1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:37,412 --> 00:00:41,791 [Bill Basch] There is one thing that has puzzled me, and has puzzled the world… 4 00:00:42,667 --> 00:00:46,296 that the Germans dedicated manpower 5 00:00:46,379 --> 00:00:51,217 and trains and trucks and energy 6 00:00:51,301 --> 00:00:54,888 towards the destruction of the Jews to the last day. 7 00:00:54,971 --> 00:01:01,853 Had they stopped six months before the end of the war and dedicated that energy 8 00:01:01,936 --> 00:01:04,105 towards strengthening themselves, 9 00:01:04,189 --> 00:01:06,608 they may have carried on the war a little longer. 10 00:01:06,691 --> 00:01:10,653 But it was more important to them to kill the Jews 11 00:01:10,737 --> 00:01:12,489 than even winning the war. 12 00:01:12,572 --> 00:01:14,282 [somber music playing] 13 00:01:24,959 --> 00:01:26,336 [vocalizing] 14 00:02:09,379 --> 00:02:10,672 [trotting] 15 00:02:10,755 --> 00:02:12,257 [somber music playing] 16 00:02:22,559 --> 00:02:25,145 [Irene Zisblatt] I grew up in a town called Polyana, 17 00:02:25,228 --> 00:02:26,813 in the Carpathian mountains. 18 00:02:27,313 --> 00:02:30,150 It was a small town of two main streets. 19 00:02:30,233 --> 00:02:34,028 This leads all the way up to… There is a church over there… 20 00:02:34,112 --> 00:02:40,410 We had a post office and a town hall and a church and a synagogue. 21 00:02:40,493 --> 00:02:42,370 Everybody knew each other. 22 00:02:42,453 --> 00:02:43,454 It was beautiful. 23 00:02:44,247 --> 00:02:47,125 {\an8}[Renee Firestone] I lived in a town called Uzhhorod. 24 00:02:48,334 --> 00:02:49,919 It was a small town, 25 00:02:50,545 --> 00:02:55,508 yet it had the feel of a big, cosmopolitan town. 26 00:02:56,426 --> 00:03:02,682 Right here was a little deli, right around… right here, and, uh… 27 00:03:04,684 --> 00:03:05,727 [clicks tongue] 28 00:03:06,519 --> 00:03:11,566 My… We used to come here to have our sandwiches for the afternoon. 29 00:03:14,194 --> 00:03:17,197 [Alice Lok Cahana] We lived in a town called Sárvár. 30 00:03:17,280 --> 00:03:22,994 {\an8}It's in Hungary, close to the, um, Austrian border. 31 00:03:24,037 --> 00:03:29,626 Every day, the peasants would bring their wares from the neighboring villages 32 00:03:29,709 --> 00:03:35,632 in big baskets, and they would carry it on their head or on their shoulders. 33 00:03:39,219 --> 00:03:42,013 {\an8}Szaszovo was a very small, little community 34 00:03:42,096 --> 00:03:44,057 {\an8}consisting of 3,000 people. 35 00:03:44,140 --> 00:03:47,644 No electricity, no utilities at all. 36 00:03:47,727 --> 00:03:52,106 So it was… I lead a very simplistic, boring life. Nothing exciting. 37 00:03:53,399 --> 00:03:59,113 But then Budapest, where I ended up, was an entirely different life. 38 00:03:59,197 --> 00:04:01,407 It was an enormous adjustment. 39 00:04:02,033 --> 00:04:05,036 And I looked at this city just going, "Whoa!" 40 00:04:05,119 --> 00:04:09,582 I mean, it was like… I've never believed anything like this exists! 41 00:04:12,543 --> 00:04:16,422 [Tom Lantos] Budapest was a magnificent, world-class city, 42 00:04:16,923 --> 00:04:22,262 {\an8}on par with Vienna or Paris or London as a great European capital. 43 00:04:22,887 --> 00:04:26,057 This magnificent Parliament building 44 00:04:26,140 --> 00:04:30,061 saw the best and the worst in Hungarian history. 45 00:04:30,144 --> 00:04:33,648 The bulk of the Jews in Budapest 46 00:04:33,731 --> 00:04:37,443 were utterly assimilated, deeply patriotic, 47 00:04:37,527 --> 00:04:42,282 and enormously proud of their Hungarian cultural heritage. 48 00:04:42,365 --> 00:04:47,036 There were about 800 Jewish families in our town. 49 00:04:47,120 --> 00:04:53,584 And I think the town was 10,000 or 11,000 non-Jews. 50 00:04:54,294 --> 00:04:58,131 I had non-Jewish friends. I dated non-Jewish boys. 51 00:04:58,214 --> 00:05:00,425 My parents had non-Jewish friends. 52 00:05:00,508 --> 00:05:03,678 We also felt quite Hungarian at the same time. 53 00:05:04,387 --> 00:05:05,555 Not just Jewish. 54 00:05:05,638 --> 00:05:08,349 So, Judaism was our religion, 55 00:05:09,183 --> 00:05:10,560 but we were Hungarians. 56 00:05:13,438 --> 00:05:15,231 [reporter 1] On August 2nd, 1934, 57 00:05:15,315 --> 00:05:17,567 officers and men swear the oath of allegiance 58 00:05:17,650 --> 00:05:20,820 not to Germany, but to Hitler personally. 59 00:05:20,903 --> 00:05:24,032 [reporter 2] As Hitler's rule over Germany became absolute, 60 00:05:24,824 --> 00:05:27,368 to his alarmed neighbor Austria, 61 00:05:27,452 --> 00:05:29,662 Hitler promised to keep hands off. 62 00:05:29,746 --> 00:05:32,623 [Tom Lantos] In 1938, when I was 10 years old, 63 00:05:33,166 --> 00:05:34,917 I bought my first newspaper. 64 00:05:35,668 --> 00:05:38,129 And I saw the headlines, 65 00:05:38,671 --> 00:05:40,923 "Hitler marches into Austria." 66 00:05:41,007 --> 00:05:46,387 And I sensed that this historic moment 67 00:05:46,471 --> 00:05:52,602 will have a tremendous impact on the lives of Hungarian Jews, my family, and myself. 68 00:05:52,685 --> 00:05:53,561 [bombing] 69 00:05:55,855 --> 00:05:58,191 [reporter 3] Germany invades Poland and Danzig. 70 00:05:58,274 --> 00:06:00,777 Warsaw is bombed, blasted and shelled. 71 00:06:01,277 --> 00:06:02,779 Poland is in ruins. 72 00:06:06,157 --> 00:06:07,742 [dramatic music playing] 73 00:06:11,704 --> 00:06:14,415 [Renee Firestone] There were refugees coming to Hungary 74 00:06:14,499 --> 00:06:16,125 running away from Poland, 75 00:06:16,626 --> 00:06:22,006 and most of the Jewish families, Friday night the men went to temple 76 00:06:22,090 --> 00:06:24,634 to bring these people home and give them shelter. 77 00:06:24,717 --> 00:06:26,969 They would come and tell stories. 78 00:06:27,929 --> 00:06:30,515 And I remembered very often… 79 00:06:32,725 --> 00:06:34,394 you didn't believe them. 80 00:06:34,477 --> 00:06:38,856 {\an8}I heard a conversation between my father and another man. 81 00:06:38,940 --> 00:06:43,194 {\an8}And he was telling my father what the Nazis are doing in Poland. 82 00:06:43,277 --> 00:06:46,239 And one thing that I'll never forget that I heard… 83 00:06:46,322 --> 00:06:51,702 And he said the Nazis are taking our young Jewish infants, 84 00:06:51,786 --> 00:06:55,623 and they're tearing them in half by their legs, 85 00:06:55,706 --> 00:07:00,002 and they're throwing them in the Dniester, a river in the Ukraine. 86 00:07:00,086 --> 00:07:02,046 Then later, of course, 87 00:07:02,130 --> 00:07:04,757 the stories were getting worse, 88 00:07:04,841 --> 00:07:10,555 and we began to hear about mass shootings and mass graves, 89 00:07:10,638 --> 00:07:13,641 But there was a sort of a naive… 90 00:07:14,434 --> 00:07:17,437 I hate to use the word, but I have to use the word… 91 00:07:17,520 --> 00:07:23,067 patriotic feeling that we Hungarians don't do such things. 92 00:07:23,151 --> 00:07:28,448 Hitler was in Germany, so what happened in Germany didn't reflect on us. 93 00:07:28,531 --> 00:07:31,534 I mean, we were far away from it. 94 00:07:31,617 --> 00:07:32,618 [chanting] 95 00:07:35,913 --> 00:07:38,291 {\an8}[sinister music playing] 96 00:07:54,724 --> 00:07:56,642 {\an8}[Randolph Braham] There were two wars. 97 00:07:57,435 --> 00:07:59,395 {\an8}There was a military war, 98 00:07:59,479 --> 00:08:01,689 {\an8}and hand-in-hand with that war. 99 00:08:01,772 --> 00:08:03,232 {\an8}There was a second war, 100 00:08:03,316 --> 00:08:06,777 {\an8}the war of the SS directed against the Jews. 101 00:08:06,861 --> 00:08:08,571 {\an8}[sirens wailing] 102 00:08:10,531 --> 00:08:12,241 {\an8}[melancholy music playing] 103 00:08:31,385 --> 00:08:32,345 [firing] 104 00:08:47,568 --> 00:08:52,114 The dark side of the Hungarian national character 105 00:08:52,198 --> 00:08:54,367 was becoming more and more obvious. 106 00:08:54,450 --> 00:08:57,620 The persecution of Jews became more and more obvious. 107 00:08:57,703 --> 00:09:01,123 Jews were losing their jobs, their businesses. 108 00:09:01,207 --> 00:09:04,627 There was a Hungarian Nazi movement, the Arrow Cross, 109 00:09:04,710 --> 00:09:07,421 and this became, of course, 110 00:09:07,505 --> 00:09:13,094 the most hated and the most feared group for Hungarian Jews. 111 00:09:17,265 --> 00:09:21,185 [Renee Firestone] People wonder, "How is it that we didn't do something?" 112 00:09:21,269 --> 00:09:23,354 We didn't run away. We didn't hide. 113 00:09:24,063 --> 00:09:26,607 Well, things didn't happen at once. 114 00:09:26,691 --> 00:09:29,527 Things happened very slowly, 115 00:09:29,610 --> 00:09:33,864 so each time a new law came out, or a restriction, 116 00:09:33,948 --> 00:09:38,286 we said, "Well, just another thing. It'll blow over." 117 00:09:39,537 --> 00:09:41,122 {\an8}[crowd cheering] 118 00:09:42,957 --> 00:09:46,377 {\an8}[Tom Lantos] Hitler moved into Hungary on the 19th of March, 1944. 119 00:09:47,753 --> 00:09:49,171 I was 16 years old. 120 00:09:49,672 --> 00:09:53,259 1944, March 19th. 121 00:09:53,342 --> 00:09:57,096 Germans entered, the SS entered, our town. 122 00:09:57,638 --> 00:10:02,727 Two motorcycles was the whole Nazi regime that occupied our town 123 00:10:02,810 --> 00:10:06,480 because they were there with the people that lived there the whole time 124 00:10:06,564 --> 00:10:07,690 and did their dirty. 125 00:10:08,399 --> 00:10:12,528 Most of them were people we thought were our friends all these years, 126 00:10:12,612 --> 00:10:15,281 but they turned overnight on us 127 00:10:15,364 --> 00:10:18,034 and went with the other side. 128 00:10:18,117 --> 00:10:21,329 And the next restriction was 129 00:10:21,412 --> 00:10:25,374 that the Jew cannot walk out on the street without the yellow star. 130 00:10:25,458 --> 00:10:28,753 We heard that in Germany they to wear the yellow star 131 00:10:28,836 --> 00:10:30,630 before they were taken away, 132 00:10:30,713 --> 00:10:33,174 and in Poland, they did that. 133 00:10:33,257 --> 00:10:36,677 So at that point we were worried. 134 00:10:37,345 --> 00:10:40,306 [Tom Lantos] I did not wear a yellow star 135 00:10:40,389 --> 00:10:42,683 and I was caught. 136 00:10:44,060 --> 00:10:46,687 I was put into a forced-labor camp 137 00:10:47,313 --> 00:10:49,940 in a place north of Budapest, 138 00:10:50,024 --> 00:10:52,360 which had an important railroad bridge. 139 00:10:53,444 --> 00:10:59,784 {\an8}And our job was to repair the railroads, 140 00:11:00,785 --> 00:11:04,163 the lines, the bridges, non-stop, 141 00:11:04,246 --> 00:11:08,250 while the British and the Americans were bombing day and night. 142 00:11:08,334 --> 00:11:11,379 We were obviously worried that we would die. 143 00:11:11,462 --> 00:11:12,838 But we were also hoping 144 00:11:12,922 --> 00:11:17,009 that the American and British bombers will hit all of their targets 145 00:11:17,093 --> 00:11:19,136 and destroy this bridge 146 00:11:19,220 --> 00:11:22,682 because that was the way to defeat Hitler. 147 00:11:23,557 --> 00:11:25,768 I escaped from that labor camp, 148 00:11:26,352 --> 00:11:30,272 and I joined the Hungarian underground. 149 00:11:30,773 --> 00:11:36,362 And the next decree would be that we have to pack up 25 kilos. 150 00:11:36,445 --> 00:11:39,615 And at first, we didn't understand. What do you take? 151 00:11:39,699 --> 00:11:42,993 Think about your home, your own home. 152 00:11:43,077 --> 00:11:44,912 What would you take, 25 kilos? 