Kaplan survived four years in the Nazi concentration camps and was the only one from his family. (David Smith-Soto/Borderzine.com)

David Kaplan – A child in the Nazi concentration camps survives and forgives

EL PASO – Loud demanding voices in the darkness of the early morning disrupting too few hours of sleep and waking to find that the man next to him is now a corpse mark the start of another stressful day in the Nazi concentration camp. Hunger pangs continually tear at his stomach as he labors in the ever-present bone-chilling cold that cuts through the filthy rags he wears. These are some of David Kaplan’s childhood memories. “Families were torn apart, you never knew when it would be your turn to die,” said David Kaplan, 82. He told journalism students at the University of Texas at El Paso that he felt lucky to have survived the hell he fell into when he was only 11 years old.