Arutz Sheva got the chance to speak with Nate Leipciger, an 86-year-old Holocaust survivor who was honored on Sunday for his dedication to Holocaust education and spreading awareness about racism.

Leipciger was given the first “Upstander Award” by Facing History and Ourselves, an organization that he says is dedicated to “tikun olam,” the Jewish concept of repairing the world, by providing educational material and seminars for students in combating racism.

Describing the award, Leipciger notes “an upstander is someone who does not stand idly by when he sees something wrong,” comparing the term with a bystander.

Leipciger, born in Poland, has certainly been no bystander since surviving several concentration camps including Auschwitz. After leaving for Canada in 1948, he helped found the Canadian branch of Facing History and Ourselves.

According to Leipciger, students who hear his story as part of the seminars in Facing History and Ourselves are greatly moved, and themselves become active in fighting against bigotry.

Speaking about anti-Semitism in the current generation, Leipciger noted “instead of the individual Jew being the target of persecution, Israel has become the target of persecution not only by individuals but by states.”

Leipciger, who is a co-founder and the first chair of the Holocaust Education and Memorial Center of Toronto, as well as chair of the Holocaust Remembrance and Education Committee for six years, has said that he survived the death camps thanks to his father.