153 00:11:44,995 --> 00:11:47,164 What is 25 kilos? 154 00:11:47,248 --> 00:11:49,500 How much is 25 kilos? 155 00:11:50,376 --> 00:11:52,878 Do you take the pillows? Your covers? 156 00:11:52,962 --> 00:11:55,297 Do you take your dishes? Do you take… 157 00:11:55,381 --> 00:11:57,007 What do you take? 158 00:11:57,091 --> 00:11:58,509 When we were packing, 159 00:11:59,260 --> 00:12:00,136 um… 160 00:12:00,761 --> 00:12:05,141 I wanted to take something that would remind me of the good times. 161 00:12:05,808 --> 00:12:09,979 I was very depressed and worried. 162 00:12:11,230 --> 00:12:14,608 And so I came across a bathing suit. 163 00:12:14,692 --> 00:12:19,572 A bathing suit that my father brought me. 164 00:12:23,451 --> 00:12:24,368 [smacks lips] 165 00:12:24,452 --> 00:12:25,870 I don't want to do this. 166 00:12:32,960 --> 00:12:33,794 [sniffles] 167 00:12:36,922 --> 00:12:37,840 Uh… 168 00:12:37,923 --> 00:12:41,927 On one of his business trips, about three years earlier, 169 00:12:42,011 --> 00:12:43,554 my father came home. 170 00:12:44,180 --> 00:12:47,558 And, um… he always brought us something, 171 00:12:47,641 --> 00:12:49,435 my sister and myself. 172 00:12:50,561 --> 00:12:51,562 And, uh… 173 00:12:52,938 --> 00:12:55,941 of course, we always asked, "What did you bring?" 174 00:12:56,025 --> 00:12:58,027 And he opened this box, 175 00:12:58,694 --> 00:13:02,948 and out of the box came this most beautiful bathing suit. 176 00:13:03,032 --> 00:13:05,868 {\an8}It had a shiny satin finish 177 00:13:05,951 --> 00:13:09,663 {\an8}and a print of multicolored flowers. 178 00:13:10,831 --> 00:13:17,463 And then in the afternoon, when I heard the soldiers' boots coming up the stairs, 179 00:13:18,339 --> 00:13:22,092 I ran back, and I put this bathing suit under my dress. 180 00:13:23,427 --> 00:13:25,346 And that's how I left. 181 00:13:25,846 --> 00:13:30,309 They broke down the front doors. They came in. They gave us a few minutes. 182 00:13:30,392 --> 00:13:33,312 They said a half hour, but it was not a half hour, 183 00:13:33,395 --> 00:13:35,940 to get it all our valuables together, 184 00:13:36,023 --> 00:13:39,109 and they… They marched us out of the house. 185 00:13:43,697 --> 00:13:47,618 I couldn't imagine that they just take out people from their homes… 186 00:13:50,871 --> 00:13:52,248 because they're Jewish. 187 00:13:52,331 --> 00:13:55,084 Our friends, so-called, and neighbors, 188 00:13:55,626 --> 00:13:58,546 they were standing lined up alongside of the road, 189 00:13:59,213 --> 00:14:00,840 and they were yelling, 190 00:14:00,923 --> 00:14:06,262 "It's about time, you go on out of here. And we don't need any Jews in our town." 191 00:14:06,345 --> 00:14:08,514 "We need to get rid of all you Jews." 192 00:14:09,723 --> 00:14:12,601 I stood, and I could not believe my eyes. 193 00:14:13,435 --> 00:14:18,190 [hesitates] The people I went to school with their children. We were friends. 194 00:14:18,274 --> 00:14:20,025 We were sharing things together. 195 00:14:20,109 --> 00:14:23,654 Why are they so hostile? Why do they hate us all of a sudden? 196 00:14:23,737 --> 00:14:28,200 It's like when you read that the Jews went out of Egypt. 197 00:14:28,284 --> 00:14:30,452 We are carrying all our baggage. 198 00:14:30,536 --> 00:14:33,706 The pillows and the covers are tied to them, bundled. 199 00:14:33,789 --> 00:14:37,918 And we children helped to carry. And I'm so ashamed. 200 00:14:38,002 --> 00:14:42,214 [Renee Firestone] We wanted to believe they're gonna take us to Germany. 201 00:14:42,298 --> 00:14:45,384 And we're gonna work. We really wanted to believe it. 202 00:14:45,968 --> 00:14:52,641 And by then, the whole European Jewry was already in camps, 203 00:14:52,725 --> 00:14:54,143 which we didn't know. 204 00:14:54,727 --> 00:14:57,730 The concentration, ghettoization and deportation 205 00:14:57,813 --> 00:15:03,110 took place in a concentrated manner that is within 12 weeks. 206 00:15:04,028 --> 00:15:10,492 And nowhere else was the deportation program carried out 207 00:15:11,911 --> 00:15:17,958 with the barbarity and speed that it was in Hungary. 208 00:15:18,042 --> 00:15:20,711 They say that they will take us to a ghetto, 209 00:15:20,794 --> 00:15:23,130 and we'd never heard that word. 210 00:15:23,213 --> 00:15:26,050 It is not a Hungarian word, "ghetto." 211 00:15:26,133 --> 00:15:28,510 [Renee Firestone] We had no idea where we were. 212 00:15:28,636 --> 00:15:31,096 In the morning, when we woke up, 213 00:15:31,180 --> 00:15:34,767 I realized that we are in a brickyard. 214 00:15:34,850 --> 00:15:36,393 Brick factory yard. 215 00:15:38,729 --> 00:15:42,107 {\an8}And in April, it was rainy. It was a lot of rain. 216 00:15:42,191 --> 00:15:43,984 {\an8}And we were always… 217 00:15:44,068 --> 00:15:47,112 {\an8}We had to change the sheet because the roof was the sheet, 218 00:15:47,196 --> 00:15:49,031 and we were always wet. 219 00:15:49,114 --> 00:15:53,869 There were thousands of people there because they came from the whole county. 220 00:15:54,536 --> 00:15:57,456 And there were guards everywhere, with dogs, 221 00:15:57,539 --> 00:16:00,709 walking around all the time, big German Shepherd dogs, 222 00:16:00,793 --> 00:16:03,837 on very, very tight leashes. 223 00:16:03,921 --> 00:16:08,008 …because this was all these huts, with people, people all over the place. 224 00:16:08,092 --> 00:16:09,885 [Robin] Do you know where your hut was? 225 00:16:09,969 --> 00:16:14,056 [Irene Zisblatt] Yes. My hut was right here, where these piles of bricks are. 226 00:16:14,890 --> 00:16:17,184 [sniffles] And then one day they announced 227 00:16:17,267 --> 00:16:21,188 that everybody that wants to go to work to Tokay 228 00:16:21,271 --> 00:16:24,566 on the vineyard to make wine should come here, 229 00:16:24,650 --> 00:16:29,530 and everybody voluntary, gladly went on the train 230 00:16:29,613 --> 00:16:31,198 because this was hell. 231 00:16:31,782 --> 00:16:35,703 And going to work in a vineyard was like going to heaven from this. 232 00:16:35,786 --> 00:16:40,541 We were taken to the railroad station by the Hungarian soldiers. 233 00:16:40,624 --> 00:16:42,167 My mother said to me, 234 00:16:42,251 --> 00:16:47,006 "I rolled up diamonds in your skirt, in the hem of your skirt." 235 00:16:47,756 --> 00:16:52,803 "And if you don't have enough to eat, those are to buy bread." 236 00:16:52,886 --> 00:16:54,930 When we arrived at the railroad station, 237 00:16:55,014 --> 00:16:59,727 we realized that we're not going on passenger trains. 238 00:16:59,810 --> 00:17:02,354 The cattle cars were waiting for us. 239 00:17:02,438 --> 00:17:06,400 [Irene Zisblatt] My father said, "They ran out of other trains because it's wartime." 240 00:17:06,483 --> 00:17:09,987 "They don't have the other train. So, they have to use what they have." 241 00:17:10,070 --> 00:17:14,033 [Alice Lok Cahana] Anybody who didn't go and didn't go fast was beaten. 242 00:17:14,116 --> 00:17:17,953 When they closed the doors, then I heard that knock on the outside 243 00:17:18,037 --> 00:17:20,205 like a bolt closing us in there. 244 00:17:20,956 --> 00:17:23,000 It wasn't normal anymore. It wasn't… 245 00:17:23,083 --> 00:17:26,295 I didn't accept that they were running out of the other trains. 246 00:17:30,215 --> 00:17:34,344 [Bill Basch] In Budapest, this time started getting worse. 247 00:17:34,428 --> 00:17:38,348 I really had to acquire Gentile papers. 248 00:17:38,432 --> 00:17:40,476 I did not exist as a Jew. 249 00:17:41,226 --> 00:17:43,645 I would have been shot. I would have been killed. 250 00:17:43,729 --> 00:17:50,360 You were a hunted animal, 24 hours, every day, 251 00:17:51,111 --> 00:17:53,864 and you didn't know if anybody you encountered 252 00:17:53,947 --> 00:17:56,116 was really on your side. 253 00:17:56,200 --> 00:17:58,118 Had it not been for Wallenberg, 254 00:17:58,202 --> 00:18:03,791 neither I nor the other tens of thousands would have ever survived. 255 00:18:03,874 --> 00:18:08,087 {\an8}Raoul Wallenberg arrived when all of Hungary, 256 00:18:08,170 --> 00:18:11,799 {\an8}with the exception of Budapest, was already free of Jews. 257 00:18:12,466 --> 00:18:16,136 He went to Budapest at a time when, in the countryside, 258 00:18:16,220 --> 00:18:19,681 the Jews had already been put into cattle cars 259 00:18:19,765 --> 00:18:21,683 and shipped away from Hungary. 260 00:18:21,767 --> 00:18:25,270 And he decided to join the Swedish embassy there 261 00:18:25,354 --> 00:18:28,816 for the sole purpose of trying to save Jewish lives. 262 00:18:29,942 --> 00:18:33,403 By issuing so-called Swedish protective passports, 263 00:18:33,487 --> 00:18:36,615 he declared that the individual who had this document 264 00:18:36,698 --> 00:18:39,535 at the end of the war planned to go to Sweden. 265 00:18:39,618 --> 00:18:44,915 This was pure fiction, but in the chaos and the confusion of the war, 266 00:18:44,998 --> 00:18:49,378 this miraculous, worthless piece of paper worked. 267 00:18:49,461 --> 00:18:53,423 [Bill Basch] Several of us acted as distributors or runners 268 00:18:53,507 --> 00:18:56,885 to deliver this fake passport 269 00:18:56,969 --> 00:18:59,847 to the people that were waiting in those protected houses. 270 00:19:00,514 --> 00:19:04,059 [Tom Lantos] Wallenberg leased large apartment houses, 271 00:19:04,143 --> 00:19:09,356 put up a Swedish sign indicating that all the residents 272 00:19:09,439 --> 00:19:12,818 were under the protection of the royal Swedish government. 273 00:19:12,901 --> 00:19:17,364 I stayed at St. Stephen Park, number 25. 274 00:19:18,323 --> 00:19:20,534 [speaking foreign language] 275 00:19:20,617 --> 00:19:25,122 Most of these houses were upper-middle-class apartment houses, 276 00:19:25,205 --> 00:19:27,457 and a three-bedroom apartment, 277 00:19:27,541 --> 00:19:32,921 that may have had four, five, six people living there before this crisis, 278 00:19:33,005 --> 00:19:35,382 suddenly became a hovel 279 00:19:35,465 --> 00:19:40,971 with 60, 70 people jammed into a three-bedroom apartment. 280 00:19:41,054 --> 00:19:42,598 [girl 1] Very uncomfortable. 281 00:19:42,681 --> 00:19:44,641 It was very uncomfortable, honey, 282 00:19:44,725 --> 00:19:47,728 but more importantly, it was unbelievably dangerous. 283 00:19:47,811 --> 00:19:51,190 The word "protected house" obviously is a misnomer, 284 00:19:52,191 --> 00:19:57,487 uh, because many of the people living in these quote-unquote "protected houses" 285 00:19:57,571 --> 00:20:01,783 were rounded up, taken to the bank of the Danube, and killed. 286 00:20:01,867 --> 00:20:03,327 [somber music playing] 287 00:20:05,329 --> 00:20:11,627 Now, to get into the protected houses was not difficult. 288 00:20:11,710 --> 00:20:13,462 Soldiers didn't care. 289 00:20:13,545 --> 00:20:16,048 They were out in the front. "Go in there." 290 00:20:16,131 --> 00:20:17,674 However, to come out 291 00:20:18,592 --> 00:20:20,594 that was the very, very difficult thing. 292 00:20:20,677 --> 00:20:27,351 If German soldiers or Hungarian Nazi soldiers were suspicious, 293 00:20:27,893 --> 00:20:30,520 they ordered us to take down our pants 294 00:20:30,604 --> 00:20:34,566 because we were the only people who were circumcised. 295 00:20:35,108 --> 00:20:39,112 One day, I had on my body, strapped around, the fake passports, 296 00:20:39,196 --> 00:20:43,033 which I was delivering to these people so they could get out of the building, 297 00:20:43,116 --> 00:20:45,327 and I miscalculated. 