Werner Coppel

Werner Coppel was born on February 22, 1925 in Moers, Germany.  He was only eight years old when Hitler came to power, and lived as a Jew the entire twelve years of the Nazi's reign.  Because of the oppressive Nuremberg laws of 1935, all Jews were kicked out of the public schools.  They were given an old factory building, where they set up their own Jewish Parochial School, which was comprised of eight grades crammed into one classroom.  When he was a teenager, Werner joined a Zionist youth movement that was opposed to Hitler, thus making himself even more of a target.

In spring, 1941, all the youth in the Zionist youth movement were shipped to a labor camp in Neuendorf, close to Berlin.  Werner's parents and brother were also deported and killed.  On April 20, 1943, when Werner was 18 years old, he arrived at Auschwitz in Poland, one of the most terrifying and brutal of all the death camps.  Here he was forced to work in a munitions factory making synthetic rubber.  It was destroyed by American bombs in 1944.  During this brutal time period, the members of the Zionist youth movement supported each other with their love, compassion, and encouragement.  For Werner and all of the teenagers in the movement, this was a bright light of hope in a world of utter darkness. 

Then the infamous death marches began.  Realizing that the end of the war was near, the Nazis forced their prisoners to march into Germany.  Many collapsed of overexertion and starvation.  Werner Coppel fell out of line and escaped in January, 1945, after 21 months at Auschwitz, and returned to Berlin in August of that year.  From 1945-1949, he assisted Holocaust survivors en route from Poland to the American Zone in South Germany. 

In 1946, Werner married a lady named Trudy, who had helped nurse him back to health after his debilitating experiences in Auschwitz.  Werner and Trudy celebrated the first wedding in Berlin after the collapse of Hitler's regime. 

In August 1949, Werner and Trudy came to Cincinnati, Ohio to join Trudy's family.  Over the course of several years, Werner established himself in the city and eventually became an international business man.

In May, 2001, Werner Coppel was awarded an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters Honoris Causa from the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he still resides today.  Werner has dedicated his life to Holocaust education and has lectured constantly on the subject for 25 years.  He was one of the founders of the Holocaust and Humanity Education Center at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati and was instrumental in the development of the Bombing of Auschwitz project. 

It was Werner who repeatedly requested that the CIA to investigate and compile a report on if the military could have bombed Auschwitz or not.  In 1979, the CIA affirmed that it was true; the U.S. could have destroyed the death camp.  This was all Werner wanted.  He wanted the government to admit that they could have done it.  Werner obtained this report and in 2004 traveled with Dr. Racelle Weiman, the director of the Holocaust and Humanity Education Center, to visit Senator McGovern to ask him to take part in this unique dialogue between bomber pilot and survivors.     

Werner Coppel lived in one of the most terrifying places on earth during one of the most brutal periods in history.  A Jewish 18 year old in the hands of the Nazis, Werner had no reason to hope.  He persevered, however, escaped the Auschwitz gas chambers and death marches, and became a beacon of hope.  Werner is truly a symbol of the triumph of the human heart over the evils of WWII.

Back to Biographies Main...

http://www.huc.edu/chhe/education/speakers.htm

http://www.citybeat.com/2001-06-07/news.shtml