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Posts Tagged ‘95th Medical Battalion’

I know you are very busy, but please answer my questions.

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 27, 2013| 3 Comments »

Soon after liberation, surviving children of the Auschwitz camp walk out of the children’s barracks. Poland, after January 27, 1945. — United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Soon after liberation, surviving children of the Auschwitz camp walk out of the children’s barracks. Poland, after January 27, 1945. — United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the day Soviet troops over ran Auschwitz in 1945. This week I received a note from an Israeli survivor friend, shortly after the passing of one of her liberators, Carrol Walsh. Sara lost over 60 of her family there- and her immediate family was saved only because the day they arrived at Auschwitz, the death machinations were working at full capacity and her transport was rerouted to Belsen. She was liberated on 13 April on the evacuation transport near Farsleben, known here as the Train Near Magdeburg…

In her letter she asks important questions of me. I have responded the best that I could, below.

Dear Matthew,

 We were very sad to hear that Carrol Walsh passed away. Only lately did I get to know him, and he risked his life in order to save ours. It is a pity we did not get to meet more.

I can’t express in words the loving feelings for the young tank commander that for sure always had a smile on his face, and never stopped smiling after we met- 65 years after the victory. I am sure Carrol Walsh made the best out of his life; I was fulfilled to know him and his beautiful family.

I read about his profession in the years of his life. It was interesting to see how much meeting with us affected him.

I thank you for your unusual courage to initiate the exciting meeting [reunion].

I suppose you were very excited for the event you had initiated. Did the idea come in different parts? I am trying to understand the development of your thinking.
When you first wrote to me about the meeting [invitation to the proposed reunion], it was on the day we were released- the 13th of April. I got home after meeting my brothers and celebrating the release [liberation]day. I couldn’t relax, I immediately told all my brothers. I was so happy, as if it was happening again.

The meeting completed a missing part in the picture for me, after all the horrifying things we went through we couldn’t even dream of a miracle like that coming out of the blue.

I cannot go back more to the extermination camps and escort groups because I don’t have the physical nor mental power to do that anymore.

There are questions that bother me.

Are you able to answer them?

Why shouldn’t the world forget and let this be over?  

A. So, some people do want to forget. Others will say that it did not happen. For those reasons, it must never be forgotten. This is the biggest crime in the history of the world.

As Walsh states, how could humanity have stood by and let that happen?

Does my work, the hard work I do, do anything against the forgetting?

A.The most impressionable minds in the world are those of the youth. It is they who the Nazis “educated”; it made it easier for the crimes to be committed. This is why they must hear now.

The work that you, and I do, has an impression. I hope to continue this work after you must slow down. Please remember that.

 

You are a historian, should the memory be kept?

A.The memory must be kept. As educators it is our duty to keep it alive. We must fight those who trivialize or denigrate its importance.

Is there a proper way to keep the memory?

A.There is no one way except to be open to the discussion of humanity and how humans could do this to one another. We must also bear in mind however, that the soldiers who helped the suffering to new life bore their own pains in doing so, yet also made a choice to redeem humanity. Some did not sleep soundly for years.

I think this is so, and also must not be forgotten. The war brought out the most evil in the world. But I think it also revealed some goodness in the form of the soldiers who liberated or otherwise cared for the victims.

Who should be documenting everything, the “victim” or the “aggressor”?

A.The aggressor fades from memory. New generations asks questions. It is true that some are bothered by the questions. But the young will always be curious and want to know- is this a stain on the German people? I know some Germans today who work very hard to keep the memory alive, as you also do.

The victims give the testimony. This is all they can do. But it is the evidence of the crime, and one that new generations must work with. That is why your work is so important.

Who is in charge of making the conclusions?

A.I would say that institutions such as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Yad Vashem are the world leaders in this area. I have been trained, well, I should hope, by the USHMM. I do not know enough about the German institutions but I hope to raise enough funds to travel to the camps and study there this summer.

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WE WILL BE THERE, WILL YOU??

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 15, 2013|

Matthew Rozell, 30th Infantry Veterans of WWII, Holocaust survivors at Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum, March 2, 2012.

Matthew Rozell, 30th Infantry Veterans of WWII, Holocaust survivors at Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum, March 2, 2012.

Frank Towers’ invitation to soldiers, survivors, interested parties and their families to come to Louisville in the spring. The soldiers have convened annually since the end of World War II; since 2008, thanks to the project, the 30th Infantry Division has hosted Holocaust survivors and their families as well for very emotional, uplifting, and fun times. Email for details.

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Don’t forget the dates!!       April 11 – 12 – 13, 2013

Don’t forget to make your Hotel Reservation

and Registration!!

Hotel Crowne Plaza,  Louisville, KY

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Dear Fellow 30 Division Members and Friends:

I hope you all enjoyed your holiday and that the New Year holds only good things for you and your family.

Now that the holidays are over it is time to focus on making your reservations for the Reunion.  Included are the Pre-Registration Form and the Reservation Form and the information to make your hotel reservations. Please do it NOW.

We have a great program planned and will include a trip to the Louisville Slugger Factory and Museum, a professional photographer that will take a picture of you and/or your family (so bring your medals and ribbons to show off).  We will also have one of Louisville’s noteworthy news casters, Ken Schulz, MC our banquet on Saturday evening.  Our entertainment will include a local bagpiper as well as others.

Why come to Louisville?

Louisville, is a city of urban neighborhoods that have been revitalized, and some of our best known shopping areas are the Bardstown Road and Frankfort Avenue corridors with their small shops and plentiful locally owned restaurants.  The homes and buildings in the Old Louisville neighborhood is one of the largest historic preservation districts featuring Victorian architecture in the U.S.  The Downtown area has had significant renovations over the last few years with the construction of the YUM! Center which is home court for our Louisville Cardinals men’s and women’s basketball teams.  The Center, along with Waterfront Park and Fourth Street Live, have attracted new housing, shops and restaurants breathing new life into the area.

Louisville has museums to interest everyone..  Home to the Frazier International History Museum; The Muhammad Ali Center; The Louisville Science Center; The Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft and many, many more.

Our hotel, the Crowne Plaza, is locally owned and operated.  It is near the airport and offers free shuttle service from the airport to the hotel.  The Crowne Plaza also offers many amenities including indoor/outdoor pool, fitness center, boutique shop, 24 hours business center, complimentary Wi-Fi, and more.

You can see Louisville is the place to be, so much so that Louisville was named “The Top U.S. Travel Destination for 2013” by Lonely Planet’s, the world’s leading travel publisher.

We are looking forward to having you here and sharing some of our history and hospitality with you, and most of all, to meet many of your former friends and colleagues.

