Our program today was introduced by Matt Weaver.  The following is an awesome story of a little girl in Poland.

Sid, as Matt called her,  came to the podium, and quietly told her story of being a holocaust survivor.  Sid was born in 1927 in Przemysl, Poland.  She was the only child.  Her parents and her led a life that was considered affluent.  She was very protected by her parents.  In 1939 the war broke out in Poland.  Sid interjected at this point that the Germans lost the war in 1918 and in 1933 Germany elected a president that brought many rules and regulations.  She did not name Adolph Hitler, but he was the leader at that time.  In 1939 tanks enter Poland.  Everything was taken–not all at once.  Little by little.

Sid, at this point remarked that Jews were never fighters, just scholars.

As times kept changing and getting rougher, and people were losing their possessions, the Germans took her radio, which was her last precious item.

The next thing to happen was that she had to wear a yellow star.  The area where she lived was becoming a ghetto.  This ghetto, as time went by, slowly became a worst ghetto.  No medicine, no food.  Doctors said to eat alot of garlic and onions.  She was only 12 years old. She was selected for a job.  She was happy she had a job.  She found that her job was to break up large rocks.  From this, she got alot of muscles.

Every night there was a knock on the door and she was told she was to go to work.

People were starting to be missing.   One day her family was told that that night they should leave by the window and then go to a certain gate.  Her mother went out first.  Her father and her heard shots.

At this point in her life, she was starving and eating from garbage cans.  Her father was also trying to find food for his little girl, Sid.  He was looking for apples.

He went missing.

Sid said that her head was full of lice.  And her color was yellow.

Men were trying to build a bunker during night time.  However, a dog discovered the bunker.  She was put in jail with ten other people.  A lady who was one of her mother’s friends was one of the ten in jail.  This lady told her that her parents had been killed.  Later, an old man, who was crying, said to the policeman “my fiance’ is in jail”.  The policeman said nothing.  This man called to Sid and they walked out.  The camp was liquidated and Sid did not relate the horrors.

Eventually, she landed in Auschwitz.  She had her head shaved.  She was placed with nine other people in a small building.  There was one bed and one blanket for them. In the morning each person was to stand at attention, standing on ice, and with no movement whatsoever.  Some did not have shoes.  Apparently, they did not make it. She luckily had shoes.  Everyday everyone was told to either to go left or go right.  Because she was strong from breaking up rocks, she was always selected to go to work.

She was sent to build at a camp, German Government or corporation.  She was making grenades filled witn chemicals.  One day, they were told not to load the grenades on the train.  A voice rang out and said “load the prisoners.”  The Germans guards left as the train caught fire.  Sid jumped through the fire and she did not know what she was doing, but she rolled around in the wet grass to quench the fire.

Decision.  The war is over.  50 went to the hospital, some laid down and died.  She joined a gypsy wagon to Holland.  Sid had brought to Rotary a picture of a tree and to her, she said, “this represents the root that survived to tell this story.”

She found out that she had a uncle and a cousin in the U.S.  She went to Austria, Switzerland and to other places to come to America.

She got on a boat that brought her to America and when all the survivors saw the Statue of Liberty, they wept and everyone was shouting with joy.

Sid came to Los Angeles and lived with her uncle and aunt.  She eventually married Lewis Lax,  had three children, who married and she then said she had six children.  Along came 5 grandchildren and now 2 great grandchildren.

The short story of Lewis Lax

Sid then told us about her husband.  He became a Catholic and joined the modern day Polish Army.  He worked with bombs and would put them under the trains.  He was caught and put into jail in Warsaw.  The next day the jail needed a locksmith, and he said he was a locksmith.  He was free to walk anywhere.  He was told to go to the basement to fix a lock.  He went and he left the prison and met a farmer.  “What do you want?” the farmer asks.  “I want the plan of the sewers of Poland.”

From this story, he goes with 18 people to a tobacco factory.  They wanted to take out the bomb factory.  He saw that people were skinny in the morning and fat in the p.m.  Next day they had briefcases and the next day, two briefcases.  Apparently this was survival.  In English one day he heard “war is over”.  He yells “kill the s.o.b.s.  They put him in jail.  A person in the jail told him to get a pencil, break it, and then swallow the lead.  The man said they do not want sick people here and they will be glad to get rid of you. He did what the man said and he did developed a high fever and blood appeared.  They took him to the hospital.  He was told “must get you out of the hospital.  Take the uniform and leave”.  So he did.

Sid commented “Common sense and mother of invention, everyone is capable of what ever needs to be done.”  She continued “What did we learn from the Holocaust?  Learn and understand peace to the world.  Understand each other.  Be positive and make the best of your life.”

Sid Lax has for many years given talks on the holocaust and takes student groups to Poland and Israel and tells them and shows them where the Holocaust happened.

There were many questions from the Rotarians.  But time was up and I am certain she will remain in all of  our memories for a long time.

Phyllis Corliss