That same night, he had a number tattooed on his arm that he still bears: 142584. Joe could easily have shared the fate of his family on that occasion, for the notorious Nazi doctor Josef Mengele directed him to join a line that Joe realized was headed for the gas chamber, and he had the quick wits to switch to another. But particularly pivotal for Joe would be Auschwitz-Birkenau, where he would lose his parents and younger brother to the gas chamber, they being among the roughly one million Jews who were murdered there. Another would be Dachau, the oldest Nazi camp and one of the most infamous. For Joe, this was the first of twelve camps that he would endure during World War II. Shortly after the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, Joe and his family were seized and sent to a concentration camp. Of this family, only he would survive the Holocaust. Joe spent his youth in the town of Koval, Poland, in a family that included his parents, three sisters, and two brothers. This year, we are fortunate to have Joseph (he prefers “Joe”) Alexander as our survivor-speaker.

A highlight in any observance of Holocaust Memorial Week is the talk given by a survivor.

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