Holocaust survivor tells of harrowing experiences

For many people, a nightmare is an inconvenience in their sleep - sometimes vivid and frightening, but always followed by the relief of awakening. "I also had a nightmare, but mine lasted 1,388 days. They took away our names and gave us numbers. Mine was B2858," said Sol Lurie, 80, a holocaust survivor.

This number was tattooed on Lurie's arm during his captivity at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. He was a prisoner in five other camps including Buchenwald, from which he was finally liberated on his fifteenth birthday in April of 1945.

Lurie emerged with a message. "People should stand up to bullies and love each other, that's my message. Help one another, that's my message!" said Lurie.

Lurie told his story to a Holocaust and Genocide class at Mercer on November 16.

Lurie witnessed the Nazi atrocities first hand. In June of 1941, he found himself in a hole in the ground in his family's stables in Kovno, Lithuania, hiding with his cousin and her seven-month old baby.

"When we were discovered [by the Nazis], the baby began to cry, and a German soldier took the baby, threw it up in the air, and caught it on his bayonet," said Lurie. Lurie mimicked the soldier waving the baby around like he was waving a flag, as if it were a fresh memory.

Students in the audience were shocked. "It made me want to cry, I teared up a bit. I know if my family were burned to death, I would be pissed for life. So his outlook is amazing," said Caylin Moore, 19, second-year psychology student.

"If I hated all the Germans for what they did to me, then I would be just like the Nazis because they hated all the Jews," said Lurie.

He also took issue with something else entirely. "The biggest enemy is religion. They teach you 'my religion is better than yours.' We are all human beings. My religion is I'm a good human being and I help people." said Lurie

Professor Joanne Maisto, a senior adjunct professor at Mercer, invited Lurie to speak. "I met him four years ago. I was a docent for an Anne Frank exhibit in Princeton, and he came to speak," said Maisto, "He motivated me to think that what I was studying was very important and i needed to let people know."

Lurie has come to speak for Professor Maisto's classes four times, but it wasn't until seven years ago that Lurie would even discuss what happened to him with his own family. "I couldn't talk about my experience because it was too hard to talk about hell, but my granddaughter begged me to speak to her high school class." said Lurie.

"Now when I get a chance to speak, I do [it] to tell people about the hatred. Now you can't get me to shut up," said Lurie. "When I speak, I don't take a penny. I go to teach love and not hate, and when I get the letters [from students], I know what I get in return," said Lurie.

The effect he has on students is evident in their reactions. "I had guys, you know, tough guys? With tears in their eyes. And they were the kids who couldn't be bothered to come to class. It is incredible," said Maisto.

"I feel bad - his people were brutalized and he's all about love and not hating," said Moore.

Since coming to America in 1946, Lurie joined the US Army and served in Germany during the Korean war as a translator. "I am the proudest American you'll ever meet. I will do anything for this country," said Lurie, "It's up to us to do something so that the future isn't a mystery but a beautiful place for everyone. I want to see love.