He wakes up to a bright, warm spring morning. It’s a typical school morning. He puts on his pants with a shirt and tie, and a sweater over the top. Everything is sized for a small five-year-old boy who suspects nothing of the dangers awaiting him outside.
He steps onto the streets of Antwerp, Belgium, holding his big sister’s hand as they walk together to Notre Dame de Sion school. He knows his parents have become more nervous lately but he doesn’t understand why. Today seems like just another morning. He arrives at the place where everyone knows him as Bobby.
The only difference about today? Today he will be arrested by the Nazi soldiers.
This story, although unique to one specific individual, had become an all too common occurrence for the Jewish people during World War II and the Holocaust. They awoke to days that appeared normal from the outset but quickly delved into chaos and worlds were turned upside down.
This is the story belonging to Holocaust survivor Roland Levi.
“I remember two Nazi soldiers at the door of my classroom coming to arrest me as my teacher said, ‘let’s have a prayer for Bobby Leri,’” Levi said. “I remember my sister Nadia being arrested the same day and yelling in the streets, ‘I am not Jewish. I am not Jewish.’ I remember my mother crying. And I remember my father in chains.”
According to Levi, this is the moment his family was separated. His father was sent to a concentration camp called Breendonk as a political prisoner. His mother, his sister and he were sent to Bergen-Belsen, which was an assembly place for Jews before they were sent by train to Auschwitz. And it was at Bergen-Belsen that he and his sister were sent to an orphanage controlled by the Nazis for children 16 and under until they were old enough to be taken to the concentration camps.
Before the war, and before their arrest, Levi’s father owned a printing company. He printed false ID’s and passports for his family, changing Levi’s name from Roland Levi to Bobby Leri.
“My father was born in Bulgaria. Once he had married my mother and my sister had been born, they moved to Belgium. It was 1933,” Levi said. “My father already believed the Nazis were going to invade the majority of Europe and began making the false IDs and passports so we would be ready when we needed to be. And he enrolled Nadia and I in Notre Dame de Sion so we would appear to be Christian children.”
Levi’s parents died shortly after the war, in the late 40s and he was sent to an orphanage in Brussels to finish his education. Levi remembers flashes of moments involving his father to this day.
“I remember the doors of the [Nazi] orphanage opening and my father standing there waiting for me,” Levi said. “And I remember when I was 15, getting my passport and the man there said, ‘I will tell you something. Your dad was a real hero.’”
Although living through the Holocaust was a nightmare come true for his sister Nadia, according to Levi, the worst part for him came after the war as he grew older and understood what had been done to his people.
“The scary part for me was after the war,” Levi said. “To be a Jew in Europe during the late 40s and early 50s was very hard. Everyone hated my religion. But the worst part was the fear that the Neo-Nazis would return.”
After the Holocaust Memorial Ceremony where Levi told his story to the entire high school community, students and faculty alike were moved by Levi’s message and his kindness toward every single individual.
“I was moved by how he feels like his story can touch the present generation. He emphasizes leaving H-A-T-E out of our vocabulary, but that can also be brought to the need to be kind to everyone, accept others for their differences,” theology teacher Stephanie Pino-Dressman said. “The other part of his story that stood out to me was that it is known that the Sisters of Sion would care for someone who is not Christian, that his parents would know that Sion is a sanctuary even in the midst of the Holocaust.”
Despite all the pain Levi has encountered, he now lives in St. Louis, retired from his restaurant business. He is married to the woman he claims to have a “big love story” with and has added five children and six grandchildren to his family. He is a frequent speaker at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in St. Louis, Mo and proclaims a message for the world to hear.
“I have to tell you something that is very important to me. A promise you can give yourself. Don’t use the word ‘hate.’ Erase it from your vocabulary. H-A-T-E. Forget the word hate,” Levi said. “Love and be a good person. That is what I hope to accomplish with the elimination of that word.”