Heritage Florida Jewish News - Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice

In 2005, the United Nations established, Jan. 27, the day Auschwitz was liberated by the Red Army, as the International Holocaust Memorial Day. In conjunction with this special date, Chabad of North Orlando will be hosting Saul Dreier and his band in the Orlando area on Jan. 24, 2024.  The entire community is invited to enjoy the music of the Holocaust Survivor Band and to have the chance to meet this special man and hear about his life directly from him.

Saul Dreier was born in April 1925 in Krakow and had an idyllic childhood until 1939. His father, an officer in the Polish army and he was taken away soon after the war started. Soon, Jews were forced to wear a Star of David, they got small food rations and even as a young teenager, Saul was forced to labor for the German government occupying Poland.

In 1941 Saul along with his sister and mother were forced into the Ghetto.  There were dozens of people in one apartment, no food, no work for the majority of people and Saul was forced to work on organizing the loot the Nazis stole from the local Jews when they moved them to the Ghetto.

One day, when Saul was coming back home from work, he saw Germans forcing Jews from the Ghetto to the Płaszów train station. Among the crowds he spotted his mother. There was nothing he could do. It was the last time he saw her.

One day, a man came to him and said “I’m your father.” He was so thin that Saul could not recognize him. Turns out, he escaped from prison and thus joined whoever was left of the family in the Ghetto.

A few days after his mom was taken away, the soldiers came for his grandmother and uncles. Being that grandma was elderly, she was shot right in Zgody Square. Again, he saw this with his own eyes but was helpless. 

A few weeks after that, Saul himself was taken to Płaszów labour camp and around a year later he was relocated to Schindler factory at Zabłocie.

In July 1944 he was transported to Auschwitz. That was the same transport from which Oscar Schindler rescued members of “his list”. When the train arrived, it stood with the doors shut for many hours. When the doors were opened instead of Auschwitz he realized he was in Mauthausen. From Mauthausen he was taken to a concentration camp in Linz, Austria where he worked in the Haubwergstate Factory as a welder. When the factory was bombed Saul was transferred to work on the railroads. Soon, there was another bombing and many of his fellow inmates were killed but Saul, though he was injured, managed to survive. At this point he knew that the war was nearing its end and indeed in May of 1945 he was liberated by the U.S. Army.

Saul spent 5 years in a DP camp in Italy and in November of 1949 he finally arrived in the United States. At first Saul lived in the northeast. It is where he met and married his wife in 1957. In 1980 he moved with his family to Florida. Despite all he had gone through, Saul has a joyous and optimistic spirit. “There’s no day that I don’t enjoy my life,” says Saul.

In 2014 Saul read an article about a Holocaust survivor who was a pianist and passed away at 108 years old, right then and there he decided to put together a Holocaust Survivor Band in her memory.  Saul woke up his wife and told her of his plans. She said, “what do you need it for, you are crazy?”

So Saul went to his rabbi and he said, “Saul you retired almost 15 years ago, what do you need it for, you are crazy?”  

Saul didn’t listen to anybody. When he came home with the drums, his wife said, “Either you go, or the drums go.” But he convinced her to keep the drums. He rented a room in a local temple and advertised a free concert and even his wife showed up. They performed for 90 minutes and then got a standing ovation. That’s when his wife finally said to him, “now I know you are a celebrity.”

After that initial show, they were invited to play around the world: the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas; Miami; Detroit; Reading, Pennsylvania; Hamilton, Canada; Cleveland; Texas; Warsaw, Poland; Auschwitz; Berlin, Germany; Israel and Brazil.

The program at Nate’s Shul will begin at 7 p.m. in the Longwood Community Building. Tickets are $25. Space is limited so be sure to register soon at www.JewishNorthOrlando.com/Band.