Holocaust survivor uses hospital stay to tell personal story

A crowd of doctors, nurses and patients gathered at WakeMed Hospital in Raleigh to hear a story.

"As we are walking I heard somebody coming behind us," said Abe Piasek.

Piasek, 90, recently injured himself in a fall and spent the past two weeks at WakeMed. He's from Poland and was in four different concentration camps during World War II. He moved to the United States and started a family after the war.

"We've talked about little snippets," said Jocelyn Dressel, a staff occupational therapist at WakeMed.

Piasek wanted his caregivers to know the whole story, so he invited them, and anyone else who wanted to listen, to a common area at the hospital. About 50 people gathered to hear him talk about his experience during the Holocaust.

"They have to know," Piasek said. "A lot of people had no idea what went on. A lot of people didn't hear about it. They were surprised. They never saw a survivor."

He described in great detail what it was like to be 11 years old when he was taken from his home and separated from his family.

"We got assigned to a barrack, a little straw, maybe about 4 or 5 hundred people and we were sleeping like sardines," he said.

He wanted to put a face to the history while providing wisdom about dealing with difficult times.

"It's so cool because sometimes we see people who get defeated by really small things and to see how much Abe has been through and how much he's persevered. He always has a positive attitude," Dressel said.

Piasek wanted to offer a message of hope to those who were there to listen.

"Be positive. If you have a fight, apologize. Talk. Get together," he said.

"Don't be mad."