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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX
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[Bill Basch] There is one thing that has
puzzled me, and has puzzled the world…
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that the Germans dedicated manpower
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and trains and trucks and energy
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towards the destruction
of the Jews to the last day.
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Had they stopped six months before the end
of the war and dedicated that energy
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towards strengthening themselves,
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they may have
carried on the war a little longer.
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But it was more important
to them to kill the Jews
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than even winning the war.
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[somber music playing]
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[vocalizing]
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[trotting]
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[somber music playing]
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[Irene Zisblatt]
I grew up in a town called Polyana,
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in the Carpathian mountains.
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It was a small town of two main streets.
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This leads all the way up to…
There is a church over there…
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We had a post office and a town hall
and a church and a synagogue.
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Everybody knew each other.
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It was beautiful.
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{\an8}[Renee Firestone]
I lived in a town called Uzhhorod.
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It was a small town,
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yet it had the feel
of a big, cosmopolitan town.
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Right here was a little deli,
right around… right here, and, uh…
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[clicks tongue]
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My… We used to come here
to have our sandwiches for the afternoon.
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[Alice Lok Cahana]
We lived in a town called Sárvár.
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{\an8}It's in Hungary,
close to the, um, Austrian border.
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Every day, the peasants would bring
their wares from the neighboring villages
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in big baskets, and they would carry it
on their head or on their shoulders.
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{\an8}Szaszovo was
a very small, little community
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{\an8}consisting of 3,000 people.
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No electricity, no utilities at all.
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So it was… I lead a very simplistic,
boring life. Nothing exciting.
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But then Budapest, where I ended up,
was an entirely different life.
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It was an enormous adjustment.
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And I looked at this city
just going, "Whoa!"
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I mean, it was like… I've never believed
anything like this exists!
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[Tom Lantos] Budapest was
a magnificent, world-class city,
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{\an8}on par with Vienna or Paris or London
as a great European capital.
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This magnificent Parliament building
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saw the best and the worst
in Hungarian history.
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The bulk of the Jews in Budapest
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were utterly assimilated,
deeply patriotic,
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and enormously proud
of their Hungarian cultural heritage.
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There were about 800 Jewish families
in our town.
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And I think the town was
10,000 or 11,000 non-Jews.
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I had non-Jewish friends.
I dated non-Jewish boys.
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My parents had non-Jewish friends.
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We also felt quite Hungarian
at the same time.
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Not just Jewish.
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So, Judaism was our religion,
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but we were Hungarians.
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[reporter 1] On August 2nd, 1934,
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officers and men swear
the oath of allegiance
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not to Germany, but to Hitler personally.
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[reporter 2] As Hitler's rule over Germany
became absolute,
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to his alarmed neighbor Austria,
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Hitler promised to keep hands off.
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[Tom Lantos] In 1938,
when I was 10 years old,
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I bought my first newspaper.
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And I saw the headlines,
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"Hitler marches into Austria."
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And I sensed that this historic moment
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will have a tremendous impact on the lives
of Hungarian Jews, my family, and myself.
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[bombing]
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[reporter 3]
Germany invades Poland and Danzig.
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Warsaw is bombed, blasted and shelled.
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Poland is in ruins.
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[dramatic music playing]
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[Renee Firestone] There were refugees
coming to Hungary
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running away from Poland,
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and most of the Jewish families,
Friday night the men went to temple
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to bring these people home
and give them shelter.
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They would come and tell stories.
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And I remembered very often…
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you didn't believe them.
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{\an8}I heard a conversation
between my father and another man.
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{\an8}And he was telling my father
what the Nazis are doing in Poland.
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And one thing
that I'll never forget that I heard…
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And he said the Nazis are taking
our young Jewish infants,
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and they're tearing them
in half by their legs,
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and they're throwing them
in the Dniester, a river in the Ukraine.
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Then later, of course,
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the stories were getting worse,
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and we began to hear about
mass shootings and mass graves,
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But there was a sort of a naive…
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I hate to use the word,
but I have to use the word…
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patriotic feeling
that we Hungarians don't do such things.
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Hitler was in Germany, so what happened
in Germany didn't reflect on us.
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I mean, we were far away from it.
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[chanting]
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{\an8}[sinister music playing]
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{\an8}[Randolph Braham] There were two wars.
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{\an8}There was a military war,
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{\an8}and hand-in-hand with that war.
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{\an8}There was a second war,
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{\an8}the war of the SS
directed against the Jews.
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{\an8}[sirens wailing]
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{\an8}[melancholy music playing]
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[firing]
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The dark side
of the Hungarian national character
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was becoming more and more obvious.
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The persecution of Jews
became more and more obvious.
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Jews were losing their jobs,
their businesses.
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There was a Hungarian Nazi movement,
the Arrow Cross,
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and this became, of course,
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the most hated and the most feared group
for Hungarian Jews.
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[Renee Firestone] People wonder,
"How is it that we didn't do something?"
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We didn't run away. We didn't hide.
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Well, things didn't happen at once.
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Things happened very slowly,
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so each time a new law came out,
or a restriction,
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we said, "Well, just another thing.
It'll blow over."
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{\an8}[crowd cheering]
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{\an8}[Tom Lantos] Hitler moved into Hungary
on the 19th of March, 1944.
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I was 16 years old.
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1944, March 19th.
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Germans entered, the SS entered, our town.
