Nate Leipciger

Nate Leipciger (born 1928 in Chrozow, Poland) is a Holocaust educator, public speaker and author.

Early life

Forced to leave their home in Chorzow when the Germans invaded Poland, Leipciger and his family were moved to the Sosnowiec Ghetto. By 15 he had been transferred to Auschwitz-Birkenau. His mother and sister died in Auschwitz, but his father kept close to his son. Leipciger ended up as forced labour in various other camps in Silesia. Twice he recalls his father saving his life. Once, Leipciger found himself in the queue for the gas chamber, only for his father to pull him out and bring him into the camp with him. On a second occasion, the Nazis were about to send his father to a factory in Germany, but he convinced one of the officers that his son was a useful electrician, so they let Leipciger accompany his father. According to Leipciger, his father begged a Nazi officer to get Leipciger to a factory in Germany to save him from death at Auschwitz. They ended up at the Concentration Camp Waldlager V, a sub-camp of the Dachau concentration camp where they were eventually liberated by American soldiers.

In June 1948, after several years in DP Camps in Germany, Leipciger and his father immigrated to Canada.