Holocaust survivor opens home to Nazi granddaughter
<p>95-year-old Holocaust survivor Ben Stern has overcome a lot during his years.</p>
<p>After being taken from his home in Poland by Nazis, Ben survived the ghettos and concentration camps.</p>
<p>Decades later, Ben has combatted the way his life was treated by Nazis by opening his home to a granddaughter of a member of the Nazi Party.</p>
<p>His housemate, Lea Heitfield, is studying at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley and what makes their relationship unique is that her grandparents were active members of the Nazi party.</p>
<p>Lea has not ignored her family history but has used it as inspiration to learn about Jewish people and history as is getting her master’s degree in Jewish studies.</p>
<p>When describing what it was like opening his home to Lea, Ben told The Washington Post, “It was the right thing to do. I’m doing the opposite of what they did.”</p>
<p>Despite the stark differences in their family history, the duo have found that they have lot to offer each other. Lea provides company to Dan whose wife recently went into a nursing home due to her worsening dementia.</p>
<p>In the evenings, the pair watch the news together, have dinner and talk about history and current events. Last semester, Dan, who never went to high school or university, audited a graduate class with Lea and they walked to campus together every Thursday night.</p>
<p>Lea believes Dan’s friendship is gift that reveals great kindness and resilience.</p>
<p>“This act of his opening his home, I don’t know how to describe it, how forgiving or how big your heart must be to do that, and what that teaches me to be in the presence of someone who has been through that and is able to have me there and to love me,” she said. “That he was able to open the door for someone who would remind him of all his pain.”</p>
<p>When Dan was taken by Nazis he endured the Warsaw Ghetto, nine concentration camps including Auschwitz and the death march from Buchenwald. After the end of the war, he could not find any of his family.</p>
<p>Dan met this wife Helen in a displaced prisoners camp after the war and the couple journeyed to American with the hope for a new life. Dan could not speak English, had no money or education but had the strength to want to start again.</p>
<p>“I was reborn. I did not forget what happened to me, but I was determined to rebuild the family that I lost and speak out on the pain and losses that so many people gave their lives for no reason only because they were hated because of their particular religion,” Dan said. “We found a mixture of religions being accepted and that was opening the door for a free life, that was a gift that until today I am thankful for the opportunity to enjoy the freedom to build the beautiful family that I have.”</p>
<p>Dan’s mission is to inform others so that they won’t let injustice occur without taking a stand.</p>
<p>“I feel like it’s important for the reason I survived to tell the world, to tell the next generation what to look out for to have a better, secure, free life,” he said. “It’s important for them to learn how to behave with other people, with other nations, religions. We’re different, but we’re all human and there is room for each and every one of us in this world. It should be in harmony instead of hatred, racism. … We are all born; we’re all going to go. While we’re here, we should try to improve the world.”</p>
<p><em>Image credit: Lea Heitfeld </em></p>
