Auschwitz Survivors Return To Death Camp 75 Years Later‌ | NBC Nightly News

[Music] outfits where Nazis murdered more than 1 million people mostly Jews for me the outreach is a cemetery I remember the hangings I remember the horror house which is like a terrible scar was a terrible place few survived the largest mass murder in history but 75 years after the liberation of this death camp some are going back a few for the first time Sally Yossef from New York is one I need a lot of sweaters she was sent there at 16 with her parents and siblings they were killed when we can't do outfits we found something like burning I didn't see the gymnast but we felt the air like burning like bones you know no 93 she's going back it's a cemetery and I'm going to honor my people to go to the cemetery I never had that I'm going to cry my heart out but I want to go [Music] hundreds of thousands of Jews were selected for death at this spot gassed within an hour and then burned their ashes scattered all around here at the Auschwitz gate with its notorious sign work will make you free a few survivors returned and I spent here exactly 8400 hours Miriam Ziegler was 8 when she was experimented on here by the notorious Nazi dr. Josef Mengele and that's you anybody who lived through what we lived through when David Langer from California lost most of his family I remembered the place where they were shooting the people at the wall I remember the hangings I remember the horror I remember the smoke of the chimney coming out from the crematoria I remember everything it left such a scar on my soul on my mind that the I could never ever forget it Elizabeth Citron's mother was murdered on their first day here the second day I asked when am I going to reunite with my mother and they took me in the arm and and showed me the chimney and they said when you go out the same way every day was a battle for survival absolutely absolutely the numbers are still staggering at full capacity 10,000 people a day were killed here in eight weeks in 1944 a third of a million Jews from Hungary were gassed and then burned when we got to Auschwitz for Sonia Klein from New York death was just a few feet away we were next to the guest chamber and crematoria and we learnt how to sleep you smelled the blood all neither we and we learned how to sleep the horrors are unimaginable these newly colorized images show Jews being rounded up for death their terror clear the cattle trucks they were loaded into brought them to Auschwitz the end of the line and it was here where the tracks end the dozens of survivors gathered to commemorate the liberation of the camp in 1945 their pain still raw I'm upset you probably can feel that our Swiss is like a terrible scar from a terrible trauma it never goes away and the pain never stops many afraid of new attacks on Jews in the US and Europe do not be silent do not be complacent do not let this ever happen again to any people salia sir made it back to Auschwitz bringing a message for her murdered mother talk to my mother and tell her MA I I want to tell you what I went through in MA please I love you I need you embrace I need you to touch me and kiss me like I used to do it before and bringing also a burden I always feel guilty I so why me why me she survives not only Auschwitz but Belsen where she met the teenage and Frank whose diary survives her murder I friend Anna Frank over there she looked like a little girl like me I'm here my heart is breaking everything comes back to me I feel my mother I feel my mother like she's touching me where prisoners were shot survivors shed tears the mass killing here has always been a warning from history but as anti-semitism and nationalism grow it's a more urgent warning today than ever you're afraid afraid once again I am afraid I'm very very afraid when good people see evil racing is anywhere in the world and do nothing about it and become indifferent to it that's the consequence because evil conquers evil triumphs will get a letter trial we don't want our grandchildren to have the same anti-semitism that we live through when you have only thirty percent of children can even name one concentration camp and know nothing about the Holocaust what do we expect sometimes history has a way of repeating itself hate leads to destruction we must not forget and we handful [Music] today two million visitors a year come to Auschwitz to the gas chambers to the crematoria the Nazis tried to destroy to remember like the survivors what was lost all the possibilities it could have been for our generation well the artists the doctors and the scientists in smoke it was the most horrendous mass slaughter in human history and the world chose at that time to be silent can I forgive a different story no it could happen to here too it could happen what the Germans did it a country like that sophisticated intelligent people they came beasts even animals yet even here after all they've endured they count their blessings today I'm a very lucky person I am married I have six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren and for this and very grateful for many like David marks from Connecticut returning for the first time is a kind of victory I would love it this should be a life and I should see what I accomplished but you're alive I'm alive right David marks lost 35 members of his family will marry his partner Cathy Klein in June this may well be the last time so many survivors gather here but they're warning from history is very clear never again Methodist they were not maybe not before but that's what humankind can become horrible place [Music] hey NBC News fans thanks for checking out our YouTube channel subscribe by clicking on that button down here and click on any of the videos over here to watch the latest interviews show highlights and digital exclusives thanks for watching

Channel: NBC News

Views: 4,615,416

Keywords: nbc news, news channel, news station, newspaper, breaking news, us news, world news, politics, nightly news, current events, top stories, pop culture, business, health, nbc nightly news, holocaust, holocaust survivors, world war 2, germany, nazi, nazis, nazi germany, concentration camps, trigger warning, survivors, atrocity, history, tragedy, holocaust rememberance, war, death camp, Auschwitz, solemn, murder, death, hitler, adolf hitler, hitler germany, concentration camp germany, journey

Id: D-9aEmB5DhM

Length: 9min 58sec (598 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 24 2020