WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.810
- The Germans grabbed my arm.

00:00:01.810 --> 00:00:02.870
I had to make a fist.

00:00:02.870 --> 00:00:05.550
The slammed the arm onto a table,

00:00:05.550 --> 00:00:07.830
and with a hypodermic needle,

00:00:07.830 --> 00:00:12.830
every little dot was injected
until it became in my case,

00:00:13.210 --> 00:00:16.640
the number B-7648.

00:00:24.140 --> 00:00:26.890
In the middle of the night,
they kicked down the door.

00:00:26.890 --> 00:00:28.370
They were yelling and screaming.

00:00:28.370 --> 00:00:32.130
My mom and dad were at a loss.

00:00:32.130 --> 00:00:34.030
They grabbed me to protect me,

00:00:34.030 --> 00:00:35.770
especially from the German Shepherds

00:00:35.770 --> 00:00:38.530
which were pretty much at my level.

00:00:38.530 --> 00:00:40.170
They took us out on the truck.

00:00:40.170 --> 00:00:41.790
I, of course, was scared.

00:00:41.790 --> 00:00:43.710
I was confused.

00:00:43.710 --> 00:00:48.280
I had no way of doing anything to escape.

00:00:50.330 --> 00:00:53.270
We were taken off and
were greeted by people

00:00:53.270 --> 00:00:56.270
who had an emaciated, hollow look.

00:00:56.270 --> 00:00:59.250
They really moved like zombies.

00:00:59.250 --> 00:01:00.670
My father was forced to work

00:01:00.670 --> 00:01:03.930
repairing the electrified fences.

00:01:03.930 --> 00:01:05.570
My mother made iron plates

00:01:05.570 --> 00:01:07.710
that went under the military boots.

00:01:07.710 --> 00:01:10.770
I miraculously was given the chance

00:01:10.770 --> 00:01:13.490
to work in the agriculture department.

00:01:13.490 --> 00:01:16.160
The food ration that you received

00:01:16.160 --> 00:01:18.430
was a single loaf of bread,

00:01:18.430 --> 00:01:23.250
a watery cabbage soup,
intentionally non-nutritional.

00:01:23.250 --> 00:01:25.790
That was your total food for the week.

00:01:25.790 --> 00:01:27.612
As far as I was concerned,

00:01:27.612 --> 00:01:32.612
I had an escape mechanism
from that level of starvation,

00:01:32.852 --> 00:01:35.972
by stealing food as much as I could.

00:01:35.972 --> 00:01:39.772
The way I stole it was by
putting holes in my pocket,

00:01:39.772 --> 00:01:41.952
let the seeds fall down to by ankles

00:01:41.952 --> 00:01:44.952
where the pant leg had been tightened up.

00:01:44.952 --> 00:01:48.252
I was able to pass inspection
by being patted down.

00:01:48.252 --> 00:01:50.972
Had I been detected, I would have become

00:01:50.972 --> 00:01:54.712
what the Germans called
"Sunday's entertainment",

00:01:54.712 --> 00:01:56.512
the execution by hanging.

00:01:56.512 --> 00:01:59.252
One of the saddest moments in the ghetto

00:01:59.252 --> 00:02:02.672
was that when my dad came home,

00:02:02.672 --> 00:02:05.592
laid down, since there was no furniture,

00:02:05.592 --> 00:02:07.672
and simply expired.

00:02:07.672 --> 00:02:10.012
The sidewalk would be littered

00:02:10.012 --> 00:02:11.532
by the corpses of those

00:02:11.532 --> 00:02:15.032
that had passed away the night before.

00:02:15.032 --> 00:02:18.352
And they had a wagon pulled
by two or three people,

00:02:18.352 --> 00:02:20.472
come and collect the corpses.

00:02:20.472 --> 00:02:23.932
That to me was more painful

00:02:23.932 --> 00:02:28.932
than seeing my dad give
up his life or pass away,

00:02:29.092 --> 00:02:32.752
what will be done to him after he passed.

00:02:32.752 --> 00:02:35.172
When I went to work the next morning,

00:02:35.172 --> 00:02:38.032
I did see him laying naked,

00:02:38.032 --> 00:02:40.852
waiting to be picked up by this wagon,

00:02:40.852 --> 00:02:41.852
taking him to a grave

00:02:41.852 --> 00:02:44.772
where already several
people had been buried,

00:02:44.772 --> 00:02:49.212
and plop, he'll fall down
into a heap of bodies.

00:02:49.212 --> 00:02:52.682
That was painful.

00:02:57.592 --> 00:03:01.032
One Nazi dragged my mom away

00:03:01.032 --> 00:03:04.142
and said, "You belong over
there on the other side."

00:03:04.142 --> 00:03:06.682
I didn't call, "Mommy,"
or anything like this.

00:03:06.682 --> 00:03:09.012
There was no time to do this.

00:03:09.012 --> 00:03:13.532
I realized very quickly,
to see my mother again

00:03:13.532 --> 00:03:16.992
is not ever, ever going to happen.

