It happened in late March 2020, at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. When he was on lockdown with his family in their home in Brooklyn Heights, New York, Oren Schneider got a phone call from his sister Michal in Israel, informing him that their beloved grandfather, Alexander Roziak, passed away at the age of 94.
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When Oren hung up, he immediately pulled out his computer to continue working on a memoir of his grandfather that he had begun shortly before. He now felt more compelled than ever to tell his extraordinary story. The result was "The Apprentice of Buchenwald," which was published in English in the United States and has recently been translated into Hebrew and published in Israel.
"Grandpa was my superhero," Oren told Israel Hayom in an interview coinciding with the book's Hebrew edition coming out. "I always appreciated him as someone who acted in an impossible time and against all odds, raised a family and maintained sanity and humanity."
Q: Did your grandfather speak openly about his experience during the Holocaust?
"Grandpa always shared. He also didn't mind if people came and took his picture. On the other hand, he said: 'Who would be interested in that?' When people asked him to tell [his story]l, he would speak and everyone sat enthralled. But when I asked him if he would write a book about it, he replied: 'So many stories have been written about the Holocaust.' I never thought a book would materialize either."
Family history
Oren's mother, Maya, who was a medical student and the daughter of Alexander and Yehudit – both Holocaust survivors – met Menachem Schneider in the 1970s, a member of a veteran Israeli family.
Menachem Schneider was a Skyhawk pilot and flight school instructor. Tragedy struck on Feb. 29, 1976, at 8:55 a.m., near Masada, when a plane in which Schneider was flying with a trainee collided with another plane in the sky. He and the other two pilots were killed.
Twenty-three years old at the time of his death, Schneider was survived by a pregnant widow, and Oren, who was only 13 months old at the time and as such, never got to know his father.
"My mother had an infant and was pregnant and had two parents who were Holocaust survivors, bruised and scarred," Oren shared. "As a child, I remember reciting Kaddish [mourner's prayer] from the age of 4 in the military cemetery in Netanyah. I grew up differently. My mother was a brilliant person, it was clear that she would achieve great success, but this tragic accident disrupted the trajectory of her life."
To support her family, Maya worked long shifts at the hospital. To help her, Alexander and Yehudit, the grandparents, moved into an apartment two flights below. Yehudit ran an office supply store and Alexander was a businessman who always looked for the next venture. He was one of the first to arrive in Japan in the 1960s and eventually was one of the main importers of the Sharp electronics corporation.
"My grandfather was an impressive man," Oren said. "Tall with a European look and well-groomed as if he had just stepped out of a magazine. His entire life he showed that he was strong, but from a young age I realized that he was hiding a vulnerable part inside him. In Israel, he faced problems and troubles, and all the time news came: There was another war, his son-in-law was killed and there were orphans that needed to be raised."
While Oren's mother was at the hospital, he would go straight to his grandparents after work. His grandfather used to tell him about his childhood and growing up in Europe and when everything went dark.
"From the age of eight, I sat with him and recorded him, because his stories fascinated me. He mainly spoke about his childhood, about the crazy situations he went through in the concentration camp. For example, when they didn't have a bed, to keep their body warm, they took turns rubbing each other. He shared everything. He did not hold back, but he shared in the safest place possible - at home and calmly."
Before Buchenwald
Alexander was born in 1927 in Sečovce, a small town in what was Czechoslovakia back then into a wealthy merchant family who lived among the local aristocrats. When the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia, the family's world was turned upside down and their property was confiscated. Alexander and his father were separated from his mother and fought for their lives in the cold and hunger, but thanks to their resourcefulness and survival skills, they managed to secure a position at a factory that operated outside the Buchenwald concentration camp that produced rifles for the Nazis.
Seventeen years old at the time, Alexander was in charge of delivering materials and messages but quickly found himself to go-between between members of the resistance who also worked in the factory.
One time, Grisha – another prisoner in the camp and former Russian officer – sent Alexander to deliver instructions to Kristoff, who was in charge of rifle sight, to sabotage them in a certain way that would make them useless early on in battle.
"It's an amazing story," Oren said. "I really remember that I once came across a story about damaged Czech rifles that arrived in Israel. It was recorded in the archives of the Yishuv during the War of Independence. My grandfather was something when it came to manual work and technical understanding. Although he did not sabotage the rifles himself, he was brave in passing on the messages. I find that kind of courage incredible."
Q: Where do you think that courage came from?
"He was fearless because he was 17 years old and a special guy. After all, you send 18-year-olds to fight and do things because they are young and think they are invincible. I'm not sure that a 40-year-old man, with a family, wouldn't hesitate. It's probably in the DNA of our existence."
Alexander survived the Holocaust, as did his parents. By the end of the war, he was in charge of typewriters in the camp, having been appointed to the position thanks to his technical skills that were evident from a young age and helped him survive.
"I inherited the survival mechanism from my grandfather: to think positively, have courage, and take care of myself. This was his motto. Grandpa always told me: 'Unless you take care of how you look and how you behave; unless you protect yourself and demand what you deserve – no one will do this for you. He encapsulated all his wisdom and lessons in the way he raised me."
As such, Alexander was the father figure in Oren's life.
"On the outside, the two of us are similar, and we both have a high level of restraint," Oren said. "I am a person of details and numbers. He was a man of the big picture and work. We both had difficulty with an aggressive and disrespectful culture. This is also one of the reasons why I am very comfortable living in America now."
Q: Do you mean that you found Israeli culture aggressive?
"Even as a child, I could connect to it. When I was six and in school in Netanya when one of the kids hit me. In this too grandpa and I are very similar. He went through his trauma when he was 14-17, and I went through mine when I was 2-5. I am very similar to him in the ability to create complete detachment. We both suppress things, but I don't wear a mask, just like he didn't."
