Harold Gordon

Harold Gordon was born Hirshel Grodzienski to a Jewish family in Grodno, Poland (present-day Hrodna, Belarus). They were poor, but he had a happy early life with his parents, younger brother, and multiple relatives living nearby. By 1939, many of these relatives had escaped Europe for the USA, Palestine, South America, and and Scandinavia. The Russians occupied eastern Poland in 1939 and life became harsh. In 1941, in World War II, the Germans attacked Poland and threw out the Russians. Jews were forced into ghettos where there were food shortages, lack of sanitation, and disease. Harold, age 10, and his family were marched to Kelbasin, a holding area for those about to be transferred to the death camps. His father Eli smuggled Harold out one day, but when he went back for his wife and younger son, they were gone, never to be seen again. Harold and Eli walked 70 miles to Bialystok, but soon were deported from there with other Jews to the Buchenwald concentration camp. From there, they were sent to the death camp at Auschwitz. He and Eli were made to be crematorium workers. Every morning, Harold would see the sun rise over the crematorium, and ask himself, "Is this the last sunrise I'll see?" By 1945, with the Allies closing in, the Nazis forced those still alive on a death march to the Tyrol mountains. Harold and Eli survived to be liberated by the U.S. Army. He was 15 years old. They were sent to a displaced persons camp, where Harold enrolled in vocational classes. With the help of volunteer organizations, in 1946 he and Eli emigrated to the USA, and went by train to Los Angeles to stay with his Uncle Julius. Harold quickly learned English and completed his schooling. During the Korean War, he joined the Army to serve his new country. He married his wife Joyce, worked in the produce business, and then bought a service station he operated for 36 years. He became a public speaker on the Holocaust at schools and universities. In 1989, he published his memoir, The Last Sunrise, A True Story: Biography of a Ten-Year-Old Boy in Nazi Concentration Camps During World War Two.