Six months before the Soviet Army liberated Auschwitz on January 27, 1945, they liberated Henry Kellen.
It was July 31, 1944. Henry, his wife Julia, and 8-year-old nephew Jerry had been hiding along with five other Jews in a hole beneath a barn near Kovno, Lithuania. “For three months, we didn’t eat a thing. We just had water to drink,” Kellen said. “Knowing that liberation was getting close—that was our food.”
Two years later, on July 4, 1946, Henry, Julia, and Jerry arrived in El Paso. Like most of North America, El Paso enjoyed a post-war economic boom, and the population grew from 96,000 to 131,000 by 1950. Henry operated several successful clothing stores in town, providing jobs for dozens of people. He helped build a house of worship. And he lived a long life dedicated to education and tolerance.
