GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Rick Stevens describes his father Joseph as a very smart and creative person. But he had to be in order to survive.
His father was one of the survivors of the Holocaust.
“His experience really started in 1938. He was a student in Vienna when the Nazis came into and annexed Austria, so he had actually saw Hitler speak,” said Stevens.
He says, when the war started in September of 1939, his father left his hometown of Kalisz and was supposed to join his unit in Warsaw, but there was no way to get there. So he headed east and that's where the real journey began.
“Spent a while in one city and as the cities became under Nazi control, he kept going further east, made it to Lithuania, where they were under Russian control, but then the Nazis came in as they were under Nazi control,” said Stevens.
His father then had to join the resistance in Lithuania. It was an experience he didn't expect to survive.
“I think he was more surprised than anyone when he survived the war for many reasons,” explained Stevens. “You could run into somebody, people would expose Jews for a few kilos of sugar or flour, so he was always concerned about being exposed.”
As for his family, they were taken out of their hometown of Kalisz to Warsaw.
“The Warsaw ghetto, and from there his parents and sister were taken to Auschwitz, and his brother was there during liquidation of the ghetto and ended up in, I think Lubalin was the death camp where he ended up,” said Stevens.
His father was the only survivor in his immediate family. Although he was never in the concentration camps, he did pay a visit.
“He was able to visit the ghetto in Vilnius and Lithuania, I think he went once and he just said he couldn't believe what he saw…it was like walking death,” said Stevens.
After he survived the war — as a Jew who was part of the resistance — he went back to his home and found a heartbreaking discovery. It was being occupied by another family.
“They basically said, well you're supposed to be killed, you know, didn't expect you to come back,” said Stevens.
He came to the U.S. in 1949 thanks to the help of an uncle who lived in Detroit. He stayed there until he relocated to Grand Rapids to open his own printing plant, continuing the family business in another country. Rick says, his father shared his story of surviving the Holocaust at many schools and universities. His story, Rick says, needs to be told, no matter how painful it is to relive.
“The last of the survivors are passing away, and it's important for everybody to understand what happened and what the dangers are going down that path,” said Stevens.
You can learn more about Joseph’s journey surviving the Holocaust here.
