Cantor David S. Wisnia will be speaking and performing at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Morgantown Event Center, Marriott Waterfront Place Hotel. Admission is $7, general; $5 for students and senior citizens.
MORGANTOWN — David Wisnia survived something few did — the Holocaust.
Known for his story of overcoming time spent in the Auschwitz Annihilation Camp and then the Dachau concentration camp, Wisnia tells his story in “One Voice, Two Lives.”
His performance, which includes singing, gives insight to Wisnia and what he went through.
He will perform Sunday at Marriott Waterfront Place Hotel and be accompanied by Morgantown native Laurent Levy. Levy said he has been accompanying Wisnia for many years.
Wisnia said he got a chance at a second life. He said he “put it to pasture,” referring to his life before being rescued by Americans in Germany.
Wisnia got his start singing when he was just a child. His dad was somewhat of an opera buff, so he was singing Italian operas by the time was 9-years-old. He sang in a choir in Warsaw at temple.
“I was lucky to have been born and have a beautiful family,” he said.
During his performances, Wisnia tells the story about losing his family in the Warsaw Ghetto. His father resisted the Nazi guards and Wisnia lost both parents and a younger brother — all killed by the SS, Nazi Germany protection squad guards.
At age 16, Wisnia ended up in Auschwitz. He told the officers he was 18 because he thought it gave him a better chance of surviving.
“The first couple of weeks, I was carrying bodies of people who went into the ditch when they found out that their families were killed,” he said.
He doesn’t think he could have survived if he had continued that task.
“After about two weeks of that work, one night the cell block leader asked who could sing and everybody knew that Wisnia sang, so I became the entertainer — believe it or not — if you can call it that,” he said.
As an entertainer, he became a privileged prisoner. The SS guards would have him sing for them, in German, at parties. Wisnia lived at Auschwitz for 2 ½ years, at a time he said most others did not survive.
“It was just a question of expediency because I realized that’s why I’m alive. They kept me alive,” he said.
In 1944, Wisnia was transferred to Dachau, where he volunteered to carry cement. In 1945, he remembers seeing planes, which he learned later were American forces. In March of that year, he was rescued.
“The 101st Airborne, the 506th Parachute infantry became my family. They took good care of me,” he said.
He was an asset to the U.S. military. He spoke German and recalled a time he talked some of the SS guards into throwing away their weapons.
“I really appreciate this country. I understand what it means,” he said.
Wisnia continued his singing in America. He was cantor for 28 years at Temple Shalom in Levittown, Pa., and recently retired from Har Sinai Congregation of Trenton, N.J., after 23 years.
He and his wife, Hope, were married for 69 years, until she recently died.
Wisnia said he believes in God and that’s why Judaism has always been important to him. He speaks, reads and writes fluent Hebrew as well as five other languages.
Wisnia said everyone should take the time to learn about the Holocaust.
“There are still people now who don’t believe it, you know. That’s ridiculous. I can tell you I came in on a transport of 1,500 people and only less than 500 were taken into the camp. The rest were immediately killed. We didn’t find that out until the following morning,” he said.
Wisnia recently received a picture of himself from someone in North Carolina. He said he sent the picture back with words his granddaughter used. The words are from the book of Genesis when God blesses Abraham.
“He [God] says ‘become a blessing’ and that’s exactly what I strive to do — do good, no prejudice. Do something good to improve this world,” he said.
