>> Bill Benson: Welcome. Thank you for joining us for First Person: Conversations with Holocaust Survivors. My name is Bill Benson. I have hosted the Museum's First Person program since it began in 2000. Through these monthly conversations, we bring you firsthand accounts of survival of the Holocaust. Each of our First Person guests serves as a volunteer at the Museum. Jewish Holocaust survivors are those who were displaced, persecuted, or discriminated against due to the racial, religious, ethnic, social, and political policies of the Nazis and their collaborators between 1933 and 1945. This included inmates of concentration camps, ghettos, and prisons, as well as refugees and those in hiding. We are honored to have Holocaust survivor Irene Fogel Weiss share her individual personal account
of the Holocaust with us today. Irene, thank you so much for agreeing to be our First Person today.
>> Irene Weiss: Thank you. >> Bill Benson: Irene You have so much to share with us. Let's begin with you by telling us about your family and your early life in Czechoslovakia? >> Irene Weiss: So, I come from a family of six children, ages about 7-17, very busy family in a small village, farming village, where the children were free to roam around and explore. My parents worked all of the time,
because the upkeep of feeding and clothing the family, everything done by hand, no help from machines or stores, so they were busy and we didn't require a lot of attention. My father owned a small lumberyard in a neighboring village
and he left in the morning and came back. He was much more patient than our mother, because he was not quite as exhausted, as I imagined. He helped us with our homework, he taught us Hebrew, taught us how to read Hebrew. He was extremely kind and patient and between this loving family, we were just a happy bunch of kids. We enjoyed school, had lots of friends and life was nice and normal.
>> Bill Benson: Irene, tell us about this photograph, if you don't mind. >> Irene Weiss: This is the only one I have of my family except the one that was taken in Auschwitz. So, my mother here is 30 years old. I am the baby. This is 1930. She has three children. The little girl is Serena who is about 4, she survived. The little boy Moshe he is about 2 1/2-3, he did not survive. After this, my mother from 1930 on she has three more children who did not survive.
>> Bill Benson: Irene, as you said you were in a small farming community, how large was the Jewish population in your community?
>> Irene Weiss: The Jewish population consistented of 10 families, lots of children and mostly they were small merchants and craftsmen, tailors, Shoemakers, small stores rather poor. It was not a wealthy Jewish community by any means. We lived quietly. >> Bill Benson: You shared with me in the past that there was no antisemitism at that time, from what you understand, can you say a little bit more about that? >> Irene Weiss: Yes, there was no antisemitism. My father and his father grew up in the same place, same house. People knew him as a boy and as a man. He was a very kind patient person. He sold things from the lumberyard and they came to the house and talked about their orders. It was very pleasant. My mother would talk to the neighbors across the fence and do some exchanging of produce. We had no feeling of antisemitism. Of course, it was understood that we went to the Synagogue and they went to church and it was accepted. >> Bill Benson: Before we move on to the events of World War 2 and the Holocaust, I think we have one more family photo. Tell us about this one if you don't mind, Irene. >> Irene Weiss: Yes, I'm the one in the circle. Next to me my little sister, Edith, she did not survive. Behind me is my sister Serena, she survived. The other young lady is a neighbor or friend and the little boy there is her brother. So basically it is my family, Serena, me and Edith, oh, and the little boy in the middle also did not survive, but the young lady did.
>> Bill Benson: Thank you, Irene. In early 1939, everything changed for you and your family when your community was occupied by Hungary an ally of Nazi Germany, which immediately changed your lives. What happened once you were under Hungarian rule? >> Irene Weiss: Things did change immediately, although our neighbors and people in the town remain pretty much the same, but in the surrounding villages and the cities, the governments changed there were fascists in charge of the government. They were imitating what the Germans did with the exclusion of Jews in professions and business and the hate speech on radio and in newspapers, we were well aware we were surrounded by hostility and we had to decide to lay low and not be out there, you know, just in case.
>> Bill Benson: You told me that your father lost his job. Will you say a little bit about that? >> Irene Weiss: Yes, for a while, he kept it, but the restrictions escalated, so there came a time that somebody else claimed the business and it was officially handed over. My father no longer went to his business. He was at home and it affected our income for the family, and also, you know, the anxiety about a very big blow to confiscate your property and not knowing what the future has for us. >> Bill Benson: How were you able to make ends meet with your father lost his job. having lost his job at that time? >> Irene Weiss: Yes, I think the fact that we were in a farming town, we did have some land, but we, of course, never worked it ourselves. But because it was a farming town, my mother did have a very large vegetable garden. It was not just for the fun of it. She literally grew enough food to use in the kitchen, and what she didn't grow, she would barter with the neighbors. So, we were never hungry. The farmers were not Jewish, the same way, they did not feel the war for a while in regards to food. There was no income, there was no cash. >> Bill Benson: No cash. Irene, you also shared with me when I was interviewing you at the Museum, that you were with your father on a train and had a scary experience with your dad on that train. Will you say a little bit about that?
