Holocaust Survivor Speaks At Coast Guard Academy

For Leon Gleicher, a survivor of the Holocaust who fought the Nazis with a partisan group, one of the worst parts of his own personal struggle was hunger.

“There’s no worse pain than hunger pain,” he said. “Nobody was thinking of surviving. Everyone was thinking of eating.”

Gleicher said that after he and his brother managed to escape the liquidation of the Sambor Ghetto, they tried to ignore their stomachs but asked for food at houses. The occupants often said they had none to give. On one occasion, the owner gave them milk to drink, but it only served to reawaken their hunger pangs.

Gleicher spoke at the Officers Club at the on Friday as part of the school’s recognition of the Holocaust Days of Remembrance. The observance was established by Congress in 1981, and runs May 1-8 this year, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Born in Turka, then a part of Poland and now located in Ukraine, Gleicher said scores of people were routinely executed in the swamps near the ghetto. His mother, considered too old for manual labor at the age of 44, was taken to a death camp. Though his brother wanted to stay in the ghetto to help others after learning of the liquidation, Gleicher refused to leave without him.

“I finally said, ‘I’m not going to survive without you,’” said Gleicher.

The siblings were part of a group of 13 people who managed to flee the ghetto. Although the wet land prevented effective tracking by dogs, 10 of the escapees were killed when soldiers surrounded the group. Gleicher and his brother survived, and eventually came across a group of Ukrainian partisans.

“They didn’t discriminate,” he said. “They took in everyone.”

The group was not necessarily a safe haven. Gleicher recalled that two members were hostile, anti-Semetic deserters from the German army. On one occasion, some fellow partisans threatened to kill him after he was accused of raping a woman he knew in a nearby village. After the woman pointed out the actual culprit, Gleicher was enraged and vowed to find justice for the man. His fellow partisans instead urged him to forgive him, saying, “He has friends, and you have no friends here.”

Gleicher took part in demolition operations, including the successful mining of a bridge. During a firefight, he was shot in the chest by pro-German Hungarian troops, after which he made a run for the Russian line. He recovered in a Kiev hospital and later found his brother, who had lost a leg during the conflict. After the war, Gleicher and his brother went to the Föhrenwald Displaced Persons Camp in Germany and on St. Patrick’s Day in 1949 they went to the United States. Gleicher now lives in New York.

Capt. James E. Rendon, assistant superintendent of the academy, said he has visited Holocaust memorials in Ukraine and Gleicher’s story aroused the same emotions he felt there: anger, sadness, hope, and inspiration. He quoted a recent speech in which President Barack Obama recognized the observance by saying, “We gather today to mourn the loss of so many lives, celebrate those who saved them, honor those who survived, and contemplate the obligations of the living.” Rendon said he felt those obligations include a focus on diversity and inclusion.

“One of our goals is to create a climate of inclusion, and we do that each and every day,” he said.

The event closed with a brief candle-lighting ceremony in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. will hold a community Holocaust remembrance at the synagogue at 7:30 p.m. on Monday.