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Saul Dreier was just a teen when World War II broke out and Nazis took him to labor and concentration camps.
Now 99 years old, Dreier will share his survival story and perform drums with a klezmer band at “Survival through Song” next week in Pleasanton.
As Dreier’s first appearance in the area, the community will have the unique chance to meet a Holocaust survivor in person, said Rabbi Raleigh Resnick, director of the host organization, Chabad of the Tri Valley.
“We are looking forward to this historic evening of music and courage. With the dwindling number of Holocaust survivors, this is a rare, special opportunity — especially for the youth in our community — to experience a fading chapter of our history,” Resnick said in a statement.
Born in Poland in 1925, Dreier’s early childhood was quite normal, he wrote on his website.
But shortly after World War II began, his father — a former officer in the Polish army — was imprisoned. This left Dreier alone with his mother and younger sister, according to his website.
Still in his early teen years, Dreier worked clearing snow and ice as well as delivering for a bakery, according to his website.
Then in 1941, Germans forced his family into a ghetto where overcrowding and little food plagued the neighborhood.
It was during this time that Dreier’s mom was taken away by Nazi officers, according to his website. Armed with guns, the officers stymied Dreier’s attempt to say goodbye.
“Either you want to be dead or you go back to work,” Dreier remembers one of them threatening him.
Shortly afterward, soldiers killed his grandmother and took his uncles too, he said on his website. Then Nazis forced Dreier into the labor and concentration camps Plaszów, a sub-camp of Plaszów called Zablocie, Mauthausen, Gusen and lastly Linz in Austria.
His imprisonment lasted over three years, where he performed hard labor like welding and hauling lumber, he told the Weekly. During this time he also lost his younger sister.
Despite the crushing work and conditions, music still struck a chord with Dreier. He recalls using spoons as drumsticks to play music in the camps.
“We didn’t have anything to eat, but when we heard music, it made us come alive,” he said in a statement.
Finally in 1945, American forces liberated him and other prisoners of Linz.
“I feel like everyone else — I was wounded. They took me to the hospital,” Dreier told the Weekly. “I had shrapnel in my head, my hands were bandaged. That’s how I feel. I was feeling very bad, but I survived, period, done.”
After liberation he lived in Italy for five years where he learned to play the drums, following in his father’s musical footsteps. But when he moved to the United States, where he met his wife, had three children and adopted a fourth, he didn’t pick drumsticks up for 67 years.
That is until 2014 when he emerged from retirement to start the Holocaust Survivor Band.
Originally composed of Dreier as well as fellow survivors and their children, the band has performed at concerts in Auschwitz, Israel and across the U.S., according to Resnick.
“Mr. Dreier’s ability to rebuild his life after the Holocaust with music and joy reminds us all that no matter our circumstances, we human beings possess Divine strength and courage to rise above our circumstances,” Resnick said.
The historical event is set to begin at 7:30 p.m. next Wednesday (Nov. 20) at the Chabad Center for Jewish Life, located at 3370 Hopyard Road in Pleasanton. Tickets are available at JewishTriValley.com.