Best Regards,

Bill Vaughan. President

30th Infantry Division Veterans of WWII

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Taps – 2012

(Last 6 Months)

ADAMS, Cleveland L. 30 MP Plat. 7/30/12 Stockbridge, GA

ADKINSON, Bruce 743 TkBn B 6/17/12 Beverly, MA

DUMEY JR, (DuMay) Leon 120-G 11/23/12 Cape Girardeau, MOM

FARKAS, Louis 119-I 12/ /12 Colton, OR

HOGUE, Donald W. 117 K 6/12/12 Montevallo, AL

HOUCK, Arthur T. 120-K 6/16/12 Hampstead, MD

LAZINGER, Sol 117-B 6/13/12 Philadelphia, PA

MAXEY, James C. 120 CN 6/ 29 /12 Tullahoma, TN

MILLER, Edmund L. 120-H 9/07/12 Pewamo, MI

PITRUZZELLO, Joseph S. 119-L 5/02/08* Alexander City, AL

PRUITT, Frank H. 120-2BnHq 12/10/12 Spartanburg, SC

PULVER, Murray S. 120-B 9/21/12 Peoria, AZ

STANFORD, Arna V. Widow 8/18/10* Williamsburg, VA

STECKLER, William 105 Engr. B 9/09/12 Palm Harbor, FL

SULLIVAN, Thomas “Jack” 118 FA 8/07/12 Savannah, GA

TURNER, Woodrow W. 117-F 8/15/12 Littleton, CO

UBBES, Jean M 743 TkBn-B 7/28/12 Kalamazoo, MI

VOORHIS, Thomas K. 120-K 8/06/12 Manteca, CA

WALSH, Carrol S. 743 TkBn-D 12/17/12 Sarasota, FL

YOUNG SR., James E. 120 6/26/12 Butler, PA

Those with an asterisk (*) were received too late for a prior publication.

Our Most Sincere Condolences to the Families of These Lost Heroes

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As most of you already know, men of the 743rd Tk. Bn., and  30th Infantry Division, liberated over 2.500 victims of the Holocaust from Bergen-Belsen on 13 April 1945.

We will be honored to have some of these Survivors join with us again at Louisville.  Two of them have never been with us before, so they will give a resume of their life history, so be sure to come to hear these stories that have never been told before.

One of these Survivors will be coming all of the way from Jerusalem, Israel, joining with other members of his family, to meet his Liberators for the first time.  The other Survivor will be coming from San Diego, CA with his daughter, also to meet for the very first time with some of his liberators.

To make it clear, each of you veterans were “Liberators” of this group of victims.  Although you may not have had any personal hands-on experience with them at the time of their liberation, You were doing your job which was supporting the action in the local vicinity of this tremendous discovery and the release of these frail humans to Freedom.

Join with us on this occasion to meet these Survivors that you helped to liberate 68 years ago !!

This will be an Historic event !!  68 years to the date of their Liberation !!!

 

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The day of April 13 1945 was a Friday and a sunny and windy day.

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 3, 2013|

Friday the 13th.

This account comes to me from a survivor’s son who lives in Hungary. He had read of Carrol Walsh’s passing on the internet and contacted me. It is Carrol who is commanding one of these tanks. Sgt. George Gross commanded the other, and took photographs.

I just came across this website . My father was on this train.
He passed away twenty years ago, in April 1992.

Here is an excerpt from his memoirs about his liberation day.
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Translation from my father’s Memoirs pp. 302-304.
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The day of April 13 1945 was a Friday and a sunny and windy day. In the morning, the SS opened the doors of the freight cars, after they had argued with each other whether they should kill us with their submachine guns. But the US troops were too close.

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Perhaps it was an older SS man who prevented our execution. Later that day, a Jewish woman, who had been his lover in the camp, saved him from becoming a prisoner of war or worse. She got him civilian clothes, I do not know how. The same woman became the lover of an American soldier later.
——————————————————————

Several hundred people wrapped in rags streamed through the open doors, if they could be called people at all. We were all mere skeletons.

The train was idling in a deepening, so I climbed uphill, across a road and to a field. I was pulling out potatoes planted on the field, when a motorcycle approached. It was a motorcycle with a side-car. There was an elegant SS or Nazi leader in the front: I could not decide, since he was wearing a mixture of uniform and civilian clothes. It must have been his wife sitting behind him and his child in the side-car. He pulled over and offered me a cigarette. I told him I did not smoke, so he closed his silver-looking cigarette-case and started the engine.
He seemed to hesitate about the direction he should take.

Prisoner taken. Photo by tank commander George C Gross, April, 1945.

Prisoner taken. Photo by tank commander George C Gross, April, 1945.

Then two small American tanks arrived. I was standing in the middle of the road, and noticed that the American soldier leaning out of the turret of one of the tanks aimed his gun at me.
The tank came closer and closer, and the soldier lowered his submachine gun. I must have looked terrible, so he did not take me for an enemy. I was lucky he had not shot me from the distance, since my small coat and boots vaguely resembled a military uniform. Lice were crawling all over my clothes and skin.

The few hundred former inhabitants of the concentration camp surrounded the tanks right away. Suddenly somebody remembered that the SS guarding us were still in the carriages. The SS were caught quickly, and lined up. The “intrepid” SS were trembling so heavily that their pants were flapping.

The first thing a Jewish woman asked from the soldier leaning out from the tank was money, and she received a dollar bill. She must have established her future with this dollar.

My attention was drawn to something else: in the rear of the tank there was a box of canned food. I climbed under the tank, emerged at its end, and pulled out a can. It turned out that I stole a can of oranges. This was my luck. I ate the potatoes charred in the can with the oranges, and probably this combination saved my life. Everyone who ate meat or anything greasy died within hours or within one or two days at the latest.

I felt fever in my body, undressed completely naked in front of staring women, and went into the ice-cold water of the lake next to the railroad. People warned me not to do this, but I went into the water, felt good, felt that I got rid of the lice and the burning heat of the fever. When I put on my rags again, I felt the fever ever stronger.

I asked an American soldier to sign the photo of my fiancee (I still have this photo). To my surprise, he signed the name Churchill. I thought he was joking. But he reassured me that his name was really Churchill.

(Once I read about a father named Churchill, who went to see his son’s grave in Vietnam during that war. The report mentioned that the father had been a soldier in World War II. He must have been my Churchill)

In the evening, there were news that we should flee, because the Germans pushed back the Americans. The Germans would massacre us for sure, the women had pulled out material for parachutes from a carriage in order to make clothes.

I was already so weak that I did not care whether the returning Germans would kill me: I stayed in one of the carriages, and fell asleep.

On Saturday, April 14, German peasant [horse-drawn] carts came for us by some order, so I was carried to Hillersleben. I dragged myself to the first floor of the first building, it looked like an office building, lay down under the sink of the bathroom, and fell asleep.

I am sure the American soldiers had no idea who we were and what we went through.

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It’s what we do.

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 17, 2012| 2 Comments »

Here is the interview that I did with NYSUT last week.

A staff member who is maybe thinking of leaving the profession wrote me a nice card about a month ago. In a follow up conversation she told me she saw me as a “beacon”- her word- for other teachers. That’s fairly heavy stuff to hear.

