The family of a man who was one of those who survived the Holocaust because his name appeared on the famous "Schindler's list" has recently published the man's recollections of that time.
Leon Leyson was only 10 years old when the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939 and he and his Jewish family were forced into the Krakow ghetto. Leyson, however, was spared the tragedy of being sent to the concentration camp outside Krakow by one man: German businessman Oskar Schindler.
According to Leyson's children, Leon was one of the youngest workers whose name appeared on the so-called "Schindler’s list," which later became the subject of an award-winning Steven Spielberg movie in the late '90s.
Before passing away last January, Leyson completed his memoirs describing that time, "The Boy on the Wooden Box," which is the only memoir published from a former child on the list. The book tells the story of his time working in the factory for Schindler.
Daniel Leyson, Leon’s only son, said that when the workers were being designated to work in Schindler’s factory, his father Leon’s name was originally left off the list, but the young Leon approached a Nazi guard and persisted that he was in fact on the list.
"My dad talks about only being able to see his Nazi belt buckle and he showed him the list where his name was, and for some reason the soldier said, 'OK, yes, you are,' and put him in the group that was leaving," said Daniel Leyson.
The title of the memoir was so named because being one of the youngest workers for Schindler and needed a box to do his work.
"He had been so malnourished and weakened by the lack of food and everything that he didn’t grow properly and he was unable to reach the controls of the machine he was working on so he had to stand on a wooden box to reach the controls," Daniel Leyson said.
