Dear Mamy
featured:
Andre Klein, Holocaust Survivor
september 25, 2020
Andre Klein was born in Brussels, Belgium, on March 9, 1942. Within the first three years of his life, he had experienced, horrific events of the Holocaust. The trauma of the Holocaust remain with him today.
In May 1940, Nazi Germany invaded Belgium and just 6 months after Andre was born, Germans began deporting Jews to Auschwitz. One of the houses (apartments) that the Nazis came to was Andre’s, intending to send the entire family to Auschwitz. Andre’s mother pleaded for their lives, and convinced the Nazis NOT to deport her because she was pregnant. Unfortunately, the Nazi’s took Andre’s dad, where he was murdered at Auschwitz. He was just six months old when dad was transported to Auschwitz.
Throughout the war, Andre’s family remained in Brussels. His mom arranged for each of the children to remain hidden, in separate locations. Andre was placed in a private Christian home; his older brother was hidden in a Catholic convent; and the baby sister, born in 1943, was saved by Mamy and her Catholic family. Andre’s mom evaded capture by obtaining false identity papers. Although allied forces had liberated Belgium in May 1945 that did not stop the anti-Semitic feelings that Andre’s mother was worried about. So, in 1955, Andre’s brother and paternal aunt sponsored 13 year old Andre, as well as the rest of the family, who immigrated to Brooklyn, NY. In 1955, Andre, along with his wife, Joan and their family, moved to Glendale, Arizona. For 40 years (29 years as a full-time Associate Professor of French and 11 years on a part-time basis), Andre taught at the Thunderbird School of Global Management, and fully retired in 2012.
On a personal note, when we first met Andre, he was reluctant to tell his story, so, we are extremely thankful that we are the first that will collectively get to hear it.