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Two motorcycles was the whole Nazi regime
that occupied our town
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because they were there with the people
that lived there the whole time
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and did their dirty.
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Most of them were people we thought
were our friends all these years,
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but they turned overnight on us
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and went with the other side.
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And the next restriction was
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that the Jew cannot walk out
on the street without the yellow star.
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We heard that in Germany
they to wear the yellow star
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before they were taken away,
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and in Poland, they did that.
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So at that point we were worried.
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[Tom Lantos] I did not wear a yellow star
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and I was caught.
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I was put into a forced-labor camp
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in a place north of Budapest,
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which had an important railroad bridge.
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{\an8}And our job was to repair the railroads,
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the lines, the bridges, non-stop,
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while the British and the Americans
were bombing day and night.
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We were obviously worried
that we would die.
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But we were also hoping
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that the American and British bombers
will hit all of their targets
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and destroy this bridge
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because that was the way to defeat Hitler.
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I escaped from that labor camp,
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and I joined the Hungarian underground.
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And the next decree would be
that we have to pack up 25 kilos.
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And at first, we didn't understand.
What do you take?
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Think about your home, your own home.
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What would you take, 25 kilos?
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What is 25 kilos?
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How much is 25 kilos?
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Do you take the pillows? Your covers?
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Do you take your dishes? Do you take…
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What do you take?
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When we were packing,
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um…
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I wanted to take something
that would remind me of the good times.
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I was very depressed and worried.
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And so I came across a bathing suit.
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A bathing suit that my father brought me.
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[smacks lips]
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I don't want to do this.
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[sniffles]
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Uh…
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On one of his business trips,
about three years earlier,
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my father came home.
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And, um… he always brought us something,
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my sister and myself.
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And, uh…
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of course, we always asked,
"What did you bring?"
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And he opened this box,
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and out of the box came
this most beautiful bathing suit.
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{\an8}It had a shiny satin finish
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{\an8}and a print of multicolored flowers.
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And then in the afternoon, when I heard
the soldiers' boots coming up the stairs,
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I ran back, and I put
this bathing suit under my dress.
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And that's how I left.
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They broke down the front doors.
They came in. They gave us a few minutes.
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They said a half hour,
but it was not a half hour,
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to get it all our valuables together,
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and they…
They marched us out of the house.
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I couldn't imagine that they just
take out people from their homes…
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because they're Jewish.
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Our friends, so-called, and neighbors,
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they were standing lined up
alongside of the road,
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and they were yelling,
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"It's about time, you go on out of here.
And we don't need any Jews in our town."
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00:14:06,345 --> 00:14:08,514
"We need to get rid of all you Jews."
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I stood, and I could not believe my eyes.
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[hesitates] The people I went to school
with their children. We were friends.
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We were sharing things together.
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Why are they so hostile?
Why do they hate us all of a sudden?
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It's like when you read
that the Jews went out of Egypt.
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We are carrying all our baggage.
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The pillows and the covers
are tied to them, bundled.
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And we children helped to carry.
And I'm so ashamed.
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[Renee Firestone] We wanted to believe
they're gonna take us to Germany.
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And we're gonna work.
We really wanted to believe it.
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00:14:45,968 --> 00:14:52,641
And by then, the whole European Jewry
was already in camps,
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which we didn't know.
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The concentration,
ghettoization and deportation
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took place in a concentrated manner
that is within 12 weeks.
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And nowhere else
was the deportation program carried out
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with the barbarity and speed
that it was in Hungary.
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They say that they will
take us to a ghetto,
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and we'd never heard that word.
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It is not a Hungarian word, "ghetto."
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[Renee Firestone]
We had no idea where we were.
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In the morning, when we woke up,
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I realized that we are in a brickyard.
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Brick factory yard.
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00:15:38,729 --> 00:15:42,107
{\an8}And in April, it was rainy.
It was a lot of rain.
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00:15:42,191 --> 00:15:43,984
{\an8}And we were always…
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{\an8}We had to change the sheet
because the roof was the sheet,
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and we were always wet.
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00:15:49,114 --> 00:15:53,869
There were thousands of people there
because they came from the whole county.
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00:15:54,536 --> 00:15:57,456
And there were guards everywhere,
with dogs,
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walking around all the time,
big German Shepherd dogs,
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on very, very tight leashes.
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…because this was all these huts,
with people, people all over the place.
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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.
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00:16:14,890 --> 00:16:17,184
[sniffles] And then one day they announced
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that everybody
that wants to go to work to Tokay
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on the vineyard to make wine
should come here,
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00:16:24,650 --> 00:16:29,530
and everybody voluntary,
gladly went on the train
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00:16:29,613 --> 00:16:31,198
because this was hell.
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00:16:31,782 --> 00:16:35,703
And going to work in a vineyard
was like going to heaven from this.
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00:16:35,786 --> 00:16:40,541
We were taken to the railroad station
by the Hungarian soldiers.
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00:16:40,624 --> 00:16:42,167
My mother said to me,
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00:16:42,251 --> 00:16:47,006
"I rolled up diamonds in your skirt,
in the hem of your skirt."
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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,
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00:16:55,014 --> 00:16:59,727
we realized that we're not going
on passenger trains.
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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."
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00:17:06,483 --> 00:17:09,987
"They don't have the other train.
So, they have to use what they have."
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00:17:10,070 --> 00:17:14,033
[Alice Lok Cahana] Anybody who didn't go
and didn't go fast was beaten.
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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]