Holocaust Survivor Sol Lurie Says His Destiny Was to Outlive Hitler and Educate a New Generation to Love Rather Than Hate

Apr 3, 2019 by Susan Rosenbluth

When Matthew Stein, a 7^th grader at the Hatikvah International Academy Charter School in East Brunswick, went recently with his class to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, the East Windsor resident knew it was going to be a memorable occasion, filled with emotional and educational moments. He didn’t know it was going to lead him to discover a New Jersey-based Holocaust survivor who not only had a great deal to teach him, but would become a close family friend as well.

Mr. Lurie, who says he can trace his family’s roots in Lithuania back to 1492 when his ancestors fled the Spanish Inquisition, had been living in Kovno with his parents and three older brothers “before the Nazis turned our lives into hell.”

Now 89 years old, Mr. Lurie, who stands only a little taller than 12-year-old Matthew, speaks at schools and other venues throughout the area. Since he began speaking out 15 years ago, the Monroe Township resident has received tens of thousands of letters from youngsters whose hearts and minds he has reached. The Holocaust Museum has asked him to donate these letters so they can be read by anyone who wants to see first-hand what personal testimony can accomplish.

Not Bowing Low Enough

On the night he met Matthew and his father, pharmaceutical and biotech entrepreneur Andy Stein, very few people showed up. The teacher thought it was probably because it had not been sufficiently publicized, but, for the Steins, it was an opportunity to meet privately with Mr. Lurie, whose story and message they found so deeply moving, they wanted to continue the conversation and the relationship.

Mr. Lurie told them that, during the first seven months of the Nazi occupation in Kovno, the Germans murdered 138,000 Jews.

“When we walked, we had to be in the gutter and we had to bow to the Germans because they were the gods and we were garbage,” he said, recalling a cataclysmic tragedy that befell him, his father, an uncle, and one of his cousins.

“I’ll never forget it. My cousin didn’t bow low enough, so the German soldier came over and, with the butt of his rifle, he beat him to death. That was the first killing my family and I saw. They were laughing while they were killing him. It was terrible. One day we were human beings, and the next day we were lower than animals,” he said.

Trying to Escape

When his father learned the Nazis were ready to murder the youngest children who were not fit for work, he took his four sons and tried to escape by running “deeper into the Soviet Union.”

On this mission to escape, Mr. Lurie discovered that not every German was evil. After the family’s horses were stolen, a German soldier helped them find replacements and then advised them to use a different road than the one they were planning to take.

“He told us Lithuanians were stopping all Jews on that road and taking everything from them and then killing them. He told us to take another road and no one would bother us,” he said. “That soldier saved our lives. There were good Germans, but not enough of them.”

Matthew asked Mr. Lurie if he hated all Germans, and the survivor said, “No. If I were to hate all the Germans, I would be just like them because they hated all the Jews. I don’t care what nationality you are, if you are a nice person, that’s what counts.”

Eventually, the father and his four sons were caught and sent to Dachau.

A Miracle

During his talk with Mr. Stein and Matthew, Mr. Lurie explained his definition of a miracle. It happened in 1944, when he was 14 years old, and, along with 129 other Jewish boys, was transported from the Dachau concentration camp to the Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center.

“We were supposed to be 131 boys, but two of them managed to open the floor of the boxcar and escape,” he told them.

The remaining teenagers were taken directly to the gas chamber, but, instead of gas, water was released from the shower heads.

“That was a miracle, but I didn’t even know it at the time. It wasn’t until years later, after the war was over, that I read about it in the Auschwitz Chronicles. The Nazis kept records about everything,” he said.

From the Nazis’ files, he learned that he and the other boys arrived at Auschwitz just when the Germans were trying to negotiate how to receive supplies from the Allies.

“The Germans thought one million Jewish lives would pay for rations, and they gave the Allies 48 hours to decide if they were going to take it. The 48-hour moratorium on killing began at midnight, and our transport arrived at a quarter-to-three in the morning,” he said.

Liberation

Dachau and Auschwitz-Birkenau were only three of the six concentration camps Mr. Lurie managed to survive. He was also incarcerated in Majdanek and Belzec before he was liberated from Buchenwald on April 11, 1945.

“It was my 15^th birthday. G-d gave me my birthday present after I lived through a nightmare of over 1,388 days,” he said.

Matthew asked Mr. Lurie where he found the strength to survive. “I made up my mind that I was going to outlive Hitler,” Mr. Lurie told him. “I was a kid, but I wouldn’t give up hope. I don’t think anyone else in the world lived through what we Holocaust survivors did. We were treated like insects. I used to wish I were a dog because the Nazis loved their dogs and they fed them. Us they treated like ants, something you step on in the street. No questions asked. I saw thousands of people killed in front of my eyes. To this day, when I smell a barbecue, my mind goes back to Auschwitz-Birkenau. In that camp alone, they killed a million and half people.”

An Orphanage

In 1945, believing he was the sole member of his immediate family to survive, he was taken from Buchenwald to an orphanage in France. He had no way of knowing his father and brothers had also been liberated from Dachau. When they made their way back to Lithuania, they were trapped behind the Soviet Union’s Iron Curtain and did not even imagine Sol was still alive.

