WARMAN, Sask. – Nate Leipciger didn’t spare any details when telling students at Warman High School about the atrocities he witnessed during the Holocaust.
“It’s not a question that I like to do it – it’s that I have to do it,” said the 87-year-old survivor.
Leipciger told students about his experience creating “hiding places” in homes of Nazi-occupied Poland. Despite their best efforts, he and his Jewish family and friends were brought to concentration camps.
He eventually found himself in Birkenau, the largest of the 40-plus camps in the Auschwitz complex. Millions of Jews were murdered at the location – something he hopes young people prevent from ever happening again.
“They should know wrong from right. They should know that hatred leads to Auschwitz. They should know that hatred begins in the school yard by bullying,” Leipciger said.
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“He’s taken from this incredible, difficult situation and used this to really transform the lives of people,” said Heather Fenyes, co-founder of Think Good. Do Good. – an organization that coordinates speaking engagements with Holocaust survivors.
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Once he was liberated in 1945, Leipciger lived in a refugee camp for three years. Eventually, he immigrated to Canada, making his home in Toronto.
It’s a journey that left many of the 750 students at Warman High School inspired.
“We need to come together as nations to really understand that together we can defeat anything that stands in our way,” said Adam Parenteau, also in Grade 12.
Leipciger is scheduled to speak Friday to students in Prince Albert.
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