Leon Leyson

Chapel Hill residents will have a chance to hear the story of Schindler’s List as told by one of the survivors.

Rabbi Zalman Bluming, executive director of Chabad of Durham and Chapel Hill, says the chance to hear the account of survivor Leon Leyson is a special opportunity.

During World War Two, German factory owner Oskar Schindler saved the lives of more than a thousand Polish Jewish refugees by employing them in his factories, thereby keeping them out of the Nazi concentration camps. This story became the basis for Steven Spielberg’s 1993 Academy-Award winning movie, Schindler’s List.

Leon Leyson was one of the youngest refugees to have worked in Schindler’s factory. Along with his parents, brother and sister, he managed to survive the Holocaust thanks to the efforts of Oskar Schindler.

Rabbi Bluming says that though the Holocaust occurred 70 years ago, the issue of genocide is just as pressing today.
 
The event, hosted by Chabad of Durham and Chapel Hill, will take place at the Judea Reform Congregation on Cornwallis Road at 7 p.m. on December 9th. For more information, visit www.chabaddch.com.