Personal Empowerment from a Holocaust Survivor: "They Killed My Entire Family, But Could Not Break My Spirit"

In a viral video, 90-year-old David S. Wisnia recounts how he managed to escape the clutches of the Nazis after spending three years in Auschwitz. "When I arrived at Auschwitz, immediately after receiving the tattooed number on my arm, I looked at the SS officer in front of me, and my eyes fell on his belt, which in German read: 'God is with us.' I said to myself: 'God is not with you, and I am going to prove it.'"

Wisnia continues, describing the weeks that followed in the camp as murderous, in every sense of the word. "My job was to gather the corpses. One night, two weeks into this, the block commander asked: 'Who can sing?' Everyone knew I sang, so they pointed at me. I went with him and performed, which made me a privileged prisoner."

Decades later, having survived and been liberated from the camp, Wisnia became a world-renowned cantor. One of the most important songs he got to sing, he notes, was a Polish song about Auschwitz. "In December 1944, the Nazis began evacuating Auschwitz. I was on one of the transports, and when we reached Dachau, I realized I wouldn't be able to survive there. In Auschwitz, I had some privileges, but here no one knew me. At that point, I started looking for ways to escape Dachau."

"Suddenly, out of the fire, I saw him"

Wisnia decided he would do anything to escape the notorious camp. "It was while we were unloading the vehicles filled with corpses into the ditches outside the camp. Suddenly, in one of the cars, I found a shovel, and I knew this was my chance.

"I went forward toward the fire where we burned the corpses, not really knowing where I was going. I heard tremendous roars of tanks, and the whole convoy stopped for me. Out of the flames, I suddenly saw him – James L. Walker from South Carolina."

The American soldiers who emerged from nowhere gave Wisnia army uniforms, and he quickly boarded their tank. "When I got home, I found my family was dead, but later I happily learned that my father resisted them and they even found a gun on him. They killed my entire family, but they could not break my spirit."

But even from there, Wisnia managed to rise, creating a new and happy family. His grandson, following in his footsteps and becoming a successful pianist, now composes his songs from Polish into English.