RETURNING STRONG

This is a true story of one man's journey from darkness to light.

Mangel is an old man now. He once was young, but as far as timing goes, being a Jewish child living under Nazi occupation in 1943, young was not the best option for survival. 

So, as he entered the death camp alongside his father at the age of ten, he lied. When the SS officer asked the boy his age, the boy became a man and said, “Seventeen.” He was then able to go with his father to the work brigade instead of facing the destiny of other children his age who were sent directly to the crematorium.

But this is a happy story.

Nissen survived the war. He thrived in his new life in New York City. He went to school and became a great scholar, teacher, and the beloved patriarch of a family that, at last count, numbered 106.

Recently, Nissen celebrated his ninetieth birthday by returning to Poland with over one hundred members of his family, accompanying him to the entrance of the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp.

He said with pride that he walked through the gates where he once stood eighty years ago with a Nazi officer at his side. And now at his side stands his grandson, a soldier in the Israel Defense Force. He adds that God has always been with him every treacherous step along the way and every miraculous step that has taken him to this day.

Good always conquers evil.