The Holocaust affected millions of families around the world, including the relatives of many people who later became famous around the world.
Gene Simmons
Gene Simmons, lead singer/bassist for rock band KISS, was born Chaim Witz in Israel to Hungarian Jewish parents. His mother, Flora Klein, escaped the Budapest Ghetto and three concentration camps, including Ravensbrück and Bergen-Belsen.
She avoided the gas chambers after being chosen as a teenager to work as a hairdresser for the commandant’s wife.
Geddy Lee
Rush’s lead vocalist and bassist was born to the Jewish couple Morris and Mary Weinrib, who survived the Holocaust.
The couple met in a Jewish labor camp where they flirted as teenagers; both were later transferred to Auschwitz. Morris was later moved to Dachau while Mary survived both Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen with her mother and sister.
Wolf Blitzer
The veteran CNN lead anchor was born in Augsburg, Germany, to Polish Jewish parents, Cesia and David Blitzer.
Both parents survived Auschwitz, but his grandparents were killed. After World War II, they stayed in a displaced persons camp outside of Munich until moving to the United States.
Ivan Reitman
Ghostbusters and Stripes director/producer Ivan Reitman was born in Czechoslovakia in 1946. His mother, Klara Reitman, is a concentration camp survivor of Auschwitz. His father, Ladislav Reitman, was a member of the Czech underground resistance, which fought against the Nazi regime.
Ivan and his parents escaped Europe one night by hiding in a coal barge to America in 1950 and later settled in Canada.
Tommy Ramone
Born Tamás Erdélyi, the founding drummer and producer for punk rock band the Ramones was born in Budapest, Hungary.
His parents were Hungarian Jews who survived the Holocaust by living in hiding with the assistance of non-Jewish neighbors during the German occupation. Many of Erdy’s family members were killed.
Roman Polanski
The Academy Award-winning director spent his early childhood years hiding out in the Kraków Ghetto after his family was rounded up by the Nazis. His mother was deported to Auschwitz, where she was killed.
His father, Ryszard Polanski, lived through the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria and reconnected with Roman after World War II ended.
Hillel Slovak
The founding guitarist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers was born in Haifa, Israel. His mother, Esther Slovak, was a Polish Jewish survivor of World War II who spent the war in hiding and persecution. She fled to Israel and later moved to the United States.
Dr. Ruth Westheimer
The internationally known sex therapist and radio talk show host grew up as Karola Ruth Siegel in Germany. In 1939, after her father was arrested by the Gestapo, Ruth’s mother put 10-year-old Karola on a train to safety in Switzerland as part of a Kindertransport.
Her parents died in the death camps, but Ruth lived through the war in Switzerland, eventually immigrating to Mandatory Palestine.
Scooter Braun
The influential music executive and talent manager (having managed Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande) has family who survived the Holocaust. His grandmother, Eva Braun, was a 15-year-old girl who survived Auschwitz. His grandfather, Joseph Braun, survived Dachau.
Steven Spielberg
Although Spielberg’s grandparents arrived in the United States before the Holocaust, much of his extended family was forced to live through Nazi occupation in Eastern Europe.
Some survived Nazi concentration camps, went on to rebuild their lives, and heavily impacted Spielberg’s fascination with Holocaust history and Schindler’s List.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
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