Louis Sneh in Seeshaupt Courtesy of tvspielfilm.de who survived Auschwitz to become a successful businessman a great-grandfather and a tireless activist for Holocaust commemoration Raised in the Hungarian village of Mezőkovácsháza he was 16 years old when the Nazis marched into Hungary on March 19 and deported the entire Jewish population to the Auschwitz concentration camp the “doctor of death.”Sneh’s mother was immediately sent to the gas chambers where slave laborers dragged 100-pound bags of cement on their backs day after day with virtually no food When a Nazi guard asked if any of the prisoners were electricians Sneh immediately raised his hand — despite coming from a village with no electricity “Because I raised my hand, I’m here today,” Sneh told me in a 2013 interview the Nazis herded Sneh and 4,000 other Jewish prisoners into a 70-car train of cattle cars Get the Forward’s “Letter from Calfornia” delivered to your inbox. Sign up here to receive our lively and provocative insights opinion and inspiration from the state at the leading edge of the Jewish future which became known as the “train to nowhere,” made its way through Bavaria Sneh could see SS guards stripping off their uniforms and running away Sneh called that day, April 30th, 1945, his second birthday. The story was retold in the acclaimed German-language documentary “End of the Line Seeshaupt.” The two remained married for 64 years until her death in 2016 Dina and their sons Jack and Naftali moved to the United States where Sneh opened a cash register repair store in Hollywood Sneh and his wife supported numerous charities and synagogues, focusing on Holocaust education They established the Naftali Sneh Memorial Fund for Holocaust Education at the American Jewish University in memory of their son Sneh, who spoke eight languages and traveled to 76 countries, returned to Seeshaupt He was instrumental in erecting a monument there to the victims and survivors of the Holocaust he once decided to wait for a freight train to pass through Seeshaupt so he could capture a re-creation of his liberation “The last freight train passed here in 1945 “You’re looking at one of those corpses,” Sneh said I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward American Jews need independent news they can trust At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S rising antisemitism and polarized discourse This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up Copyright © 2025 The Forward Association