Obituaries

Southend mourns loss of Holocaust Survivor Leslie Kleinman (Z”TL)

BY GARRY STEEL

Wednesday 30th June saw the passing of Southend and Westcliff Hebrew Congregation’s most esteemed character, Leslie Kleinman BEM age 92.

Leslie was born in a village near the Satmar district of pre-war Hungary, now Romania on 29th May, 1929. His name then was Lazar. Satmar, was overrun by the Nazis and the Jews were systematically deported to the camps. First, they came for his father. Not long after, he, his mother and seven siblings were transported to the camps. Packed liked sardines in a cattle truck without any proper sanitation, the family arrived at Auschwitz. Tragically that was the last time Leslie would see any of his family again. Jews had to line up before the infamous Dr Mengele. At a flick of a finger, Mengele would decide whether the Jews would live or die depending on their fitness for work. In the queue, a young man standing behind Leslie asked him how old he was. “Fourteen”, Leslie said. “Tell him you’re seventeen”, the man said. Leslie was tall and fit for his age and could get away with it. When asked, he told Mengele he was seventeen and was sent in one direction. The rest of his family were sent the opposite way, unknown to them, to the gas chambers.

Having survived the camps and two death marches, Leslie told me that whilst experiencing near death, he made a silent pact with Hashem. “Please let me get through this. If I do, I promise I will study the Torah and live to be a devout and good citizen”. Leslie survived. His liberators gave him a gun and told him they would turn a blind eye if he should ‘accidentally’ injure his captures. But that was not necessary. Despite the tortuous atrocity experienced, there was not an ounce of hate in his body, only love. Leslie was accepted on a program to transport a group, known as ‘the boys’ to the UK. He stuck to his word with G-d and went to yeshiva for a year. Leslie met his first wife, Evelyn and they had two children. Sadly his wife died through illness after many happy years together. Around 2008 by some quirk of fate, it was bashert that Leslie was to meet his lovely Miriam. Leslie had moved into our area and was looking for a shop to have some cards printed. Story has it, he passed a couple of printers then stumbled across another place that appealed. In the shop, he got talking to the Jewish husband and wife owners. The lady, Rosalind, invited Leslie to their home for a Shabbos meal. There he met Ros’s mother, Miriam, ironically the widow of a holocaust survivor of whom Leslie had been acquainted with sometime in the past. A romance blossomed and in 2011 they were married under the chupah in Israel. The then Southend and Westcliff Rabbi Bar flew out specially to perform the ceremony. The couple settled together in Westcliff and Leslie quickly became a minyan stalwart. It was then that Leslie decided to tell his story to the world. Not for self pity. He wanted to educate the younger generation about the atrocities by preaching love over hate. He became active with the Holocaust Education Trust and JRoots. He gave talks to local schools and others around the country. He described to me the uncanny phenomena of hundreds of squawking children amazingly turning silent as they were captivated by his story. He would say that if he could forgive and love after everything he had been through, then so could they and it was within their power to ensure the atrocities never happen again by opposing anti Semitism and racial hate. Leslie was also active within the JRoots organisation and under that auspices hosted groups on trips to Auschwitz. On one heart wrenching trip, he sat Shiva at the camp for each member of his family who perished.

I first met Leslie in 2014. The organising of these trips was taking a lot of Leslie’s time. He got himself a computer to handle the necessary emails, letters and travel arrangements. Having not used a pc in any active way before, that aspect was difficult for him as it would be for anyone already in their eighties taking on a new skill. A friend of his recommended he contact me through my IT business as a way to guide him through the difficulties with his computer. I did not have to think twice about taking him on. We Jews are sickened by the holocaust. Anti Semitism continues to rise throughout Europe. Here was an opportunity to make a contribution to Leslie’s cause, however small. Keeping his computer equipment going, helping with emails and letter writing. That was the start of a loving friendship. He and I spent many hours talking. He would talk about his childhood and the dramatic experience of being torn away from his beloved family; his experience in the camps and life generally. Also, getting to know Miriam; one of the nicest Yiddisher Mammas I have ever met. I have so many stories to tell, I could write another 1000 words. I’ll finish with just a few anecdotes:

Leslie Kleinman holds an Israeli flag at the entrance to Auschwitz

PHOTOS: JAKE BLUNENOW

One day Leslie called me. “I’ve received a brocha and I can’t open it”. I say “what do you mean a brocha, why would someone send you a brocha”? “I don’t know, it won’t play”. I checked it out for him. It wasn’t a brocha, it was a brochure. It’s easy to forget English was not Leslie’s first language.

I get a call. “Garrrrrry, that b****y computer’s playing up again. I think it’s got the kremlins”.

Leslie was like a father figure to me. I will miss him greatly as will everyone who ever knew him. His humility was respected by everyone including many esteemed rabbis. A lion amongst men. I rest assured Hashem will look after him in death as he did in life.

I wish the family a long life and only simchas for many, many years. Amen.