I feel  responsibility to add some extra comments below for the benefit of  teachers in general, and anyone else who is interested.

http://itswhatwedo.nysut.org/

Photo credit: Kris Dressen.

The reporter was competent, engaged and interested, but she had her deadline and we ran out of time.

I did not have a chance to tell her about the medic. I’ll include it below and will be passing it on to her. Kind of like the “moral of the story”, especially when you realize what it means for the soldiers.

I hope it serves as a reminder to teachers that what we all do every day makes a difference.

Here is the postscript to the story.

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An important epilogue to the NYSUT story.

I know that some of you have been following the unfolding of the train liberation and reunions.  The part that is not mentioned in the article  is a phone call I got last Oct. from an 88 year old man in Scranton, PA who found me- and really wanted to be put in touch with the survivors.

You see, he had been a twenty something Army medic in 1945 when ordered to move out to the abandoned German Air Force hospital grounds at Hilersleben, immediately after the tank commanders came across that “death train” and Frank Towers evacuated the occupants to get them out of the battle zone.

Blessed – or maybe cursed – with a terrific memory, he can vividly recall the screams and overall sense of dread permeating the hospital, where he and his fellow medics wore a daily uniform of surgical masks, gloves and rubber aprons.

He remembers scooping handfuls of lice out of patients’ hair and administering countless needles, and the time he had to carry the body of a little girl to a tent serving as a makeshift morgue.

For six nonstop weeks after the liberation they confronted the horror and the evil. Well over 100 Holocaust victims, now his patients, died after they were freed by our troops. No one had trained Walter for this, and  for all these years he has lived with the guilt, the nightmares, and the trauma.

For 60 years he and his wartime buddies met after the war. Walter told me and some of our kids that in recounting their war stories, not one of them ever brought up that place called Hilersleben.

Those guys must have suffered from PTSD. And like many soldiers, his generation just did not talk about that.

Now he calls me at school, to chat, laugh, to let me know which of our survivors has contacted him, and to tell me he wants to meet me.

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Wait a minute-rewind- How did that happen?

I mean, Why did HE, find ME?

That all happened WAY before I was born.

I think about this, every single day.
Is there a reason I put on this earth? How do I make sense of my responsibility as a human being?

Did those soldiers have to put themselves in harm’s way, in many respects scarring themselves for life,  to care for “the brutalized and wretched” whom they did not even know?

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What I offer to other teachers:
I’m an educator and so are you. As persons who spend most of our waking hours with young people, I can only postulate that we are in the “business” of molding human beings- which of course is not really a business at all. Like the soldiers thrust into that situation, ultimately we are caretakers of humanity.   It is an overwhelming responsibility, but it is not just a job.
It’s a mission.

Those soldiers made choices, confronted evil, sacrificed a ton, and saved humanity– Carrol, George, Frank, and Walter (“the Babe”)- and in doing so, I know they saved me, too. It sounds cliché, simplistic, Pollyanna, whatever- but it’s true.

You do your best to make a difference.

Lots of times you think you lose.

But here’s the real crazy part- most of the time you probably win.

Like these soldiers, sometimes you don’t know you have won until years later.

It’s just what we do.

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Kids at the DP camp Hilersleben. Irene.

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 11, 2012| 3 Comments »

Dear Mr. Rozell,

Hilersleben -Luca Furnari

 My grandfather, Luca Furnari, is 90 years old and served in the 95th medical battalion with Mr. Gantz at Hillersleben. He has a number of photographs from this period.  For many years he has thought about trying to find a particular young girl who he helped sneak extra rations to at the DP camp and whose mother asked him to take back to the United States. He and some friends actually had a whole plan of how they were going to sneak her onto the boat back to the US, it’s a great story. Unfortunately, as you know, they were told they were going to the Pacific theatre and the plan became impossible.  Her name was Irene / Iren / Irena.  I have a photograph and have searched the manifest on your website, there are 3 possible people of approximately the right ages: Irena Gitler, Iren Roth and Iren Wittels.   I was wondering if you had come across any survivors from Hillersleben with the same name. 

Hilersleben-Irene is in the flowered dress

Also, I know my grandfather would love to be connected to any other surviving members from the US Army that were at Hillersleben.  

 My grandfather is the large picture on the left hand side.  Irene is in the flowered dress in the picture by herself and on the lap of another US soldier, whose name is Turner (?).  The picture with the baby is also Turner, and they are in the DP camp.  My grandfather’s inscription reads

Hilersleben-Turner-boy that kid sure did cry that day — until we gave her some chocolate.

“boy that kid sure did cry that day — until we gave her some chocolate”.  The picture of the building with barrels in the foreground is from Hillersleben too. It has a strange inscription from my grandfather

Hilersleben-some disorderly DPs getting a shower bath (DDT?)

“some disorderly DPs getting a shower bath”.  The one with the two girls just says “Two of the children that lived in the D.P. center we were taking care of. Cute eh hon?” (He was sending the pictures to my grandmother back in the States.)

The child Irene is the girl that my grandfather would like to try to locate. 

Soldier Turner and Irene.

Any help you can provide is MOST appreciated.

Best,
R.

Hilersleben-Two of the children that lived in the D.P. center we were taking care of. Cute eh hon?

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Whitwell.

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 5, 2012| 1 Comment »

Whitwell, Tennessee.

Not much cultural diversity. 50% free and reduced lunch. Industry supporting then devastating the community, then leaving town. Home of the Tigers… sound familiar, Hudson Falls?

Last fall Hudson Falls kids and I had the pleasure of getting to know Joe Fab, the major moving force behind the film  Paper Clips, when he came to our town to speak.On Tuesday morning this week, a few educators and I  loaded into  cars for a pleasant drive from Nashville to Whitwell, to visit the middle school where it all began, and their Children’s Holocaust Memorial, a cattle car from Germany that was used to carry human beings to the killing centers.

The middle school is in  a new building that also houses a special Holocaust Memorial library, which is thought to be the largest single collection in the state, many volumes donated by survivors and congregations worldwide. Every letter they ever received is archived there, including the negative ones that arrived with the paper clips twisted into swastikas. Imagine. Middle school kids not picking and choosing what to save, but archiving like historians for the future.

Linda Hooper, the former principal, greeted the nine of us, and gave us a private talk about the impact of the project and the unbelievable ripple effect it has had on people’s lives across the world. Sandy Roberts told us how the project unfolded in her after school class, when a child raised his hand to say, “Mrs. Roberts, excuse me, but I don’t know what six million is.” Because they took the time to investigate together, students and parents reflected together in a meaningful way on the impact of learning about the Holocaust on their lives. And that is how this project was born.

Before we move to criticize the project as just another counting activity, the collecting and counting of objects to symbolize human life, come to Whitwell and meet the people. Read the letters from the survivors who send in a paper clip, or dozens, and reach out to these children who have touched them enough to tell their families’ stories.

