Teaching History Matters

Dear Mr. Rozell:
My name is Ernest Kan .
I was tremendously pleased and excited to find your above titled history
project.
I happened to be one of the Jewish concentration camp survivors who was
liberated by the blessed 743.U.S.Tank Battalion and 30.U.S.infantry
division in Magdeburg on that fateful day April 13. 1945.
In 2005 I was invited with Frank Towers,a former lieutenant of the 30.
by the Lord Mayor of the city of Magdeburg as guests of honor to
participate in the celebration of 60 years of the liberation of the city
by American troops and the 1200 year birthday of Magdeburg.
We were put up in the best hotel,THE MARITIME, and gave many speeches
and interviews with TV and newspaper coverage culminating in the signing
of the book of honor of the city,with the city fathers present and
cameras popping. In all it was a most successful trip telling our stories to many students
and the citizens of Magdeburg. Most everything was recorded on DVDs and videos.

I was liberated at the POLTE ammunition factory in Magdeburg where I was
a slave worker after having been brought there by freight train from
concentration camp STUTTHOF near Danzig in the fall of 1944.
My Odyssey began in Riga,Latvia where the Germans occupied our apartment on the first of July 1941.Shortly thereafter we were put into the Riga Ghetto.My mother was murdered with 27000 other Jews in the forest of Rumbula(see website Rumbula forest) November 30. and Dec 9. 1941.during the partial liquidation of the ghetto.The Ghetto was finally liquidated
in 1943 ,my dad was shipped to Auschwitz where he perished and I, who was 20 at the time was put into the concentration camp KAISERWALD near Riga.
With the approach of the Soviet army in 1944, Kaiserwald was evacuated by
ship and we were shipped to Stutthof concentration camp,after about a month to Polte in Magdeburg where I WAS LIBERATED.
You know the rest.

My personal story was also taped in Berlin Germany where I was kicked
out of my High school on Nov.11.1938 because I was Jewish.
I was invited by my former school in June 2003 where I gave the
commencement exercise address to the graduating class and received an
honorary diploma retroactively. My story is being shown in the Berlin school district as part of the Holocaust education program.

Again allow me to congratulate you and your students on your outstanding
educational project and If I can contribute any personal details ,do not
hesitate to contact me.
Best regards

Ernest Kan