Eric Blaustein is a retired civil engineer and biblical archeologist who lives in the Chicago suburb of Lombard.
He's also a survivor of the Holocaust.
Earlier this week, Blaustein spoke at theJewish Federation of Peoria’s annual Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Peoria Riverfront Museum.
Before his speech, Blaustein sat down with WCBU's Hannah Alani, and described his memories of the Holocaust … and why he feels it should always be remembered.
Blaustein was born in 1926 in Chemnitz, Germany. He survived the concentration camp in Buchenwald until the liberation in 1945. After the war ended he received an engineering degree, then moved to Israel in 1948. In 1954 he emigrated to the United States, where Blaustein worked as a civil engineer in Cleveland and Pittsburgh. He later worked as a biblical archeologist before retiring to Lombard, Illinois, to be near his daughter and her family.
The following is a transcript of an interview that aired during “On Deck” and “All Things Peoria” on Wednesday, April 27. It has been edited for length and clarity.
Eric Blaustein: I was actually a child when the Holocaust started in 1933. … I started schooling in 1933, my first year of school, not knowing some fellow named ‘Hitler’ had been selected as Chancellor of Germany. … He was out to make my life really miserable.
Hannah Alani: What were your early memories like before the Holocaust started?
Eric Blaustein: I grew up in a middle class family. I was a very happy kid, because I had everything I wanted. We went on vacations … My father, my mother educated and taught me all kinds of things. I was a happy kid. And I did not know, I have to say, I did not clearly know that I was Jewish. I didn't really know what that meant. I was a German kid.
Hannah Alani: Before the Holocaust, what was life like as a German Jew? Did you practice your holidays openly in your neighborhood with your family?
Eric Blaustein: You could, but we did not. My father was a free thinker. And he had no holidays. As a matter of fact, I remember, we had a picture of my sister and me under a Christmas tree. Because that's what Germans celebrated. All that stuff was thrown out in 1934, when my parents decided, ‘They tell us we are Jews. Then we will be Jews.’
Hannah Alani: Do you remember the conversations your parents had with you as a child when all of this started? When they started to realize that it was going to become dangerous?
Eric Blaustein: Not really. Germans don't talk to their children about things … They say, ‘You are Jewish.’ Period. No discussion. … Much different in the United States. I know I had long discussions with my children.
Hannah Alani: That's a very American thing?
Eric Blaustein: Yes, it is. That's a good thing.
Hannah Alani: I know you were arrested at one point, after trying to hide?
Eric Blaustein: That's actually the end of my talk. I was hiding 15-and-a-half, 16 [years old]. And I was caught only five months before the end of the war. They discovered me and I ended up in a concentration camp. … September of ’44 to April of 1945.
… And I was caught, actually, not because I was Jewish. They thought I was a deserter for the German army. So in order not to be hung that same evening, I had to tell them, ‘I'm Jewish.’ … Germans are very law-abiding citizens. Jews are killed in concentration camps. Soldiers who deserted … were hung before sundown. So suddenly, maybe it sounds even funny … In order to save my life, I had to tell him I was Jewish.
Hannah Alani: The months you spent in the concentration camp … what was that like? What did you experience?
Eric Blaustein: Personally, I was even lucky in the concentration camp. The prisoners had little control about what's going on in the camp … and they knew I would be killed the next morning, just for sport. There were no Jews anymore, at Buchenwald. And these Italians said, ‘We kill you right now.’ What they meant was … a young Italian had died. They took his number off, and put it on my uniform. And my number was put on his uniform. The next morning, they put ‘me,’ they put ‘my body’ out. And I lived the rest of my life as a devoted Italian. … Several times I was nearly discovered, but I made it through with the help of some Italian prisoners.
Hannah Alani: Now, your family, what happened to your parents?
Eric Blaustein: My family was lucky. We had the help of a very influential German family, which was hiding us as long as they could. And as a result, my whole close family survived. We had aunts and uncles and people like that, they died. My grandparents left Germany in 1933, and never got really involved in anything.
Hannah Alani: What was your journey like from Europe to the United States? How quickly did you come here?
Eric Blaustein: It's not so straightforward. I graduated [college] shortly after the declaration of the State of Israel in 1948. … I felt I was obliged to do something for my own people, my ethnic people. I went to Israel, I was a lieutenant in the Israeli army. I fought in a unit which is comparable to the Marines. So I stayed in Israel, got married. But … Israel was professionally not to my liking. I wanted to build big things. … I came to the United States in 1954. I didn’t know it, but Eisenhower had started the interstate highway program. There so, so much work for a civil engineer like me. I arrived here on Thursday, the next Monday, I went to work. Most immigrants cannot something like that. In a short time I had a house, two cars. It was a typical American family.
Hannah Alani: And you mostly settled down in Pittsburgh, is that right?
