By LAURIE THAYER
Holocaust survivors Kuba and Helen Beck, real-life subjects of the movie 'Schindler's List,' related their horrific experience in an overcrowded JSB Auditorium on Wednesday night.
The Becks were among the few saved through the efforts of Oscar Schindler, a Czechoslovakian, who employed Jews from the concentration camps in his factory.
Movie director Steven Spielberg relied on accounts from the Becks and others to make his film as realistic as possible. However, both Kuba and Helen say that their story is much, much worse than Spielberg's portrayal.
'How can I convey or translate to you the totality of the horror,' said Mrs. Beck. 'Your wildest imagination would not understand.'
While the Becks were both forced into the same concentration camp outside of Krakow, Poland and were miraculously among the few saved by Schindler, they did not meet each other until they were liberated in 1945. Each spoke about their own experience and then answered questions from the audience.
A year after the war broke out, Kuba's family store was taken over by Nazi soldiers and he was forced to find work in a machine shop. In 1941 the Nazis decided to make Krakow the capital and fenced off a section of the city for a Jewish ghetto. Kuba's house was already located in this section.
In 1942 the Nazi soldiers went through a selection process by stamping individuals who would be allowed to stay in the ghetto; the others would be sent to concentration camps. The Nazis closed the ghetto in June and ordered all of the people without stamps to leave. Kuba had a stamp, but the rest of his family was not as fortunate.
At the age of 15, Helen and her sister were taken from their home by Nazi S.S. men to a forced labor camp. Helen was later a part of the first group to set up barracks for a concentration camp located on a Jewish cemetery outside of Krakow. It was from this concentration camp that both Kuba and Helen were taken to Schindler's factory.
The Becks called Schindler a remarkable man for his efforts in saving as many of the Jews as he could. At one point his factory was closed down and all of the employees were sent back to the concentration camp until he reopened a new factory in Czechoslovakia. When Schindler sent for his original factory workers, the men were delivered, but the women, including Helen, were mistakenly sent to Auschwitz.
At Auschwitz, Helen's group was taken to the ovens to wait their turn to be burned. While they were waiting, a letter arrived from Schindler ordering them to come to his factory. 'That day I became a believer in miracles,' Helen said.
While the story of the Holocaust can never be told in its entirety, the Becks feel it is important to share their experience. 'We have to talk about the past to learn to respect people,' Kuba said. 'We have to learn to live with people.
The Becks agreed to make another presentation Thursday night because there was not enough room for everyone on Wednesday. The edited version of 'Schindler's List' will be aired this Sunday night at 8 p.m. on NBC Channel 5.