"Don't Give Up" - The Story of Roman Gessler

Roman Gessler was born in 1937 in Bielsko-Biala, southern Poland, to his parents Eduard and Dora Gessler. He had two siblings, Elek and Lili. In 1938, Elisabeth Leja Hedwig, a Polish Catholic nanny of ethnic German descent (Volksdeutsche), joined the family. She was hired to assist in the care of the three children. Following the German occupation in September 1939 the family was forced to flee eastward. After reaching the city of Lwow (today Lviv), Roman's mother committed suicide. Elisabeth decided to stay and help care for the children. At the end of 1941 Roman's father and older brother Elek were able to escape to Budapest, while Lili and Roman stayed with Elisabeth. In March 1942, she decided to follow Eduard and Elek and headed with the children to Hungary, crossing a treacherous path through the Carpathian Mountains. They eventually managed to reach Budapest. In August 1944 the family continued to Romania where they remained until the end of the war. After the war, Roman moved to Vienna, where he completed his studies. He immigrated to Israel, enlisted in the IDF and fought as a paratrooper in the Sinai War, including at the Battle of the Mitla Pass. Once completing his army service he returned abroad, living in different countries and working in programming and computers. Roman married and had children and grandchildren.

[@lorettajones5076]

All peoples all over the world should watch these videos...and REMEMBER and know to Never give up for freedom.

[@myramorosco5423]

Don’t Give-Up ever and Never ever Forget. What we don’t remember can happen again. Thank you for sharing your very real experience.

[@seemarajderkar3019]

Thanks Roman Gessler, for sharing your touching, heartwarming and incredible story of survival. You all did not give up and thats why you survived !!! Felt sad about the unknown fate and disappearing of your dear mother. Hats off to your nanny Elizabeth / Elly.She was really a Godsend saviour for your family!! Roman must be 86 now. Wish Roman,Alek and Lilly peaceful, happy years ahead. The documentries produced by Yad Vashem are superbly wonderful !! They are doing a great job by preserving the priceless memories, stories of the survivors of the Holocaust and sharing them with the world!!

[@stephaniestanley8041]

Seema these videos are extraordinary, inspiring, humbling.

[@seemarajderkar3019]

Absolutely!! You are right Stephanie!!

[@micheled6111]

Deepest respects to your family and your father for not giving up. Thanks for telling your story.

[@stephaniestanley8041]

Challenges and danger we will never know. It is the people that experienced this torture that know what life really is, living their lives with courage and purpose. Shalom ❣️. Roman's story defies everything.

[@realitycheck6]

I am incredibly grateful that we are able to watch and learn from these people who suffered so much and have been willing to share their experiences and history. Forever grateful, as my heart breaks that such things happened and continue to happen. I love and deeply respect these people for their strength and courage.

[@yvonnemulder9038]

Why yewisch peopl

[@iljavanderlaan7205]

Never forget.

[@lisaschuster686]

I want to hear the stories of the people who didn’t quite make it. But that will be in the Next World.

[@plutarcoflores9766]

Right. Keep the Faith! Don’t Give Up ! Blessings, Shalom 🙏🏽

[@tkomla]

Beautiful story. "Don't give up, ever, ever. Don't give up. "

[@mistyrose3042]

Its really very sad that Roman's mother disappeared like this and whats more tragic is that there was no information about why she did that. He must have thought all his life about why his mother went away leaving the entire family behind

[@elliesings9508]

A little girl said that the mother fell out of the window. She could've been pushed or thrown out of the window.

[@slydoll7877]

she jumped out of the window and died...she killed herself. Unless the little girl was confused and someone pushed her. It's possible, if she killed herself that she could forsee the horrors to come and couldn;t take it.

[@ImkereiOswald]

A very important and moving testimony. One grandfather of mine was drafted by a German pre-military organisation (RAD) in 1935 as a 15 year old, and was 1937 integrated into the German Army (Heer), where he had to fight and serve until may 1945 (ten years in service). He already passed away when I was 4 years old, so I never had the chance to talk to him about the invasion of poland etc. These Yad Vashem videos are important to shed a little light in our history, Israeli history as well as German history. Israels right to its own country should not be questioned by anyone. The video also teaches me, that a two-state-solution is always bad (remeber when poland was parted as mentioned in the video). Judea and Samaria should be fully recognized as Israeli homeland (my personal opinion). Many historical wisdoms and truths can be gleaned from these film testimonies.

[@rsi4561]

NEVER FORGET.. if they can do it once.. it can happen again.

[@henrybostick5167]

It is with heartfelt gratitude that I say, Thank you Mr. Gessler for sharing your story with us. I thank God every day that I am a free man born in a free land, and stories like yours help me to never minimize the gift of freedom from God, and the lengths some had to go to get what was freely given to me. I will remember your story the next time adversity tried to get me to "give up"....

[@bonniegayleneloyd3460]

I agree. My heart hurts so much. All should see this. It will always be repeatable in some way if we don’t remember. I’m 72 yet somehow missed this in school. We must never forget. G. Loyd

[@outfctrl]

Excellent story. God Bless you and ALL yours. My Dad was in the US Army at the time and fought in the "battle of the Bulge"

[@jeffreyboone2406]

Your fathers determination to keep his children safe is so admirable.

[@JordannaGessler]

What a moving experience- thank you Roman for your strength!

[@Itiswell49]

Thank you for this story. It was unique of all the stories I’ve heard and this family avoided the camps.

