Joseph Kon

My hero with my mother and uncle.

I never knew that there was a hero in my family. My hero is my great grandfather, Joseph Kon, grandfather of Ingrid Kon, my mother. He only had one sibling, his sister. He was born in Warsaw, Poland, and in 1903, immigrated to Paris. My great grandfather was a great man and was very brave. He was kind, serious, family oriented and honest.

My hero did one of the most intelligent things ever. He didn’t just save himself, he saved his whole family (during the Holocaust). He took his whole family all the way from war-torn France to Spain and Portugal. He then led his family to America where he started a new business from scratch with no money. He succeeded in having a very successful clothing manufacturing business. He also had three sons. He had twins but sadly they died when they were very young. Then my grandfather was born.

My great grandfather has made a huge difference in my life. First of all, knowing that I have a hero in my family makes me feel honored that someone with extraordinary abilities had done something like that. That’s really special to me. Another thing is, that if it weren’t for him I wouldn’t be here today to tell his story.

There are many things that he enjoyed doing. One of those things was to take my mother into a toyshop and say, “ Pick anything you want and I’ll buy it for you!” If that were me, I would be thrilled. Another thing that he always loved was to take his three grandchildren on vacation. His grandaughter, my mother, is named after his sister, Tziporah, which is my mother's Hebrew name.

I’m extremely disappointed that I never got a chance to meet him, because he sadly passed away before I was born. He taught me a lesson that you don’t learn everyday: Don’t just be selfish and remember to think about everyone around you. This is why I look up to him and I always will.