KISS bassist Gene Simmons shared a touching Memorial Day moment on X (formerly Twitter). He described his encounter with a World War II veteran who helped liberate his mother from a Nazi concentration camp.
The Memorial Day Veterans Day Parade in Washington DC provided Simmons the opportunity to meet 100-year-old Sgt Urban. The veteran was part of the military units that freed Simmons’ mother during World War II.
“Proud to have been invited to be on a float with 100 year-old (!!!) WWII Veteran Sgt Urban at the Memorial Day Veterans Day Parade in Wash DC,” Simmons said. “Sgt Urban was in one of the units that freed my then 14-year-old mother from the concentration camp in Nazi Germany. God Bless America.”
This emotional meeting reveals a deeply personal connection to World War II history for the rock legend. His mother’s survival story has profoundly shaped his life.
The Times of Israel documented that Simmons’ mother, Flora Klein, endured multiple concentration camps during the Holocaust. She survived imprisonment at Mauthausen, Ravensbrück, and the Venusberg subcamp of the Flossenbürg concentration camp.
The Jerusalem Post revealed that Flora Klein’s survival stemmed from two crucial factors. She possessed valuable hairdressing skills and made the strategic choice to hide her ability to speak German during her imprisonment.
The meeting carries special significance because Flora Klein remained the sole survivor of her family from the Holocaust. She passed away in 2018. Ultimate Metal reported that she experienced the devastating trauma of watching her own mother being led to a gas chamber.
Simmons has consistently acknowledged his mother’s experiences as a defining influence on his life choices. Her story inspired his well-known abstention from drugs and alcohol. He remained determined to never cause additional pain to a woman who had already endured so much.
The encounter with Sgt Urban created a remarkable full-circle moment. It connected Simmons with one of the soldiers who gave his mother the opportunity for a new life in America.
