Fort Lee, NJ – Leon Weliczker Wells, a Holocaust survivor who testified at both the Nuremberg and Eichmann trials, has died.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
According to the JTA Wells died of cancer Dec. 19 at his home in Fort Lee, N.J., at the age of 84. He was cremated, as per his wishes, having said that his people had gone that way.
He was 17 years old in 1943 when he was among those in the Janowska camp in Lvov forced by the Nazis to dig up and burn the bodies of hundreds of thousands of Jews and some Polish political officials murdered in Lvov in order to hide the truth about the Nazi death camps from the approaching Allies.
Wells testified at the Eichmann trial in Israel in 1961 that he was the only member of his “whole family, including all cousins, uncles,” among 76 to survive the Holocaust. Among those killed were his parents and six siblings.
Nebach, didn’t believe in Hashoras Hanefesh, how sad.
What a shame!
We cannot judge. My son in law, a Chabad Shliach in Central Europe, had the exact same situation with an elderly lady who was very active in post-Holocaust education in their country just last week. He begged her son to bring her to Kevura Yisrael but the son said his mother wanted to go the way of her people too. As she said, if it was good enough for all her family it was good enough for her.
The tragedy & the aftermath of the devastation we suffered continues on. May the One Who is the ultimate Judge have rachmones on these poor people who suffered so much.
We will never be able to comprehend the emotional pain that the survivors had to endure day and night. Please; no insensitive “halachik” commentaries here attacking his decision.
My husband’s uncle was with the troops that liberated one of the camps. He also wanted to be cremated because for the rest of his life he was haunted by that experience–and his non-frum family permitted it.
Why did they listen to his request?
The tayna is not on him, but on those who carried it out.
This is akin to children of divorced homes getting divorced. After seeing the churban, they took the wrong message from it. How sad.
He obviously did believe in hashroas hanefesh, & even though a toah, he was mekabel the yesurim, to be mechaper cremating other Yidden although under duress, & it wasn’t yehoreg Veall Yaavor. i am sutre he suffered enough. Vehu Rachum Yecghaper avon veloi yashchis.
oiy so sad! where was misaskim & chesed she’ll emes? he suffered enough in the holocaust. I’m sure he’s going to gan eden.
There were many brave souls who risk their lives to bury their fellow Jews during the holacaust. How sad that this man had the wrong outlook.
Ain Odom Nitfas Bshaas Tzaaro.
This person must have lived with tremendous guilt.
BDE. This is evidence that this Yid and many others were shattered kelim. My Zedeh too. Some Yidden were strong and prospered after the Shoa. Others were so shaken that their minds must have been damaged which hurt their neshamas ability to reason.
tehe nishmoso tzrura bitzror hachaim
Did anybody here ever read this man’s testimony at the Eichmann trial? Does anyone here know that, in his own words, he was forced to burn “a few hundeed thousand” human beings in the Janowska concentration camp? Are you aware of the fact that the only thing holding him and others like him from trying to escape was the fear of the revenge that the Nazis YM”S would exact on those left over? Do you know that they had orders to remove every trace of the Nazi’s barbarism, by grinding the bones and sifting the ashes?
Yes, he was wrong for wanting to be cremated. However, to those of you that criticize him-Have you been able to withstand Nisyonos that are 1/1000 of what he was forced to withstand? Not in the past-but RIGHT NOW. Can you withstand such tremendous tests to your Bitachon?
מאוד עמקו מחשבותיך ה’, Let us be thankful that we were never forced to live in such trying times. And let us improve our actions so that Klal Yisroel should never ever be thus punished. Ever. Again!
i would love to share this tzadik’s GAN EDEN
Stop judging! He wanted meaning to his life and he had an eternal identity with his generation who died in a certain way. Apply some logic and ask yourself what type of God will be able to turn thousand year bones back into living things during resurrection, but won’t be able to do the same for cremated people? Silly concern to be judging this person who survived hell and beyond in this world. The fact that he had any belief and faith left in Hashem after what he was forced to do as a young man, is a miracle in itself.
Nonsense..My Dad Z”L survived the worst that the Nazis could throw at you. His parents along with 3 siblings were gassed in Auschwitz. He barely survived and till his dying day he was a yid who was shomer Shabbos. He never believed in the idea that “why him etc”. He never had that narish guilt of why he survived. He took it for what it was and he lived his life with only one concern..that for The Torah and Eretz Yisroel. He never felt sorry for himself and even after losing a son in Israel due to Arab terror (YMS) he never questioned G-d and his ways. I buried my fathers entire body along with the Tatoo that the Nazis (YMS) burned on his hand “A7471” amongst Jews and that where he is going to stay, till such time the goyim in this land decide to turn the Jewish Beis Olam into a Wal-Mart parking lot….G-d is rigid. We Jews have lost it as we try to be everything and nothing. Today we are so wishy washy.we have become a nothing.
reply to # 24. Abe, what have you learned from your fathers stoic behaviour ? Not much !
Reply to # 17. Your criteria for a wellrounded holocaust survivor is ; how prosperous a person he has become. Well, I am afraid you are a rachmones ..
How can you support someone who specifically goes against Halachah?
An observant jew knows that the biggest defeat to the nazis ym”s, is if you continue to live a torah life & by raising your family as Shomrei Torah Umitzvot. This is exactly what many survivors did & b”h are still doing, those who couldn’t stand that big Nisayon are a big Rachmonis, and altough who can judge such a poor man after what he suffered, it doesn’t mean that his actions were right, on the contrary this behavior shows a lack of Emuna, Vehu Rachim Yechaper.. but to all of you who claim sensitivity, first you have to show sensitivity to our Torah, you’re right that we cannot judge this poor soul, but to justify this shows exactly your level in Emuna..
Why did he just want to die as “his people” did? why didn’t he live the way “his people” did? Nebach
To those who derided my TB.I have this to say. I grew up listening to the stories of my parents.both survivors. It was their absolute belief in the Torah that allowed them to continue their lives. They were stubborn people with an absolute belief in G-d. They would have no patience for those who were weak. They were fearless. My mother hid from the Nazis in Poland for 4 years running from field to field like a jackrabbit. Never did she eat treif. We must judge for as we live in a time where everything and anything is ok, We Jews are becoming a feel good nothing nation. We have been watching too much TV where you can do no harm. Well guess what you can do lots of harm by not being rigid and tough. What this man and his family did was wrong..It was an insult to the memory of the Kedoshim. Our people were burned by the Killers. We Jews dont burn ourselves. I will leave you with these thoughts. When my late brother was killed by the Arabs (YMS) .my mother at a time of great pain had the wisdom and the koach to inscribe the names of my late grandparents (all 4) who perished in the chorban on his mazevah.. She said they too deserved to be remembered in a Jewish cemetary..
We had a similar situation in our kehilla but it turned out for the good. The family was convinced to let the body be buried first according to halacha and the exumed to be cremated R”L. Once the body was buried their attitudes changed and didnt want anything to do with the cremation.
#32 said it best.
Just on a historical note, the above photograph is of Menegele’s y”sh surviving twins after liberation. There were no children in Auschwitz except for the twins upon whom he performed hideous experiments. Witness the oversize uniforms. There were no children’s sizes
Dr. Wells was a good and just man. No one here is of authority to judge his actions, or those of his family. May he and his family have eternal peace in this lifetime and the next. Shalom Dr. Wells.