298 00:20:45,410 --> 00:20:49,498 I went through the sewer line, and I knew when to get out. 299 00:20:49,581 --> 00:20:51,458 And I made a mistake, 300 00:20:51,541 --> 00:20:55,587 instead of coming out in the middle of the building, 301 00:20:55,671 --> 00:20:57,881 I came out in front of the building, 302 00:20:57,965 --> 00:21:01,260 where two soldiers were guarding the building. 303 00:21:01,343 --> 00:21:03,845 I started running as fast as I could, 304 00:21:03,929 --> 00:21:06,014 crossing the street back and forth. 305 00:21:06,098 --> 00:21:08,225 And they were deporting a group of Jews, 306 00:21:08,308 --> 00:21:10,560 not knowing where they're taking them, 307 00:21:10,644 --> 00:21:14,106 I jumped into that group of Jews thinking, 308 00:21:14,189 --> 00:21:18,360 "As I got in so many times into trouble, I'll get out one more time." 309 00:21:18,443 --> 00:21:19,945 "Just one more escape." 310 00:21:20,028 --> 00:21:22,864 We would up five days later in Buchenwald. 311 00:21:27,703 --> 00:21:30,247 [Irene Zisblatt] We were on the train for about five days. 312 00:21:30,330 --> 00:21:33,750 Sitting on a heap of luggage that we carried there. 313 00:21:33,834 --> 00:21:37,796 The cattle car that I was in, there was about 120 of us. 314 00:21:37,879 --> 00:21:41,466 Mashed together like sardines, and it's very, very hot. 315 00:21:41,550 --> 00:21:45,262 They had one pail, you know, for going to the bathroom. 316 00:21:45,345 --> 00:21:49,933 And suddenly the buckets filled up, and then the odor was unbearable. 317 00:21:50,017 --> 00:21:53,228 They never opened the doors to go to the bathroom. 318 00:21:53,312 --> 00:21:56,606 They never gave us any water. They never gave us any food. 319 00:21:56,690 --> 00:21:59,192 The children were screaming. They wanted to go home. 320 00:21:59,276 --> 00:22:02,195 "Where are they taking us? Where are they taking us?" 321 00:22:02,696 --> 00:22:03,739 Nobody answered. 322 00:22:03,822 --> 00:22:06,283 It was total darkness. 323 00:22:06,366 --> 00:22:11,079 The light seeped only through the cracks of the cattle car. 324 00:22:11,163 --> 00:22:14,291 [Irene Zisblatt] My father found a crack in the cattle train. 325 00:22:14,374 --> 00:22:16,501 He looked out, and he spoke out loud, 326 00:22:16,585 --> 00:22:19,588 "I don't think we're going to the vineyard 327 00:22:19,671 --> 00:22:23,675 because we just crossed the border, and we're heading towards Poland." 328 00:22:24,343 --> 00:22:25,594 When he said Poland, 329 00:22:25,677 --> 00:22:29,056 I remembered the man telling the story about the children, 330 00:22:29,139 --> 00:22:31,350 what they're doing to the children in Poland. 331 00:22:32,059 --> 00:22:35,937 And I was holding my little brother. He was two-and-a-half years old. 332 00:22:36,021 --> 00:22:37,481 I was holding him so tight. 333 00:22:38,273 --> 00:22:40,901 And I said to him, I said to myself, 334 00:22:40,984 --> 00:22:44,488 "I will never let him go. They will never take him from me." 335 00:22:44,571 --> 00:22:46,907 When they opened the door suddenly… 336 00:22:48,200 --> 00:22:50,786 and suddenly the light hit you. 337 00:22:52,329 --> 00:22:55,874 And because you had your eyes for four, five days shut, 338 00:22:55,957 --> 00:22:57,959 or used to this darkness, 339 00:22:58,043 --> 00:22:59,795 you're almost blinded. 340 00:22:59,878 --> 00:23:02,881 We were so happy because we were going to get air. 341 00:23:02,964 --> 00:23:06,510 We were gonna get off, go to the bathroom like normal people, 342 00:23:06,593 --> 00:23:08,678 and have water and maybe some food. 343 00:23:08,762 --> 00:23:13,392 And everybody would ask, "Where are we? What's the name?" 344 00:23:13,475 --> 00:23:15,268 And it was very strange name. 345 00:23:16,436 --> 00:23:17,396 Auschwitz. 346 00:23:18,563 --> 00:23:20,065 [somber music playing] 347 00:23:28,031 --> 00:23:30,325 {\an8}[Alice Lok Cahana] Here, we had to be stopped. 348 00:23:30,409 --> 00:23:33,120 {\an8}Here was… A lot of selection happened. 349 00:23:33,203 --> 00:23:36,331 -You're all standing in a line-- -Thousands of people, 350 00:23:36,415 --> 00:23:38,625 close to each other, 351 00:23:38,708 --> 00:23:40,168 and confusion and noise. 352 00:23:40,710 --> 00:23:43,964 And then… Don't move, and don't… [snaps fingers] 353 00:23:44,047 --> 00:23:46,550 Like soldiers standing straight, you see? 354 00:23:47,717 --> 00:23:50,762 And in the middle would the SS go here, 355 00:23:50,846 --> 00:23:52,722 to check all of us. 356 00:23:52,806 --> 00:23:55,392 Walking the dogs and just threatening. 357 00:23:55,475 --> 00:23:59,187 -Single file, or people standing next to… -Five. 358 00:23:59,271 --> 00:24:00,355 [Michael] Five in a row. 359 00:24:00,439 --> 00:24:03,024 [Alice Lok Cahana] So it was easy to count, right. 360 00:24:03,108 --> 00:24:05,652 [Renee Firestone] When I jumped off the cattle car, 361 00:24:05,735 --> 00:24:08,947 I knew right away that whatever they promised us, 362 00:24:09,030 --> 00:24:11,408 whatever they told us, were lies. 363 00:24:11,491 --> 00:24:17,539 And you see a lot of people running in striped clothes and shaved heads. 364 00:24:17,622 --> 00:24:21,626 Surrounded by Nazi soldiers and vicious dogs. 365 00:24:21,710 --> 00:24:24,671 And they were yelling, and they were screaming. 366 00:24:24,754 --> 00:24:27,966 "Hurry up! Leave all your luggage there. Just leave everything." 367 00:24:28,049 --> 00:24:31,428 All of a sudden, there was a separation, 368 00:24:32,012 --> 00:24:33,847 and my mother and my… 369 00:24:35,682 --> 00:24:36,516 [sighs] 370 00:24:39,144 --> 00:24:40,896 my mother and… [exhales] 371 00:24:42,939 --> 00:24:45,150 and my brother and my sister… 372 00:24:45,233 --> 00:24:48,695 She held my little brother in her arms, in one arm, 373 00:24:48,778 --> 00:24:53,283 and my four-and-a-half-year-old sister in her hand. I was holding onto her hand. 374 00:24:53,366 --> 00:24:55,619 This is how we were walking towards… 375 00:24:55,702 --> 00:24:58,747 They were pushing us towards that destination. 376 00:24:58,830 --> 00:25:00,123 [clock ticking] 377 00:25:02,834 --> 00:25:06,588 [in German] When the transports came in, 378 00:25:06,671 --> 00:25:10,926 {\an8}the people were sorted. 379 00:25:11,009 --> 00:25:15,972 {\an8}It was a very basic process, a very simple one. 380 00:25:16,681 --> 00:25:19,518 The people had to stand in a long line. 381 00:25:19,601 --> 00:25:26,107 At the front of the line were some medical officers who would say, 382 00:25:26,191 --> 00:25:30,570 "This one’s too old, over 50." 383 00:25:30,654 --> 00:25:36,409 "This one goes to the right. The other goes left." 384 00:25:37,536 --> 00:25:41,331 [Renee Firestone] My mother was selected at the railroad station, 385 00:25:41,414 --> 00:25:44,960 going to the left while my sister and I went to the right. 386 00:25:45,043 --> 00:25:46,378 My mother was taken 387 00:25:46,461 --> 00:25:49,798 straight from the railroad station to the gas chambers. 388 00:25:49,881 --> 00:25:53,802 By the time my sister and I were processed into the camp, 389 00:25:53,885 --> 00:25:56,012 my mother was no longer alive. 390 00:25:57,055 --> 00:25:58,807 [sinister music playing] 391 00:26:25,625 --> 00:26:28,128 [Renee Firestone] We were taken to a dressing room. 392 00:26:29,004 --> 00:26:32,632 We were told we're gonna be taking a shower after this… 393 00:26:33,633 --> 00:26:37,137 after this horrendous journey, 394 00:26:37,220 --> 00:26:39,472 and we are going to refresh ourselves, 395 00:26:39,556 --> 00:26:42,183 and then we will be assigned to our work. 396 00:26:42,267 --> 00:26:46,521 [Irene Zisblatt] They ordered us to take our shoes in one hand 397 00:26:46,605 --> 00:26:48,064 and our clothes in the other. 398 00:26:48,148 --> 00:26:50,066 And I remembered the diamonds. 399 00:26:50,150 --> 00:26:54,154 And I grabbed my blue skirt, and in the crowd, you know, 400 00:26:54,237 --> 00:26:57,741 I just fast took out the diamonds and held them in my hands, 401 00:26:57,824 --> 00:26:59,534 and I had no clothes on my body. 402 00:26:59,618 --> 00:27:03,997 And I remember I got undressed with the rest of them, 403 00:27:04,080 --> 00:27:07,917 and there I was in the bathing suit, standing in the bathing suit. 404 00:27:10,587 --> 00:27:11,630 [smacks lips] 405 00:27:14,883 --> 00:27:16,343 I had a premonition. 406 00:27:18,428 --> 00:27:21,765 I had this feeling that if I take this bathing suit off, 407 00:27:22,724 --> 00:27:25,268 if I leave this bathing suit behind, 408 00:27:26,227 --> 00:27:30,231 all the wonderful memories that were built in this bathing suit… 409 00:27:31,024 --> 00:27:34,653 I kept remembering how I walked around the swimming pool, 410 00:27:34,736 --> 00:27:39,282 {\an8}and how the boys were whistling at me, and my friends were so jealous. 411 00:27:40,617 --> 00:27:43,995 And now I'm going to take it off, and I'm going to leave it here. 412 00:27:44,913 --> 00:27:49,876 Everything that meant anything in life to me, I'm going to leave behind. 413 00:27:53,922 --> 00:27:55,298 [Irene] They kept on saying 414 00:27:55,382 --> 00:27:58,802 if anybody has any valuables left, to leave them. 415 00:27:58,885 --> 00:28:00,845 They had a section for that. [sniffles] 416 00:28:00,929 --> 00:28:05,266 I held onto the diamonds for dear life because that was to buy bread. 417 00:28:05,350 --> 00:28:06,893 So I put them in my mouth. 418 00:28:07,811 --> 00:28:09,938 And then when I walked up again, 419 00:28:10,021 --> 00:28:13,900 I saw they were opening people's mouths, and they were looking in, 420 00:28:13,983 --> 00:28:18,154 but I was in the… I was, like, at the at the road of no return. 421 00:28:18,238 --> 00:28:20,740 I couldn't give 'em up any more because I would be shot. 422 00:28:20,824 --> 00:28:22,992 Why didn't I leave 'em back there? 423 00:28:23,076 --> 00:28:24,828 And I had them in my mouth, 424 00:28:24,911 --> 00:28:27,580 and I didn't know what to do, so I swallowed them. 425 00:28:27,664 --> 00:28:29,958 We walked into the shower room, 426 00:28:30,041 --> 00:28:33,002 and the dressing room was locked behind us, 427 00:28:33,086 --> 00:28:37,716 and a commando came in and removed all our belongings right away. 428 00:28:38,299 --> 00:28:42,846 They did give us a shower, a little, trinkly shower, and then they… 429 00:28:42,929 --> 00:28:45,014 Again, there was a door on the other side 430 00:28:45,098 --> 00:28:48,810 leading out to the courtyard on the other side of this building. 431 00:28:48,893 --> 00:28:51,563 And at the door, they had a pile of clothes. 432 00:28:51,646 --> 00:28:55,233 And they ordered everybody to pick one piece of clothing. 433 00:28:55,316 --> 00:28:57,110 We waited till about midnight, 434 00:28:57,193 --> 00:29:01,114 then they permitted us to walk into one of these wooden barracks. 435 00:29:01,698 --> 00:29:04,284 [Alice Lok Cahana] A thousand people in a barrack. 436 00:29:04,367 --> 00:29:09,038 If one person turned, everybody had to turn 437 00:29:09,122 --> 00:29:11,499 because we were so close to each other. 438 00:29:12,167 --> 00:29:14,377 I used to wake up so cold, 439 00:29:15,253 --> 00:29:16,087 and I… 440 00:29:17,338 --> 00:29:19,591 used to have returning dreams 441 00:29:19,674 --> 00:29:21,509 that I'm at home, 442 00:29:21,593 --> 00:29:23,178 that I'm very cold, 443 00:29:23,261 --> 00:29:25,972 but my father will come and comfort me, so… 444 00:29:26,848 --> 00:29:28,475 And then, you wake up. 445 00:29:29,100 --> 00:29:30,185 From a whistle. 