Widow Of Holocaust Survivor Donates 2K Copies Of Memoir To Rialto School District

RIALTO (CBSLA.com) — A widow of a Holocaust survivor donated 2,100 copies of her husband's memoir to the Rialto Unified School District.

Lis Leyson purchased 2,100 copies of "The Boy on the Wooden Box" after learning eighth graders were given an assignment about the Holocaust.

"I thought: this is one way I can help those eighth-graders hear his voice," she said. "Some will read it, some won't. But some will, and it will still be a book, and someone else will pick it up."

Leyson's husband Leon, who died in January 2013, is believed to be the youngest survivor saved by Oskar Schindler. He was so small that he needed to stand on a wooden box to reach the machines in Schindler's factory.

"[My husband's] father was able to arrange for jobs for his wife and two of his children," Leyson said.

The district's assignment first asked students to argue whether the Holocaust occurred, but after two school officials received death threats, it was amended.

The United Nations passed a 2007 resolution that condemns any denial of the Holocaust — which killed roughly 6 million Jews during World War II — and urges all member nations to "unreservedly" reject any denial of the Holocaust.

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