Leslie Aigner, z”l, passed away Aug. 18, 2021, at the age of 92. He is surivived by his wife, Eva; daughter Sue; son, Rob grandchildren; and great-grandchildren.

He was a beloved member of the Oregon Jewish Museum community from the museum's very beginning. Born in Czechoslovakia June 3, 1929, the same year as Anne Frank, Leslie survived years in a slave labor camp, the Budapest Ghetto, and the death camps of Auschwitz and Dachau.

Leslie was liberated in Dachau by American troops on April 29, 1945, a date he always referred to as his second birthday. After liberation, he returned to his home in Hungary to find that most of his family members had been murdered.

After marrying his beautiful wife, Eva, in 1956 they escaped from Communist Hungary. They settled in Portland, and became the proud parents of Sue and Rob and were eventually blessed with grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Leslie and Eva began sharing their stories when local Holocaust deniers became vocal in the late 1980s. As members of the Holocaust Speaker’s Bureau, they spoke to thousands of students and adults across the Pacific Northwest. One of Leslie’s proudest moments came with the creation of the Oregon Holocaust Memorial, dedicated in Washington Park in 2004.

Donations in Leslie’s memory may be made to the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education and directed to the Oregon Holocaust Memorial and Education Endowment. 

A tribute from OJMCHE says, “We have lost a dear friend who was also a model of valor and a paragon of dignity. Les never complained, always greeted us with a smile, and, to the very end, embodied for us the deepest meanings of the word “survivor.” May his memory endure as a blessing.”