# Are there any German concentration camp survivors still alive? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 1, 2009, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-german-concentration-camp-survivors-still-alive/508555 "2009-09-01T22:13:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-german-concentration-camp-survivors-still-alive/508555/1 "2009-09-01T22:13:34Z")
Today is the 70th anniversary of Germany invading Poland, starting World War II. Triggered by a radio program I heard today, I started wondering: Are there any German concentration camp survivors that are still alive? ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-german-concentration-camp-survivors-still-alive/508555/2 "2009-09-01T22:27:09Z")
I once heard a survivor of Treblinka give a talk and a Q and A about her experiences, but this was probably around 15 years ago… I would imagine that there are tens of thousands of survivors still living, but with the passing of time, fewer each year. ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-german-concentration-camp-survivors-still-alive/508555/3 "2009-09-01T22:27:20Z")
I am pretty sure - from time to time various concentration camp survivors still give talks at schools in our district. Some of them are not German (there are some who regularly make the trip from Poland, Israel or the US - in their 80s!) but some are. Don’t recall an article in the local paper the last few months but it is pretty unlikely they all died recently. Someone who was in their teens in 1945 (less chance of surviving if you were too young to work) would only be eightyish now after all. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-german-concentration-camp-survivors-still-alive/508555/4 "2009-09-01T22:30:08Z")
As far as I know, [Eli Wiesel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli_Wiesel) is still alive. ---
**Author:** ![Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angel_of_the_lord/32/2949_2.png) [@Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_of_the_Lord)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-german-concentration-camp-survivors-still-alive/508555/5 "2009-09-01T22:54:24Z")
> **[Gerda Weissmann Klein](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerda_Weissmann_Klein)** > > Gerda Weissmann Klein (May 8, 1924 – April 3, 2022) was a Polish-born American writer and human rights activist. Her autobiographical account of the Holocaust, All But My Life (1957), was adapted for the 1995 short film, One Survivor Remembers, which received an Academy Award and an Emmy Award, and was selected for the National Film Registry. She married Kurt Klein (1920–2002) in 1946. > The Kleins became advocates of Holocaust education and human rights, dedicating most of their lives to promo... > **[Elie Wiesel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elie_Wiesel)** > > Elie Wiesel (/ˈɛli viːˈzɛl/, born Eliezer Wiesel, Yiddish: אליעזר װיזעל Eliezer Vizel; September 30, 1928 – July 2, 2016) was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He authored 57 books, written mostly in French and English, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a Jewish prisoner in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps. > He was a professor of the humanities at Boston University, which created the Elie ... > **[Ruth Minsky Sender](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Minsky_Sender)** > > Ruth Minsky Senderowicz (born Rifkele Riva Minska; 3 May 1926) is a Holocaust survivor. She has written three memoirs about her experience: The Cage, To Life and Holocaust Lady. > Rifkele Riva Minska was born in Łódź, Poland to Avromele and Nacha Minska. Riva was born on May 3, 1926. She was the fourth of seven children: Chanele, Yankele, and Mala preceded her; brothers Motele, Moishele, and Laibele followed her. Riva's father, Avromele Minska died shortly after Moishele's birth. > Before the in... So, yes. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-german-concentration-camp-survivors-still-alive/508555/6 "2009-09-01T22:55:44Z")
Sure. Sixty of the “Schindler’s List” were still alive in January: [Schindler’s List survivor speaks at I-House](http://www.chicagomaroon.com/2009/1/27/schindlers-list-survivor-speaks-at-i-house) The oldest Holocaust survivor recently spoke at Harvard: [Oldest living Holocaust survivor speaks at Harvard](http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2009/05.07/99-holocaust.html) ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-german-concentration-camp-survivors-still-alive/508555/7 "2009-09-01T23:02:24Z")
The San Diego paper recently had an article on the dwindling number of Holocaust survivors. [http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/apr/18/1n18shoa001211-making-each-day-count/](http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/apr/18/1n18shoa001211-making-each-day-count/) ---
**Author:** ![Hennessy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hennessy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hennessy)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-german-concentration-camp-survivors-still-alive/508555/8 "2009-09-01T23:04:48Z")
[Holocaust Museum](http://www.hmlc.org/About_The_HMLC.html) > [@](#): > > The Holocaust Museum and Learning Center, a department of the Jewish Federation of St. Louis, opened in May 1995 and was realized through the vision and generosity of many community leaders and Holocaust survivors. The Holocaust Museum and Learning Center houses a 5,000 square foot core exhibition that provides a chronological history of the Holocaust with personal accounts of Holocaust survivors who emigrated to St. Louis. Field trip in 2006, couple survivors spoke… ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-german-concentration-camp-survivors-still-alive/508555/9 "2009-09-01T23:18:47Z")
