At 100, upbeat Oakland survivor hopes for end to wars

Siegfried Sanders has lived through two World Wars and the Dachau concentration camp and still believes he will see a peaceful settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in his lifetime.

Perhaps it is that optimism that has enabled him to live 100 years.

One of a dwindling number of elderly Holocaust survivors, Sanders recognizes the significance of Israel to the world's Jews.

"Before [the war] we had nowhere for Jews to go," he said recently. "If it came to a good end over there [in Israel], it could be a good land for the Arabs and for the Jews."

The Oakland resident has fond memories of growing up in the small German town of Kaldenkirchen, where a handful of Jewish families lived peacefully with their Catholic and Protestant neighbors before the Nazis took control. He thinks the same type of peaceful coexistence can be enjoyed in Israel, through a negotiated compromise between the Jews and the Palestinians.

"It should be two countries side by side, but they should mix," said Sanders. "They should live together like we did before in Germany."

Sanders' childhood friendship with two men -- a Catholic and a Protestant -- was the inspiration for a book published in Germany three years ago titled "The Three Holy Men." The book's author, the son of the Protestant friend, was in the Bay Area to celebrate Sanders' birthday in January.

Sanders, who spends his days in his Lake Merritt apartment watching news shows and following the stock market, is troubled by the crisis over Iraq.

"I don't think a war will do the right thing," he said. "You'll lose a lot of people."

The upheaval caused by war is nothing new to Sanders. He lost his brother to the Nazis. His Catholic childhood friend was arrested by the Gestapo in 1941 for speaking out against Hitler and later died on the Russian front in the final days of the war. Sanders' mother survived the war by hiding with five others in an Amsterdam attic across the street from Anne Frank.

Sanders was able to leave Dachau and travel to Haiti in 1939 with a visa purchased by family members who had escaped to Holland. He recalls how he and his wife, Ilse, arrived in that island nation with only $4 in their pockets. The couple shared a single home with four other families and remained in Haiti for eight years before coming to Oakland in 1947. Once here, they ran a grocery store on Claremont Avenue for many years.

Because of the tumult of their lives caused by the war, Sanders and his wife of 61 years never had children. "At the time, what were we to do with kids? We had nothing anyway. After all the struggle, they should have the same struggle?" Once he dies, so too will the family name.

Sanders says he does not feel a century old. Though weak legs and failing eyesight prevent him from going outside anymore, his mind is still strong as ever. "I'm interested in everything," he says with his characteristic smile. "I listen and I have my opinions."

To add to his collection of vintage family photographs, Sanders received birthday cards from people he has never met, from well-wishers across the country and as far away as Germany. One piece of correspondence in particular has been framed: A letter of congratulations to mark Sanders' 100th birthday from President Bush that says: "You are leading a remarkable life."