The Neighborhood Files

Holocaust Survivor To Speak in Riverhead

Werner Reich narrowly escaped death.

By Lisa Finn
Email the author
April 24, 2012

Evil is deeply rooted in indifference.

So believes Werner Reich, a Holocaust survivor who will speak at the Temple Israel of Riverheadon Sunday at 7 p.m. at a Holocaust Memorial Day Observance.

Also speaking on Sunday will be John D’Aquila, an American solider who helped to liberate a concentration camp. The men will share their memories and insights as part of a program organized in conjunction with the Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center of Nassau County.

Reich has dedicated his life to speaking about the atrocities committed during the Holocaust, addressing students and community groups -- hoping to raise awareness.

”I do not want my children and grandchildren to go through the same hell that I went through,” he said. “The importance of remembering the Holocaust is to remind the world what indifference can do. If it had not been for the indifference of the general populations, there never would have been a Holocaust."

Reich, who was born in Germany, escaped to Yugoslavia with his family and lived in hiding until he was arrested by the Gestapo in 1943.

The years that followed were marked by pain: Reich spent two months jailed in Yugoslavia and Austria, followed by 11 months in Terezin, a Czechoslovakian concentration camp.

“From there, I was transferred to Auschwitz 2,” he said, adding that he passed three selections in one day by Josef Mengele, known as the “Angel of Death” for the human experiments he performed on children, despite his assertions that he had never harmed anyone.

“I was one of 89 out of 6000 to have his life spared,” Reich said.

Next, transferred to another section of Auschwitz, in January of 1945 he endured a 7-day Death March by road and open railroad car that ended in the Austrian concentration camp Mauthausen.

“It is there that my toes were amputated because of frostbite and I nearly died from starvation," Reich said.

After two years in the camps, Reich was liberated on May 5. “I lost my mother in the Holocaust,” he said.

After emigrating to America in 1955, Reich became an engineer.

Ethics, Reich believes, should be promoted in school. “It would also be great if, for once, we learned from history. So far, we haven’t. We should make people aware that yes, we are our brothers’ keepers,” he said. “Even if it is inconvenient."

Related Topics: Holocaust and Temple Israel of Riverhead

Harley P Abrams

12:56 pm on Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Thank you for the BEAUTIFULLY written article.
I hope to see you and many of your friendes at the event.
I also hope many from Riverhead Hi School Social Studies classes show up.
I know this is going to be a great program.

Lisa Finn

1:24 pm on Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Thank you, Harley, for your comment and for orchestrating the program. Mr. Reich believes teaching children is the best way to prevent such atrocities from happening again.

jennifer carpenter low

4:34 pm on Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Werner Reich has been involved with the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County for a number years. He has developed a powerful presentation that incorporates not only his testimony, but a message of tolerance and respect for all people. He emphasizes the importance of being an Upstander in the face of prejudice and discrimination. The Center could not operate at the world-class level that it does without the commitment of volunteer educators, Holocaust Survivors and Liberators, and our committed Board of Directors who have steered the Center in exciting new directions in programming and outreach. Survivors’ and Liberators’ eye-witness testimony adds efficacy to our work with young people. For more information or to schedule a speaker, please visit www.holocaust-nassau.org.

Tim Baber

3:11 pm on Wednesday, April 25, 2012

http://web.mac.com/beachhutman

You met Mengele three times in a matter of life and death. I met him once, but it was in 2002, while I was innocently researching Monarch programming for five weeks. That is a sighting, IN CONTEXT, for it was HIS system.
It is a long story. You survived. He, now, surely, is dead. Please click on my website
to see what Mengele was really doing...sort of reverse engineering based on my research in 2002, meeting him, seeing Monarch Programming grow, and Mengele fade into a new battle for your mind as Monarch Programming fades in.
I know a little of what I speak. Go on, prove me wrong. Monarch Programming is a new Holocaust and EVERYONE is indifferent to it save for thousands of escapees and near misses who can see something in the shattered glass that is their programming. Beware. Only read this is you are confident you have a good grip on reality. Tim Baber .. Long shot...try researching short old wrinkly Mengele's at Mougins in the last couple of decades where his son Rolf Jenckel has a luxury villa let out since 2008 for £5,000 a week.

Tim Baber

3:17 pm on Wednesday, April 25, 2012

THe Mougins link was a long shot, it is not a claim, but I am confident of my 2002 sighting IN CONTEXT. Read Fritz Springmeier. Google Tim Baber and Mengele. Google Mengele and Monarch Programming , Google mens rea..if Mengele was himself under control (to do the dirty work to disassociate people with trauma)
then he would in essence be "innocent" and acting under his unseen superiors.
Google in this context the Tavistock Institute...feet away from the 7/7 bus explosion. Google "China Lake" Google Operation Often, Operation Paperclip, Operation MK Ultra, Project Artichioke, Will Filer, NSA and "sneeze"
Have a good day.