Tales of Survival

Lou Dunst's Story: When Lou Dunst was a teenager, imprisoned in a series of Nazi concentration camps, he begged God: “Please let me live – if for nothing else than to tell my story.”  Dunst did survive the war. His is a gripping tale, full of heartache and suspense. 

Born in 1926, Lou was only fourteen years old when all Jewish males in Jasina, Czechoslovakia 14 years and older were taken as slave labor. He was transported in boxcars to various concentration camps over time.

On the morning of May 6, 1945, Dunst was literally at death's door. A 19-year-old Ukrainian Jew in a Nazi concentration camp in Austria, he had crawled onto a pile of corpses outside the crematorium to perish. But that afternoon, General Patton's Third Army drove liberated Dunst and the rest of Ebensee's 18,000 prisoners.

Fanny Krasner Lebovits's Story: Fanny Krasner Lebovits lost 32 family members during the Holocaust including her mother, father, little sister, grandparents, aunts and uncles. Only she and another sister, Jenny, survived. Lebovits is now 84; her sister, 81, lives in New Jersey.

Her love for Judaism gave her strength to continue - to be a role model for others.  She is a mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. She founded the WIZO movement in South Africa and was the head of Hadassah Women's Organization in San Diego for many years. When she shares her story with others she often times stops herself because it's too much for her to bear.   “It's part of my obligation,” she said, nevertheless. “Maybe that's why I survived.”