Leon Leyson dies at 83; youngest survivor on Schindler's List

[Behind the Aegis]

Source: LA Times

Leyson was one of the 1,100 Jews saved from the Nazis by German industrialist Oskar Schindler. He taught school in Huntington Park for 39 years and shared his survival story with others.

Among the 1,100 Jews saved from the Nazis by German industrialist Oskar Schindler was an emaciated 13-year-old boy named Leon Leyson, who had to stand on a box to reach the machinery in the Krakow factory where Schindler sheltered him and his family.

The boy Schindler called "Little Leyson" survived the Holocaust to start life over in Los Angeles. He taught high school in Huntington Park for 39 years, rarely mentioning to anyone the pain and perils he experienced during the war that claimed the lives of 6 million Jews.

Then came the celebrated 1993 movie "Schindler's List," which ignited public interest in the stories of Holocaust survivors. Coaxed into breaking five decades of near-silence on the subject, Leyson — the youngest member of the group rescued by Schindler — embarked on a public speaking career that took him across the United States and Canada to share his story about coming of age during the Nazis' brutal reign.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-leon-leyson-20130114,0,3835673.story

[Unknown Beatle]

2. I could be wrong,

but I was thinking it was the little boy that hid inside the outhouse with other children already hiding there before he arrived.

[ellisonz]

4. That's why you read the article to find out...

...before commenting.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

5. .

[graham4anything]

3. Rest in peace, Leon.

crying at the news
[img]http://www.yc.edu/images/news/Leon%20Leyson(2).jpg[/img]

applauding at his life

(img)[/img]

and if only they had drones then, and had one to drop on Hitler, the day before the first person was taken away, and the day before the first person died.
20 million lives could have been saved.

Rest in peace, Leon. You will never be forgotten by anyone who knew you, heard of you or your story.
Never Again.

[leftynyc]

6. Rest in Peace Mr. Leyson

Sounds like he was able to live a good life.

[Kolesar]

7. My landlady was a Ukrainian holocaust survivor

She never talked about it. Her daughter told me the story.
She's been gone for twenty years.

[lunatica]

8. In the movie there's a little boy that the Nazis were going to take away

And Schindler yanked him back and said he needed the little fingers for delicate work making ammunition so the Nazis left him. I wonder if that was him.