No one can fathom six million plus. But read the letters to feel for yourself individual stories of the millions who were lost. Come to Whitwell and see for yourself the power of a small community excited about learning, and its impact on the world, because they wanted to care about other human beings.

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So, I am suspicious of education.

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 2, 2012| 2 Comments »


Israeli educational psychologist Haim Ginott writes about a letter that teachers would receive from their principal each year:

I am a survivor of a concentration camp. My eyes saw what no person should witness: gas chambers built by learned engineers. Children poisoned by educated physicians. Infants killed by trained nurses. Women and babies shot by high school and college graduates.

So, I am suspicious of education.

My request is this:  Help your children become human. Your efforts must never produce learned monsters, skilled psychopaths or educated Eichmanns. Reading, writing, and arithmetic are important only if they serve to make our children more human.

This has become the mission statement and educational philosophy of some Holocaust education institutions and it really sums up what my mission as  a teacher is all about. But please note  below that I did not intend it that way. At all.

Today I will be a special guest for the Tennessee Days of Remembrance Ceremony at the State Capitol in Nashville with legislative members, the governor and the lieutenant governor. This evening I will give my first address to fellow Holocaust educators.

How does a kid from a small town with no experience in Holocaust education go on to add a new chapters to the stories of thousands of persons’ lives? To become a regarded figure in Holocaust and History education circles, nationwide?

The honest answer is, I just don’t know.

My dad in the classroom. Around the time that I puffed out my chest and claimed I certainly would not be a teacher.

But it happened. This from a kid who distinctly remembers the purposeful slight given to his dad. Dad was a history teacher in Glens Falls, the next town over. He was good, and he loved the students. Everyday he came home happy and sometimes even humming a tune. Who delivered the purposeful slight? His first born son.

Our relationship,  as I grew into the teenage years, was a bit strained. So when he asked me, as a junior or senior,  in the car riding home from school one day down Main Street, the MAIN STREET of the town that produced him, what I would like to do someday after I graduated from high school, I told him, “I don’t know, but I won’t be in HUDSON FALLS anymore, and I SURE WON’T BE A TEACHER…..”- the desired effect was achieved by the angry teen, the wound deep, the twist of the knife distinct…

Yet there I was, eight years later, living in the room out back of the family homestead on that Main Street, fending my way on the other side of the desk in the classroom of my alma mater, and not just any classroom- a history classroom, teaching the exact same subject as the old man…

What if I had never come home, as planned? What if I had not gone back to school for a teaching certificate, after graduating with that “unmarketable” history degree? What if I had landed that job in the college town I called my new home, instead if coming in 2nd for it? I would have never met the tank commanders. Then, what if Walsh’s daughter had not said, after two exhausting hours of combat tales, just as we were about to turn the camera off,   “Dad, did you tell Mr. Rozell about the train? ”

Things happen for a reason. I think there are no coincidences.

In the words of a former  principal of mine, we are here “to make human beings out of them” (not that they were not before, but you get his point-the exact same point of the speaker noted above.)

I am suspicious of those who will dictate to me from ” on high” what I should be doing in the classroom. Perhaps Dr.  Ginott would have agreed.

 

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I was reminded of the words of the prophet Ezekiel-“He took me down in the spirit of G-d and set me down in the valley. It was full of bones.”

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 28, 2012| 1 Comment »

I interviewed a Holocaust refugee and another liberator on Friday last… rolled into one! A special man. A German Jew whose father was mortally injured on Kristalnacht, Henry Birnbrey was sponsored and got out of Germany as a young teen and was given special permission from FDR to join the Army-previously classified “enemy alien” for his German birth- and stumbled upon the train as a forward artillery spotter scouting positions in the lead up to the final battle at Magdeburg.  Henry was in the 531st AAA of the 30th Infantry Division- Survivor Steve Barry mentions forward artillery spotters in his memoirs- and Henry was one of them. Much of what follows is his testimony as given to the Breman Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, interspersed with his memories as privately published in  his war memoirs.

I was born in Dortmund, Germany in 1923. During 1937 and 1938 my parents made applications for me to emigrate to Palestine, New Zealand and the USA. The USA visa came in first and an emergency visa was issued to me the week Hitler invaded Austria, as the various agencies feared that this invasion would be followed by war.

I left Germany on March 31, 1938, leaving my parents behind. In the meanwhile, my father had already been arrested. He was accused of having made statements against the government. He was released with the promise to abandon his business and livelihood. Consequently, we lived without income during the years 1937 and 1938. After I left Germany, my father was picked up again on Kristallnacht (November 9, 1938) and he died a couple of months later from the wounds received when he was picked up and arrested. My mother died a few months later. The death certificate of my father stated the cause of death as “heart failure” and only in 1999 did I finally locate the documents that verified what happened in 1938, but too late to entitle me to compensation, which had been denied because their records showed a natural death.

The Birmingham Section of the council of Jewish Women sponsored my immigration to the US, and the social services were provided by the Jewish Children Service here in Atlanta. I moved to Atlanta in January 1939. In Birmingham and Atlanta I lived in foster homes.

I supported myself by working in a clothing store, later managing a shoe store, and in 1942 I went to work for a local accountant. In 1943 I joined the US Army. In 1944 I was with the Normandy invasion forces. During my service in the army, but towards the end of the war, I came across  a train of cattle cars full of Jewish concentration camp survivors and people who did not survive. We opened the cars and were shocked to see the condition of the occupants of these cattle cars. During this same week as we were advancing toward the Oder River, we passed ditches full of corpses of concentration camp inmates who had been marched to the West to escape the Russian advance. Around April 1945, I became a counter intelligence agent and interrogated German POWs and citizens.

After the war, I found out that most of my family had perished in the concentration camps. My mother was one of ten children, and out of that family, two first cousins survived. These cousins had made aliyah in 1937. My father was one of three brothers and again, two first cousins survived. One had made aliyah to Israel in 1938 and the other one survived behind the Iron Curtain. The rest of the family perished. I found documents in the Berlin archive that showed when these people were born and when they died. What I was not prepared for was the detail of information which included the place they were assembled, the number of the transport which took them to the concentration camp and all sort of sordid details.

