April 12, 1933
Birthplace: Negrovic, Czechoslovakia
Holocaust Experience: Kindertransport
Dave Lux Z"L
“For me, everyday is a miracle: my children, my grandchildren. I should have been dead. I really appreciate everything.”
Dave Lux was born Isidor Pinkasovich on April 12, 1933 in the small village of Negrovic, Czechoslovakia. His father, Mordechai, worked at a bakery at a nearby village while his mother, Esther, took care of him and his older brother, Herman. After an incident during which militants broke into the Lux’s home and searched for valuables, Dave’s parents decided to pack up their few belongings onto a horse and cart and leave Negrovic. The next thing Dave remembers is being held with his family, along with many other families who also had fled their homes, in a multilevel building by Slovakian guards.
A young woman approached the parents of these families to try to convince them to save their children and send them on the Kindertransport program to England as child refugees. No one agreed to give up their children, except for Dave’s parents. Herman had just turned seven, and Dave was just short of six years old. They were too young to understand what was happening. For Dave’s parents, this separation was extremely emotional, and the last thing Dave remembers is his mother’s hysterical crying and desperate reluctance to let her sons go. This was the last time either boy saw his parents. After the war, Dave learned that his parents had been relocated to a Jewish ghetto in Slovakia and later were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp, where they were ultimately murdered.
Read More
Dave and his brother were taken to Prague to await further arrangements for their trip to England. However, it took over a month before they were granted access to England. Eventually, they were placed in a boys’ refugee home, the Jewish Boys’ Home, located in Ely, England, with about 40 other children between the ages of six and seventeen from various European countries. Dave and Herman stayed very close throughout this experience. They both stayed at this refugee home from 1939-1949. After the War, the boys moved to London. At the age of 16, Dave and his brother went to Israel as young pioneers to participate in the building of a new Kibbutz in the Negev, Saad. Dave later joined the Israeli military and volunteered to serve with the airborne unit.
In 1959, Dave came to the United States to meet his recently discovered relatives. However, it was very difficult for him to leave Israel and Herman behind. Two years later, Dave met his wife, Helene, and ended up staying in the United States. He and Helene have been married for 56 years and have three children – Steve, Beverly, and Danny — and five grandchildren. For many years, Dave shared his story at the Museum of Tolerance in order “to honor my brave parents by dedicating my presentation in their honor.” Dave passed away on October 29, 2018. He will be dearly missed by all. May his memory be a blessing.
Z”L stands for the Hebrew words meaning “may his/her memory be a blessing.”