Holocaust survivor speaks at Chester High School
<span>CHESTER -- For 60 years, the number "178873" was too painful of a reminder of Ben Fainer's experiences during World War II.</span>
<span>The 84-year-old Holocaust survivor, who has that number tattooed on his arm, spoke to Chester High School students at Colbert Gymnasium on Thursday, offering a few tidbits from his memoir, "Silent for Sixty Years."</span>
<span>"The horror that I witnessed was indescribable," Fainer said. "I have seen the worst horror ever committed by human beings.</span>
<span>"I hope to God it never happens again."</span>
<span>On September 4, 1939, three days after Germany's invasion of Poland, German soldiers forced their way into the Fainer family apartment in Bedzin, Poland.</span>
<span>Large for his age, 9-year-old Ben was imprisoned, along with his father, but he never saw his mother and younger siblings again.</span>
<span>Only seven of his 250 relatives survived the war.</span>
<span>"I survived because I lied about my age when they picked me up," Fainer said.</span>
<span>Fainer spent the remainder of the war in the concentration camps, where he shined shoes and cleaned offices for the Nazi regime. Eventually, he was put to work in factories alongside adults.</span>
<span>"I have seen people shoved into gas chambers," Fainer said. "Stockpiles of people who couldn't work.</span>
<span>"The only chance of being free was if you worked hard and kept your mouth shut."</span>
<span>Fainer also told the assembled students about his decision to break his silence about his experiences during the war, which he did not even tell his family about until six years ago, and how he was liberated.</span>
<span>It was a chance meeting with one of his liberators 60 years after the war that inspired him to break his silence.</span>
<span>"I had been silent for 60 years, but I woke up," he said. "I'm doing this and I will be doing this until my grave."</span>
<span>Fainer spent most of his six-year imprisonment in a camp in Jelesnia, Poland before being moved to camps in Blahame and then Buchenwald, where he was held in Block 15.</span>
<span>An estimated 238,000 prisoners died at Buchenwald from April 1938 to April 1945.</span>
<span>"Words can't describe the experiences this man had," said Chester High School Principal Tim Keefe. "My hope is that when I get to be his age, I can be as generous as he is."</span>
<span>Fainer's visit was arranged by the Chester Public Library, which held its own presentation with the veteran later that night.</span>
<span>Copies of his book are available at the library.</span>
<span>"The library contacted us," Keefe said on how Fainer's appearance at the high school was arranged. "I heard he came to Steeleville last year and we just didn't get an opportunity.</span>
<span>"It was a week of an anti-bullying message and how others treat others is an important part of that message.</span>
<span>"(Fainer's) message is the horror side of that happening."</span>