Henry continues: During World War II, I wanted to get to our hometown but I could not because the British Army was over there and we were a little bit south of there, but my experience as a soldier I think is worth mentioning. First of all, we were in the neighborhood of Magdeburg on reconnaissance. And we had, we had this horrible odor. We didn’t know what was happening. And it turned out to be one of the freight trains full of Jews being shipped from one concentration camp to another. And therefore I was able to personally witness this terrible inhumanity that was taking place. And all of these were my fellow Jews and brothers and everything else. They were almost, they had been reduced to such a non-human state it was impossible to communicate with them. I mean, all we could do is to try to get them food and ask for help. There was nothing we could do. These people were half dead, half crazy. I mean they’d been locked in these cars, were lying on the floor. It was just a horrible thing to witness, and something I’ll never forget as long as I live.

http://www.thebreman.org

And from Henry’s memoirs…. skeptics note again a liberator describing “walking skeletons” ….We moved on to the Braunschweig (Brunswick) area. Here, along the highway, we encountered ditches full of dead concentration camp prisoners who had been marched from one camp to another and were shot before they had a chance to be liberated.
…In April of 1945 while on reconnaissance near Magdeburg we encountered a horrible odor. As we got closer we discovered an abandoned train of cattle cars. When we opened the cars they were filled with half dead and dead Jews being transported from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp to another camp. The sub-human conditions to which these people were subjected to had reduced them to a very sorry state. We did not know how long they had been in those cars, they looked like walking skeletons and could barely speak. Unfortunately we had no food to share with them, which gave us a very helpless feeling. When headquarters was notified, someone evacuated all German civilians from a nearby village, Hillersleben and turned this village into a hospital. Unfortunately we could not stay around to learn more, to speak to and encourage these people or perform other deeds of human kindness…I was reminded of the words of the prophet Ezekiel-”He took me down in the spirit of G-d and set me down in the valley. It was full of bones.”

…and this is where I (MR) am trying to put the pieces of the story together….

 

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“I did not interview the dead.”

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 14, 2012|

Haunting cover image from Boder’s groundbreaking interview book.

Today I was visiting links on the Internet related to oral history projects. The description I found below intrigued me-interviews recorded in the summer of 1946.

“Voices of the Holocaust – Online repository that contains audio clips and transcripts of interviews done by Dr. David Boder of Holocaust survivors in 1946. The mission of Voices of the Holocaust project is to provide a permanent digital archive of digitized, restored, transcribed, and translated interviews with Holocaust survivors conducted by Dr. Boder in 1946, so that they can be experienced by a global audience of students, researchers, historians, and the general public.”

I went to the site at the  Paul V. Galvin Library at the Illinois Institute of Technology. I then clicked on places in Europe that Dr. Boder went to record his interviews, displaced persons camps or transit areas as survivors sorted out their lives and tried to plan their future. On the actual pages you can not only read the transcription, but also hear the actual recordings…. and he encouraged several survivors to sing for him on tape. Amazing.

Well, I saw some names that I thought I recognized from survivors I have met or from the manifest list provided by the Bergen Belsen Memorial. Sure enough, several of these survivors were liberated on our train near Magdeburg!  Below I have the complete transcript, taken from the site, of a 24 year old Greek Jew who lost both of his parents upon liberation. If you go to the link, you can actually listen to his testimony from 1946! Below, I have taken the liberty of emphasizing his liberation story in bold print.

Dr. Alan Rosen recently published a book on this fascinating subject, and you can read his bio of Dr. Boder here. Dr. Rosen reports that his actual name is Mene Mizrahi.