446 00:29:30,268 --> 00:29:31,728 It's dark outside. 447 00:29:32,312 --> 00:29:34,439 And this is a madman's hell. 448 00:29:35,899 --> 00:29:37,192 [vocalizing] 449 00:29:40,320 --> 00:29:44,991 [Renee Firestone] We saw this group of about 20 men coming through the camp, 450 00:29:45,074 --> 00:29:47,952 and as they were marching by, I was watching. 451 00:29:48,036 --> 00:29:49,496 Maybe I know somebody. 452 00:29:50,830 --> 00:29:53,291 And suddenly, I recognize my father. 453 00:29:57,545 --> 00:30:00,048 And my first thought was to hide. 454 00:30:02,050 --> 00:30:04,469 It was terribly painful seeing him 455 00:30:04,552 --> 00:30:08,389 with his shaved head and his uniform, like a prisoner. 456 00:30:08,473 --> 00:30:10,934 This man who was helping everybody, 457 00:30:11,851 --> 00:30:13,812 who was the kindest human being. 458 00:30:13,895 --> 00:30:18,858 I just couldn't imagine how would he feel if he saw us 459 00:30:18,942 --> 00:30:21,027 with the shaved heads and this rag. 460 00:30:22,237 --> 00:30:25,615 So I really just wanted to hide so he can't see me. 461 00:30:26,616 --> 00:30:28,993 And at that moment, our eyes locked. 462 00:30:33,039 --> 00:30:33,998 [sniffles] 463 00:30:35,333 --> 00:30:38,628 And I could see his tears rolling down his cheek. 464 00:30:41,297 --> 00:30:42,340 [smacks tongue] 465 00:30:43,591 --> 00:30:44,509 [sniffles] 466 00:30:45,510 --> 00:30:48,263 That was the last time I saw my father. 467 00:30:50,515 --> 00:30:51,975 [sad music playing] 468 00:30:56,479 --> 00:30:59,023 [Irene Zisblatt] I saw trucks coming 469 00:30:59,107 --> 00:31:01,860 and screams in the trucks. 470 00:31:01,943 --> 00:31:05,488 And I saw two children fall out of the truck. 471 00:31:07,574 --> 00:31:08,533 [sniffles] 472 00:31:10,076 --> 00:31:10,994 [sniffles] 473 00:31:11,744 --> 00:31:13,246 [Irene] And the truck stopped, 474 00:31:14,747 --> 00:31:15,665 [sobs] 475 00:31:15,748 --> 00:31:18,251 [Irene Zisblatt] And the trucks [hesitates]… 476 00:31:18,334 --> 00:31:21,504 And one SS man came out from the front, 477 00:31:21,588 --> 00:31:24,966 and he picked up the children… [sniffs] …like that. 478 00:31:25,049 --> 00:31:27,719 And he banged him against the truck, 479 00:31:27,802 --> 00:31:31,973 and the blood came running down, and threw him into the truck, so… 480 00:31:32,056 --> 00:31:33,016 [sniffles] 481 00:31:33,099 --> 00:31:35,101 That's when I stopped talking to God. 482 00:31:43,443 --> 00:31:45,945 They told us that we're gonna get a number. 483 00:31:47,363 --> 00:31:48,907 Prisoner's number. 484 00:31:48,990 --> 00:31:53,077 Well, of course, we expected to get a prisoner's number 485 00:31:53,161 --> 00:31:55,246 on our clothing or somewhere. 486 00:31:55,330 --> 00:31:57,916 And they set up these tables. 487 00:31:57,999 --> 00:32:01,002 And at each table sat a few guards 488 00:32:01,085 --> 00:32:04,839 with huge books open in front of them. 489 00:32:05,548 --> 00:32:10,803 And we presumed that they are going to put our name in it, 490 00:32:10,887 --> 00:32:13,681 and the number that they're going to give us. 491 00:32:15,350 --> 00:32:19,187 And then we realized that they are putting this number 492 00:32:20,104 --> 00:32:22,065 on our flesh, 493 00:32:22,148 --> 00:32:23,483 on our arms. 494 00:32:24,525 --> 00:32:25,860 [melancholy music playing] 495 00:32:33,242 --> 00:32:35,954 They took five of us and put drops in our eyes. 496 00:32:36,037 --> 00:32:40,249 We didn't know why. They didn't tell us. And they put us in the dungeon. 497 00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:42,752 They closed us in there, 498 00:32:42,835 --> 00:32:46,798 and we were standing in water up to our ankles, tightly packed, 499 00:32:47,423 --> 00:32:49,968 and it seemed like forever. 500 00:32:50,051 --> 00:32:53,805 It seemed like it was an eternity. They never opened the door. 501 00:32:53,888 --> 00:32:57,266 They never gave us anything to eat or drink. 502 00:32:57,350 --> 00:32:59,477 So, we drank the water we stood in. 503 00:32:59,560 --> 00:33:02,730 We went to the bathroom in the water we stood in. 504 00:33:02,814 --> 00:33:05,608 And then they opened the door, and they took us out. 505 00:33:06,484 --> 00:33:11,406 And they brought us up into the courtyard, 506 00:33:11,489 --> 00:33:13,282 and they examined our eyes. 507 00:33:14,158 --> 00:33:18,079 And some of the people couldn't see for several days after that. 508 00:33:18,997 --> 00:33:21,207 And they took us back to the barrack. 509 00:33:21,290 --> 00:33:24,085 And then we found out later what they were doing. 510 00:33:24,168 --> 00:33:26,838 They were trying to change the color of our eyes. 511 00:33:26,921 --> 00:33:32,093 [in German] For those who wanted to conduct experiments on humans, 512 00:33:32,176 --> 00:33:35,388 this was a useful workplace. 513 00:33:36,180 --> 00:33:40,810 Many experiments were done in Auschwitz to find ways to sterilize women, 514 00:33:40,893 --> 00:33:44,480 specifically Jewish women, in order to diminish the race 515 00:33:45,481 --> 00:33:50,111 without going through too much trouble. 516 00:33:50,194 --> 00:33:56,784 These women were then sent back to the camp. 517 00:33:57,785 --> 00:34:00,705 Sometimes they were immediately transferred 518 00:34:00,788 --> 00:34:05,501 because they were so-called "secret bearers." 519 00:34:06,252 --> 00:34:11,883 They performed tests, then sent them back to Birkenau and gassed them. 520 00:34:13,634 --> 00:34:19,098 One day, a prisoner acquaintance came to me and asked me 521 00:34:19,182 --> 00:34:21,517 if I could try to gain some influence… 522 00:34:23,061 --> 00:34:27,815 if anything could be done, not to send them to the gas chamber. 523 00:34:27,899 --> 00:34:33,571 The only way to do that was to make them undergo more tests. 524 00:34:34,322 --> 00:34:40,119 To save them, we had to keep conducting harmless tests on them. 525 00:34:40,203 --> 00:34:44,916 This is what we planned to do, and somehow it worked. 526 00:34:44,999 --> 00:34:50,963 And that is why I was acquitted… 527 00:34:51,714 --> 00:34:52,715 in Auschwitz. 528 00:34:56,260 --> 00:34:59,847 [Randolph] Having survived the first four and a half years of the war, 529 00:34:59,931 --> 00:35:03,559 the Hungarian Jews were killed in the last chapter 530 00:35:03,643 --> 00:35:07,563 of Hitler's war against the Jews when the leaders of the world 531 00:35:07,647 --> 00:35:11,943 were already fully aware of all the details of Auschwitz. 532 00:35:12,026 --> 00:35:14,028 When we came to Auschwitz, 533 00:35:14,112 --> 00:35:16,656 it was during the Final Solution, 534 00:35:16,739 --> 00:35:19,909 when he just was desperate already. 535 00:35:19,992 --> 00:35:22,870 He was losing the war. Hitler was losing the war, 536 00:35:22,954 --> 00:35:26,165 but he was not going to lose the war against the Jews. 537 00:35:26,249 --> 00:35:30,044 The sadism, the cruelty, 538 00:35:30,128 --> 00:35:34,799 the irrationality of the German and Hungarian Nazis, 539 00:35:35,383 --> 00:35:39,679 of killing the remaining Jewish population when the war was all over, 540 00:35:40,847 --> 00:35:44,559 when they could have gained brownie points 541 00:35:44,642 --> 00:35:47,812 by being more civilized vis-à-vis these people, 542 00:35:48,521 --> 00:35:52,358 was really not present because their hatred was so blind. 543 00:35:53,109 --> 00:35:57,697 [Randolph Braham] The Nazis diverted trains and other transportation means 544 00:35:57,780 --> 00:35:59,490 useful to the Germans 545 00:35:59,574 --> 00:36:02,243 for purposes of deporting Jews, 546 00:36:02,326 --> 00:36:04,829 to complete the Final Solution program. 547 00:36:04,912 --> 00:36:06,455 While I was in Auschwitz, 548 00:36:06,539 --> 00:36:10,334 the transports were coming in two, three transports a day, 549 00:36:11,085 --> 00:36:13,087 with thousands of people in it. 550 00:36:13,796 --> 00:36:16,132 [Randolph Braham] Within less than six weeks, 551 00:36:16,215 --> 00:36:20,595 more than 438,000 Hungarian Jews 552 00:36:20,678 --> 00:36:22,471 were deported to Auschwitz. 553 00:36:22,972 --> 00:36:26,142 The gas chambers, the crematoria, could not cope. 554 00:36:27,018 --> 00:36:29,854 The SS had to dig special pits 555 00:36:30,646 --> 00:36:32,231 to burn the bodies, 556 00:36:33,191 --> 00:36:37,570 using the Jews' own fat as fuel. 557 00:36:38,070 --> 00:36:43,409 I saw how they were throwing people into these fire pits. 558 00:36:44,619 --> 00:36:48,623 And I said to myself, "Something is wrong with me. My mind is going." 559 00:36:49,415 --> 00:36:50,958 I couldn't be seeing this. 560 00:36:51,542 --> 00:36:55,630 [in German] The mass graves were 561 00:36:56,672 --> 00:37:02,470 about eight by ten or ten by ten meters wide. 562 00:37:03,846 --> 00:37:08,517 Wood was piled on the bottom and set on fire. 563 00:37:09,518 --> 00:37:14,023 Then the bodies were thrown over the fire. That was it. 564 00:37:14,106 --> 00:37:18,986 If the fat burned, then the grave was working. 565 00:37:20,529 --> 00:37:23,199 Then more and more bodies were thrown into it. 566 00:37:25,326 --> 00:37:26,160 That simple. 567 00:37:28,204 --> 00:37:29,455 [somber music playing] 568 00:37:30,122 --> 00:37:33,960 [Alice Lok Cahana] What vast landscape you are seeing here. 569 00:37:34,710 --> 00:37:39,131 How could people, normal people, go back 570 00:37:40,341 --> 00:37:42,051 after working here, 571 00:37:42,134 --> 00:37:44,136 or planned this, okay? 572 00:37:44,220 --> 00:37:45,972 Somebody had to plan it. 573 00:37:46,055 --> 00:37:48,975 Somebody had to be an engineer. 574 00:37:49,058 --> 00:37:55,773 Somebody had to really put on a map, this kind of efficiency. 575 00:37:58,526 --> 00:38:02,613 But the whole time I was in the camp, through the experiment, 576 00:38:02,697 --> 00:38:05,741 every time I was selected, I swallowed the diamonds. 577 00:38:06,450 --> 00:38:09,745 So, every time I swallowed them, I had to find them again. 578 00:38:10,454 --> 00:38:13,249 We were allowed to go to the latrine once a day, 579 00:38:13,332 --> 00:38:17,920 and I never sat on the hole because I had to go and find my diamonds. 580 00:38:18,004 --> 00:38:22,758 And when the SS woman walked by the door, and she saw me in the corner… 581 00:38:22,842 --> 00:38:26,554 I already had the diamonds in hand. Usually I was waiting until… 582 00:38:26,637 --> 00:38:30,433 On the way back, I would rinse them off, like in the mud, 583 00:38:30,516 --> 00:38:32,101 or if there was no mud, 584 00:38:32,184 --> 00:38:34,562 in the soup that we were going to get next, 585 00:38:34,645 --> 00:38:36,856 but I had no time, and I had to swallow them. 586 00:38:39,233 --> 00:38:42,403 My God, this is the latrine. 587 00:38:44,613 --> 00:38:46,032 Oh my God. 588 00:38:48,117 --> 00:38:51,370 At this place, I was with my sister, 589 00:38:51,454 --> 00:38:52,997 with Edith next to me. 590 00:38:53,080 --> 00:38:56,000 And so Edith whispers to me and says, 591 00:38:57,335 --> 00:39:00,588 "It's almost Shabbat. It's Friday. It's almost Shabbat." 592 00:39:01,339 --> 00:39:04,008 How we used to celebrate Shabbat in our house, 593 00:39:04,091 --> 00:39:07,678 with food and with singing and with praying 594 00:39:07,762 --> 00:39:10,848 and, you know, lighting the candle. 595 00:39:10,931 --> 00:39:15,061 And I told her, "Why don't we celebrate inside, in the latrine?" 