Eric Blaustein: I lived for half a year in New York, and I realized I would do better inside the country. I lived for 18 years in Cleveland, Ohio. I got a chief engineer job in Pittsburgh … lived 32 years in Pittsburgh until I retired. And I've worked for the other 10 years on my hobby, which is biblical archaeology … worked at Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh as an archaeologist. And I retired in Chicago because my family was here.
Hannah Alani: I was going to ask how you ended up in Illinois. In what neighborhood in Chicago, or suburb, do you live?
Eric Blaustein: I live in the Lombard suburb in a retirement home. And my family lives near me.
Hannah Alani: I know you mentioned, the last time you visited Peoria, was in the 1970s?
Eric Blaustein: Yes, 1973. I was employed in 1973, leading a team of engineers, which built a Caterpillar plant in Joliet. And we were here to discuss with Caterpillar engineers, exactly what they expected from us.
Hannah Alani: Wow. What was it like to have the ear … I mean, did he know that you were a Holocaust survivor?
Eric Blaustein: No, no, he had no idea who I was. He just wanted to hear from me. I was talking about the political situation of that time. Because he told me, he had no opportunity to talk to ‘people like me.’ He said, ‘Everybody I talk to is a politician.’
Hannah Alani: Why do you think it's important to remember the Holocaust? And how do you think it should be taught?
Eric Blaustein: The truth is, I don't want to be a Holocaust survivor by definition. I'm an American citizen. I experienced something horrible, but otherwise, I want to live like any other American. … But on the other hand, knowing about the Holocaust, will show people what can happen, if you play with anti-anything. It can be anti-Semitism. It can be anti-Yugoslavian. Anti-Greek. For people who come to the United States … we don't want to live in the past. We live in the future. I have three generations of Americans already coming after me. So I feel it's important that people know what happened. I think it really helps them to make decisions not to be anti-Semitic.
Hannah Alani: I'm sure a lot of our listeners are curious what you are thinking right now, watching world events. What's happening in Ukraine … people are likening it to the 1930s. How does it feel for you to be watching the news and seeing what's going on in Europe right now?
Eric Blaustein: This is more the experience of the Germans in 1945. The country was bombed. I think Putin is a war criminal. And I cannot favor a start to intervene, because it would mean another world war that nobody would be helped by … But I think, somewhere along the line, Putin should be called to task about what he did. Because he kills innocent people, women, children. Civilians. And if you have gone through a war … I have seen what happened to Germany, in 1945. I don't wish that on any nation.
Hannah Alani: Can you tell us a bit more about your family, the generations that came after you, here in America?
Eric Blaustein: I have two children. One that lives in Glen Ellyn, one of the more plentiful suburbs of Chicago. She's married to a modern rabbi. She herself was a professor at College of DuPage. She’s now retired. She has two children, a boy and a girl, both live in the Chicago area. And they have, between them, five children, which are my great grandchildren. The oldest one surprised me the other day when she told me she just made her driver's license. She’s 16. The youngest is five. And this little boy is an engineer! I can see it already.
…I have a son, who is an American, but he lives in Jerusalem. He’s here every year, twice. He’s an attorney by profession, in international real estate. Right now he's in Germany, visiting the descendants of those people who saved our lives. And I'm very proud of him, because he is somebody. He has three grandchildren, too. I can practice my Hebrew with them.
Hannah Alani: The world is … it feels so crazy right now. And I wonder if you have – for the people listening to this who couldn't make it to your talk tonight – any kind of message you would like to share with the Peoria community? When people ask you, ‘Do you have advice for this generation?’ Or, ‘A message for people today?’ What comes to mind?
Eric Blaustein. Don't be afraid to show other people that you are Jewish. That might be the best antidote to anti-Semitism. … I never have really experienced any serious anti-Semitic incidents in the United States. And the few times that started, the moment I made it quite clear that I was American, but also very Jewish, people stopped, because [they] didn’t want to get into trouble.
Hannah Alani: There’s been a rise in anti-Semitic hate crimes in America. Is that something you’ve noticed?
Eric Blaustein: Actually, no. ... But I had an incident about six weeks ago with the mail. I sent a letter to my great-granddaughter in Jerusalem. And four weeks later, I got the letter back with the remark, ‘insufficient address.’ Now, I use that address for over 40 years already. Also, the mark said the address was ‘unclear.’ Now to tell a civil engineer their writing is unclear is a lie. We are taught to write in block letters. Also, the U.S. Mail had nothing to do with the whole address. What they had to do was look, ‘Israel.’ … I can’t understand why that letter didn’t get to Israel. Because the address is only for Israeli mail.
Hannah Alani: Is there anything else that you would like to share with our listeners? Anything I didn't ask you about?
Eric Blaustein: I would like to say I came to the United States in 1954. I've been an American. I reported right after I left to the selective service here, because that was the law. I would have been willing to serve in the army. … Don’t look at people with thick accents like me, as foreigners. I’m not a foreigner. If I go to Europe and I get out of the airport, people talk English to me, because I look American. The way I dress and the way I behave. So I always tell people … we are Americans. Very good Americans.
