Childhood Holocaust survivors reunited after 76 years

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two childhood friends from Belgium have reunited in Los Angeles 76 years after their Jewish families were torn apart by the Holocaust.

The families of Simon Gronowski and Alice Gerstel Weit vacationed together when the two were children.

And the families hid together after the Nazis invaded Belgium in 1940.

In 1941, Gerstel Weit’s family fled on a perilous journey that took them to the United States. The Gronowskis stayed in hiding in Belgium.

Gersteil Weit thought Gornowski died in a Nazi death camp where his mother and sister perished. But last year, she discovered he was still living in Belgium.

Gornowski had escaped death by leaping from a train carrying him and hundreds of others to Auschwitz.

On Sunday, Gornowski and Gerstel Weit will talk about their lives at the Los Angeles Holocaust Museum.