Shattered lives

Rhonda Simmons / Culpeper Star Exponent
Published: May 11, 2007

The sound of his mother's distressed screams and the sight of his father's humiliation are two horrific memories etched in Alex Lebenstein's brain.

At the age of 11, Lebenstein watched in fear as a stick-carrying Nazi mob destroyed homes and synagogues in his German neighborhood nearly 70 years ago.

The younger Lebenstein witnessed a Nazi spit in his father's face and terrorize his mother by breaking everything in their home.

"I will never forget," said the 79-year-old Lebenstein, recalling the dreadful beginning of a horrible span of his life. "It's like it just happened last year."

About 150 captivated Leadership and Career Academy students listened to Lebenstein share painful recollections of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, Tuesday in the Culpeper County High School auditorium.

"I'm hoping to teach something to you," he said. "I want to teach feelings of the soul, the heart and from the inner self. I want to share with you the pain, atrocities and hate (that people) can cause to another human being."

The two-day nightmare, which began Nov. 9, 1938, was fueled by extreme anger after a Jewish teenager murdered a German officer in Paris.

Lebenstein - the sole Jewish Holocaust survivor from the small village of Haltern am See, Germany -says he travels nationwide, sharing his story with young people to help deter the widespread problem of intolerance.

CCHS Leadership and Career Academy teacher Jonathan Ernst said this type of exposure is vital to his students' education and something they will never forget.

"The kids hear us talk about these subjects every day," he said. "It becomes an entirely different experience when someone who lived through this historical event speaks on the topic."

Ernst said he could never give his students that type of experience in his classroom.

"I can do all of the research in the world and spend years studying the Holocaust for my lessons, but it will still fall short of what they experienced through Alex Lebenstein," he said Thursday.

That ominous night

Lebenstein said his family learned about surrounding cities being destroyed up until they went to bed that dreadful first evening.

"They are only in the big cities where the wealthy Jewish people are," Lebenstein said, repeating what he heard neighbors telling his father. "They want their money. They want their property."

The Lebensteins were one of 20 Jewish families that were swiftly uprooted from their quaint village.

Lebenstein recalled holding the hand of his father, Nathan - a World War I veteran - as he stood proudly with his medals adorning his shirt waiting in front of the family home for the Nazis' arrival. Lebenstein said his father believed that the Nazis would spare the family home and business, which was a butcher's shop, after they learned of his service to his country.

"My father, my hero," he said. "I feel his hand perspiring because you could hear noises from the other streets - terrible, terrible noises."

"I was 11 years old and I had to hear what was going on," Lebenstein said. "Do you know how frightening that can be at any age-"

Lebenstein watched a Nazi approach his father, rip the medals from his shirt and destroy them by stomping on them.
"Hey, hey hey, hold it, hold it. You can't do this to me," Lebenstein said, repeating the words his father told the Nazis.

"Can't you see I'm German- I'm a decorated soldier."

The Nazi grabbed his father by the shoulders and punched him several times, Lebenstein said.

"He says, 'you are not German. You're a damn Jew," Lebenstein said repeating the words of the Nazi soldier to his father. "You have no right to call yourself German."

Meanwhile, Lebenstein hears his mother, Charlotte, shouting to the family to leave the house.

"They are killing us, they are killing us," he said, duplicating his mother's words.

A temporary safe haven

The family narrowly escaped, Lebenstein said. They ran down a cobblestone street behind the house toward the garden, where they stayed in the gazebo his father built.

Lebenstein said neighbors brought his family blankets and warm beverages to prevent them from freezing in the cold November air.

"I was so scared," he said. "The wind was blowing and I can still hear those leaves rattling, that's how scared I was."
The family didn't stay there long.

They relocated to a nearby cemetery where they hid in a ditch thinking the Nazis would never look for them there.

"We did like hide and seek," he said. "You have no idea how quiet it is in a cemetery at nighttime for an 11-year-old child - how frightening it is."

The Lebensteins didn't hide there long either.

As the squeaky gate opened, Lebenstein said he watched as the Nazis - who were screaming anti-Semitic slogans - destroyed each gravestone before leaving that night.

Soon after, the Nazis captured the family forcing Lebenstein to endure two ghettos, a six-day cattle-car transport, four slave-labor camps and two concentration camps.

Lebenstein refuses to talk about his experience in the concentration camps and referred those who want to learn about it, to look it up on the Internet.

"There are plenty of films, there are plenty of books and who knows, you probably have something in your library here," he said. "You don't need to know from me a story. There are so many stories of survival during that time. I don't want to talk about that."

Lebenstein said his parents didn't last long in the first concentration camp, but somehow Lebenstein has lived for nearly eight decades to tell his compelling story over and over again.

The students' perspective

After Lebenstein's presentation, CCHS junior Sarah Curtis, 16, said she learned that not all of the horrors happened in the concentration camps.

"More stuff happened outside than we really know," she said.

It really made me feel better about being in this country."
History enthusiast Leah Walker, 16, said she didn't realize that the Nazis completely destroyed homes and beat people during Kristallnacht.

"So many things happened on that night that many people don't know about," said Leah, who is a junior at CCHS.
Leah said she understands the hatred that he felt after his liberation.

"A lot of the survivors that you talk to are sad," she said. "But most of them are not really angry. The way he expressed his anger through what he was saying was a strong point."

"I've never heard anyone speak like that," she added.

After the presentation, the students had a gift for Lebenstein.

They collected 65,000 pennies to represent those lost lives during the Holocaust. Lebenstein will put those coins on display at the Virginia Holocaust Museum. According to senior SS official Adolph Eichmann, about six million Jewish lives were lost during the Holocaust.

CCHS Leadership and Career Academy teacher Jodi Place said Lebenstein's visit was an important one because people should never forget history.

"Remembering the past helps us avoid repeating it," she said. "Additionally, Mr. Lebenstein brings history alive. It is one thing to sit in a classroom and read a novel about the Holocaust and quite another to have a man in front of you who lived the reality of the words."

Rhonda Simmons can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 125 or .