During a presentation in Prescott, holocaust survivor Stephen Nasser commented on the death of the 26-year-old humanitarian worker, Kayla Mueller, who died while a captive of the Islamic State (ISIS) while imprisoned in Syria.
“You in the Prescott area understand better than some the direct impact that terrorists can have on human lives. You lost a girl, Kayla, who had dedicated her life to helping others.”
Nasser’s presentation was just one of several he was giving during a two-week tour of Mohave, Coconino, Yavapai and Maricopa Counties.
For most people, April 30 will be just another day.
Not so for Stephen Nasser. That is the day he was liberated by U.S. General George Patton’s Third Army from a Nazi concentration camp death train in Seehaupt, Germany, near the end of World War II.
“That’s the day I had what I consider a second birth date – the day I was saved from the death train boxcar. I treasure every day since,” he told 120 students and townspeople during an evening presentation at Yavapai College in Prescott this past month.
“It’s hard for most people alive today to realize that 70 years ago in April and May, the horror of the Holocaust ended. But for the 11 million who died because of that unconscionable brutality, I, as a survivor, must speak for them and protest that nothing like that ever happens again,” said the 84-year-old.
“It’s difficult for people who have never lost their freedom to comprehend the fear and the frustration involved. But those emotions are intensely real,” he said.
Nasser was 13 when Nazis captured him and 20 other members of his family from their home in Budapest, Hungary, and sent them in boxcars to a concentration camp in Auschwitz. He and his older brother, Andris, were later shipped to a labor camp at Muhldorf. He never saw the other members of his family again.
Nasser chokes up when describing how his brother died in his arms in one of the concentration camp barracks. “My brother never had the chance to regain his freedom.”
With the theme of “Never Again,” Nasser spoke at colleges in Kingman and Prescott as well as at public and charter schools in Sedona, Cottonwood, Mayer, Dewey-Humbolt, Prescott Valley, Prescott and, later, several schools scattered across The Valley of the Sun.
Nasser’s visit to Yavapai College was arranged by faculty member Tara O’Neill, the director of the Department of Economic Security “Child Care Appraisal Training program,” and the Structural English Immersion grant.
“We thought it was more than appropriate to have Nasser speak in the community, somewhat as a prelude to the upcoming ‘Days of Remembrance,’ which recognize the Holocaust,” O’Neill said.
The Days of Remembrance were established by Congress as a civic and educational commemoration of the Holocaust. They usually are observed in late April, when the concentration camps were liberated, as was Nasser.
The term “Holocaust” is a Greek word, meaning “sacrifice or destruction by fire.”
In 2003, Nasser published a book, “My Brother’s Voice,” which details how he survived the Holocaust and ultimately moved to North America, where he became a U.S. citizen. The title refers to the last words his brother Andris said before he died.
His book was translated to German in 2011 and now is circulating in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Nasser and his wife, Francoise, have been invited as guests of the German government to return to Germany and take part in ceremonies April 28-May 9 acknowledging the 70th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust.
The Nassers now live in Las Vegas, Nevada, but are often traveling the U.S. and to other countries, where he shares his life’s story. QCBN
By Ray Newton
Quad Cities Business News
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