596 00:39:16,437 --> 00:39:21,025 We ran back to the end, and we started to make our Shabbat ceremony, 597 00:39:21,108 --> 00:39:22,860 and we started to sing. 598 00:39:22,943 --> 00:39:24,445 [speaking Hebrew] 599 00:39:27,114 --> 00:39:29,158 And as we sang the melody, 600 00:39:29,241 --> 00:39:33,371 other children came around us and started to sing with us. 601 00:39:33,454 --> 00:39:36,665 Somebody was from Holland. Somebody was from Germany. 602 00:39:36,749 --> 00:39:40,419 Somebody was from Hungary, Czechoslovakia. All thrown together. 603 00:39:40,503 --> 00:39:45,049 And suddenly, the Hebrew songs, the prayers, the Shabbat, 604 00:39:45,633 --> 00:39:48,219 united us in the latrine of Auschwitz. 605 00:39:53,099 --> 00:39:55,559 [Irene Zisblatt] People couldn't endure all this pain, 606 00:39:55,643 --> 00:39:58,479 the conditions and the hunger and the lice. 607 00:39:58,562 --> 00:40:02,108 The lice were, like, as big as my pinky nail, 608 00:40:02,191 --> 00:40:03,692 embedded into our bodies. 609 00:40:03,776 --> 00:40:07,780 And we were sore from scratching and infections. 610 00:40:07,863 --> 00:40:10,282 And so, when the electricity went on, 611 00:40:10,366 --> 00:40:13,786 they ran to the barbed wire to commit suicide. 612 00:40:13,869 --> 00:40:17,540 Then they punished us. For every man that ran to the wire, 613 00:40:17,623 --> 00:40:19,959 they took 100 inmates, 614 00:40:20,042 --> 00:40:24,004 and they killed them in front of everybody as an example. 615 00:40:24,088 --> 00:40:26,966 They didn't even let us die when we wanted. 616 00:40:27,049 --> 00:40:28,968 And then I thought of something. 617 00:40:29,051 --> 00:40:31,262 They took away my parents. 618 00:40:31,345 --> 00:40:33,222 They took away my identity. 619 00:40:33,305 --> 00:40:35,474 They took away my siblings. 620 00:40:35,558 --> 00:40:37,518 They took away my possessions. 621 00:40:38,602 --> 00:40:41,188 There is something that they want from me. 622 00:40:41,897 --> 00:40:43,774 And then I thought of my soul. 623 00:40:45,067 --> 00:40:47,278 And I said, "They're not gonna take my soul." 624 00:40:49,029 --> 00:40:51,157 And I decided right then and there, 625 00:40:51,240 --> 00:40:54,577 "I'm going to get up from this mud, and I'm going to fight 626 00:40:54,660 --> 00:40:57,121 because I'm not going to become ashes." 627 00:40:57,204 --> 00:40:58,330 [somber music playing] 628 00:40:58,914 --> 00:41:01,292 [Renee Firestone] When we arrived to Auschwitz, 629 00:41:01,375 --> 00:41:06,088 thousands and thousands of people were cremated every day. 630 00:41:06,172 --> 00:41:09,592 The Nazis used Jewish inmates, 631 00:41:09,675 --> 00:41:11,802 a special Sonderkommando, 632 00:41:11,886 --> 00:41:14,805 to remove the bodies from the gas chambers 633 00:41:14,889 --> 00:41:18,225 and take the bodies into the crematoria. 634 00:41:18,309 --> 00:41:21,854 {\an8}As far as I know, there is only four of us 635 00:41:21,937 --> 00:41:26,400 that worked in the {\an8}Sonderkommando alive today. 636 00:41:27,026 --> 00:41:29,820 {\an8}And we are the only eyewitness 637 00:41:30,362 --> 00:41:34,492 that saw the whole thing from A to Z. 638 00:41:34,575 --> 00:41:37,286 How the Final Solution was done. 639 00:41:39,914 --> 00:41:42,166 I'm Jewish, from Greece. 640 00:41:42,249 --> 00:41:48,422 And I lived in Greece until the time they took me to concentration camp. 641 00:41:48,506 --> 00:41:51,967 The first week of April 1944, 642 00:41:52,718 --> 00:41:55,054 I arrived in Auschwitz. 643 00:41:56,222 --> 00:42:00,559 They selected some of the Greeks to go to work in crematorium. 644 00:42:00,643 --> 00:42:02,394 {\an8}Now is my first day there. 645 00:42:02,478 --> 00:42:04,355 {\an8}I don't know what was going on. 646 00:42:04,438 --> 00:42:07,483 I saw 2,500 people, all naked, 647 00:42:07,566 --> 00:42:10,528 go into the big chamber, which eventually… 648 00:42:10,611 --> 00:42:14,657 They take only 500 people. They were putting in 2,500 people. 649 00:42:14,740 --> 00:42:18,452 So nobody could do anything but stand by their children. 650 00:42:18,536 --> 00:42:22,456 And 15 minutes later, you know, after they close the chambers, 651 00:42:22,540 --> 00:42:25,584 and the SS threw the gas from these four openings, 652 00:42:25,668 --> 00:42:27,670 you know, they open up. 653 00:42:27,753 --> 00:42:31,298 What did I see? I see the people I saw 15 minutes ago. 654 00:42:31,382 --> 00:42:35,386 I see them all dead, standing up, with their children black and blue. 655 00:42:36,053 --> 00:42:40,266 And I said to myself, "What's going on? What's going on here?" 656 00:42:41,141 --> 00:42:44,645 There was a Polish guy that was there before, 657 00:42:44,728 --> 00:42:46,939 and I said, "Where is God?" 658 00:42:47,022 --> 00:42:50,025 He said, "God, God is where you have your strength." 659 00:42:52,653 --> 00:42:58,325 {\an8}There were four crematoriums, you know, and they were working 24 hours. 660 00:42:58,409 --> 00:43:01,078 And there were a lot of big shots from Berlin 661 00:43:01,161 --> 00:43:03,706 coming and watching how the Jews were dying. 662 00:43:03,789 --> 00:43:08,002 You know, there was a hole, in the, you know, hermetically closed, 663 00:43:08,085 --> 00:43:11,755 and they were looking there how the Jewish people were dying. 664 00:43:11,839 --> 00:43:14,675 Takes two to four minutes. Depends where you are. 665 00:43:15,634 --> 00:43:19,555 A lot of people think that we, working in the Sonderkommando, 666 00:43:19,638 --> 00:43:23,892 we were guilty of something because we were doing such kind of work. 667 00:43:24,810 --> 00:43:29,607 But ourselves, you know, we couldn't get out of it. 668 00:43:29,690 --> 00:43:33,402 If you don't do whatever they ask you to do, they kill you right away. 669 00:43:34,445 --> 00:43:38,782 One time I had two friends of mine, very close friends of mine. 670 00:43:38,866 --> 00:43:42,369 They came in, you know. Their names were the Venezias. 671 00:43:42,911 --> 00:43:46,165 And… [clear throat] …I told them right away 672 00:43:46,248 --> 00:43:48,334 that they were going to die. 673 00:43:48,417 --> 00:43:52,713 And they asked for food, and whatever I had, I gave them to eat, 674 00:43:52,796 --> 00:43:56,842 and I told them exactly where to keep themselves, 675 00:43:56,925 --> 00:44:01,221 where the openings were, so they can die fast. 676 00:44:01,305 --> 00:44:05,392 And after they were through, I took them out, and I washed them, 677 00:44:05,476 --> 00:44:09,104 and I put them in the oven to be burned. 678 00:44:11,649 --> 00:44:13,150 [melancholy music playing] 679 00:44:28,540 --> 00:44:31,835 [Tom Lantos] We could hear the artillery moving closer and closer. 680 00:44:33,128 --> 00:44:36,215 And Budapest was the battlefield 681 00:44:36,298 --> 00:44:39,009 between the Germans and the Soviet Army. 682 00:44:39,677 --> 00:44:42,971 And although we knew it would be weeks 683 00:44:43,055 --> 00:44:47,393 before the Soviet Army would hopefully liberate the remaining Jews, 684 00:44:47,476 --> 00:44:51,271 we knew that lots of hardships were still ahead. 685 00:44:54,983 --> 00:44:56,902 [Alice Lok Cahana] In Auschwitz, after Christmas, 686 00:44:56,985 --> 00:45:00,739 we heard more and more the bombing came closer and closer. 687 00:45:01,615 --> 00:45:04,660 The Nazis didn't want anybody to get liberated, 688 00:45:04,743 --> 00:45:08,038 so they were herding the people away from the camp. 689 00:45:08,956 --> 00:45:11,333 [Randolph Braham] The death march was in winter. 690 00:45:11,417 --> 00:45:15,963 Those who could not keep pace were simply shot by the wayside. 691 00:45:17,423 --> 00:45:18,841 [wind howling] 692 00:45:20,384 --> 00:45:24,972 If anybody, anybody tries to run away 693 00:45:26,306 --> 00:45:30,477 or do anything that is not permitted, will be shot on the spot. 694 00:45:31,145 --> 00:45:35,357 There were three of us friends that were together up to that point. 695 00:45:35,441 --> 00:45:41,655 But we swore that we would sacrifice each other's life for each other. 696 00:45:41,739 --> 00:45:43,949 We would never let each other down. 697 00:45:44,032 --> 00:45:47,953 Kids. You know, we had this sort of a dream that will be possible. 698 00:45:48,036 --> 00:45:52,207 One of the three had an injury in his knee and had gangrene, 699 00:45:52,291 --> 00:45:54,960 and one of the soldiers noticed him limping. 700 00:45:55,043 --> 00:45:57,546 So, he comes up, and he wants to shoot him. 701 00:45:57,629 --> 00:46:00,924 We step in front of him. He pulls out his Luger and says, 702 00:46:01,008 --> 00:46:04,052 "I'll give you till three seconds. Count to three." 703 00:46:04,136 --> 00:46:07,973 "Either you let him go, or all the three of you die." 704 00:46:08,599 --> 00:46:13,562 Can you imagine, even so young, the decision that we had to make? 705 00:46:13,645 --> 00:46:17,775 Here, we promised that we will die for each other, 706 00:46:17,858 --> 00:46:21,111 but we couldn't keep that promise under threat of death. 707 00:46:21,612 --> 00:46:22,905 We did let him die. 708 00:46:27,409 --> 00:46:31,747 We arrived… About ten days' march or so, we arrived into Dachau. 709 00:46:45,093 --> 00:46:46,470 [squeaking] 710 00:46:51,642 --> 00:46:52,810 [Bill Basch] Oh my God. 711 00:46:55,187 --> 00:46:56,688 After 53 years… 712 00:46:59,983 --> 00:47:01,693 it's as if it were yesterday. 713 00:47:08,826 --> 00:47:11,870 You could find them here on the street, just laying, 714 00:47:11,954 --> 00:47:15,082 and you didn't pay attention. You stepped over bodies. 715 00:47:15,165 --> 00:47:17,501 You didn't pay any attention. It didn't mean anything. 716 00:47:17,584 --> 00:47:18,961 -[Martin] Right here? -Yeah. 717 00:47:20,087 --> 00:47:23,423 I never knew anybody's name. 718 00:47:23,507 --> 00:47:25,676 Never wanted to know anybody. 719 00:47:26,385 --> 00:47:29,471 I never wanted to know, just in case someday 720 00:47:29,555 --> 00:47:31,890 someone will know this person 721 00:47:32,724 --> 00:47:35,894 whose shoes I have taken off when he died. 722 00:47:39,147 --> 00:47:43,902 If you can imagine that every morning, my job was for a while… 723 00:47:43,986 --> 00:47:46,947 I had to go barrack to barrack to barrack 724 00:47:47,030 --> 00:47:50,409 and take those bodies and bring them to the crematorium. 725 00:47:50,993 --> 00:47:52,786 We had one of those push cars. 726 00:47:53,620 --> 00:47:57,708 I remember the Sonderkommandos that worked in the crematorium 727 00:47:57,791 --> 00:48:00,294 came out, and they opened the gate. 728 00:48:00,377 --> 00:48:02,504 They took it over from here and walked it in, 729 00:48:02,588 --> 00:48:04,590 but we were never allowed to cross this. 730 00:48:04,673 --> 00:48:08,135 They never talked about the crematorium, but we knew. 731 00:48:09,219 --> 00:48:11,346 If we walked in here, we never got out. 732 00:48:11,430 --> 00:48:13,765 You never got out from here, from this area. 733 00:48:13,849 --> 00:48:18,312 Because, I mean, if they let him out, and he escapes, 734 00:48:18,395 --> 00:48:21,899 they have witness, they have testimony. So they wouldn't let them out. 735 00:48:26,528 --> 00:48:27,613 [clicks tongue] 736 00:48:28,405 --> 00:48:29,698 [sighs] 737 00:48:29,781 --> 00:48:30,866 Look at that. 738 00:48:47,424 --> 00:48:50,802 The inhumanity of man against man… 739 00:48:52,137 --> 00:48:53,513 is beyond belief. 740 00:48:55,265 --> 00:48:56,099 This is… 741 00:48:57,142 --> 00:48:59,853 the most monstrous thing that man devised. 