Henry Kellen

Henry Kellen – Biography

Henry Kellen (Heniek Kacenelenbogen) was born in Lodz, Poland in 1915. After graduating high school in Poland, Henry attended the College of France and graduated with a textile engineering degree in 1938. After graduation, he settled in Lithuania, which was overrun by the German Army in June, 1941. The entire Jewish community of the city of Kaunas, which at time was the capital of Lithuania, was forced into the Kaunas Ghetto. Out of the 30,000 Jewish inmates, only about 2,500 survived. Mr. Kellen’s whole family was not among the survivors. Henry survived just by miracle.

In March, 1944, Mr. Kellen witnessed the so called “Kinder-Aktion” (the massacre of the children) by the Nazis in which hundreds of children were killed in the ghetto. His nephew, Jerry, was 8 years old at the time and his mother, Sonia, hid him under a large pillow and thus avoided the piercing bayonet of a Nazi rifle. This targeting of children by the Nazis prompted the three of them to escape in April 1944. After a series of lucky circumstances, Mr. Kellen, his wife Julia and his nephew Jerry escaped from the camp and were hidden by a poor Christian Lithuanian farmer, Andrius Urbonas, until the end of the war. They were liberated on July 31, 1944, by the Russian army. He arrived in the United States in July, 1946, and settled in El Paso. He resided in El Paso ever since.

For many years, he remained silent with his painful memories. In 1984, after his retirement, he felt an obligation to all who died in the camps. He was the Founder of the El Paso Holocaust Museum and Study Center, which is dedicated to all the victims of the Holocaust. For 30 years, Mr. Kellen lectured to schools, universities, the military and civic organizations about the Holocaust.

In 2009, the same year the Museum celebrated its 25th Anniversary, Mr. Kellen was awarded the Conquistador Award by Mayor John Cook. The award is the city’s highest honor given to El Paso residents for their contributions and dedication to the city.

Henry Kellen passed away on July 3, 2014, two days before his 99th birthday.