Article Contributed on: 5/4/2006 12:58:06 PM
Before the Holocaust,
Jack Adler had 83 relatives. After the Holocaust, he was one of the five still breathing.
His dead mother and father, sisters and brother, are now reminders of what can happen when people stay silent in the face of great adversity. He said he never saw God perform a miracle during the Holocaust and considered his survival an accident. But, one thing that couldn't be stolen from him was his belief that people must respect each other if humanity is to survive.
That's why Lone Tree resident Jack Adler, 77, speaks today.
But, Jack couldn't talk about it for a long time, not even with his own children. When he finally decided to tell his story, after his grandchildren were born, it was for a simple reason.
"There is a need for it," Jack said. "The world has not learned much from the experience."
Since he started speaking publicly in the mid-1980s about the trials he faced during the Nazi occupation, Jack said he has reached almost 750,000 people. On April 25, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jack spoke to a crowd at the Lone Tree Library. It was his second time there in the four years the library has hosted the event.
"It is always well attended. By having a survivor, it really has an impact," said
Sharon Lauchner, a Lone Tree librarian. "The main reason (survivors speak) is because they don't want people to forget."
The message Jack wants people to remember is one of tolerance.
"In my experience, the only way humanity can be saved is mutual respect," Jack said. "We don't have to love everyone. We don't have to like everyone. But, we must respect each other as human beings."
Jack was 10 years old in September 1939 when the Nazis marched into his hometown of Pabianice, Poland. He said the Jewish residents were relocated to a section of town known as The Jewish Quarter, a ghetto in which his mother and older brother would die of malnutrition and disease.
The Pabianice ghetto was eventually liquidated, which meant exterminating the "useless eaters" like the elderly and young. Jack, his fathers and sisters were considered able-bodied enough for labor and, thus, spared.
The Nazis took them to one more ghetto, the ghetto of Lodz, where they stayed until 1944, before they finally found themselves struggling for survival in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camps. Jack said his sisters were murdered in Auschwitz.
While Jack knew deeply of loss and fear during the Holocaust, he also knew a little compassion. An SS colonel secretly made sure Jack had some extra bread and bacon to eat. Jack said the officer saved his life.
Jack was 16 years old when he was liberated May 1, 1945, by the U.S. 7th Army under the command of Gen.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, coincidentally the first president he was eligible to vote for as an American citizen.
After the talk at the library ended,
Jeff Bzdelik, an attendee from Lone Tree, said, "It was very informative, and I'm very appreciative of someone who would inform others about this. I had a sincere interest in hearing someone who survived one of the greatest tragedies in world history."
As for Jack, his quest for securing the future by remembering the past continues.
"I have children and grandchildren. I want them to enjoy life and not have to worry," Jack said. "We have to eradicate the word 'hate' and replace it with mutual respect. Only then can we live in peace and enjoy this world."
To read more about Jack Adler's experience in the Holocaust, please visit his Web site at
www.jackadler.com.