In Memory of Aleksander Laks

USC Shoah Foundation is sorry to learn of the passing of Aleksander Laks, the first Holocaust survivor to give his testimony to USC Shoah Foundation in Brazil and a special friend of the Institute. Laks passed away July 21 at age 88.

Laks survived the Lodz Ghetto, Auschwitz and a death march as a teenager. He immigrated to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and became a leader of the survivor community there as president of the Sherit Hapleita (Holocaust survivors’ organization).

When USC Shoah Foundation staff member Ita Gordon began to establish the foundation’s presence in Rio in the 1990s, Laks was the first person she contacted there. He thought they would be lucky to find 90 survivors willing to record their testimonies – but much to his and Gordon’s surprise, they ended up collecting almost 600 testimonies throughout Brazil. Laks was the first to give testimony in Brazil and went on to be an interviewer himself.

Gordon remembers asking Laks why he was so quick to invite her to his home after she called him for the first time, since he had never even met her before. Laks said it was because of her name – he had known a woman named Ita in the Lodz Ghetto. Laks actually tells the story of Ita from Lodz during his testimony.

Holocaust education became Laks’s great passion, and as a promise to his father who died in Auschwitz, he continued to speak about his experiences during the Holocaust at Jewish and non-Jewish schools, organizations and colleges. He was awarded several medals, including one by B’nai Brith, for promoting respect for human rights.

“He was quite a special human being and a good friend of the Shoah Foundation. He deserves our gratitude,” Gordon said.