Remembering the Holocaust

Every year the California State Assembly marks the Holocaust by honoring Holocaust survivors. This year, acting on a suggestion by Assemblyman Dan Logue (R-Chico), U.S. Army concentration camp liberators participated in the remembrance.

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I was proud to host a special man as my guest: Hans Kaichen. Rabbi Dov Fischer, the rabbi at Young Israel of Orange County, alerted me to the story of Mr. Kaichen, a constituent of mine. Hans' story completes the link between saying "Never again" and actually putting that thought into action. As I said on the Assembly Floor, "Tyranny is evil -- doing nothing is folly." Too often we congratulate ourselves for having noble sentiments while we fail in the more difficult task of rising to action in a perilous and imperfect world.

About Hans Kaichen

Hans Kaichen’s father worked at a leather-store in Germany. At age 36, in 1934 (the year after Hitler’s March 5, 1933 ascent to the chancellorship of Germany), his father was beaten to death in his store. In the 1934 German political environment, the family did not report the matter to the police. On October 21, 1940, Hans Kaichen was taken to the Gurs concentration camp in Vichy France. He marked his Bar Mitzvah in a concentration camp. Two thousand attended. Hans was released from the Camp after eight months along with 100 other children for "humanitarian" purposes. His family arranged for his brother and him to get out of Europe and to travel to America where he had no relatives. His mother was arrested by the Nazis and died in a concentration camp in 1944. At age 18, Kaichen joined the United States Army and served during World War II in the Pacific theater in the 7th Infantry Division. Thus, he is the very-rare-survivor who not only survived the concentration camps in Europe but who then went on to fight for the Allies. He later fought in the Korean War. Hans lives in Laguna Woods, where he is President of “Holocaust Survivors and Hidden Children of Laguna Woods,” a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that has 54 members in Laguna Woods. He also is a member of the Jewish War Veterans of America. For more information visit Chuck's web site: www.chuckdevore.com

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