Holocaust survivor shares remarkable story with Ossining students

On November 28 in the Ossining High School auditorium, Holocaust survivor Annie Leiser-Kleinhaus spoke to students about her incredible life story.

In a remarkable tale of resilience and survival, Ms. Leiser-Kleinhaus shared her experiences as a young girl during the Nazi occupation of Belgium and France during the late 1930s and early 1940s.

“I’m not here as a victim, but rather a survivor who is fortunate enough to tell this story,” she said.

Ms. Leiser-Kleinhaus was born in 1936 in Poland. Her family immigrated to Belgium when she was very young. She has fond memories of playing with her little brother while living in Antwerp, where she lived among Yiddish, Polish and Flemish-speaking families.

“My brother and I fought all the time and often had to be separated, but we couldn’t bare to be apart for more than an hour,” she remembered.

However, that happy childhood wouldn’t last. Ms. Leiser-Kleinhaus said that once the Nazi’s invaded, Jewish men were immediately ordered to present themselves and were subsequently sent to a forced labor camp. Her father had acquired forged papers but was among those sent away. All remaining Jews were forced to wear a star on their clothing to identify themselves, and had to abide by severe rules, curfews, and restrictions.

“My mother had us remove the star because once the Nazi’s saw it on your clothing, they would eventually round you up and send you to a concentration camp where you would be killed anyway,” she noted.

After her father was taken, he managed to send a communication to his family directing them to meet at the Swiss border on a specific date. However, on the night of the planned rendezvous, Belgian collaborators invaded Ms. Leiser-Kleinhaus’ home and beat her and her mother, as well as another family they were living with. Later that night, the two families fled on foot through fields and forests while being chased by vicious German Shepherds.

“To this day it gives me nightmares… I have a totally irrational fear of dogs,” Ms. Leiser-Kleinhaus lamented.

At the border, they met up with her father and his friend but were ultimately betrayed by French collaborators. They were all sent to a transit camp and lived in horrific conditions under the watch of brutal Nazi guards. Only five percent of people at the camp survived.

Ms. Leiser-Kleinhaus said she was beyond scared, but somehow her mother arranged for the children to be transferred to a Catholic orphanage founded by a French Archbishop who was horrified by what was happening to the Jews in Europe.

Conditions were not much better at the orphanage. There was very little food, no heat, and children were covered in lice and scabies.

“It was not exactly a summer camp,” she said of her time at the orphanage.

Attentive students in the auditorium were listening closely as Ms. Leiser-Kleinhaus continued with her story.

Fortunately, her mother and friend escaped the transit camp by bribing the guards then fled to the South of France which was under Italian occupation. It was here that she connected with a woman to whom she paid a large sum of money to rescue her daughter from the orphanage.

“The Italian soldiers were quite nice, they gave us chocolate and played with us, we felt secure” Ms. Leiser-Kleinhaus remembered.

When Italy surrendered to the Nazis, the two families knew they had to make one last attempt to flee to Switzerland. Since traveling with large families was more suspicious, they split with the men and her father was again caught and sent to Auschwitz.

“We knew this because the Germans documented everyting very carefully,” she said.

In Switzerland, her mother became active in the resistance movement against Nazi forces.

“My mother was often away, involved in the resistance and housing refugees. I was scared, angry and confused—but we were alive.”

In May 1945, Europe was finally liberated, and her family eventually returned to Belgium. Miraculously, her mother discovered a list of names at Antwerp’s Grand Central Station of those who were departed or sent back home. Her father was on the list of those sent home, along with the names of the relatives who took him in.

“I was totally distraught when I saw my father… he looked very different from the romantic vision I once had of him,” Ms. Leiser-Kleinhaus reflected.

But they were together and free.

“Life goes on,” Ms. Leiser-Kleinhaus remarked.

She graduated high school, earned a doctorate in pharmacology, and led a very successful career in medicine in the U.S. She is currently a volunteer for the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center and the American Jewish Community.

She ended the discussion with a final message to students:

“No matter what happens, you set a goal and you just go for it, don’t let anyone ever stop you.”

After the presentation, many interested students came up to the stage to further discuss her miraculous story.