Alex Miller Survivor #1

Henry Warner Laurant, formally Hans Werner Levy was born on May 28, 1924 in Koenigsberg, Germany a province of East Russia. He talks about his life growing up in a fairly large apartment with this mother, father, and sister. Laurant’s father was a pediatrician while his mother stayed at home. Laurant explains his first Anti-Semitic experience. He was in kindergarten, on his way home after school and several kids insulted him because he was Jewish. He was so surprised that they could have such hatred at such a young age. When Laurant was nine he had to be taken to the hospital due to an illness. The room erupted with insults from other children after they found out he was Jewish. Instead of the doctors trying to stop it they let it go because he was a Jew. Later Laurant and his family moved to Berlin so his father could have better business. After Kristallnacht occurred his family became scared and started hiding out at friends’ houses. Henry talked of when S.S. officers would march down the streets and require the citizens along the street to salute. Henry refused to salute so he would always hide when he heard the chants of the soldiers. At age 14 Henrys father took him to a train station to board the first Kinder Transport. Henry ends up in England where he went to school after he could not get into the American Army; eventually he works for an American intelligence organization for the Air Force. In 1972, he was finally able to make it back to Berlin where he learned of his parent’s fate through old family friends. As they tried to illegally escapy, they were captured and taken to Auschwitz, where it was determined that they died. His sister was arrested in 1943 and sent to a concentration camp and was put to death.

“The separation would be temporary the reuniting would happen, that would be first, The getting out of hell would be second.”

“I never felt guilt till I found out I was a survivor and they weren’t.”