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David Boder: [In English] This is Spool 9-43B. The interviewee is Mr. Mizrachi and he speaks English. November the 21st 1950. Boder.
David Boder: This is Spool 43 continued. The interviewee is Señor Manis Mizrachi or Mr. Manis Mizrachi. Born in Greece, how old are you Mr. Mizrachi?
Manis Mizrachi: I am twenty-four years old.
David Boder: He’s twenty-four years old. He speaks good English and we will have his report in English. Also Mr. Mizrachi would you tell us again what is your full name where were you born?
Manis Mizrachi: My name is Mizrachi Mimi I have been born in Salonika.
David Boder: Yes. Your last name is really Mizrachi so we . . .
Manis Mizrachi: . . . Mizrachi, yes
David Boder: . . . call you in America “Minis Mizrachi.”
Manis Mizrachi: . . . Mizrachi, yes
David Boder: You were born where?
Manis Mizrachi: In Salonika, 1922.
David Boder: In 1922, yes.
Manis Mizrachi: The 17th of January.
David Boder: Yeah, and tell me, who were your parents and what was their business.
Manis Mizrachi: My parents – my father was Oscar Mizrachi and he was . . . he saled articles which he brought from every country and he was a representative of several firms.
David Boder: Ah! He was an importer?
Manis Mizrachi: importer yes.
David Boder: Yes, for instance what kind of articles was he selling?
Manis Mizrachi: He was selling clothing and paper, he brought paper and several other things what he could make.
David Boder: Now tell me how many people were in your family?
Manis Mizrachi: We’re three people.
David Boder: Yes.
Manis Mizrachi: My father, mother and me.
David Boder: You were the only son?
Manis Mizrachi: The only son.
David Boder: Yes, and now tell me where were you and what happened to your family when the Germans came to Greece?
Manis Mizrachi: Before the Germans came to Greece since my father was a freemason, we . . . were afraid for the Germans, them not to take him away from us. That for we made it up to go to Athens, the capital of Greece, since it is a very big country so we could . . .
David Boder: [speaking over each other] Big city you mean . . .
Manis Mizrachi: Big city, yes,
David Boder: So you could be better protected . . .
Manis Mizrachi: Better protected.
David Boder: Tell me what citizenship did your father have? Greece or Spanish?
Manis Mizrachi: My father was Spanish
David Boder: And your mother?
Manis Mizrachi: My mother was Turkish.
David Boder: Turkish? And you were considered what?
Manis Mizrachi: I have been considered Spanish.
David Boder: Because your father was Spanish. Have you lived in Spain?
Manis Mizrachi: Never, I have never in Spain.
David Boder: Yes, all right, and so you went to AthensManis Mizrachi: And so we went to Athens but anyhow the Germans took us because although the Consul of Spain has certifies us that we have no reason to be afraid that the Germans will take us and but for this obliged us not to leave and not to hide ourselves and so the Germans came one night at two o’clock and got us [the whole family, they beat us firstly] and afterwards they put us into the Greek jail.
David Boder: All right, now . . . Tell me this . . . [mutters] All right, tell me this: Were other Jews then arrested already and deported?
Manis Mizrachi: A lot of Jews, Spanish Jews, were arrested and [spread?] with our family together.
David Boder: Yes, and what was it a kind of a raid at that time or what?
Manis Mizrachi: It was a raid, it was a raid for whole Spanish in order not to leave them the time to hide themselves because one day before they arrested all Greek citizens, Jews of course.
David Boder: They arrested the Greeks citizens that were Jews. And now they began to arrest the Spanish citizens . . . well didn’t you show your papers from the Consul?
Manis Mizrachi: We showed our papers from the Consul but it [laughing a little] helped nothing.
David Boder: All right, so then what did they do with the family, go slowly step-by-step.
Manis Mizrachi: Then they put us in cars and brought us in the Greek jail where we were obliged to sleep down without any help . . . they give us no things to eat, nothing. We’re made whole day without any thing . . .
David Boder: [interrupting] Was the family together?
Manis Mizrachi: The family was together firstly; afterwards, they ordered us the men to go separately and the women from the other side. So we remained there in the jail about fifteen days and the first of April we were obliged to leave the jail and they put us into trains . . . of beasts.
David Boder: Why do you call it “trains of beasts?” They were . . .
Manis Mizrachi: Because they were closed trains were they are putting the [laughing a little] . . . horses and . . . the pigs
David Boder: . . . the trains with the openings? Because animals they transport . . .
Manis Mizrachi: No, they were closed but they were with wires.
David Boder: [Talking over each other] Where were the wires?
Manis Mizrachi: The wires were at the windows. Little window was there, very high, although they were afraid us not to look from what happened around and so they put us there and they locked us, the door so we couldn’t get out for any necessary . . .
David Boder: For any necessary? Were you men and women together . . .
Manis Mizrachi: We were men and women together. Sixty-four people in a wagon, it was very difficult to take air and to eat, we had nothing to eat.
David Boder: Didn’t they tell you to take your things?
Manis Mizrachi: No, they didn’t give – they gave us only some carrots and bottle of water and place . . .
David Boder: What do you mean a bottle of water for all or what?
Manis Mizrachi: It was . . . two big bottles
David Boder: Two big bottles of water.
Manis Mizrachi: . . . bottles of water.
David Boder: What do you think? How many liters was there in each one?
Manis Mizrachi: Twenty-five liters about.
David Boder: You mean twenty-five liters to the bottle?
Manis Mizrachi: Yes, and it was very hard we couldn’t have water enough because we had children with us and we couldn’t wash ourselves we were very dirty . . .
David Boder: Yes.
Manis Mizrachi: . . . and after the tenth day of traveling
David Boder: [astonished] . . . wait you mean you were ten days, ten days in the car?
Manis Mizrachi: In all we were fourteen days but after the tenth day they opened – they got out the wires so we could look outwards but we were without shaving ourselves and were like beasts.
David Boder: Now tell me what kind of toilet facilities did you have?
Manis Mizrachi: No one. Every two days they opened us the doors in order to get out things that . . . we couldn’t keep anymore in our leavings[?]
David Boder: Did you have a pocket for it?
Manis Mizrachi: No, it was in a piece of papers what they gave us specially for that.
David Boder: And women and men together in this . . .
Manis Mizrachi: Women and men together . . .
David Boder: . . . and children
Manis Mizrachi: . . . it was awful
David Boder: And so?
Manis Mizrachi: And so, until we arrived at six in the morning—six o’clock in the morning and the town of Celle which is some kilometers far from the camp, real camp of Bergen-Belsen. And so we went there, we were obliged to go—to step seven or eight kilometers.
David Boder: To walk?
Manis Mizrachi: To walk there with our grandfathers, with our fathers, sisters, sick women, with our children and however it was very difficult for us and this one who couldn’t walk he was beaten by the Germans, soldiers, by the capos . . . were the leaders.
David Boder: What is capos?
Manis Mizrachi: Capos were the leaders.
David Boder: Were they prisoners?
Manis Mizrachi: They were prisoners but who . . . somewhere . . . collaborated with the Germans together. And they beat us awfully we were not accustomed to this kind of manner and they were laughing at us when we made strange figures.
David Boder: Strange faces you mean?
Manis Mizrachi: Strange faces, yes.
David Boder: And well, and so how long did it last to walk these eight kilometers?
Manis Mizrachi: This eight kilometers took us about . . . one hour and a half.
David Boder: [after a pause] That’s very fast walking.
Manis Mizrachi: Yes! We were obliged to run.
David Boder: Well you had no things to carry
Manis Mizrachi: No things to carry, nothing.
David Boder: Well then . . .
Manis Mizrachi: Because we had some things we could keep with us but we were obliged to leave it in the way in order to go very fast because it was a Polish capo behind and he was beating you.
David Boder: A Polish capo?
Manis Mizrachi: A Polish, yes.
David Boder: All right, but you were together with your father and mother?
Manis Mizrachi: No I wasn’t even with my father, and my mother had been put in another range [?].
David Boder: Oh, your mother was put in another what?
Manis Mizrachi: In other file.
David Boder: In another file, all right. But she was marching the same way with you?
Manis Mizrachi: Yes, much in the same way.
David Boder: All right.
Manis Mizrachi: Afterwards we went to the camp they . . . were obliged to stay there for l’appel.
David Boder: What is the name of the camp?
Manis Mizrachi: The camp Bergen-Belsen.
David Boder: Yes
Manis Mizrachi: We were obliged to stay there about two hours waiting until the German come and ask our names . . .
David Boder: Yes . . .
Manis Mizrachi: . . . conforming to the list that he could have in Athens when he put us into the train
David Boder: Do you have a tattoo number?
Manis Mizrachi: No, in Bergen-Belsen there was no tattoo number.
David Boder: Yes.
Manis Mizrachi: My account number was one thousand four hundred sixty two.
David Boder: Uh-huh, all right
Manis Mizrachi: . . . It was my account number
David Boder: One thousand . . .
Manis Mizrachi: One thousand four hundred sixty two.
David Boder: ..sixty two. And so . . .
Manis Mizrachi: And so we have been put in big barrack . . .
David Boder: You with your father?
Manis Mizrachi: With my father and with my mother in separate barrack. And around us was the wires—electric . . .
David Boder: Oh, electric wires. Yes.
Manis Mizrachi: . . . have been charged. And we couldn’t go out firstly until the doctor came in order to see whether we’re ill or not.
David Boder: Yes.
Manis Mizrachi: And afterwards we could be with our mother and with every friend and so on because of our citizenship.
David Boder: Oh, because you were Spanish.
Manis Mizrachi: Spanish, yes. The only thing which we had. As Spanish people.
David Boder: Yes.
Manis Mizrachi: Of course, firstly we couldn’t eat what they gave us. It were carrots in boiled water. This was our eating. And we gave it to other brothers of us—other Jews—of Greece. And Polish people too who were with us in the camp. And we were obliged after one week to eat because we starved. And so we carried everything—everything green that we saw on the earth we took it out from there and we started to eat it without caring if it was dirty or clean.
David Boder: Uh-huh, without cooking?
Manis Mizrachi: Without cooking . . .
David Boder: Yes.
Manis Mizrachi: . . . like beasts.
David Boder: Yes.
Manis Mizrachi: And so they started to put us in this category of prisoners that starved to eat and wore closed and we had no rights to go out – to work – we were obliged to stay.
David Boder: Well, because the Spanish . . .
Manis Mizrachi: Because Spanish citizenship.
David Boder: . . . we were not supposed to work
Manis Mizrachi: We were not supposed to work but this was bad because the others who were out they were working at the transport of food, of legumes . . .