742 00:49:02,856 --> 00:49:06,568 Burning human beings just, just to get rid of them quicker. 743 00:49:07,986 --> 00:49:09,488 Unbelievable. 744 00:49:14,242 --> 00:49:15,327 [sobbing] 745 00:49:20,457 --> 00:49:22,125 [crying] 746 00:49:29,549 --> 00:49:32,135 Just so emotional. It's so hard. 747 00:49:33,720 --> 00:49:34,638 [sniffs] 748 00:49:38,934 --> 00:49:40,560 Now, why did I survive? 749 00:49:41,812 --> 00:49:43,563 Why did God spare me? 750 00:49:48,735 --> 00:49:52,114 Somebody started to yell, "Americans! Americans!" 751 00:49:52,197 --> 00:49:54,533 And we didn't know what they mean by Americans. 752 00:49:54,616 --> 00:49:56,535 And they were pointing up to the sky. 753 00:49:56,618 --> 00:50:00,580 Planes came out from behind the mountains, from nowhere, 754 00:50:00,664 --> 00:50:03,959 and they just bombed the convoy. 755 00:50:04,042 --> 00:50:07,295 And they they didn't touch us. None of us got hurt. 756 00:50:07,379 --> 00:50:11,842 That's when I found out the first time that the United States was at war. 757 00:50:11,925 --> 00:50:16,513 {\an8}It was April 29th when I was ordered to go to Dachau. 758 00:50:17,180 --> 00:50:19,182 {\an8}Actually, the night of the 28th. 759 00:50:19,266 --> 00:50:24,730 And we were ordered to take off as fast as possible to get to Dachau, 760 00:50:25,439 --> 00:50:27,357 not knowing what we were facing. 761 00:50:27,441 --> 00:50:29,609 {\an8}We thought it was a military camp, 762 00:50:29,693 --> 00:50:33,113 {\an8}a German military camp that we were going in to take, 763 00:50:33,196 --> 00:50:36,742 {\an8}and therefore we were gonna capture it and capture the people inside. 764 00:50:36,825 --> 00:50:38,994 {\an8}We were in the vicinity 765 00:50:39,077 --> 00:50:43,582 {\an8}of what we found out to be concentration camps. 766 00:50:45,042 --> 00:50:48,879 [Bill Basch] Suddenly, we hear machine guns shooting up. 767 00:50:49,671 --> 00:50:52,507 First thought was that we are being killed. 768 00:50:52,591 --> 00:50:56,136 Then we saw American soldiers climbing, crawling and shooting. 769 00:50:56,219 --> 00:50:59,514 Then we saw German soldiers coming from that direction. 770 00:51:00,223 --> 00:51:03,643 And as they met up here in the center, that Germans gave up. 771 00:51:04,311 --> 00:51:10,609 But visualize 32,000 people coming out of all those barracks. 772 00:51:10,692 --> 00:51:11,860 Outside the camp… 773 00:51:13,070 --> 00:51:15,030 on the railroad tracks was… 774 00:51:16,239 --> 00:51:18,658 40 boxcars, I believe was the count. 775 00:51:18,742 --> 00:51:21,453 Absolutely full of dead bodies. 776 00:51:24,164 --> 00:51:28,085 And not having had any knowledge of what we were facing, 777 00:51:29,211 --> 00:51:30,045 this was… 778 00:51:31,671 --> 00:51:32,672 totally unreal. 779 00:51:35,175 --> 00:51:39,554 Most of them wearing flannel pajamas. That's all what they had. 780 00:51:40,222 --> 00:51:42,682 Blue stripe, white stripe. 781 00:51:42,766 --> 00:51:43,850 Flannel pajamas. 782 00:51:44,392 --> 00:51:45,685 People were weak. 783 00:51:46,603 --> 00:51:49,564 Weak probably isn't even the right term. 784 00:51:50,941 --> 00:51:52,567 But they were emaciated. 785 00:51:53,485 --> 00:51:54,528 Uh… 786 00:51:54,611 --> 00:51:56,947 Some looked very old, but they weren't. 787 00:51:57,656 --> 00:52:01,034 [Katsugo Miho] They were walking dead, is what we called them. Skeletons. 788 00:52:01,868 --> 00:52:03,578 [Paul Parks] A few came out first, 789 00:52:03,662 --> 00:52:06,039 then more came out, and more came out, 790 00:52:06,123 --> 00:52:07,958 and they kept coming toward us 791 00:52:08,041 --> 00:52:10,961 because it was almost as if they realized… 792 00:52:11,044 --> 00:52:14,256 I guess they did. They realized that we were different. 793 00:52:14,840 --> 00:52:17,884 That we were people coming to help them. 794 00:52:17,968 --> 00:52:21,847 And Americans held the gun against the Germans, 795 00:52:21,930 --> 00:52:24,766 but they didn't kill them. They let us have them. 796 00:52:25,350 --> 00:52:29,646 And taking a dozen or so German soldiers that we caught, 797 00:52:29,729 --> 00:52:33,275 literally tore them apart, piece by piece. 798 00:52:34,734 --> 00:52:37,487 We captured a German colonel. 799 00:52:38,697 --> 00:52:40,866 And I went back and told him 800 00:52:40,949 --> 00:52:44,744 that we're going to send you back to the officers to talk to you. 801 00:52:45,662 --> 00:52:47,289 And he spit in my face. 802 00:52:48,540 --> 00:52:49,624 Then I killed him. 803 00:52:51,042 --> 00:52:53,879 It wasn't long before the war was over after that. 804 00:52:53,962 --> 00:52:55,630 But by those last days, 805 00:52:55,714 --> 00:52:58,925 we intended to stop Germany from ever having the opportunity 806 00:52:59,009 --> 00:53:01,553 to stand up again and do this to anybody. 807 00:53:02,679 --> 00:53:06,099 I've seen many a horrible sight 808 00:53:06,183 --> 00:53:10,187 in that two years of… In Italy, France and Germany, 809 00:53:10,270 --> 00:53:13,732 but the worst thing I've ever seen in my life 810 00:53:13,815 --> 00:53:15,942 were the survivors of the Holocaust. 811 00:53:23,575 --> 00:53:25,202 This is something which is… 812 00:53:25,827 --> 00:53:26,661 uh… 813 00:53:26,745 --> 00:53:28,538 To this day, I cannot forget. 814 00:54:52,580 --> 00:54:53,498 [sighs] 815 00:54:54,833 --> 00:54:57,127 I wasn't young anymore. 816 00:54:57,752 --> 00:54:59,004 I was very old. 817 00:54:59,963 --> 00:55:02,424 I was 16, but I was very old. 818 00:55:02,924 --> 00:55:06,720 Returning to freedom was very difficult. 819 00:55:07,637 --> 00:55:11,433 We didn't know how we're going to make peace with the outside world, 820 00:55:11,516 --> 00:55:12,892 which didn't want us. 821 00:55:12,976 --> 00:55:14,311 And we didn't know… 822 00:55:17,230 --> 00:55:20,066 who we're going to find or not find. 823 00:55:20,859 --> 00:55:24,654 They didn't know what to do with us. And they put us in a DP camp, 824 00:55:24,738 --> 00:55:27,449 which is a displaced persons camp. 825 00:55:27,532 --> 00:55:31,161 And the closest one from where I was, was in Austria. 826 00:55:31,244 --> 00:55:37,167 And all the survivors that had no other place to go were in that camp. 827 00:55:37,917 --> 00:55:40,962 So it was another camp, but it was free. 828 00:55:43,465 --> 00:55:47,802 After the Soviet Army liberated Budapest, 829 00:55:47,886 --> 00:55:51,598 and I became a free human being again, 830 00:55:51,681 --> 00:55:53,683 I did not know for months 831 00:55:54,267 --> 00:55:58,730 whether my mother or other members of my family would ever return. 832 00:56:02,525 --> 00:56:06,196 [Renee Firestone] I was hoping that going back to Auschwitz 833 00:56:06,279 --> 00:56:08,406 is finally going to give me some closure. 834 00:56:10,283 --> 00:56:14,162 {\an8}And, uh, I was shocked to find out 835 00:56:14,245 --> 00:56:19,209 that it opened up new questions and new doubts. 836 00:56:21,753 --> 00:56:26,091 I would like to find out about my family. 837 00:56:26,174 --> 00:56:30,470 [in Polish] She'd like to look for information about her and her family. 838 00:56:30,553 --> 00:56:32,347 [speaking Polish] 839 00:56:34,224 --> 00:56:35,975 Your name, please? 840 00:56:36,059 --> 00:56:38,395 Renee. R-e-n-e-e. 841 00:56:38,478 --> 00:56:39,979 [speaking Polish] 842 00:56:40,063 --> 00:56:43,441 [Renee Firestone] This is the first time that I decided… 843 00:56:44,526 --> 00:56:46,945 to find some records of my family. 844 00:56:50,657 --> 00:56:54,452 And my sister was Klara. 845 00:57:00,208 --> 00:57:01,376 [door closes] 846 00:57:08,216 --> 00:57:10,510 [translator in Polish] You found something? 847 00:57:10,593 --> 00:57:15,515 Yes, I found something. We can look together. 848 00:57:23,231 --> 00:57:24,274 [sighs] 849 00:57:25,233 --> 00:57:26,443 Give me some. 850 00:57:26,526 --> 00:57:28,486 [speaking indistinctly] 851 00:57:31,156 --> 00:57:33,533 [in Polish] Please lay the cards down like this. 852 00:57:33,616 --> 00:57:35,618 [speaking indistinctly] 853 00:57:45,795 --> 00:57:49,048 -Klara. -Klara. My sister. 854 00:57:51,342 --> 00:57:52,218 Yeah. 855 00:57:53,136 --> 00:57:59,476 I found records of my sister, my father, and my own, 856 00:57:59,559 --> 00:58:01,519 and when I asked about my mother… 857 00:58:02,687 --> 00:58:05,940 uh, the archivist, the historian, told me 858 00:58:06,024 --> 00:58:09,694 that those who were taken from the railroad station 859 00:58:09,777 --> 00:58:11,446 and killed immediately, 860 00:58:11,529 --> 00:58:13,323 there is no record of those. 861 00:58:14,240 --> 00:58:20,205 [in Polish] Take this upstairs to the archive and ring the bell, okay? 862 00:58:20,288 --> 00:58:22,290 [speaking indistinctly] 863 00:58:24,876 --> 00:58:26,920 [in Polish] Thank you. 864 00:58:32,175 --> 00:58:37,055 This is a test of blood or, uh, or something medical. 865 00:58:37,138 --> 00:58:39,516 Subject of Klara Weinfeld. 866 00:58:39,599 --> 00:58:42,810 I found out that my sister was experimented on, 867 00:58:42,894 --> 00:58:46,856 that they were doing some blood tests on her. 868 00:58:46,940 --> 00:58:48,900 And what does this here all mean? 869 00:58:51,277 --> 00:58:53,905 And he said, "I really don't know." 870 00:58:53,988 --> 00:58:55,907 He says, "Nobody ever asked me." 871 00:58:55,990 --> 00:58:59,869 But there is a Dr. Münch, who was the head of this clinic, 872 00:58:59,953 --> 00:59:01,329 who's still alive." 873 00:59:01,412 --> 00:59:05,291 And then I found out that you're going to interview this man, 874 00:59:05,375 --> 00:59:10,213 and that I may have a chance to ask him what those symbols meant. 875 00:59:11,130 --> 00:59:17,804 [in German] My sister Klara died in Auschwitz… 876 00:59:17,887 --> 00:59:18,721 Yeah. 877 00:59:18,805 --> 00:59:24,394 And I recently obtained these papers from Auschwitz. 878 00:59:24,477 --> 00:59:25,353 Yeah. 879 00:59:26,688 --> 00:59:31,150 -I would like you to explain these papers. -I will try. 880 00:59:32,235 --> 00:59:33,278 Uh… 881 00:59:33,361 --> 00:59:35,655 Can you tell me what this is? 882 00:59:39,534 --> 00:59:41,995 [Hans Münch in English] No, nothing important, no. 883 00:59:43,788 --> 00:59:46,332 What kind of experiments were these? 884 00:59:46,916 --> 00:59:49,752 [in German] It's nothing. Everything is good. 885 00:59:50,670 --> 00:59:57,510 -Why did she die? -"Clinical Institute." 886 00:59:57,594 --> 00:59:59,387 -That's my institute. -Yeah. 887 01:00:02,432 --> 01:00:04,475 -[Hans Münch] She did die. -[Renee] Yeah. 888 01:00:06,227 --> 01:00:10,148 When did she arrive? How long did she stay? 889 01:00:11,357 --> 01:00:12,400 [in English] Six months. 890 01:00:13,067 --> 01:00:15,862 -Six months. -Six months? Yeah, six months. 891 01:00:15,945 --> 01:00:17,864 -[in German] And then she died. -Yeah. 892 01:00:18,948 --> 01:00:23,494 Well, that is the normal period. Do you understand? 893 01:00:23,578 --> 01:00:28,916 You were in Auschwitz as well? Well then, you should know. 894 01:00:29,000 --> 01:00:31,878 [Renee Firestone in English] I tried to be civilized, 895 01:00:32,629 --> 01:00:35,173 but he was very evasive, 896 01:00:35,256 --> 01:00:37,800 and I became very angry. 897 01:00:38,635 --> 01:00:43,931 I kept thinking that thousands and thousands of people died in his clinic. 898 01:00:45,683 --> 01:00:49,812 {\an8}I am going to go back to Crematorium V 899 01:00:49,896 --> 01:00:53,232 because I know that my mother was taken there for sure. 900 01:00:54,233 --> 01:00:56,152 {\an8}I'm going to light some candles. 