Talk with Holocaust survivor, Mr. Dov Landau

On Monday 1st February, at the Asia Society Center, over 25 international stream students were fortunate enough to attend an evening dialogue with Polish born Mr. Dov Landau, one of the few remaining holocaust survivors. One of the main focuses of the talk was ‘remembering the past: educating the future’ which meant that as the future leaders, discussions like these are key to ensuring the mistakes of the past are never repeated.
At the age of just 13 in 1939, Mr. Landau was sent to his first concentration camp were he was separated from his mother and two younger brothers who were murdered in the gas chambers, whilst Mr. Landau and his father remained in the camp. After this, they were sent to Auschwitz, one of the most notorious camps with estimates suggesting that up to 1.6 million were actually killed there. After this, Mr. Landau was one of a group of 200 who were sent to mine coal to fuel the German army and it was here that he was separated from his father, whose body was not physically strong enough to cope with the hard labour. By the age of 15, he had lost both of his parents, and had participated in the ‘death march’ of three days and nights without food until he reached a train station where he was liberated by American forces on April 11 1945.
When Mr. Landau moved to Israel, he joined the army and was held prisoner of war by the Jordanians for 11 months before being released. He is still living in Israel with his family at the age of 87!
His inspiring story lead to the character ‘Dov Landau’ from the book and film Exodus being modelled on him.
Hearing Mr. Landau’s struggle definitely put into perspective the lack of humanity that was prevalent across Hitler’s regime from 1933 and made us realise how fortunate we are to have never experienced such atrocities. At the end of the talk the audience was allowed to ask questions, with two FIS students being picked and asking insightful questions which allowed us to better put ourselves in his shoes. As a survivor, his slightly surprising amount of optimism at life was heartening and he was positive that nothing like the Holocaust would ever happen again. All in all, a truly remarkable evening, which left all the historians of FIS with plenty to think about. Charlotte Williams, y12

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