8/25/1949: Born on this day, Gene Simmons, bass-vocals, KISS. Gene was born Chaim Witz in Haifa, Israel in 1949, and is the only child of his mother, a German Nazi Concentration Camp survivor. He has always attributed his ethics, morals and drive to his mother’s notion’s about life. “Every day above ground, is a good day,” his mother is apt to say. He came to America when he was eight.