901 01:00:56,986 --> 01:00:59,947 And I know that I am not coming back here anymore. 902 01:01:00,573 --> 01:01:01,616 [sniffles] 903 01:01:04,994 --> 01:01:05,828 And now… 904 01:01:06,871 --> 01:01:08,998 just very recently, 905 01:01:09,582 --> 01:01:13,127 I got a new letter from Bergen-Belsen 906 01:01:14,045 --> 01:01:18,758 that they don't have Edith Lok. They looked through their books. 907 01:01:18,841 --> 01:01:21,511 But they found an Edith Schwarz. 908 01:01:22,303 --> 01:01:24,889 And I remembered at one point, 909 01:01:24,972 --> 01:01:28,017 my sister Edith decided 910 01:01:28,601 --> 01:01:31,813 that she will use my mother's name, but I forgot it. 911 01:01:31,896 --> 01:01:35,942 And all these years, I looked for Edith Lok. 912 01:01:36,901 --> 01:01:40,154 -Can you find me, though, with Hungarian-- -Hungarian? 913 01:01:41,614 --> 01:01:44,033 Let's just find it. Okay. 914 01:01:45,243 --> 01:01:46,994 -It's not alphabetized. -Yeah? 915 01:01:49,580 --> 01:01:51,582 [speaking indistinctly] 916 01:01:57,797 --> 01:01:58,881 [sighs] 917 01:01:59,507 --> 01:02:01,509 [soft music playing] 918 01:02:04,721 --> 01:02:07,056 [Alice Lok Cahana] {\an8}Going back to Bergen-Belsen, 919 01:02:07,140 --> 01:02:12,270 I want my husband to say a prayer with my children and with me 920 01:02:13,229 --> 01:02:18,443 because we will symbolically bury Edith. 921 01:02:18,526 --> 01:02:22,113 This is the cemetery where all the people were buried 922 01:02:22,196 --> 01:02:25,658 who were brought after liberation to the military blocks. 923 01:02:26,284 --> 01:02:28,369 We found the name of your sister. 924 01:02:29,537 --> 01:02:30,580 She died here. 925 01:02:30,663 --> 01:02:33,332 We think at the 2nd of June, 1945. 926 01:02:35,710 --> 01:02:40,965 So, all the people who died in those days were buried here, one beside the next one. 927 01:02:47,513 --> 01:02:51,017 [Alice Lok Cahana] Today is the most special day of my life. 928 01:02:52,143 --> 01:02:54,145 Finally, the search is over. 929 01:02:55,438 --> 01:02:59,400 And we now know what happened, and when it happened. 930 01:03:02,028 --> 01:03:05,531 I brought here my mother's prayer book, 931 01:03:05,615 --> 01:03:07,950 and here we will say for you 932 01:03:08,034 --> 01:03:10,870 the prayers that's traditional 933 01:03:10,953 --> 01:03:13,498 and light this candle in your memory. 934 01:03:14,499 --> 01:03:16,334 And remember… [clears throat]… you… 935 01:03:17,710 --> 01:03:18,586 forever… 936 01:03:19,712 --> 01:03:21,088 as long as we live. 937 01:03:30,473 --> 01:03:31,516 [sniffles] 938 01:03:38,314 --> 01:03:39,941 [praying in Hebrew] 939 01:04:14,308 --> 01:04:17,645 [Alice Lok Cahana] But there are a lot of people like me out there, 940 01:04:18,145 --> 01:04:19,605 who are still looking. 941 01:04:21,232 --> 01:04:24,402 Because for us… 942 01:04:25,319 --> 01:04:27,572 liberation was not the last day. 943 01:04:30,283 --> 01:04:32,034 [dramatic music playing] 944 01:04:37,123 --> 01:04:40,167 [Tom Lantos] I got an announcement that I'd been selected 945 01:04:40,251 --> 01:04:42,253 to receive an academic scholarship 946 01:04:42,336 --> 01:04:46,173 to the University of Washington, in a town called "Seattle," 947 01:04:46,257 --> 01:04:49,927 because nobody told me it's supposed to be pronounced "Seattle." 948 01:04:50,428 --> 01:04:53,973 I had a ticket on the SS Marine Falcon. 949 01:04:54,974 --> 01:05:00,813 I went to bunk B-20, put down my knapsack, and they called for chow. 950 01:05:00,897 --> 01:05:04,734 I had no idea what chow was. It wasn't part of my English vocabulary. 951 01:05:04,817 --> 01:05:06,611 So, I got into the chow line. 952 01:05:06,694 --> 01:05:09,947 We had these huge metal trays, and this was a period 953 01:05:10,031 --> 01:05:14,118 when, of course, my mental preoccupation was still with hunger. 954 01:05:14,994 --> 01:05:19,540 And these wonderful people slopped on wonderful things on this metal tray. 955 01:05:19,624 --> 01:05:21,250 And at the end of the line, 956 01:05:21,834 --> 01:05:25,755 there was a huge wicker basket of oranges. 957 01:05:26,339 --> 01:05:29,050 A huge wicker basket of bananas. 958 01:05:29,133 --> 01:05:31,552 My mother always taught me to do the right thing. 959 01:05:31,636 --> 01:05:35,222 And I didn't know what right was. So there was another huge sailor, 960 01:05:35,306 --> 01:05:38,559 and I asked him, "Sir, do I take a banana?" 961 01:05:38,643 --> 01:05:40,144 "Or do I take an orange?" 962 01:05:41,020 --> 01:05:46,108 And he said, "You eat all the damn bananas and all the damn oranges you want." 963 01:05:46,192 --> 01:05:48,277 And then I knew I was in heaven. 964 01:05:49,320 --> 01:05:53,950 [Irene Zisblatt] I loved my town, and I see it picturesque and happy. 965 01:05:55,326 --> 01:06:00,414 I'm planning to go there for the first time since I left in 1944. 966 01:06:00,498 --> 01:06:04,293 Look at the sign, Robin. It says "Polyana" in Russian. 967 01:06:04,919 --> 01:06:05,795 You see? 968 01:06:07,046 --> 01:06:09,090 The river is running on the right. 969 01:06:09,173 --> 01:06:11,300 We used to go bathing here… 970 01:06:11,384 --> 01:06:14,887 I'm hoping that I can find some of the people that I knew 971 01:06:14,971 --> 01:06:16,472 before the Holocaust… 972 01:06:17,515 --> 01:06:19,809 {\an8}and maybe that I can talk to them. 973 01:06:20,559 --> 01:06:22,561 {\an8}-Mushrooms in the jar. See? -Yes. 974 01:06:23,104 --> 01:06:24,897 [speaking Hungarian] 975 01:06:24,981 --> 01:06:29,068 [Irene in English] Maybe they can tell me things that happened while we were away. 976 01:06:29,568 --> 01:06:32,321 [speaking Hungarian] 977 01:06:43,040 --> 01:06:44,000 [crying] 978 01:06:44,083 --> 01:06:47,753 [Irene] This one woman, Mariska, she remembered my grandparents 979 01:06:47,837 --> 01:06:50,798 and my father and my mother and me. 980 01:06:50,881 --> 01:06:53,843 I was most surprised that she remembered me. 981 01:06:55,720 --> 01:07:00,099 I was really afraid that the people were going to be hostile to me, 982 01:07:00,683 --> 01:07:05,813 that they were going to be accusing me of coming back to take something from them. 983 01:07:06,856 --> 01:07:10,026 I was asked in a very nice way, 984 01:07:10,109 --> 01:07:15,239 "Am I planning to take my property and come back to live there?" 985 01:07:15,322 --> 01:07:17,324 And I said no. 986 01:07:17,408 --> 01:07:21,078 I just want my children to know where I come from, 987 01:07:21,162 --> 01:07:25,291 and I wanted to see my town where I grew up once more before I die. 988 01:07:25,374 --> 01:07:27,001 [speaking indistinctly] 989 01:07:30,963 --> 01:07:33,382 [Renee Firestone] Going back to my hometown 990 01:07:34,258 --> 01:07:37,053 {\an8}with my family, with my child, 991 01:07:37,970 --> 01:07:41,390 {\an8}showing her this beautiful town, which… 992 01:07:42,141 --> 01:07:46,645 Everywhere we went, the word "Jew" doesn't exist. 993 01:07:46,729 --> 01:07:49,815 This building was the Jewish community center. 994 01:07:50,357 --> 01:07:56,989 I wanted to go to the Jewish temple, which was a beautiful synagogue. 995 01:07:59,325 --> 01:08:01,535 Look, look, look how they let this… 996 01:08:01,619 --> 01:08:03,370 Oh my God. 997 01:08:03,454 --> 01:08:06,665 What they did to this city, you just have no idea. 998 01:08:06,749 --> 01:08:09,085 It's just unbelievable. 999 01:08:09,168 --> 01:08:11,087 We went to the temple, 1000 01:08:12,254 --> 01:08:15,549 and there I met this man, this Jewish man. 1001 01:08:15,633 --> 01:08:17,593 He was also in Auschwitz. 1002 01:08:18,260 --> 01:08:20,554 [in Hungarian] Hello, do you speak Hungarian? 1003 01:08:21,639 --> 01:08:24,308 [Renee] Good morning. Are you from here? 1004 01:08:24,391 --> 01:08:28,521 I was born here in 1928. 1005 01:08:28,604 --> 01:08:30,815 [Renee] I'm from the Weinfeld family. 1006 01:08:30,898 --> 01:08:31,732 Weinfeld? 1007 01:08:31,816 --> 01:08:38,572 [Renee] My father had a shop on Cobbler's Lane. 1008 01:08:38,656 --> 01:08:41,408 And of course, my mother attended this temple. 1009 01:08:41,492 --> 01:08:45,621 I had my Bar Mitzvah here when I turned 13, in 1941. 1010 01:08:45,704 --> 01:08:48,290 And why did you stay here? 1011 01:08:48,374 --> 01:08:53,963 Because I came back from Auschwitz 1012 01:08:54,964 --> 01:08:56,882 on June 6, 1945. 1013 01:08:57,716 --> 01:09:01,053 And a few days later, the borders were closed. 1014 01:09:01,137 --> 01:09:05,474 [Renee in English] Then he walked us through the temple, and he explained to us 1015 01:09:05,558 --> 01:09:08,227 that this is no longer a Jewish temple. 1016 01:09:08,310 --> 01:09:12,022 {\an8}[man in Hungarian] In the old days, there were Stars of David here. 1017 01:09:12,106 --> 01:09:14,108 {\an8}[Renee] What did they do with them? 1018 01:09:14,191 --> 01:09:17,820 {\an8}[man] They made it into a concert hall. 1019 01:09:17,903 --> 01:09:22,283 {\an8}They removed everything. 1020 01:09:22,366 --> 01:09:25,077 [Renee Firestone in English] It was very painful to see 1021 01:09:25,578 --> 01:09:32,543 that this holy place was transformed into a place of entertainment. 1022 01:09:34,712 --> 01:09:38,716 {\an8}The most difficult part was going back to my house. 1023 01:09:38,799 --> 01:09:40,509 Oh my God! 1024 01:09:41,427 --> 01:09:42,511 [sobbing] 1025 01:09:43,762 --> 01:09:49,351 That's the… the original… That's the original gate. 1026 01:09:49,935 --> 01:09:52,771 -The entrance. -The entrance, yeah. 1027 01:09:54,773 --> 01:09:56,192 It was neglected. 1028 01:09:57,067 --> 01:10:01,697 This beautiful house that my father took care of always. 1029 01:10:01,780 --> 01:10:05,367 And everything was manicured around it. 1030 01:10:06,619 --> 01:10:08,370 -[Bernard] I think that's locked. -[Renee] No. 1031 01:10:08,454 --> 01:10:09,705 No, it isn't. 1032 01:10:09,788 --> 01:10:11,957 -It just doesn't open. -[Klara] Can we go? 1033 01:10:12,041 --> 01:10:14,418 [Renee] It doesn't open. 1034 01:10:14,501 --> 01:10:18,297 At that moment, I really wished I wouldn't  have seen it. 1035 01:10:19,089 --> 01:10:21,091 [crying] 1036 01:10:29,183 --> 01:10:31,352 One of the neighbors 1037 01:10:31,435 --> 01:10:36,190 who was a young child at the time they took us away was still there. 1038 01:10:36,273 --> 01:10:37,816 [speaking Hungarian] 1039 01:10:37,858 --> 01:10:40,945 Thank God that you are still alive. 1040 01:10:45,032 --> 01:10:49,370 I'm telling you, I can still remember everything as it used to be. 1041 01:10:49,453 --> 01:10:52,331 [Renee in English] He has now a Russian wife 1042 01:10:52,414 --> 01:10:54,333 who was very sympathetic. 1043 01:10:54,416 --> 01:10:57,211 [in Hungarian] Your own house… 1044 01:10:57,294 --> 01:11:01,006 To take someone's house, how could that be? 1045 01:11:01,090 --> 01:11:05,719 There would be a lot to tell, but you know what they say… 1046 01:11:05,803 --> 01:11:08,222 Even the walls have ears. 1047 01:11:08,305 --> 01:11:13,310 [Renee in English] She was scared to tell me what really happened after we left. 1048 01:11:14,895 --> 01:11:21,610 [in Hungarian] Tell me, after we were taken, did you talk about it? 1049 01:11:21,694 --> 01:11:28,492 We were so sorry for Klara. We heard she died on the way. 1050 01:11:28,575 --> 01:11:33,038 No. She died there. 1051 01:11:33,122 --> 01:11:34,123 Poor thing. 1052 01:11:35,416 --> 01:11:38,085 I have only seen it in the movies. 