Skokie Obituary: Holocaust Museum Charter Member Boris Kacel, 97

Skokie resident Boris Kacel, a charter member of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center and the author of a harrowing account of his survival of over three years in concentration camps and escape from the Nazis, passed away last week at the age of 97.

Born in 1921 in Riga, Latvia, Kacel enjoyed a carefree life as a youngster living with his family in a peaceful middle-class neighborhood. All of that changed in 1941 when the German troops attacked the Soviet Union, crossing the border from the Baltic to the Ukraine.

Initially, Kacel and his family were forced to move into a Jewish ghetto in the slum area of the city. Soon, however, he and his father were relocated to a different part of the ghetto while the rest of the family, including his mother, two younger sisters, and a younger brother, perished in an "evacuation."

Kacel and his father were subsequently incarcerated at seven different concentration camps located in four different countries. Separating from his father, Kacel later made a daring escape from the Nazis and was eventually liberated by the U.S. Armed Forces.

After living a few years in Germany, he immigrated to the U.S. in 1947, where he eventually reunited with his father and found a satisfying and productive life. After the end of the war, he had no desire to return to his homeland.

It took Boris Kacel five years and 311 pages to write the story he could never tell his children. Boris, author of From Hell to Redemption, a memoir of the Holocaust that details the nightmare of his three-and-a-half years in seven concentration camps.

Tamara Kacel, his wife and fellow survivor, said her husband did not talk about his experiences until he started writing his book. For many years, what the couple's daughter and son knew of the Holocaust came from her, she said. But the memories became too much for her husband, and the lessons they offered were too important to ignore. In 1993, Kacel settled down in a Chicago suburb to tell his story.

"I feel like I'm an endangered species. As the years go by, we are getting less and less," said Kacel of his role as a Holocaust survivor. "We can only learn from the past. That's where we must get our knowledge."

Services were held. Memorial contributions in his honor may be made to the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.