David Faber is a Polish Jew who survived nine concentration camps in Nazi Germany occupied Poland and Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. He is also an award-winning educator and lecturer on the Holocaust.

Life

He witnessed the murders of friends and family, the people they were staying with, and some of his extended family at a dinner table by the Gestapo

Gestapo

The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...

. He was sent to nine concentration camps in Germany and occupied Poland. Amazingly, he survived. At age 14, he was a fighter with Soviet partisans

Soviet partisans

The Soviet partisans were members of a resistance movement which fought a guerrilla war against the Axis occupation of the Soviet Union during World War II....

. Faber recalls seeing many horrible actions in the concentration camps, ranging from seeing a baby thrown into an oven to losing every friend he made in camp.

He remembers how a friend ran into his father's arms and his father was shot right then, (in front of him). When he was liberated from Bergen-Belsen

Bergen-Belsen concentration camp

Bergen-Belsen was a Nazi concentration camp in Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle...

 in 1945, he was 18 years old and weighed 72 pounds. Faber says "I was a living skeleton". He said he could not resist anymore, and as soon as he was liberated he gave up on living. He was found at the side of a road and taken to a hospital. His book, Because of Romek

Because of Romek

Because of Romek: A Holocaust Survivor's Memoir is the book written by David Faber about the horrors of living in Nazi concentration camps. This very graphic memoir shows how the Nazis killed eight of Faber's nine immediate family members and others, family, friends, and strangers alike. This book...

, is written in memory of his older brother, Romek. Faber's book is required reading in some schools.

He currently resides in San Diego, California

San Diego, California

San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...

.

External links

• http://www.becauseofromek.com/