1053 01:11:38,836 --> 01:11:42,965 Did they really burn people like that? 1054 01:11:43,048 --> 01:11:46,760 Unfortunately, it was much worse than what they show in the movies. 1055 01:11:46,844 --> 01:11:49,471 [Renee in English] At that moment, I felt very lucky, 1056 01:11:49,555 --> 01:11:54,268 that I would have a chance to go back to the United States, to my home. 1057 01:11:57,479 --> 01:12:01,817 I saved the diamonds all the way, through the whole… everything. 1058 01:12:02,401 --> 01:12:07,656 {\an8}And when I was free, I, uh, didn't talk about the Holocaust, 1059 01:12:07,740 --> 01:12:11,994 but I took the diamonds, and I mounted them into a teardrop-shaped pendant, 1060 01:12:12,077 --> 01:12:15,039 because every time I had to save them, I had to cry so much. 1061 01:12:15,122 --> 01:12:18,667 So, I felt that the tears are appropriate for that. 1062 01:12:18,751 --> 01:12:22,338 And I told my children that these diamonds should go down 1063 01:12:22,421 --> 01:12:24,214 from generation to generation, 1064 01:12:24,298 --> 01:12:28,260 to the first-born girl in the family, until forever. 1065 01:12:28,344 --> 01:12:30,137 …what it tastes like. [chuckles] 1066 01:12:31,847 --> 01:12:35,392 And you can see their different shapes and different cuts. 1067 01:12:35,893 --> 01:12:38,103 And they're the only thing that I… 1068 01:12:38,187 --> 01:12:39,063 [inhales] 1069 01:12:39,646 --> 01:12:42,149 …that I'm holding that my mother ever held. 1070 01:12:43,233 --> 01:12:44,151 [sniffles] 1071 01:12:45,652 --> 01:12:48,155 Okay, well. I don't know what you think about… 1072 01:12:48,238 --> 01:12:52,659 My life today is something I myself cannot believe. 1073 01:12:54,870 --> 01:13:01,210 Having been elected by my constituents in California of some 600,000 people, 1074 01:13:01,835 --> 01:13:02,961 nine times, 1075 01:13:03,712 --> 01:13:05,422 it all seems like a dream. 1076 01:13:05,506 --> 01:13:06,882 And it all places 1077 01:13:07,716 --> 01:13:10,719 an incredible sense of responsibility on me… 1078 01:13:10,803 --> 01:13:13,931 {\an8}As the only survivor of the Holocaust 1079 01:13:14,014 --> 01:13:16,934 {\an8}ever elected to the Congress of the United States, 1080 01:13:17,643 --> 01:13:20,229 {\an8}I know I speak for all of my colleagues, 1081 01:13:20,312 --> 01:13:22,564 {\an8}Republicans and Democrats, 1082 01:13:23,232 --> 01:13:27,945 {\an8}in expressing our outrage at the most recent terrorist attacks… 1083 01:13:28,028 --> 01:13:32,199 {\an8}The central focus of my life, obviously, is human rights 1084 01:13:33,033 --> 01:13:35,744 because I am convinced that this is really the path 1085 01:13:36,537 --> 01:13:38,288 of a more civilized world. 1086 01:13:39,415 --> 01:13:43,001 My wife Annette and I have known each other all our lives. 1087 01:13:43,627 --> 01:13:46,964 We grew up as children in Budapest. 1088 01:13:48,257 --> 01:13:50,968 And we have been married now for 47 years. 1089 01:13:52,386 --> 01:13:53,971 We have two daughters 1090 01:13:54,847 --> 01:13:57,516 who early on came to us and said 1091 01:13:57,599 --> 01:14:02,771 that, uh… they plan a special gift for their parents. 1092 01:14:02,855 --> 01:14:04,565 [children shouting] 1093 01:14:04,648 --> 01:14:08,652 [Tom] Since our families were wiped out, they will give us a large family. 1094 01:14:10,237 --> 01:14:15,409 And we have been blessed with 17 wonderful grandchildren, 1095 01:14:16,243 --> 01:14:18,495 and it's really the focus of our life. 1096 01:14:22,541 --> 01:14:27,754 [Renee Firestone] I would like to be known as an educator on the Holocaust. 1097 01:14:28,338 --> 01:14:31,300 So I go to the Museum of Tolerance, 1098 01:14:31,383 --> 01:14:34,178 where I was the founder of the outreach program. 1099 01:14:34,887 --> 01:14:40,184 And I speak to groups who come into the Museum. 1100 01:14:40,684 --> 01:14:41,727 …came into being. 1101 01:14:42,603 --> 01:14:45,022 You know, when these things are happening, 1102 01:14:45,105 --> 01:14:48,942 you almost begin to believe that you did something wrong. 1103 01:14:49,026 --> 01:14:50,944 Why would they do this to me? 1104 01:14:51,028 --> 01:14:54,364 I feel that it is my duty 1105 01:14:55,532 --> 01:14:59,661 to make the world aware of what happened during that time. 1106 01:15:00,829 --> 01:15:03,457 I always felt that my language is inadequate. 1107 01:15:05,042 --> 01:15:10,756 And that if I wanted to tell the story about my experiences, 1108 01:15:10,839 --> 01:15:14,384 I have to talk through a medium. 1109 01:15:15,135 --> 01:15:16,512 And I found art 1110 01:15:17,179 --> 01:15:19,431 because art transcends. 1111 01:15:19,515 --> 01:15:21,266 It's beyond words. 1112 01:15:23,435 --> 01:15:26,688 I wanted the surface to be very much layered. 1113 01:15:26,772 --> 01:15:29,191 It should look like a crumbled wall, 1114 01:15:29,900 --> 01:15:33,820 like it's papered over with yesterday's news 1115 01:15:34,279 --> 01:15:36,782 because people want to forget the past. 1116 01:15:36,865 --> 01:15:40,035 People want to forget about the Holocaust. 1117 01:15:40,118 --> 01:15:42,871 What keeps me going is really… 1118 01:15:44,331 --> 01:15:45,624 the family… 1119 01:15:46,875 --> 01:15:48,961 that my husband and I created. 1120 01:15:50,212 --> 01:15:51,588 My grandchildren. 1121 01:15:52,673 --> 01:15:54,174 Three wonderful children. 1122 01:15:55,008 --> 01:15:56,385 Two of them rabbis. 1123 01:15:57,219 --> 01:15:59,221 And my beautiful daughter. 1124 01:15:59,763 --> 01:16:03,475 She teaches me every day what is important in life. 1125 01:16:05,811 --> 01:16:09,523 And my husband, who is four generations Israeli. 1126 01:16:10,023 --> 01:16:12,067 And such a gallant man. 1127 01:16:12,150 --> 01:16:15,487 And he helped me to construct a life. 1128 01:16:16,530 --> 01:16:19,616 This painting is Arbeit Macht Frei. 1129 01:16:20,242 --> 01:16:23,078 When you read this welcome gate, 1130 01:16:23,161 --> 01:16:27,082 so to speak, Arbeit macht frei… 1131 01:16:27,165 --> 01:16:29,668 My art today is about the Holocaust 1132 01:16:29,751 --> 01:16:33,797 because I have no memorial for my people. 1133 01:16:34,381 --> 01:16:37,759 I… don't know where they are. 1134 01:16:38,510 --> 01:16:43,432 Why so many of my family members died, so many got killed. 1135 01:16:44,099 --> 01:16:46,435 The Basch family was almost wiped out. 1136 01:16:46,518 --> 01:16:47,978 We have regenerated. 1137 01:16:49,938 --> 01:16:53,400 So when we get together, we are quite a large group. 1138 01:16:54,943 --> 01:16:58,405 And the joy sitting with my family 1139 01:16:58,488 --> 01:17:01,867 and looking around and saying that I was so close to death. 1140 01:17:02,534 --> 01:17:06,038 And here I am sitting at a table, and there are 11, 12 of us, 1141 01:17:06,121 --> 01:17:07,539 rejoicing life. 1142 01:17:07,623 --> 01:17:11,877 The pleasure of living is wonderful. 1143 01:17:11,960 --> 01:17:13,962 [cheering] 1144 01:17:15,505 --> 01:17:19,051 One day, it was on a Sunday, someone knocked at my door 1145 01:17:19,134 --> 01:17:20,344 and walked into… 1146 01:17:20,427 --> 01:17:22,012 And I went to the door. 1147 01:17:22,095 --> 01:17:25,766 And they had something wrapped up in a newspaper under the arm. 1148 01:17:25,849 --> 01:17:28,268 He said, "You Paul Parks?" I said, "Yes." 1149 01:17:28,352 --> 01:17:31,104 He said, "We've been looking for you for several years." 1150 01:17:31,188 --> 01:17:33,398 "Off-and-on, people have been looking." 1151 01:17:33,482 --> 01:17:35,817 "We wanted to find you." I said, "Why?" 1152 01:17:35,901 --> 01:17:41,698 He said, "There was a fellow liberated by you guys at Dachau who remembered you." 1153 01:17:42,616 --> 01:17:44,826 "And he died several years ago." 1154 01:17:44,910 --> 01:17:47,954 "And he'd made a menorah in the camp." 1155 01:17:48,038 --> 01:17:50,374 "He made it out of concrete nails 1156 01:17:50,457 --> 01:17:54,753 and welded it and braided it together while he was in the camp." 1157 01:17:55,587 --> 01:17:58,298 "And he wants you to… He wanted you to have it." 1158 01:17:58,924 --> 01:18:02,010 "So we've been looking to give it to you. Here it is." 1159 01:18:02,094 --> 01:18:04,346 And he gave me this beautiful menorah. 1160 01:18:05,138 --> 01:18:06,473 [somber music playing] 1161 01:18:11,645 --> 01:18:14,731 [Irene Zisblatt] Liberation was like a present from the world. 1162 01:18:15,440 --> 01:18:18,902 And that's the first time I acknowledged God again, 1163 01:18:18,985 --> 01:18:22,072 that He is around, and He helped me to get to this point. 1164 01:18:22,155 --> 01:18:25,659 I don't think that God created the Holocaust. 1165 01:18:25,742 --> 01:18:31,873 I think that God gave us a mind and a heart and a free will. 1166 01:18:32,749 --> 01:18:34,418 And it is up to man… 1167 01:18:35,711 --> 01:18:38,296 what he's going to do with his life. 1168 01:18:39,840 --> 01:18:43,385 And I blame man, not God. 1169 01:18:43,468 --> 01:18:46,722 I cannot rationally explain… 1170 01:18:47,806 --> 01:18:51,351 emotionally explain, intellectually explain the Holocaust. 1171 01:18:52,227 --> 01:18:55,147 I cannot… I cannot find… 1172 01:18:55,856 --> 01:18:58,024 a place for… 1173 01:18:59,025 --> 01:19:00,318 a higher authority 1174 01:19:01,111 --> 01:19:02,237 in this nightmare. 1175 01:19:02,320 --> 01:19:03,947 What kind of people are we? 1176 01:19:04,823 --> 01:19:06,867 What are the books teaching us? 1177 01:19:07,743 --> 01:19:10,954 What is the difference between me… 1178 01:19:12,038 --> 01:19:13,331 and another child? 1179 01:19:13,415 --> 01:19:15,167 What is the Bible teaching me? 1180 01:19:17,711 --> 01:19:20,464 What… What is this about? 1181 01:19:22,966 --> 01:19:26,553 [Randolph Braham] Hitler remained a pathological anti-Semite to the end. 1182 01:19:26,636 --> 01:19:28,930 And one of his last testaments, 1183 01:19:29,014 --> 01:19:31,725 or warnings to his followers, 1184 01:19:32,726 --> 01:19:36,480 was for them to continue the war against the Jews. 1185 01:19:36,563 --> 01:19:40,901 In his will executed April 29, 1945, 1186 01:19:41,568 --> 01:19:42,986 he says, "Above all, 1187 01:19:44,029 --> 01:19:47,657 I enjoin the government and the people 1188 01:19:47,741 --> 01:19:51,161 to uphold the race laws to the limit, 1189 01:19:51,828 --> 01:19:54,956 and to resist mercilessly 1190 01:19:55,665 --> 01:19:58,293 the poisoner of all nations, 1191 01:19:59,294 --> 01:20:01,630 international Jewry." 1192 01:20:11,097 --> 01:20:12,766 [melancholy music playing] 1193 01:20:35,372 --> 01:20:39,000 [Randolph Braham] The Holocaust has to be thought as a chapter 1194 01:20:39,626 --> 01:20:43,296 in the long history of man's inhumanity to man. 1195 01:20:45,715 --> 01:20:47,300 One cannot ignore 1196 01:20:47,926 --> 01:20:49,427 the discrimination 1197 01:20:50,011 --> 01:20:52,389 inflicted on many people 1198 01:20:52,472 --> 01:20:54,474 because of race, color, or creed. 1199 01:20:55,016 --> 01:20:57,060 One cannot ignore slavery. 1200 01:20:57,143 --> 01:21:00,188 One cannot ignore the burning of witches. 1201 01:21:00,272 --> 01:21:03,984 One cannot ignore the killing of Christians in the Roman period. 1202 01:21:05,819 --> 01:21:08,697 The Holocaust perhaps is the culmination 1203 01:21:09,948 --> 01:21:12,868 of the kind of horror that can occur 1204 01:21:13,535 --> 01:21:18,331 when man loses his integrity, 1205 01:21:18,415 --> 01:21:21,459 his belief in the sanctity of human life. 1206 01:21:33,179 --> 01:21:34,180 [sniffles] 1207 01:21:40,020 --> 01:21:41,313 [sobbing]