00:03:16.992 --> 00:03:19.152
They shaved our hair,

00:03:19.152 --> 00:03:20.972
they pushed us through an archway

00:03:20.972 --> 00:03:23.952
and doused us with a painful liquid.

00:03:23.952 --> 00:03:26.946
We were washed for about 10 seconds,

00:03:26.946 --> 00:03:29.766
and I pushed against a large building.

00:03:29.766 --> 00:03:33.706
There was a huge smoke
stack, and an enormous flame,

00:03:33.706 --> 00:03:35.946
and the most obnoxious odor

00:03:35.946 --> 00:03:38.636
that we could not recognize.

00:03:43.726 --> 00:03:47.686
We were packed in with the
density of standing room only.

00:03:47.686 --> 00:03:49.546
You could hardly move.

00:03:49.546 --> 00:03:54.066
We hear a noise and
realize that looking up,

00:03:54.066 --> 00:03:56.826
two airplanes were circling the train.

00:03:56.826 --> 00:03:58.866
They had circular insignias,

00:03:58.866 --> 00:04:01.666
predominantly French fighter planes,

00:04:01.666 --> 00:04:05.766
and also accompanied by
British fighter planes.

00:04:05.766 --> 00:04:08.546
They misrecognized and designated

00:04:08.546 --> 00:04:12.866
us apparently, returning German military.

00:04:12.866 --> 00:04:15.126
And it was my good fortune to be

00:04:15.126 --> 00:04:17.546
at the very front of the wagon

00:04:17.546 --> 00:04:22.006
and not be in the trajectory
of the machine gun fire

00:04:22.006 --> 00:04:24.266
when they had made two rounds.

00:04:24.266 --> 00:04:27.346
We lost about 30 to 40 percent

00:04:27.346 --> 00:04:30.026
of the inhabitants of each wagon.

00:04:30.026 --> 00:04:33.356
With all the carnage, the train went on.

00:04:35.206 --> 00:04:38.166
Those of us who could
survive on a piece of bread

00:04:38.166 --> 00:04:41.666
and a bowl of soup simply hung in.

00:04:41.666 --> 00:04:44.686
Suicides into the electrified wires,

00:04:44.686 --> 00:04:47.706
finding maybe and excuse to be shot

00:04:47.706 --> 00:04:51.696
to end their life was not unusual.

00:04:53.526 --> 00:04:58.426
On Friday, April 11 at 3:15,

00:04:58.426 --> 00:05:03.206
we hear a very unfamiliar
noise, a mechanical noise.

00:05:03.206 --> 00:05:04.986
I see a tank coming up.

00:05:04.986 --> 00:05:06.966
Being familiar with German insignia,

00:05:06.966 --> 00:05:08.836
I didn't see that.

00:05:08.836 --> 00:05:11.526
What I saw instead, of all things,

00:05:11.526 --> 00:05:13.666
was a white Star of David.

00:05:13.666 --> 00:05:15.388
The commander wore a uniform

00:05:15.388 --> 00:05:18.278
of the United States Third Army

00:05:18.278 --> 00:05:21.987
headed by General George Patton.

00:05:38.277 --> 00:05:41.057
It's difficult to reach of 88

00:05:41.057 --> 00:05:44.477
and see the world not get
along with one another.

00:05:44.477 --> 00:05:49.477
I witnessed Kosovo,
Somalia, Darfur, Rwanda,

00:05:49.677 --> 00:05:54.677
and another 20 different
genocides since World War II,

00:05:56.157 --> 00:06:01.157
and one Sunday morning, seeing
Mr. Trump ask the audience,

00:06:02.427 --> 00:06:06.077
supposed supporters, to raise
their hand and give an oath.

00:06:06.077 --> 00:06:08.217
Things like this are not very welcome

00:06:08.217 --> 00:06:10.977
to somebody who survived the Holocaust.

00:06:10.977 --> 00:06:15.277
Democracy, I believe, has a chance

00:06:15.277 --> 00:06:17.737
to be greatly diminished in our country.

00:06:17.737 --> 00:06:21.437
Are we actually going to build
a fence around our country

00:06:21.437 --> 00:06:24.117
and make a ghetto out
of the United States?

00:06:24.117 --> 00:06:27.297
Are we going to have 11
million people sent out

00:06:27.297 --> 00:06:29.257
and make refugees?

00:06:29.257 --> 00:06:31.117
I just simply cannot accept

00:06:31.117 --> 00:06:35.417
that America goes the way
of Germany at one time.

00:06:35.417 --> 00:06:38.197
Have we learned anything
about World War II,

00:06:38.197 --> 00:06:41.857
Korean War, Vietnam, Iraqi Wars?

00:06:41.857 --> 00:06:44.037
People choose not to live in peace

00:06:44.037 --> 00:06:45.597
based on the certain agendas

00:06:45.597 --> 00:06:48.957
whether political or in
some cases, religious.

00:06:48.957 --> 00:06:53.437
So we have to learn not
just from the holocaust,

00:06:53.437 --> 00:06:56.337
because it is a historical fact

00:06:56.337 --> 00:07:01.337
that people don't seem to
be able to live in peace

00:07:01.617 --> 00:07:05.407
and in agreement for a better life.