Remembering Ben Lesser

Show notes

As our show aired Erev Yom Kippur, we again presented excerpts of our past interviews on The Yiddish Voice/דאָס ייִדישע קול with Holocaust survivors who died during the past year. Since our previous episode, we've lost Ben Lesser, who died the first day of Rosh Hashona, so we were unable to include this in our previous week's show. The remainder of the show is a repeat of the previous week's show.

Ben Lesser (died September 23, 2025, age 96) - Ben was a Holocaust Survivor, Author, Lecturer, and visionary founder of The ZACHOR Holocaust Remembrance Foundation. He was known around the world for his courageous testimony, tireless advocacy and unwavering commitment to education and remembrance. Born in Krakow, Poland in 1928 to Shari Segal and Lazar Leser. Ben was the second youngest of five children, Moshe Leser, Lola Lieber-Schwartz, Goldie Leser and baby brother Naphtali Leser. At age ten his life as a boy was forever changed. He endured four concentration camps, a seven-week death march, and two death trains, one of which was the notorious ill-fated death train from Buchenwald to Dachau where of the 6,000 inmates that walked on, only 18 walked off. Ben was the last living survivor from that train. We reached him by Zoom on Apr. 17, 2023. Originally aired April 19, 2023.
- Funeral service Oct. 5, 2025 (per Legacy.com obituary: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/latimes/name/ben-lesser-obituary?id=59641327): Sunday October 5, at 1:30pm Mount Sinai Memorial Park in Hollywood (Los Angeles, CA).
- NOTE: MEMORIAL SERVICE OCT 19 2025: https://templebethsholomlv.shulcloud.com/form/ben-lesser-memorial
(for additional show notes, see show notes for last week's episode: https://podcast.yv.org/episodes/remembering-aron-bell-bielski-natan-gipsman-judy-altmann-zoli-langer)