“The Soviets wouldn’t even let them send letters,” said Mr. Lurie.

Mr. Lurie’s mother, who was also taken to several concentration camps, was killed two days before liberation.

“And she was not killed by Germans. The boat she was on was bombed by the British who knew there were concentration camp victims onboard. The pilot pleaded with his superiors, but his orders were to bomb the boat and not to talk about it for 50 years. After 50 years, he told the story,” said Mr. Lurie.

America

In the orphanage, Mr. Lurie was asked if had any relatives in the United States. He remembered he had an uncle living there, and, as a result, his cousin found his name on a list.

Two years later, Mr. Lurie arrived in Brooklyn. But he wasn’t there for long. In 1952, at the height of the Korean War, he volunteered to serve in the United States Army, even though he wasn’t yet a citizen.

“They didn’t want to take me, but I insisted I wanted to fight for this country because the United States gave me my freedom and I wanted to fight to protect it,” he said.

“Like a Giant”

He was inducted into the US Army at Camp Kilmer in New Jersey, and he trained at Fort Dix. While virtually his entire unit was bound for Korea, the army chose to send Mr. Lurie back to Germany to serve as an interpreter.

“The army was concerned another war could break out in Europe, and they needed me because I could speak German,” he said.

While stationed in Germany, he became a United States citizen.

Asked how he felt being back in Germany, this time as an American soldier, he said, “I felt like a giant. This was the hell I had come from, but when I walked the streets and I looked at the Germans, I said, ‘You wanted to annihilate this little Jew, but here I am back as a conqueror, an American soldier and proud of it. I’m the proudest American you’re ever going to find.”

Family Reunion

When his stint in the army was up, he returned to Brooklyn, married, and pursued a career in home repairs, plumbing and electrical work.

In 1959, when he was 29 years old, Mr. Lurie was told his father and brothers had survived. He helped arrange for his father to receive a six-month visa to visit him in the United States.

“But the Soviets kept the rest of the family as hostages. If he didn’t come back, they’d take it out on the rest of the family,” he said.

From his father, he learned that one of his brothers had been murdered in 1952. The other two brothers immigrated to Israel in the 1970s.

“In my mother’s family of eight brothers and sisters, not one survived. My father’s siblings were shot at the beginning of the war,” he said.

A Reunion in Monroe

When Mr. Lurie retired 25 years ago, he and his wife moved to Monroe.

Shortly after they arrived, a new neighbor moved in a few houses away. When the Luries went to greet him, the newcomer heard his accent and asked where he was from originally.

“When he heard I had been liberated from Buchenwald, he began to cry like a baby. It turned out he was in the first American tank that came into Buchenwald. He was a liberator who had liberated me, and now he lived five houses away. He died five years ago, but every time he would see me, he would cry,” Mr. Lurie said.

Speaking Out

Asked why he did not start speaking out about his experiences until relatively recently, Mr. Lurie said the first time he tried to give a talk to students at his own children’s yeshiva in Brooklyn, the kids told him, “Mister, enough talking about the Holocaust. We’re not interested.”

“I told him, ‘If you’re not interested, you must know it breaks my heart to relate the things I went through. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.’ And I stopped,” he said.

Fifteen years ago, his granddaughter and her teacher begged him to come to her school in East Brunswick to speak about his experiences, and, reluctantly, he did. The reaction was overwhelming. He spoke to 180 children, and very quickly, he received 180 letters back.

“Since then, they can’t shut me up, and I keep getting letters, and every time I get them, I cry,” he said, explaining that the best payment he can receive is a letter from a child. “That’s enough for me,” he said.

When he does receive speaking fees, he donates the money to charities that benefit wounded Israeli soldiers. He estimated he has donated more than $50,000.

In schools, he tells students his philosophy is to accept one’s destiny. “I believe in destiny, and I’m not afraid of anything. Whatever your destiny is, that’s what’s going to be. I was meant to survive. Despite the hell I went through, I’m still here to talk about it. And that’s a miracle. G-d took all the Holocaust survivors, put us through hell, and showed us what hell looks like. Now, He tells us, ‘Go educate people to love, not to hate.’ I tell children to put themselves in the victims’ shoes and to remember that it’s easier to love than to hate,” he said.

Mr. Lurie’s message about love resonated with Mr. Stein. “It really hit home when he tells the kids to see how they’d feel if someone treated them badly,” he said.

Mr. Lurie agreed. “People ask me about courage. To me, being courageous means helping people. Some people see others being mistreated, but they’re afraid to get involved. They know what’s right, but they’re discouraged from doing it. I’m not afraid of anything. I tell the children never to be bullies and always to stand up to bullies, because bullies are essentially cowards,” he said.

He sees his mission as educating people.

“To me, money doesn’t mean anything. If I can help a person, that’s my payment. It makes me feel good, and no money in the world can top that feeling. I’m not leaving this world until everybody gets my message to love one another, respect one another, and treat people the way they want to be treated, with love and respect. I’m not going a day before that. I hope anyway,” he said.