{{short description|Warsaw Ghetto Uprising resistance fighter}} {{Use mdy dates|date=December 2018}} {{Infobox person | name = Leon Weinstein | image = Leon_Weinstein.jpg | birth_date = {{Birth date|1910|5|13}} | birth_place = Radzymin, Poland | birth_name = Leon Chaim Lazer Weinstein | death_date = {{Death date and age|2011|12|28|1910|5|13}} | death_place = Los Angeles, California | known_for = Warsaw Ghetto Uprising }} '''León Chaim Lazer Weinstein''' (May 13, 1910 – December 28, 2011) was the oldest surviving resistance fighter of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.zmanmagazine.com/PDF/Last_Man%20Standing.pdf|title=The Last Man Standing|last=Hirschson|first=Yakov M.|date=January 2012|work=ZMAN|access-date=December 11, 2018}}</ref> A member of the Jewish Combat Organization and later the Home Army during the later parts of World War II, Weinstein had previously served in the Polish Army in the early 1930s and again during the German invasion of Poland in 1939.
== Early life == Leon Chaim Lazer Weinstein was born on May 13, 1910, part of a Jewish family in the small town of Radzymin, 20 miles outside of Warsaw, Poland.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hirschson|2012|p=116}}</ref> At twelve years old, Weinstein became an apprentice to a local tailor. But he would soon run away from his family's village to Warsaw seeking better opportunities for employment. Continuing to work as a tailor, Weinstein saved a healthy sum to help his family and returned to Radzymin to rejoin his family by the age of 18. He began working as a foreman for a clothing manufacturer.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hirschson|2012|p=117}}</ref> Weinstein joined the Polish Army and served two years in the cavalry.<ref name=":0">{{Harvnb|Hirschson|2012|p=118}}</ref>
== World War II == As WWII broke out, Weinstein rejoined the Army in early September 1939 to fight with the Polish cavalry during German invasion of Poland. Captured near the Polish-Russian border, he was sent to a prison camp in Kovel, Ukraine.<ref name=":0" /> He escaped two months later and traveled the 600 miles to Radzymin by foot, arriving in September 1940.<ref name=":1">{{Harvnb|Hirschson|2012|p=119}}</ref>
He took an active part in the Jewish Combat Organization ({{Langx|pl|Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa, ŻOB}}) under the leadership of Mordechai Anielewicz and Yitzhak Zuckerman. He obtained forged papers to regularly work outside his Jewish neighborhood. From there, he smuggled food, arms, and would recruit and train volunteers to fight.<ref name=":1" />
In October 1942, through a tip, he found out that Jews in Radzymin were going to be taken. He tried to convince his extended family to run away but to no avail. On October 4, Weinstein escaped with his wife Sima and his 15-month-old daughter Natalie. Thousands of Jews from Radzymin were rounded up and sent via rail transport to Treblinka, a Nazi concentration camp in the northeast of Poland. This included the rest of his entire family including his grandparents, parents, sisters, and brothers, none of whom survived.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hirschson|2012|p=120}}</ref>
The Weinsteins headed for Warsaw. Life was not safe for their daughter. So her parents bundled her up, hung a gold cross around her neck, hoping Polish authorities would believe she was a Christian. They left her on the doorstep of an attorney who immediately took her to the Warsaw Police Station. Sima went into hiding, and Leon went back to fight with ŻOB in the Warsaw Ghetto.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://jewishjournal.com/tag/leon-weinstein/|title=Tracking a Warsaw ghetto fighter|last=Tugend|first=Tom|date=November 2, 2011|website=Jewish Journal|language=en-US|access-date=December 13, 2018}}</ref> Leon would never learn of what happened to Sima.
=== Warsaw Uprising === {{Main|Warsaw Ghetto Uprising}} Weinstein was responsible for smuggling weapons into the ghetto. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began on April 19, 1943 when German tanks began rolling into the Ghetto. The resistance lasted for 27 days.<ref name=":2" />
Weinstein survived and escaped through the Warsaw sewage system.<ref name=":4">{{Cite news|url=http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/05/local/la-me-survivors-20110805/2|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120203222928/http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/05/local/la-me-survivors-20110805/2|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 3, 2012|title=A Holocaust survivor raised a fist to death|last=Streeter|first=Kurt|date=August 5, 2011|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=December 11, 2018|language=en-US|issn=0458-3035}}</ref> He crawled through the sewers for three days and managed to escape the Ghetto with six others who scattered in the non-Jewish part of the city.<ref name=":5">{{Harvnb|Hirschson|2012|p=134}}</ref> Weinstein was able to stay at a friend's house for the remainder of the war and worked for the Polish Underground Army. He would pose as a railroad worker to smuggle supplies and sabotage the rail system.<ref name=":5" />
==Later life, 1945-2011== {{expand section|date=September 2023}} == Personal life == After the war, he learned all his relatives had died. At war's end, for six months, Leon traveled across Poland on his bicycle, searching one convent orphanage after another. After visiting many, he spotted Natalie and immediately recognized her. He was able to confirm the identification by her birthmark above her hip. Natalie was four years old.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hirschson|2012|p=137}}</ref> A few months later, Leon met Sophie, a survivor of Auschwitz concentration camp. They married and moved to France in 1947.<ref name=":3" /> They had a son named Michael.<ref name=":4" /> Eventually, the family emigrated to the United States in 1952.<ref name=":3">{{Harvnb|Hirschson|2012|p=140}}</ref> Weinstein died in Los Angeles, California on December 28, 2011.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2012-jan-04-la-me-streeter-20120104-story.html|title=Paying homage to a Holocaust survivor's firm grip on life|last=Streeter|first=Kurt|date=January 4, 2012|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=December 11, 2018|language=en-US|issn=0458-3035}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn503681 Oral history interview with Leon Weinstein] at United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Weinstein, Leon}} Category:1910 births Category:2011 deaths Category:Jewish Combat Organization members Category:American men centenarians Category:Polish men centenarians Category:Jewish centenarians