Holocaust survivor shares story

Speaker fought for survival in death camp as young boy

By: Tim Pfarr

Posted: 4/19/07

Holocaust survivor Leslie Aigner spoke to a full crowd in the Milam auditorium Wednesday night, sharing stories of the horrors and atrocities he and his wife Eva faced during World War II.

Eva Aigner was also scheduled to speak, but was ill and unable to attend.

"This is really the highlight in any memorial," said Thomas Sherry, member of the Holocaust Memorial Committee.

The presentation began with a short video about the Oregon Holocaust Memorial in Portland's Washington Park and continued with Aigner's account of the Holocaust.

"These experiences are far fetched from that of your peaceful lives," Aigner said, walking across the stage behind the four informational poster boards. "I'm not telling you these stories so you will feel sorry for me. I feel I'm the luckiest man alive. I survived, and 11 million didn't."

As a 10-year-old boy living in Czechoslovakia, Aigner was first separated from his father and sent to live in a Budapest ghetto where he remained for about a month before being sent to Auschwitz.

"Shortly after arriving [in Auschwitz], I realized food equals life," Aigner said. He distinctly remembers pointing out the crematorium and mistaking it for a bakery.

Aigner spent nearly four months in the camp and witnessed countless atrocities. He recalls watching the medical experimentation building.

"Through that barbed wire I saw life dwindling away," Aigner said. He witnessed all pairs of twins, young and old, being separated for experimentation.

The audience sat in silence as he spoke words that were broken apart by long pauses.

Aigner said the everyday horrors of Auschwitz were too much for some prisoners and many ended their own lives in the night by clinging to the electric fence. The next day, those who remained were forced to break the knuckles of the deceased to remove them.

Aigner escaped from the camp by exchanging his rations of bread for the clothing of a prisoner being deported from the camp.

After escaping Auschwitz, Aigner dodged death during an air raid on his train where more than half of the passengers were shot to death.

Aigner also shared the experience of being liberated on April 29, 1945.

"[It was] the most glorious day of my life. We didn't know whether to laugh of cry," he said.

After the war, Aigner was reunited with what was left of his family: his father and his sister. Following a brief stint working in the communist Soviet Union, he escaped to Austria. There he was able to travel to the United States with the help of his stepbrother, a refugee who made it to Portland, Ore.

"For over 40 years, I didn't want to talk about these things," Aigner said.

The audience responded to Aigner's presentation with multiple standing ovations.

"I liked it," said Mitch Page, a sophomore majoring in university exploratory studies. "It was informative."

Heather Miska, a junior majoring in psychology, also enjoyed Aigner's talk.

"It made me thankful for being able to live humanely," she said. "It's humbling."

Holocaust Memorial Week wraps up Thursday with a speech by Stephanie Nyombayire about the human-rights crisis in Western Sudan. It will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the Milam auditorium.