Harrowing Tale of How Boy Survived Nazi-Occupied Poland

Scrawny 13-year-old Leon Leyson had to stand on a box just to reach the buttons of Oskar Schindler’s metal machines while forced to work for the Nazis.

The emaciated boy made friends with Schindler – a household name after Steven Spielberg’s 1993 film “Schindler’s List.”

It was an odd relationship that saved Leyson’s life.

Leyson, one of the youngest survivors on Schindler’s famous list, is bringing his harrowing tale to Manhattan Tuesday – his 80th birthday. It will be the first time he’s spoken here.

He will tell the tale of how he made it out of the Plaszow, Poland, concentration camp where he cut metal at Schindler’s enamelware factory.

“There was always danger lurking at every corner,” he said.

Schindler’s workers at Emalia, the Polish name of the factory, were separated from the thousands of other victims at the camp.

“We were not harassed by the guards,” Leyson said.

Schindler managed to save his employees from the gas chambers, making deals with Nazis through his wits and charm.

Still, the boss couldn’t provide the basics.

“I was hungry all the time,” Leyson said. “I was always looking for food.”

The grandfather of four still has nothing but praise for his savior.

“I don’t think he was a Nazi believer,” he said. “He was a decent human being. At the end, he saved the people he knew.”

Leyson’s parents, along with his older brother and sister, escaped death because they worked for Schindler.

Nazi soldiers killed his two eldest brothers before they could land jobs in the factory. Leyson also lost about 65 other relatives in the Holocaust.

Rabbi Joshua Metzger of the Chabad of Midtown Manhattan synagogue said he invited Leyson to speak to retell the story in time for the Jewish New Year.

“In preparation of Rosh Hashanah, we felt he could inspire people. He came from the depths of darkness,” Metzger said. “He is a symbol of the triumph of good over evil.”

Leyson managed to turn his grisly days as a Schindler factory worker into an American job title: shop teacher.

He spent 39 years teaching industrial art at Huntington Park High School in Fullerton, Calif., showing thousands of kids how to cut metal.

“It is something I learned in his factory,” he said. “I started my career there.”

Leyson kept his relationship with Schindler quiet until the release of Spielberg’s Academy Award-winning movie.

Now he crisscrosses the country telling his story.

Researchers say Leyson was among Schindler’s four youngest employees.

“He had to stand on a box to operate the machines – Schindler found that amusing,” Holocaust expert Marilyn Harran said.

Schindler hid his big heart under a swastika.

“Although he joined the Nazi party, he was never an advocate of the ideology,” Harran said. “He did it to get ahead in economics. That is how he ended up in Poland.”

Leyson vowed to spend his last years spreading the truth about Schindler.

“It is time to speak up,” he said.