LYNDHURST, Ohio (WJW) — Family and friends are making sure a local Holocaust survivor knows how much he is loved and appreciated on his 100th birthday.

They weren’t able to have a big party for Simon Fixler due to the pandemic, so they had to come up with another way to celebrate the momentous milestone.

“He’s very content to reach this day. He’s the last of the family that’s alive and it’s very important for him having survived the Holocaust and be around to tell people about it. He used to go to schools to tell kids about his experience and it matters a lot to him,” said his son, Dennis Fixler.

Simon married his wife one day before he was taken away to a labor camp. They were able to later reunite in Budapest and eventually moved to Cleveland in 1949.

“He had a brother in Cleveland and Cleveland was a place where a lot of immigrants went to after the war,” Dennis recalled. “He knew many of the people from Europe actually who moved to Cleveland too. So they formed social bonds, helped them handle what had happened to them and also helped them assimilate.”

He went on to become a co-founder of the Kol Isreael Foundation in Beachwood and was critical in the making of the Holocaust memorial in Zion Memorial Park in Bedford Heights.

Congressman David Joyce also recognized his birthday by issuing a special proclamation and flying a flag in his honor at the US Capitol.

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