[@charvitale8590]

An absolute inspiration... Loving beauty everlasting...Full of grace...I'm deeply saddened for you experience; however, I am extremely grateful that your here and came shine with such amazing grace....🙏❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤😇💋💋💋💋💋💋💋💋💋💋💋💋💋💋💋💋

[@ralphrotten9030]

Not for nothing but knowing this story is one of SO MANY one cannot help but think that these people could be justified had they mentally and emotionally shut down and refused to be constructive members of society going forward in their lives….. yet they DID NOT. all it took was Covid and reinterpreted history for the US in 2020-2022 for the country to head into cultural decline spearheaded by a perception of victimhood

[@wednesdayschild3627]

The 2019 to 2022 whining and catastrophizing has been epic, that is certain.

[@nataliemeenakshithegreat7780]

What a beautiful kitchen behind I noticed listening ❤️

[@lorettajones6120]

Thank you sir for this story It does make a difference!!!

[@helenh493]

WOW! What a Story! What an incredible but dangerous experience for Roman, his siblings and father endured. and more importantly, survived! It is a very good and important Life lesson, to "Never Give Up".. and "never give in", even if all looks lost, and all looks hopeless... Never lose hope.. keep putting foot and site forward.. not backward. I'm so happy the Gessler family all came through ok. But, was sad for his poor mother. I am guessing only, but I believe when Romans father left her and alone with all their children, it was too much for her to handle. She may have thought he wouldn't or couldn't come back (for obvious reasons).. she lost hope, and the thought overwhelmed her. There had to be good reason for her to end her life so abruptly. Its not just that she had small children she'd left behind, but she was religious, a devout person doesn't commit suicide, they are taught at an early age its a huge sin, its as murder just to oneself.. some religions teachings and beleaf is you won't go to heaven with this sin on your soul. So, I feel very sorry for Roman, his siblings, And his mother. May she had found some peace in her afterlife. And Bless Romans father and Elizabeth for their courage and faith and heart, to keep forging forward and always finding their way, their path through the hell they had to take to get them all to safety. Bless them all.

[@familywu3869]

Thank you for your testimony!

[@anningram9311]

After all the hardships....what a great motto "Don't give up". A lesson for all of us.

[@SophieMojsiejenko]

I wish I had spoken to my father more

[@stephaniestanley8041]

Sophie, please don't regret your relationship with your father. Mine died when I was 19 so many years ago. He was the most important person in my life and he is with me every day. Your father is with you.

[@ericahalmai8490]

Amazing 😻 men, he is an inspiration for all of us 💗🌻

[@tomascormos5794]

Extraordinary people we can learn from

[@dawnemerson3604]

Thank you

[@anajardimbr]

Such a beautiful story!❤️

[@melodygreen5029]

What a precious beautiful man!

[@seemarajderkar3019]

I wish to point out an error about this video to the makers of this beautiful film on ww2 survivor, Roman Gesler. Probably, Yad Vashem technical team may rectify it. Throughout the film, two sets of same subtitles in English appear at the bottom of the screen of the mobile and the words overlap eachother, thus it becomes very difficult to read any one, through them. So, there should be 'only one' set of subtitles on the screen. Thanks. Please correct this error, if possible.

[@lisaschuster686]

Thank you for liberating Bucharest! Survival of the fittest. A surprising number of people killed themselves at the outbreak of war.

[@aureliapop561]

Who liberated Bucharest?

[@midnaurthqua6773]

Such brave people⚘🙏🏼

[@nataliemeenakshithegreat7780]

Incredible survivors Hashem

[@elizabethhurtado2829]

❤

[@malshamannage982]

This is so sad 😔❤ So the mother died is it?

[@vg9137]

*Elli the baby sitter was more than a Nanny, obviously!*

[@lauramartin5580]

Elli was more than a Nanny, obviously!

[@joelweiss7459]

As an ethnic German who truly enabled this family to survive, was she ever recognized as an individual who was Righteous Among the Nations?

[@XPALYDO]

@@joelweiss7459 yes

[@erzonca558]

@@joelweiss7459 You didn't watch the video till the end apparently

[@MrDestiny527]

so why did she jump?

[@stephaniestanley8041]

I don't think she could face what she knew was coming.

[@vg9137]

*Maybe she found out that the babysitter (Elizabeth) was her husband lover.*

[@richarddetlaff-gc3kk]

My great uncle died in Holocaust,he was a communist NKVD agent who was a proud Jewish Bolshevik, who according to reports sang the "Internationale"(communist anthem),all the way into the gas Chambers at Treblinka,every year we light a candle for two of the most tragic events in history,the Holocaust and the fall of the USSR

[@estellebehrens3944]

The Jewish people will never ever forget or forgive what happened in the last war. Today we have Israel to call to protect us.

[@elizabethhurtado2829]

🍼🤱👶

[@violagentsch]

Sounds like papa liked the babysitter. Momma disappeared 😕

[@elizabethhurtado2829]

👨‍💻👨‍💻✍🕯🕯🕯

[@Keviin1977]

Disney 🍿

[@yvonnemulder9038]

Why yewish people

[@hanaaamrani3997]

He fought in the war of independence in Israel, sorry in Palestine? you must be kidding, you mean he fought in the war of occupation. It s crazy how you speak about war crimes when you did the exact same thing to Palestinians when you had the opportunity, killing civilians, kicking them out of their homes.....

[@erzonca558]

Stop hatred! Stop misinformation! Stop injustice! STOP HANA AMRANI!

[@honeybeebadger]

This is not the place to discuss such things have some respect for humanity