews from
certain death in the death camps. Thanks to massive bribery and his connections,
he got away with increasing his Jewish workforce - and the Lejzon family were
reunited at the Schindler factory.
During
World War 2 continually risked his life to
protect and save his Jewish workers. He spent every penny he had bribing
and paying off the Nazis to get food and better treatment for his Jews.
Nobody was hit at his factory, nobody murdered, nobody sent to death
camps like the nearby Auschwitz.
Oscar Schindler earned the
everlasting gratitude of his Schindlerjews. No matter why,
no matter that he was an alcoholic and a womanisor of the worst sort -
what matters to his Jews is that he surfaced from the chaos of madness
and risked everything for them. And generations will remember him for
what he did. No matter how many businesses Schindler failed in, he was a
success in life ..
