Ernie Gross: A Holocaust Survivor’s Journey From Auschwitz to America
Ernie Gross grew up in Transylvania as one of seven children, surviving poverty, bullying, and antisemitism long before the Nazis arrived. In 1944, Hungarian police forced every Jewish family into the synagogue, then into the ghetto, and finally onto the trains to Auschwitz. He was 15 years old.
At Auschwitz, a fellow prisoner told him to lie about his age — that single moment saved his life. His parents and two younger siblings were sent directly to the gas chambers. Ernie and his brothers were pushed into forced labor, shaved, numbered, and taught the brutal rule of survival: selfishness wasn’t cruelty — it was the only way to stay alive.
Ernie was transferred through multiple camps, starving, beaten, and barely surviving the winter marches. He shared stories of trading bread for cigarette butts, scavenging for potatoes at night during bombings, and watching prisoners publicly executed for attempting escape. As he weakened, he was eventually moved to Camp Seven — the last stop before death.
On April 1945, as Ernie was hours from being pushed into the crematorium, American troops broke through the gates. He was too weak to stand. Soldiers carried him to a sanatorium, where he slowly recovered.
After the war, Ernie tracked down surviving family — just four siblings remained out of nine. He eventually immigrated to the United States, learned English, built a life in Philadelphia, raised children, and rebuilt from nothing. He faced illness, widowhood, and loss again, but he also found community, remarried, and dedicated his life to sharing his story.
Ernie’s message is simple and unwavering: never hate, never forget, and choose kindness whenever you can. There is room in this world for everyone.