Catholic students get lesson from Holocaust survivor

It was difficult for Alexander Kuechel to speak to students about his past even though it was his 18th time. Not only is it painful for him, but it's inarguably painful for many because it is one of the most heinous pieces of world history.

Kuechel is a survivor of the Holocaust.

He admitted to 200 eighth-graders at St. Viator Catholic School that he didn't enjoy talking about it. It is painful and it emotionally drains him, he said. However, as a living piece of history, he finds it his purpose.

"My generation is dying out, so it's my duty to tell them what happened," said Kuechel, a Sun City resident. "That's why I do it. It's hard but I have to do it."

According the Kuechel, the Holocaust has many lessons to teach. The main lesson is tolerance whether it be on a global or a school level -- every person affects another person. When intolerance happens, Kuechel warned the children of the danger of ignoring it.

"The Holocaust wasn't a phenomena of Austria and Germany," Kuechel said. "It was a phenomena of countries that didn't do anything at all."

Carol Loeffelholz, assistant principal at St. Viator, agreed and said that is why she began the Holocaust Conference at St. Viator three years ago. Eighth-graders from six of the valley's Catholic schools attended the conference, listened to Kuechel and survivor Ben Lesser's stories, asked questions and solidified the time in history into their memories, along with lessons on the Jewish religion, culture and history.

"We should learn from this," Loeffelholz said. "On the big scale, it happened in Bosnia. On the small scale, it happens with bullies and school violence."

"How many school shootings have gone on recently because of bullies?" said Amanda Malaskovitz, a St. Joseph Catholic School student. "I think out of all the history we've learned, this is what I'm most interested in. It's so real and it's true."

"First it was teasing and taunting. It can become bigger," added classmate Jennifer Medina. "You really don't want it to happen again. You don't know what it could become."

Although survivors each have their own stories, the question begging to be answered is "How did they survive?" Kuechel said.

He attributes his survival of seven concentration camps to luck. His parents, sister, brother-in-law and nephew were killed at the "extermination camp" Auschwitz-Birkenau -- where five out of six million Jews were killed -- while he was sent to work camps and barely escaped succumbing to typhoid. He partially credits the knowledge he gained in the Jewish Boy Scouts to his survival.

"I had aunts, uncles and cousins, which I don't have today. I don't have anyone at all," Kuechel said. "(My father) thought by working it would save his life, but of course, it didn't work out that way."

The brutality he encountered was great. Many times during his speech he said "People died like flies" and "They took a gun, and if they didn't like you, they'd shoot you. Life was meaningless."

Kuechel wanted the repetition of his words to take the children back in time, so they could imagine what went on as he was telling it.

"Actually getting the first primary source is a privilege," said Kristina Bracamonte, a St. Joseph student. "You make judgments about people without thinking about it."

"If you want to learn something from my experience, what I'm saying today shouldn't be taken negatively," Kuechel told the students. "Don't take your freedom for granted. It can happen to the Jewish people. What makes you think it can't happen to anyone else?"