How A San Diego Man Survived The Holocaust

Jews around the world remember. The occasion is Yam Hoshoah. We are going to be doing this on our program today. The man joining us is a San Diegans who survived the Holocaust. Lou Dunst was 14 years old, a native of Czechoslovakia when he and his family were seized by the Nazis. His next five years were a time of survival, slave labor and the constant battle to maintain his spirit. Lou Dunst joins me in the studio and he is the subject of a book called by bargain with God. They give very much for coming in. Thank you for inviting me. You were living in a Jewish ghetto before you and your family were taken. To get us to hungry called [Indiscernible], the first place where we were taken from our homes. Where were you taken? What camp? From there, we went to Auschwitz, Auschwitz-Birkenau. Auschwitz was a death camp? Yes. They were exterminating 10 to 12,000 people in 24 hours. It's impossible to understand that or to imagine, even. This is what was happening. These are facts. Did all of your family go to Auschwitz? Every Jewish person that was in my town were taken at the same time and when the boxcars left it was not one Jewish person left in that town. Today, there is not one Jewish person in that town. You literally survived the gas chamber at Auschwitz? Tell us that story. In Auschwitz, we were not tattooed in Auschwitz. Because, we were going to the gas chamber. That was one time. Then, we were in Mauthausen and crying for food and water and they told us we don't need to because we are going to the gas chamber and we did. We were put into the gas chamber and nothing is happening, we didn't have enough air to breathe. Some of us fell on the floor, fainting and the commander of the camp said the fuel to burn our bodies is too expensive. He will send us to a place where we vanish without cost. That's exactly what he did. We were numbered. My number 68-122, I donated my number to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. If you Google me, my number comes up. We won't have to do that. You were sent from Auschwitz to a work camp? Is that right? It was Mauthausen. We did not work in Mauthausen. We were there for a short time. We were in the gas chamber there and chased out and they sent us to Ebensee and we worked there for underground missiles to go to Washington, DC and New York City. My goodness. It's my understanding the Nazis actually tried to kill you a second time? In a gas chamber? Yes. In Auschwitz I was not in the gas chamber. I was supposed to go. This contest to Mauthausen. I understand. They ran out of -- To be murdered in Mauthausen. They tried to do it. We were in the gas chamber. It was locked and nothing happened. They taste us out and put us on the boxcar. That was my number for the trip in the boxcars. KPBS Midday Edition one. Ebensee? Ebensee. Sub camp of Mauthausen. Was that the camp where you are liberated by the Americans? Yes. I was liberated May 6, 1945. I've heard a horrible story about where you were when the Americans liberated that camp. Yes. I'm still in touch with my liberator that liberated our camp. What's his name? Bob person jury. He drove a tank in and broke the gate and came into the camp. What was the name of his tank? Lady luck. Lucky for you. Lucky for all of us. [Laughter] The story I heard was you ended up on a pile of bodies? Correct. Most of them dead? There were a number of piles. The crematorium didn't work. They didn't have any fuel. They had a bulldozer and that didn't happen. Those were there for a day or so. They were already dead. The commander of the camp said for us to go into those underground factories to save our lives but he did not tell us that it was all mind with dynamite to get us in there and push the button and we would all be buried alive. Luckily, the Americans came a little bit earlier than he calculated. During this time, you were working as a slave, essentially, you were hungry and they were trying to murder you? How did you keep going? With the help of God. This is where I named my garden -- my bargain. I did bargain with God all the time. What was the bargain? Did you tell them I will promise to do this if you save my life? Yes. Our promise was, it didn't have money to promise him, I promised I would tell the story so I am here to tell the story. The man telling the story is Lou Dunst, a Holocaust survivor and subject of the book, my bargain with God. Joining us today is Heather Wilson, with the Jewish Federation of San Diego County. Thank you for coming. What is Yam Hoshoah? The annual commemoration of the Holocaust. In San Diego the Federation is an organizer of the annual San Diego Holocaust commemoration program. It actually takes place this weekend. The main program takes place Sunday, April 19 at the Lawrence family JCC, Jacobs family campus at 1:30. Blue will share more of his story there. There's a secondary program taking place, if if you can't make it on Sunday, on Saturday evening in North County. The whole purpose is for us to commit to never forgetting and commit to say never again. This may sound like a ridiculous question, but I'd like to ask a. Why do we need to remember the Holocaust? Lou, why don't you go first? Those that don't remember, they go over it again. That's what happens to people that don't remember. We are here that we -- because we remember what happened years and years and years ago. This is why we are here and we will be here. Heather, what would be your answer to that Western? We never want to forget and never want to see this happen again to anyone. The Jewish community or any other community, that genocide is happening around the world. Anti-Semitism happens around the world. What happened of the Holocaust, we never want to see that happen again and continuing the story and keeping the story alive and hearing stories like Lou's and other survivors, we only have so many like Lou today as we are 70 years away from the Holocaust. We are 70 years away from the Holocaust. I'm wondering if young Jews react to the story the same way that Jews of a previous generation did? I think the power of the story through every generation has been pivotal and a young person's life -- I grew up hearing stories from survivors and the more we can put survivors in front of you with and our young people, we hope the story goes on and there's been many efforts to document, video, paper, books like Lou's to make sure the story continues and to have an impact on our future. Lou Dunst, it must be difficult for you to imagine that people who hear your stories can know, really know what you went through. What would you say? Two young Jews -- do you feel they understand this? It still remains very meaningful to them? Yes, it is meaningful to them because I have lectured a long time, three times a week, about the Holocaust and I get the answer, I get letters from them that say you changed my life. Of all those things. They sound alike, but they all have something in them. Are you angry about what happened to you? I cannot be angry because the anger would kill me. I decided to clean my heart in order to be able to go on with normal life. Lou Dunst has been my guess. He is a survivor and the author of the book my guard -- My Bargain with God. Thank you for coming. Thanks to Heather her joined us for the occasion of Yam Hoshoah. She's with the Jewish Federation of San Diego County.