When Joseph Alexander was born in Poland in 1922 he was part of a European Jewish population 9.5 million strong. By the end of the Holocaust that number was down to 3.5 million, and today he is one of the few remaining survivors who remembers the horrors that took place.
At the age of 100, Alexander feels he must share his story with greater urgency than ever before.
“What’s going on in Israel and also in America, that’s how it started in Germany with terrorism and antisemitism in the 1930s,” he said. “The most important thing today is to educate the young people and make sure to stop it from happening again.”
Reports of antisemitism have been on the rise since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel in which about 1,200 people were killed and about 240 hostages were taken, and Israel’s retaliatory attacks on Gaza that the Gaza Health Ministry reports has claimed 12,000 lives.
Before the attacks, Alexander already gave frequent talks on how he survived 12 concentration camps and lost lost his mother, father, brother and two sisters – all of his immediate family. But now his schedule is slammed with talks at schools, churches, synagogues, businesses and other organizations.
He remains indefatigable, answering every request with an emphatic “yes!” and driving his own car all across the county. His story grips listeners as he recounts how he tricked Josef Mengele, the feared “angel of death” at Auschwitz, how he squeezed mud to get water and grilled dead horse for food, and never, ever abandoned hope that a better day was coming.
Earlier this month Alexander spoke to students at the Los Angeles Unified School District as part of its Holocaust survivor speaker series. While the event is held annually, it has taken on increased significant in light of rising tensions at schools across Southern California.
Both Jewish and Arab parent groups have recently come before the LAUSD School Board demanding that the district do more to protect their…
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