David Boder: Of vegetables.
Manis Mizrachi: Of vegetables. And they could have some profit in taking some of them. But for us it was impossible. And so we were obliged to live on only those things that we received from Germans.
David Boder: Did the Red Cross help in any way.
Manis Mizrachi: We had no help of the Red Cross. Never we got help from the Red Cross. Only our capos they had . . . many profits who unfortunately they put only for themselves and they never helped the others
David Boder: Were the capos Jews?
Manis Mizrachi: They were the Jews with us from Greece they came with us. And they started making friendship with the Polish capos, the old ones who were there and so they had a lot of . . .
David Boder: Polish Jewish?
Manis Mizrachi: Polish Jewish. I speak always from Jewish
David Boder: And so?
Manis Mizrachi: And so they made friendship with them and so they had everything for their own families. They had special room to live and they ate separately. We were not to see what they were eating, we smelled only the meat and everything else that they got . . . from the Germans.
David Boder: From the Germans?
Manis Mizrachi: From the Germans. And, unfortunately, our people—the people who didn’t want to beat and to collaborate with the Germans—starved and had only his home in back.
David Boder: Yes
Manis Mizrachi: This is all [slightly laughing].
David Boder: Well, and that was in . . . Auschwitz?
Manis Mizrachi: That was in Bergen-Belsen.
David Boder: In Bergen-Belsen . . .
Manis Mizrachi: Bergen-Belsen.
David Boder: Well . . . did you hear about . . . All right, so how long were you in Bergen-Belsen?
Manis Mizrachi: I have been there about eighteen months—one year and six months.
David Boder: And then, where were you taken from?
Manis Mizrachi: Then I have been taken—we have been put into a big train in order to be transported to Theresienstadt. In the last days—two days before the English came, the British troops came in Bergen-Belsen.
David Boder: Yes.
Manis Mizrachi: Um, this train was a big train of sixty-four wagons.
David Boder: Yes.
Manis Mizrachi: And have been put in, again in . . . beasts-cars . . .
David Boder: Cattle-wagons?
Manis Mizrachi: Cattle-wagons. Sixty-four to seventy people in a car and started of course many ‘spense [?] . . . many sick . . .
David Boder: Many sick people.
Manis Mizrachi: . . . many sick people. We started then with the Typhus.
David Boder: Oh yes.
Manis Mizrachi: It was then when I lost my two parents. Unfortunately, at the last days. I lost them—my father . . .
David Boder: What do you mean—in Bergen-Belsen?
Manis Mizrachi: In the train—the big train—they caught there Typhus
David Boder: Oh, in the train. About how many days before liberation?
Manis Mizrachi: The first died . . . at just at the same . . . at the moment of the liberation and my mother which was looking for [after] my father died ten days afterwards . . .
David Boder: After the liberation
Manis Mizrachi: And I got it too . . .
David Boder: You got it?
Manis Mizrachi: . . . because I was obliged to see . . . to look for [after] for my mother.
David Boder: You had to look for your mother, yes? And?
Manis Mizrachi: And so I got it also—”I meant thirty in one days”[?]
David Boder: What typhus was it? Ricket . . . Ricket . . . Spotted typhus?
Manis Mizrachi: Spotted typhus, yes.
David Boder: So then you lost your parents.
David Boder: [speaking over each other] .. of liberation. And you remained alone.
Manis Mizrachi: I remained quite alone without any help. Quite alone.
David Boder: All right, so where did you go then?
Manis Mizrachi: I was student and then the American troops were very kind with us—they helped us.
David Boder: Well, which camp were you freed or were you freed from the train?
Manis Mizrachi: From the train directly because it was an air attack.
David Boder: Oh, yes.
Manis Mizrachi: Attack of the air force.
David Boder: Yes.
Manis Mizrachi: British Air force.
David Boder: And so?
Manis Mizrachi: And so the machine . . . had been in damage.
David Boder: The, yes, the machine was damaged.
Manis Mizrachi: . . . was damaged.
David Boder: Yes, and the train couldn’t continue.
Manis Mizrachi: . . . couldn’t continue. And . . . we made some activity there we got prisoners, the Germans, the SS . . .
David Boder: Yes.
Manis Mizrachi: . . . and we waited until the American tanks.
David Boder: . . . came.
Manis Mizrachi: Came. Yes, it was ninth army. The ninth American army.
David Boder: Uh-huh.
Manis Mizrachi: . . . Which liberated us.
David Boder: Yes, so then you took the SS prisoners? Why didn’t you kill them?
Manis Mizrachi: [slightly laughing] We had no right to kill them . . .
David Boder: Why?
Manis Mizrachi: Because the capos—the chiefs . . .
David Boder: Yes.
Manis Mizrachi: . . . who directed this movement told us not to do anything until the American troops arrived.
David Boder: Yes
David Boder: And then what did the Americans do with them?
Manis Mizrachi: The Americans took their arms and they took them away, we don’t know what happened.
David Boder: They took them prisoners?
Manis Mizrachi: Prisoners, yes.
David Boder: All right, and then you were in the train,
Manis Mizrachi: And then . . .
David Boder: . . . where were you taken from there?
Manis Mizrachi: And at once, the officers, the American officers went to the village—the German village of Farsleben.
David Boder: Yes.
Manis Mizrachi: There. And he gave the order to every person to take us in, to take several families into his house.
David Boder: Yes.
Manis Mizrachi: And so, we got the place for some days.
David Boder: Uh-huh, and who was feeding you?
Manis Mizrachi: The Germans were obliged to feed us.
David Boder: Uh-huh.
Manis Mizrachi: They had a lot to feed us.
David Boder: And what did the Germans then say?
Manis Mizrachi: The Germans said that they never knew every- . . . something that happened to Jews and out of Germany and that they behaved something so ill with the Jews in the concentration camps that they let them starve and that they killed them. They didn’t know anything about those things. And whenever they knew, of course, they wouldn’t leave it . . . let the Germans . . .
David Boder: [finishing the thought] . . . they wouldn’t have let them do such things.
Manis Mizrachi: Yes.
David Boder: Uh-huh and then, where did you go and how did you go?
Manis Mizrachi: Then I was where, I got ill and I went at Hillersleben.
David Boder: Yes
Manis Mizrachi: Hillersleben is not far from them, some ten kilometers.
David Boder: Yes.
Manis Mizrachi: And then I meant the hospital, hospital El Melwani [?] there were three hospitals.
David Boder: Did you get typhus too?
Manis Mizrachi: I got Typhus too.
David Boder: So when they took you from the train did you have typhus already?
Manis Mizrachi: No I didn’t have.
David Boder: Oh, you didn’t have . . .
Manis Mizrachi: I was looking for [after] my mother.
David Boder: You were taking care of your mother?
Manis Mizrachi: Yes, taking care of her until she died.
David Boder: Yes.
Manis Mizrachi: Afterwards . . .
David Boder: Did you see your father dying?
Manis Mizrachi: I . . . . My father died on my hands.
David Boder: Yes.
Manis Mizrachi: I buried him with two other Jewish comrades.
David Boder: Yes.
Manis Mizrachi: . . . in Farsleben. And my mother died in Hillersleben.
David Boder: Yes.
Manis Mizrachi: They are seven kilometers away. I didn’t see my mother died – dead – because I was very ill at this moment. I was with 41.4 Centigrade . . .
David Boder: Temperature. Already with typhus?
Manis Mizrachi: With Typhus yes.
David Boder: And so when the freedom came . . . ?
Manis Mizrachi: When the freedom came, I was quite alone I remained quite alone . . .
David Boder: Did they take you to a hospital?
Manis Mizrachi: Yes.
David Boder: You were taken to a hospital?
Manis Mizrachi: I have been taken to a hospital.
David Boder: . . . and nurse to help?
Manis Mizrachi: Nurse help, German nurse. And they were not bad but they always tried to make sabotage.
David Boder: The Germans?
Manis Mizrachi: The Germans.
David Boder: In what way?
Manis Mizrachi: In what way . . . because they were throwing away the medicaments and whenever we were calling them but they didn’t come—only when the Brit- [corrects] an American soldier was present.
David Boder: . . . and then he would take . . .
Manis Mizrachi: . . . but not, they never took care of us.
David Boder: All right, and when you got well what happened then?
Manis Mizrachi: Then I took some days in order to get . . . stronger then because I couldn’t walk. I had forty-two kilograms.
David Boder: And where did you spend those days—in the hospital?
Manis Mizrachi: In the hospital.
David Boder: Yes.
Manis Mizrachi: And afterwards I have been taken by the American army and I said that I had parents in France. And that for they brought . . .
David Boder: You said that you had parents in France?
Manis Mizrachi: Yes, I had. I had.
David Boder: Relatives you mean?
Manis Mizrachi: I have relatives, yes. Relatives.
David Boder: Apart from your father and mother.
Manis Mizrachi: Relatives, yes. Relatives in France.
David Boder: And so they took you?
Manis Mizrachi: So they took me here and . . . unfortunately they had been displaced too. Deported and they didn’t come back.
David Boder: They did come back?
Manis Mizrachi: They did not come back.
David Boder: So you didn’t find relatives?
Manis Mizrachi: I did find. And I remained here.
David Boder: Yes. And for what are you working now?
Manis Mizrachi: Now I am working for the AJDC.
David Boder: For the American join . . .
Manis Mizrachi: [finishing] . . . distribution committee.
David Boder: What are you doing?
Manis Mizrachi: I am in the accounting department.
David Boder: Where did you learn English?
Manis Mizrachi: I learned English alone because I finished the German school . . .
David Boder: Where? Greece?
Manis Mizrachi: In Salonika, yes.
David Boder: You finished the German school where you learned Greek [corrects] where you learned English?
Manis Mizrachi: German. German and French and since I liked very much to learn English I learned it quite alone.
David Boder: with . . . [speaking over each other]
Manis Mizrachi: Just alone, myself.
David Boder: By which method? Shocked that haven’t got a better [ununintelligible] that you had to go to school?
Manis Mizrachi: No, I learned it quite alone. There was a friend of mine who went to the school . . . and I learned . . .
David Boder: And learned it alone. Now what do you plan to do in the future?
Manis Mizrachi: I am studying now; I am studying radio.
David Boder: Where, at the ORT?
Manis Mizrachi: No, quite alone, I am training myself.
David Boder: All right.
David Boder: You are studying radio and then you want to do what?
Manis Mizrachi: Then I hope to work in radio..
David Boder: Where?
Manis Mizrachi: I don’t know yet, perhaps I can go to the country I would be very satisfied.
David Boder: Which country?
Manis Mizrachi: I don’t know where to . . . the States? [Break in tape]
David Boder: . . . relatives in America?
Manis Mizrachi: . . . unfortunately, I have no one.
David Boder: You have no one.
Manis Mizrachi: No one.
David Boder: . . . Well this concludes Mr. .Mizrachi’s report. Taken on the- . . . on August the 12th at the offices of the American Joint Distribution Committee . . . recording of the Illinois Institute of Technology.
http://voices.iit.edu/interview?doc=mizrachiM&display=mizrachiM_en

