SOCRS108- Joseph ’Joey’ Korn- ”Love and Human Respect Triumphs Evil, Always”

Abram Korn was 16 when the Nazis invaded his hometown of Lipno, Poland, on September 1, 1939, the first day of World War II. He survived the entire war as a Jewish prisoner, enduring the ghettos, the horrific concentration camps, the Death March from Auschwitz.

Astoundingly, Abe kept his sense of human dignity–with gangrenous feet he struggled to stay on the healthy-workers list; with scant supplies he bargained for food and coal and helped others survive. Abe always believed he could live one more day, and on April 11, 1945, when the Buchenwald camp was liberated, he was finally free.

After Liberation, Abe focused on going to school and earning a living. He began rebuilding his life with other survivors in Germany. Eventually, as a man earnest to forgive past sins and take individuals at face value, he married a German Lutheran, who later converted to Judaism. They moved to the United States, where they raised their family and built a remarkably successful automotive business.

By the time Abe died in 1972, he had almost completed a rough first draft of his memoirs. His eldest son, Joseph, recently prepared Abe’s manuscript for publication. Abe’s Story: A Holocaust Memoir was released on April 11, 1995, the fiftieth anniversary of his liberation from Buchenwald Concentration Camp.

To the family he raised proudly in the Jewish tradition, Abram Korn left a legacy of powerful inspiration. For modern readers seeking the best in Holocaust literature and riveting drama, Abe’s Story is an incredible story of hope, of the human potential to do good in the face of horrible evil. All who read Abe’s Story seem to apply it to their lives today. It inspires them to persevere, despite any obstacles in their paths.