"The Boy On The Wooden Box"

"The Boy On The Wooden Box" is a memoir by Leon Leyson (with Marilyn J. Harran and Elisabeth B. Leyson).  It's the story of how he and his  parents and two siblings were saved from the Jewish death camps during World War II because his father was able to obtain a job in Oskar Schindler's factory.  Leyson is an Americanized version of his family's name and he changed his first name to Leon.  He was ten when the war began to alter his whole life and the lives of all the Jews he knew.

This book is not always an easy read but it is a reminder of how we all have the potential to become "monsters" or make the choice to buck the system (as Schindler did) and risk our own lives to help others.  It's the story of how one brave man (Schindler) made a difference in the lives of so many people and how one boy (Leyson) took risks that helped him and his family survive the Nazi brutality.  Leyson quotes Joseph Campbell's definition of a hero when he talks about Schindler:  "a hero is an ordinary human being who does 'the best of things in the worst of times'."

Leyson was a remarkable man and gifted at learning languages.  He lost two brothers during the war but his parents and he emigrated to the United States while a brother and sister went to Israel.  Leon, despite having his schooling stopped by the Nazis at an early age, went on to work and go to school in the United States to become a gifted teacher.  Leon died on January 12, 2013, after suffering from T-cell lymphoma for more than three years.  He was survived by his wife of 47 years as well as a daughter, son, and grandchildren.

Stories of what happened to Jews under Nazi rule are sometimes discounted or people don't want to continue to hear about these horrors but they are important lessons for us to remember so we don't repeat past mistakes.  These stories must be kept alive!

If you would like to learn more about the Holocaust, visit these sites:

The Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education, Chapman University
chapman.edu/holocausteducation

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
ushmm.org

USC Shoah Foundation-The Institute for Visual History and Education
sfi.usc.edu

The "1939" Club
1939club.com

Yad Vashem
yadvashem.org