Also note that the USHMM is looking for Mr. Mizrachi and several others who were interviewed that summer by Dr. Boder. For more information, click here.

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Quotes from American Soldiers/Holocaust Survivors Reunion 9/22-26/09

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 2, 2009|

Quotes from American Soldiers/Holocaust Survivors Reunion   9/22-26/09

Compiled by Mrs. Hales, English teacher, Hudson Falls High School.

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Credit Matthew Rozell and World War II Living History Project/Teaching History Matters. .. If re-posting  include the link, https://teachinghistorymatters.wordpress.com.

  • “How could we [the world] have stood by and let that happen to them?  We owe them.”   Carrol Walsh, 743rd Tank Battalion, Liberator
  • “I often wonder what this world would be like if those 6 million had never perished.”  Frank Towers, 30th Infantry Division, Liberator
  • “Against all odds I am standing here before you.”  Steven Barry, Holocaust Survivor, (Hungary, Florida)
  • “I tell my story so that they might tell the next generation.”  Sara Atzmon, Holocaust Survivor, artist, (Hungary, Israel)
  • “Love gives us wings to soar above it all.”  Sara Atzmon, Holocaust Survivor, artist, (Hungary, Israel)
  • “Hatred is something we must fight against.”  Leslie Meisels, Holocaust Survivor, (Hungary, Toronto)
  • “Silence helps the oppressors.” Leslie Meisels, Holocaust Survivor, (Hungary, Toronto)
  • “I tell my story so that it won’t become your future.”  Leslie Meisels, Holocaust Survivor, (Hungary, Toronto)
  • “We cannot be lax at all.  We must keep the faith.  We must tell others.”  Buster Simmons, Chaplain, 30th Infantry Division Veterans of WWII.
  • “I’m listed as a liberator, but I’m a survivor of WWII.”  William Gast, 743rd Tank Battalion
  • “We keep the faith.”  Motto of the 743rd Tank Battalion
  • “Freedom is not free; there is a high price tag attached.”  William Gast, 743rd Tank Battalion
  • “We must ever be thankful [for our freedom].  We must NEVER take freedom for granted.”  William Gast, 743rd Tank Battalion
  • “After they gave us back our lives, we needed to live each day.”  Paul Arato, Holocaust Survivor, (Hungary;  Toronto, Canada)
  • “I live some of the horrors of 65 years ago everyday.”  Paul Arato, Holocaust Survivor, (Hungary;  Toronto, Canada)
  • “You have the power to heal the world.”  Lev Raphael, son of Holocaust survivors
  • “Don’t be a bystander.”  Mr. Rozell, see below.

Credit Matthew Rozell and World War II Living History Project/Teaching History Matters. .. If re-posting  include the link, https://teachinghistorymatters.wordpress.com.

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