When he found out that his mother had survived a concentration camp, he made a decision that changed his life

The KISS singer was born on August 25, 1949 in Haifa after his parents left for Israel after the war. A few years earlier, his mother, Flora Klein, had been a prisoner in a concentration camp in Germany. Her wartime experiences influenced Simmons’s entire life.

Gene Simmons’ mother was sent to the camp when she was 14

The co-founder of the hard rock group has repeatedly emphasized that it was his mother who had the greatest influence on his life. During World War II she lived in Budapest. As a 14-year-old, she and her whole family ended up in the German Nazi concentration camp Ravensbrück, then she was transferred to Mauthausen. Only she survived and left the camp at the age of 19 when American soldiers liberated the camp three days before the end of the war. After returning to Hungary, Flora tried to start her life anew. In 1946, she married Ferenc “Feri” Yehiel Witz, a carpenter, and a year later left for Israel with him.

Unfortunately, shortly after their only son was born, the marriage broke up. For a few more years, the woman and the child spent in Israel, which was a very young country full of poor people. “We had sand roads and horses and donkeys and things like that. There was no air force, no navy, nothing – then Simmons. – There was no fridge, no radio in the house, a hole in the ground, dug behind the one-room house where we lived with my mother, served as a toilet – he said.

How did she survive? “Mom told me why she survived”

In 1958, Flora and her son left Israel and moved to New York. Simmons later claimed that thanks to this, his mother gave him a chance to achieve what he dreamed of. He himself, knowing about her past and seeing how the camp experiences affected her life, decided to give her as much happiness and smile as he could. Therefore, in the world of rock and roll, he tried to stay away from drugs, for example, so as not to cause his mother worries. He doesn’t drink, he doesn’t use drugs and he doesn’t smoke – and that’s what he encourages others to do as well. The musician’s mother, enjoying the successes of her only son, lived to be 93 years old, she died in 2018.

In 2020, on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the camp where Flora was staying, the German “Bild” Simmons presented documents about that time. “She was strong,” the singer commented. Simmons also added:

If someone says that all this is in the past – it is not true. It was yesterday. All this just happened. When you look at what has happened in many elections recently, it’s not good.

Simmons also told the story of why his mother managed to live to see the liberation of the camp. “My mother told me why she survived,” he said. – At the age of 12, she went to the hairdresser and learned how to cut her hair. The wife of an SS commander needed someone to do her hair. She asked some girls: “Do you speak German?” The girls raised their hands and said “Yes”. Whoever raised their hand was sent to the gas chamber. My mother spoke a little German, but she did not admit it. This was the reason why she was chosen. While doing the haircut, the commander’s wife thought that she would not understand anything – he explained.