It’s only recently that the [last Titanic survivor](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_passengers_on_board_RMS_Titanic#Last_survivors_to_die) (1912) passed away, and there are still three or four [WW **I** soldiers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_surviving_veterans_of_World_War_I) (1914-1918) still kicking around. There will be plenty more years before the entire Holocaust survivor population are gone. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-german-concentration-camp-survivors-still-alive/508555/10 "2009-09-01T23:22:16Z")
At least three relatives of mine are still alive having been at [Auschwitz](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz_concentration_camp) (and eventually at [Buchenwald](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buchenwald)), [Bergen-Belsen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergen-Belsen_concentration_camp), and Buchenwald respectively. The survivor of the latter, my uncle, had also been at [Mittelbau-Dora](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mittelbau-Dora). Personally, I can’t believe _anyone_ could survive that. They are hardly unique in being ‘surviving survivors’. Many of their friends share similar backgrounds. ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-german-concentration-camp-survivors-still-alive/508555/11 "2009-09-01T23:59:34Z")
Like **KarlGauss** , I have trouble imagining surviving the camps in the first place. I’m amazed that people were able to recover from the treatment there and survive another 65years+. > [@gazpacho](#): > > The San Diego paper recently had an article on the dwindling number of Holocaust survivors. > [http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/apr/18/1n18shoa001211-making-each-day-count/](http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/apr/18/1n18shoa001211-making-each-day-count/) From this article: > [@](#): > > The New Life Club, a once thriving group of San Diego-area survivors, has lost about 130 of its 200-plus members since 2000. Sadly, it sounds like the numbers are dwindling fast. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-german-concentration-camp-survivors-still-alive/508555/12 "2009-09-02T00:06:01Z")
Yes. My mother. My aunt. My uncle. For example. ---
**Author:** ![pudytat72](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@pudytat72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pudytat72)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-german-concentration-camp-survivors-still-alive/508555/13 "2009-09-02T00:20:04Z")
Mike Jacobs in Dallas, TX (born in 1925). Here is his web site. [http://www.mikejacobsholocaustsurvivor.com/](http://www.mikejacobsholocaustsurvivor.com/) I have met him and his wife and have a copy of his book. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-german-concentration-camp-survivors-still-alive/508555/14 "2009-09-02T00:26:41Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > Yes. My mother. My aunt. My uncle. For example. My mom, my dad, my aunt and other relatives. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-german-concentration-camp-survivors-still-alive/508555/15 "2009-09-02T00:27:49Z")
Oh, yes. There is a professor at the University of Michigan - Dearborn who still speaks about it in classes. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-german-concentration-camp-survivors-still-alive/508555/16 "2009-09-02T00:36:13Z")
My wife’s grandmother is a concentration camp survivor who’s still with us. ---
**Author:** ![Estilicon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Estilicon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Estilicon)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-german-concentration-camp-survivors-still-alive/508555/17 "2009-09-02T01:16:49Z")
In Buenos Aires, every year there is a “Museum night”, all the museums in the city are open all night long and they are free. Last year I went to the “Holocaust Museum” and I was reading a the story of a survivor, a man approached and said “That’s me”, and he certainly was (the story had his photograph). First time I’ve met a survivor. And, by his look, he’ll probably survive me. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-german-concentration-camp-survivors-still-alive/508555/18 "2009-09-02T04:18:18Z")
My cousin’s husband’s father survived the camps, and is still alive. He had been married, with kids, but was the only survivor. After the war he remarried and had another large family. And Elie Wiesel has lived long enough to be one of Bernie Madoff’s victims. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-german-concentration-camp-survivors-still-alive/508555/19 "2009-09-02T05:22:03Z")
> [@](#): > > And Elie Wiesel has lived long enough to be one of Bernie Madoff’s victims. That is savage. If Anne Frank had lived, she would have been 80 this past summer. She was born within a couple of months of Audrey Hepburn and Jackie Kennedy. Although all of them are deceased, it isn’t that unusual to find women celebrating the century mark. I have had two aunts that made it and I know two other women who lived to be 105. Considering that Anne was 15 near the end of the war and there were much younger children who survived, I would think that we will have survivors with us for a while. I recall reading that Roman Polanski lived in the Warsaw Ghetto. ---
**Author:** ![kombatminipig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5ac83/32.png) [@kombatminipig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kombatminipig)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-german-concentration-camp-survivors-still-alive/508555/20 "2009-09-02T07:24:32Z")
Plenty. My maternal grandmother for one, and my maternal grandfather who only passed away a few weeks ago. In Israel, they’re still quite common. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-german-concentration-camp-survivors-still-alive/508555.md?page=2)