LifeBook author Simon Bergson was born to parents who had miraculously survived the Holocaust, which claimed the lives of six million people during the Second World War. As a young boy, he grew up hearing stories about the unimaginable suffering of his mother and father and the murder of many relatives, including their brothers and sisters, in Europe\u2019s death camps.<\/p>\n
Preserving family memory<\/h2>\n
For much of his adult life, Simon has dedicated himself to preserving the memory of his parents, his lost relatives and the other victims of Nazi atrocities. And he admits that writing his memoir, Without a Plan<\/em>, with the support of his LifeBook Memoirs team, stirred a huge range of emotions. In his words, it was \u201ca rollercoaster of feelings and memories\u201d. However, Simon showed the same determination in telling his poignant story as he has displayed in so many other aspects of his riveting life.<\/p>\n In 2023, he was one of sixty people to be honoured with the Ellis Island Honors Society Award, presented to immigrants and their descendants who have been successful since arriving in the United States. Among those recognised on the same night as Simon were Michael Bidwill, owner of the Arizona Cardinals; Andrew Wang, a businessman who ran for president in the 2020 primaries; Chris Sununu, Governor of the State of New Hampshire; David Rubenstein, founder of the Carlyle Group; and Queen Farah Pahlavi, former Empress of Iran.<\/p>\n Simon\u2019s path to success began with a gamble that earnt him an admonishment from his father but which was later to make him a multi-million-dollar profit. As he modestly tells it, like so much of his life, it just happened that he was in the right place at the right time:<\/p>\n The other day, I was telling my wife, Stefany, that none of my life was planned. I didn\u2019t have a plan when I went to Woodstock. When I went to college, I didn\u2019t have a plan; when I moved into the city, I didn\u2019t have a plan; and when I went into business, I didn\u2019t have a plan. Everything happened by accident. I was just in the right place at the right time and with the right opportunity \u2013 and the right attitude!<\/em><\/p>\n When Simon paid $600 for a piece of Manhattan property in the 1970s, his father said he might as well have thrown the money away. Undeterred, Simon took his father out to the street and pointed south, telling him, \u201cLook, Pop. There\u2019s the World Trade Center, the Twin Towers.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2008, Simon sold that $600 piece of land for $23 million. In the meantime, he developed his beer-distribution business into a vast concern that today dominates the territories in which it operates (though there is a downside \u2013 in 2023, his company had to pay over $2.5 million in parking violations to the City of New York!).<\/p>\n Simon is a man of genuine compassion and concern. Among his many roles, he serves as the chairman of the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation, and it was through this organisation that he met and bonded with Arnold Schwarzenegger. How did that come about? Simon can tell the story:<\/p>\n For our 2022 gala, we reached out to Arnold Schwarzenegger because his father had been a Nazi, and we knew that the actor and former governor of California had been outspoken about condemning Nazism. We were able to reach one of his agents, who asked Arnold if he would accept an award from us at our gala. The award was for his stance on anti-Semitism and combating hatred, and for acknowledging that everyone globally should be united against hatred.<\/em><\/p>\n Unfortunately, Covid made the trip impossible, but Schwarzenegger promised to visit Auschwitz with Simon at a later date. In October 2022, he contacted Simon to say, \u201cI want to go to Auschwitz next week. Will you meet me there?\u201d Simon responded, \u201cIf you\u2019ll be there, I\u2019ll be there\u201d.<\/p>\n Their joint visit made the worldwide news, and Simon was contacted by relatives around the globe who had seen the TV reports. Even his former housekeeper, living in Warsaw, texted Stefany while they were in the car with Arnold to say, \u201cI just saw Simon on television with Arnold Schwarzenegger!\u201d<\/p>\n Schwarzenegger signed the Auschwitz Museum guestbook with his famous line, \u201cI\u2019ll be back\u201d.<\/p>\n Simon\u2019s concern for humanity shines throughout his book. A father and grandfather of three children \u2013 Brianne, Alexander and Mitchel \u2013 and a growing number of grandchildren, Simon earnestly believes that we can secure the future only by remembering the lessons of the horrific events of the mid-twentieth century:<\/p>\n Today, many people, even those who grew up in major cities like New York, Los Angeles and London aren\u2019t aware of what took place. I stay involved to expand awareness because, collectively, we build the future by learning from the past. I hope to educate people that we must learn not to hate and not to create the atrocities of the Second World War ever again \u2026 There\u2019s war all the time, and it usually has to do with either politics or religion, unfortunately. People haven\u2019t learnt that war is not the answer. Still, I maintain that we can\u2019t give up. We must continue to hope that all people will get it. We are all one person. We are all one race. We are all one species. We all bleed the same and urinate the same. Why are we fighting with each other?<\/em><\/p>\n Simon\u2019s immense love and respect for his father are among the many tender aspects of Without a Plan<\/em>. He describes growing up in Brooklyn with parents who spoke English with an Eastern European accent and used Yiddish within the home. His father, Milton Bergson, preached philosophical idioms that have stayed with Simon throughout his life. Among them are:<\/p>\n There\u2019s no reason to do things the left way when you can always do things the right way!\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n You don\u2019t really know a person until you\u2019ve done business with him.<\/em><\/p>\n America is a great country; the harder you work, the luckier you get!\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n You won\u2019t know what it\u2019s like to be a parent until you become a parent!<\/em><\/p>\n Simon insists that his story is not that different to many others: \u201cIt is the American Dream, and I was fortunate to become successful\u201d.<\/p>\n Fortunate or not, it would seem that Simon had the wherewithal to take advantage of the opportunities that fell his way. More than that, he has used the good fortune and opportunities he has enjoyed to try to make the world a better place.<\/p>\n That is something we could all learn from.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Written by Stephen Pitts, LifeBook Memoirs editor<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Explore the inspiring story of Simon Bergson’s survival, success and purpose, told in his deeply personal LifeBook.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":16253,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"What\u2019s New in the Library? Simon Bergson","_seopress_titles_desc":"Explore the inspiring story of Simon Bergson's survival, success and purpose, told in his deeply personal LifeBook.","_seopress_robots_index":"","content-type":"","_metasync_otto_title":"","_metasync_otto_description":"","rank_math_title":"","rank_math_description":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[219,217],"tags":[114,118,124,127,120,131,122],"class_list":["post-16254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leaving-a-legacy","category-private-autobiography","tag-family-history","tag-legacy","tag-life-story","tag-memoirs","tag-private-autobiography","tag-recollections","tag-storytelling"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifebookmemoirs.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifebookmemoirs.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifebookmemoirs.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifebookmemoirs.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifebookmemoirs.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifebookmemoirs.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifebookmemoirs.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifebookmemoirs.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifebookmemoirs.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifebookmemoirs.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Seizing unlikely opportunities<\/h2>\n
Building a legacy of compassion<\/h2>\n
Reflecting on life lessons<\/h2>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.lifebookmemoirs.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Steve-P-photo-245x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n