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Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer

Sunnyvale resident Alex Bauer, a Hungarian Jew, survived the Holocaust and immigrated to the United States in 1949.

Out of ashes, heavy-hearted survivor's tale worth retelling

Bauer's holocaust remembrance shares lessons at annual event

By JASON GOLDMAN-HALL

Sunnyvale resident Alex Bauer's arms don't bear the telltale numerical tattoos, of many Holocaust survivors, but the scars left by the atrocity more than a half-century ago are always with him.

On April 25, Bauer and other South Bay survivors will observe Yom Hashoah, the Hebrew name for Holocaust Remembrance Day. In Hebrew, Yom means "day," while Shoah refers to the Holocaust. The day serves as a time to remember those who died during the Holocaust and to honor those who survived.

But remembering the Holocaust and sharing the stories that came out of it is not just an annual event for Bauer. During the school year, he makes weekly visits to schools around the Bay Area to share his story.

"This is the most important thing I have done since I retired. I consider it my duty, because I am able to talk to students and tell them the story of a Holocaust survivor," he said. "No other time in history has a highly industrialized nation used all its power and money and equipment to

execute destruction on a group of people like this."

He's been speaking since the 1970s, when his son's history teacher at Homestead High School asked him to come speak to the class. From there it's grown to include elementary, middle, high school and college students.

"I've told my story for many years, and I feel that it has helped me deal with the issues left by the Holocaust," he said.

Bauer--a Hungarian Jew--avoided Nazi concentration camps for most of World War II as he studied to be a high school science teacher in Hungary. But as the war came to its violent conclusion, he and many others were rounded up and forced to work in a Hungarian ammunition depot.

"It was actually not so bad. We weren't tortured; it was summer so we didn't freeze, and the Hungarians didn't starve us," Bauer said.

But as the Russian Army moved west into Hungary, the Nazis lied to the prisoners and herded them into cattle cars--90 in each car--and carried them a day and a half's travel to Dachau to be "processed."

"We expected a ride of about an hour because they told us we were going to Vienna--near the border of Austria and Hungary--to see our families at a family camp. But we were in the car all day, all night, and most of the next day with no food or water," he said.

He was stripped, shaved and covered in stinging disinfectant at Dachau. Bauer was then moved to two other camps. By December of 1944, he was in a camp in Mittergars, Germany.

But again, the Russian Army approached, and the prisoners were again marched west. But this time, instead of ending up at another camp, the Allied Army intercepted the Nazis, and the prisoners were released.

"You had to have a whole series of lucky things happen to you to be one of the survivors," Bauer said.

Of the seven children in his family, five survived the Holocaust. One of his sisters died after hiding in Budapest, Hungary, and his brother died while trying to escape the Hungarian labor camps.

His parents were caught earlier and later died in the Auschwitz concentration camp complex, along with almost a million and a half other prisoners.

After earning an electrical engineering degree from a German university, Bauer came to the United States in 1949. He ended up in Chicago, where he met his wife Rita, and they later moved to the Bay Area to raise their family.

Today, Bauer is part of the South Bay Holocaust Survivor Group that meets monthly at Chai House, a senior facility in Willow Glen. On the weekend of April 8, nearly 50 survivors and their families gathered to share stories, humor and show off grandchildren. It was also a chance for the group to honor Bauer's wife, who had died earlier that week.

Although he is still mourning his wife's loss, Bauer said he plans to start speaking again soon because he feels the world still has a lot to learn.

"Unfortunately, people have still not learned anything," Bauer said. "In places like Darfur, Sudan, genocide is still happening."

Willow Glen Resident reporter Alicia Upano contributed to this story.

Remembering Holocaust survivors

The county's annual Holocaust Remembrance Ceremony will be April 25 from 3:45 p.m. to 5 p.m.

This year, the program is called "After Liberation: The Struggle to Survive & Rebuild" and will focus on Holocaust survivors and the first year after the liberation. Despite being liberated, the Jewish community and other groups were still targeted and persecuted by the Nazis.

The county board of supervisors will co-sponsor the event with the county's Jewish community and other interfaith and community leaders and organizations.

The ceremony will take place at the county government center at 70 W. Hedding St., San Jose. For more information call 408.299.5042.