One of the stories featured in "Apprentice of Buchenwald" is of a trip Oren took with his grandfather in the early 1990s to Sečovce, where – as mentioned above – Alexander was born. From there the two traveled together to Buchenwald.
"I remember that we entered the camp gate and there was no one there," Oren recalled, "He was terribly disappointed that the wooden barracks were destroyed. We toured and he told me: 'Here we would walk, and this is where the camp was.' He remembered everything and shared everything."
Q: Did your grandfather ever say that he hated Germans?
"No, he hated the people who hurt his family and murdered his uncles, but it was natural for him to separate between the two. He didn't believe in settling scores and revenge. He always thought positively and how to live this day as the first and last one."
Q: Essentially he was the one who raised you.
"Absolutely. He tried to influence me as the male role model in my life. He taught me how to shave and dress. He was the closest person to me. Every summer he and grandma took us all to Europe. There he felt at home, preferably in a German-speaking country. Usually Austria, but sometimes also Switzerland or Germany. He felt culturally comfortable when he was served by German speakers. Maybe it was a kind of revenge. The ability to show up there and say: 'I'm here.'"
Q: How well do you think you knew your grandfather?
"My memories are of a man who concealed more than he revealed. I didn't crack all his secrets. I don't know how he dealt with the demons of the past. In the years when he was really active, I was very young. As a teenager, I had a lot of speculation about what he did."
Giving new life to old jewelry
Oren, 48, grew up in an unstable environment, having lost his father and his mother having a difficult life. Still, he was an excellent student and served in the IDF in Unit 8200 and reached the rank of major. After he was discharged from the military, he worked in high-tech but felt like it was not his cup of tea. In 2004, he married Sharon and moved to the US to study at Columbia University.
"After getting my degree, I joined a large consulting firm, in finance," Oren said. "But I realized that I needed to return to my roots as an entrepreneur. I was looking for industries that were far from me and that I could change. I was introduced to someone who worked in jewelry and gemstones. Together we founded a consulting company that worked with governments and large entities, and we did interesting business. Today I lead CIRCA, a company that gives a second life to old watches and jewelry, with 22 locations worldwide – from Hong Kong to Beverly Hills."
Q: What did your grandpa say when you decided to move to the US?
"We spoke almost every day. I still have his voicemails on my phone, and from time to time I listen to them. For grandpa, work came first. He would call and say: 'I hope I'm not disturbing you.' And if the call went to voicemail, he would say, 'Excellent, a sign that you are busy. Call me back when you can.'
He would say, "'If you choose to follow your dreams and passion and they are somewhere else, that's fine. Every person should be in a place where he finds peace and satisfaction.' He spoke specifically about the US because he knew that most of his great uncles – his father's brothers – moved to America and built dynasties, although the relationship with them was completely cut off."
Family tree
Oren not only told his grandfather's story but also dug deep into Alexander's family history through MyHeritage online genealogy platform.
"I wanted to understand what happened 120 years ago when members of the family dispersed," he said. "Most of them started families and lived overseas. They do not know Israel and have not visited it. They are Jewish, but Reform. I contacted them and got to know many of them."
Q: Are you in touch with them?
"The other half of the family became ultra-Orthodox. They moved to Bnei Brak and Jerusalem. The others settled in Ohio and New York. Among them are a professor at Harvard, a psychologist at Yale, and a neuroscientist from Stanford, all of whom are scholars and look like my grandfather. They know nothing about their family member who survived the Holocaust and is the brother of their beloved father. Sixty professors and doctors came together for a Zoom call, and I told them about everything I discovered. In the last year and a half, I connected with memes of the family that I knew existed, but I didn't know how to reach them. They reached out after reading the book."
As Oren moved to the United States to live with his family and build a business there, his relationship with his grandfather focused on phone calls and visits back home.
"In his last years, every time we parted, he hugged me and told me: 'This is the last time we meet.' I told him: 'We will also arrive in March, so hold on.' The last time we met, in December 2019, I thought it was indeed the last time because he was already very weak. In many ways when I heard of his death I was relieved. But he is with me all the time. I remember him as strong, optimistic, and active."
Listening to old recordings
With the outbreak of the pandemic, the world came to a halt, and so did Schneider's business.
"I was at home and existential thoughts crossed my mind. You try to think where your help will come from. Then I felt a desire to listen to my grandfather's tapes."
These were the old recordings Oren recorded as a child between 1995 and 2008.
"I was always connected to my grandfather's story and I didn't plan to do anything with the recorded material," Oren explained. "I wanted to make sure that the story was preserved. We had many hours of recorded conversations, so I listened to the material and realized that I wanted to write his story."
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To learn how to write a memoir Schneider even took a Zoom workshop.
"I did an intensive course. I felt that there was light at the end of the tunnel. When I received the message that my grandfather had passed away, it pinched my heart that he wouldn't be able to read the book, but I continued and after two months I had a draft ready. I was in a trance because I am a practical person. I realized that the world is about to get out of the pandemic and I will be drawn to places again others, therefore I must finish the project."
Q: Do you think there is less interest now in Holocaust literature?
"I don't think so. Our generation is reaching a place where the burden of responsibility and the burden of memory falls on them. Twenty years ago this was not evident to me, but now I know that one of my duties as an Israeli and a Jew living in the largest Jewish city in the world is to pass on our story."
Q: Have you thought of having it adapted to film?
"We will probably make it into a series. After consulting with professionals who understand the industry, they told me the book has too many details and content for one film. This will happen because it is too important a story not to be told. Although it is in the early stages, it is progressing."