Cantor survived Auschwitz by singing

BY DAVID SAFFER

Global Jewry has lost a renowned Chazanut singer and holocaust educator following the death of Cantor David Wisnia at The Brunswick at Attleboro, Langhorne last month (June 15).

Cantor Wisnia, 94, of Levittown, spent his life singing during an extraordinary life. And it helped him survive Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. But prior to, and after, he brought joy to those lucky enough to experience his talents for decades.

“David personified the survivors’ spirit of looking forward rather than wallowing in the past,” said World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder. “Over the years, he dedicated himself to creating not just a new life, but to perpetuating Jewish music and Jewish culture for future generations to come. Hearing him sing the words of El Maleh Rachamim for all those who perished one final time on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in front of the infamous death gate is a moment that I will never forget.”

Born in Sochaczew, 40 miles from Warsaw, Poland in 1926, David attended Yavneh-Tarbut Hebrew School. His parents, Eliahu and Machla, moved the family to Warsaw.

A child singing prodigy, having studied with renowned Cantors Gershon Sirota and Moshe Koussevitsky, David performed in synagogues, opera houses and on Polish radio.

“He was very proud of how he was trained and the style in which he sang, which blended Jewish tradition with a very operatic style,” grandson Avi Wisnia, an award-winning composer, singer and performer, told the Philadephia Inquirer.

After Germany invaded Poland in 1939, his parents and younger brother were among over 56,000 Jews murdered in the Warsaw ghetto. An older brother, Moshe, disappeared and was never seen again. David, 13 at the time survived and then endured three years at Auschwitz.

It was not long before fortuitously his singing voice would save his life when a Christian Pole demanded entertainment.

Wisnia recalled to the Jewish Exponent in a 2015 interview, “I didn’t care what I was singing, I know German songs, French songs, Yiddish songs, if I had to continue doing what I was doing the first two weeks at Auschwitz, I would have never made it.”

Nazi guards heard his melodic voice and wanted to hear more. “He would entertain them at their drunken parties, after their workday, where they committed their horrible acts,” Avi said.

David composed two songs in Auschwitz, one in Polish, ‘Oswiecim’ (Auschwitz), another in Yiddish, ‘Dos Vaise Haizele’ (The Little White House in the Woods).

Both are displayed at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.

Surviving Auschwitz, David was transferred to Dachau and during a death march he escaped into woods and liberation from the US 101st Airborne.

He recalled in an interview, “One fine morning, I found a column of tanks. Believe me, if I ever prayed, I prayed, ‘Don’t let there be a swastika on there.’ Instead, I saw a star.”

Joining with the 506th Parachute Infantry, David was known as “Little Davey”. Serving as an interpreter, he spoke Hebrew, Yiddish, German, Polish, French and Russian, and also engaged in combat as the war neared its end.

David stayed in touch with the 101st, performing the National Anthem in Tampa, Florida, at a 2015 reunion.

Immigrating to the United States in 1946. David built a new life, initially working as an encyclopedia salesman for the Wonderland of Knowledge company.

Following his marriage to his late wife, Hope, they moved to Bucks County.

Cantor Wisnia served various communities for the next 51 years. In retirement, he also spoke about the Shoah at schools with Holocaust education becoming increasingly important. But it took many years to share his story.

“I threw away my whole past,” he recalled in 2015. “It’s the only way I figured I was going to be able to survive.”

When asked about his Auschwitz tattooed numbers after arriving the New York, Cantor Wisnia made out it was a telephone number rather than explain the truth due to being traumatised.

Though he had the infamous numbers removed, a “6” was visible on his forearm. Escaping the past was impossible and his astonishing death defying tale is now known.

Cantor Wisnia’s memoir, One Voice, Two Lives: From Auschwitz Prisoner to 101st Airborne Trooper tells the story.

“Auschwitz meant the end of life, the end of the world,” he once said, adding that “music was my life”.

Calling on future generations to “do away with hatred”, Cantor Wisnia noted in an interview, “Hatred leads to death. There is a saying in the Torah, God tells Abraham “You shall be a Blessing” and that is my message, that each and every one of us should “be a blessing.” We should do good in this world, and be good to one another. Live a life with meaning and purpose, and leave this world a better place than when you entered it.”

Cantor Wisnia attended the 70th and 75th commemoration anniversary events at Auschwitz accompanied by his family, and movingly sang El Maleh Rachamim.

“It’s so hard to sum him up because he was such a big personality, such a large character,” commented Avi. “It made him such a joy to be around. It was like there was some kind of magic around him and it made people fall in love with him and, in turn, he loved everyone that he met. Most of all, though, when I think about his life, the thing that runs through it is music.”

Cantor Wisnia is survived by sons Rabbi Eric Wisnia and Michael Wisnia, daughters Karen Wisnia and Jana Dickstein, and five grandchildren.

The family have asked for donations to be sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Museum.

A public memorial will be held at a later date.

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