A 100-year-old Polish Jew named Jack Wasal who survived the Holocaust visited ILS recently where he spoke to the sophomores and some of the freshmen.

Introduced first by legal studies teacher, Ms. Stephanie Liebert, who is herself the grand-daughter of Holocaust survivors and a family friend of Mr. Wasal’s, his harrowing story captivated listerners.

Mr. Wasal spoke about his time during the Holocaust, how he survived it ,and how he met his wife there.

At around 15-years-old, he and his family were forced by the Nazis first into a Polish ghetto and eventually a work camp.

The SS Officers (Nazis) coerced of the Jewish people outside, demanding they line up to dig graves.

Mr. Wasal’s father turned to go until his son volunteered to do it instead which the Nazis permitted.

A couple of officers took the people aside, who then tried to get the gun away from the Nazi officer. In the struggle, some of them fell into the grave, including Mr. Wasal.

“It was really interesting,” said sophomore Matthew Tirador.

The officers shot at them managing to kill the other people who fell into the grave. Mr. Wasal believes he got lucky and managed to get out and run away to the nearby forest. The only problem is he had no food or water. In order to survive, he had to steal from nearby farms.

“I thought it was really inspiring, especially with how he escaped to the forest,” said sophomore Nicholas De Izaguirre

Mr. Wasal managed to sneak into a labor camp which also has his brother there where he and a small group managed to escape. Unfortunately, they got found out and people in his group, including his brother and brother’s fiancée, were killed. Mr. Wasal managed to escape again. He got caught this time and ended up at a labor camp, liberated finally when Russian troops arrived.