>> Irene Weiss: Yes, that was one of the ways hate against the Jews was escalating that we were in danger in many situations So I was coming home on the train with my father, a 5-minute ride, first stop after getting on the train, immediately when the train started moving, there were a bunch of young teenage hoodlum types who recognized my father as being Jews, because he had a small beard. Since hate against Jews was now permissible, they thought they would get away with beginning to taunt him and talk among each other as to what would be -- what should we do with this Jewish man? Wouldn't it be fun to throw him off the train? They laughed and carried on and this kind of taunting and humiliation of my father continued. The people on the train did not say a word. No one stood up and said stop it. I was terrified, because they were serious, and it would have been quite OK for them to do it without any, you know, reaction from anybody else. My father and I were both looking out the window to see how close we were to home and it seemed like forever, but it was only a few minutes. When the train stopped, we got off and they did not have to carry out their plan of having fun with this Jewish person. >> Bill Benson: That only happened because the train stopped and you were able to get off at that point? >> Irene Weiss: Yes, we had been on it longer, I had no doubt they would have thrown him off and I was already thinking, where are we, if they happen to throw him off now, will I go to the end, will I have to walk back and see if I can find him? My mind was racing. What will I do if this actually happens, but the terror of such an experience to do that to my precious father, there is no way I can explain what I went through in the few minutes and, also, my father never road the train again after that. >> Bill Benson: Irene, in 1942, your father, along with thousands of other Jewish men, were forced by the Hungarians to do forced labor for the military. Tell us about your father's mandatory forced-labor service and what that meant for your family? >> Irene Weiss: Well, as we were saying antisemitism that was now allowed by the government proceeded, and especially the men were more humiliated and discriminated against than the women, because they were more recognizable as being Jewish the way they were dressed. and continued our education, so it was understood that we will go that path.
>> Bill Benson: Irene, in 1942, your father, So, he was called in with the other young men to forced labor. They were not considered soldiers, they were not given weapons, but they were taken to the front line and used in dangerous positions on the front line that exposed them to injury and death, because they were not respected as soldiers or trusted as soldiers. >> Bill Benson: In fact, one of the things Jewish forced laborers were used as mine sweepers, meaning walking out into fields to expose mines that the soldiers wouldn't have to walk on.
>> Irene Weiss: Yes, they were doing the most dangerous work without any protection and of course many were killed. In addition to that, since they did not have the respect of the military, they were humiliated and used as slave labor. So, a condition of not being considered citizens had its effect that the law did not protect us. >> Bill Benson: Do you recall, Irene, how your family coped with your father being gone to do the forced labor?
>> Irene Weiss: It was a great deal of anxiety. it wasn't just that he was gone, he was in hostile territory as we were. It is very hard to explain if you never experienced what it is like to not be recognized as a citizen even if you were born there and parents born there, and what it is like to be worried about people who will attack you, and the police stand by and don't stop it. So, my mother was extremely worried whether he will come back at all, whether he will be injured, what they are doing to him and will he come back. And in the meantime, the load of caring for the family and all of the things that needed to be done fell on her alone, but it was mainly the fear and anxiety of not being treated as a human being and as a citizen. >> Bill Benson: Your father returned after six months, do you know why he was allowed to return after the six-month period?
>> Irene Weiss: Yes, well the Hungarian government attempted tried to not be as harsh in their laws against the Jews, as the Nazis were, little by little they became more and more harsh, but as this point they re-evaluated these men that were called in to do the dangerous work on the front line. Since he was about 43, 42 and had six children, they decided to let him go home, and so, he appeared one day without much fanfare. He came home. We were all >> Bill Benson: Your father returned after six months, do you know why delighted. The children stared at him intently because they cut his beard and we had never seen him without a beard. We literally stared at him for a while until we got used to it. The family was very happy that he survived. He never talked about his experiences. He was very quiet. He came back in one piece and we thought we were safe. Irene, as difficult as life was for Jews under Hungarian rule, it turned out to be so much tragically worse in March 1944 when the Germans invaded Hungary. Tell us about the time and what happened to you and your family once the Germans were in power? >> Irene Weiss: So Germany was an ally but a year before the war was over, they realized that Germany was losing the war and they attempted to pull out of the alliance and then Germany invaded Hungary. Now this time, we understood that we were in big trouble. Because the Hungarian government they wanted to be a little lenient here and there were now they were unable to do it Nazi Germany had a plan for Hungary, for the Jews of Hungary as they did for every country in Europe that they occupied. They were ready. We did not understand what their plan was, but they were ready and within two weeks of their occupation, we were notified to leave our home and with one suitcase each and report to a gathering place and all of the Jews in our town and neighboring towns into a ghetto that was as ready. In other words, they were very well prepared for this bureaucratic thing, and so suddenly, we were out of our home. Our entire family, we abandoned our home and livestock, whatever we accumulated over years, and I know that after we were out of there, our house was looted and we were taken away and gathered into a big city, into a place that was not prepared for human beings. There were no facilities of any kind, there was no sanitation, there was no running water, there was no kitchen, there was no hospital. We had people in there with needs of everything, old people, sick people, babies, everybody thrown into one big place, and a new living place was a corner on a floor. So, the Germans, as I say had a prepared plan before we left our home, a delegation from the officials of the town, the mayor, this was not a new mayor, and the police and even our school principal who was an no running water, there was no kitchen, there was no hospital. official of the town came to our house and told my father that he needs to give him all of his money and all of his valuables and they were harsh about it. They were not saying please. They said "we know you must have" and you ought to give it to us. I know my father gave him something, but we did not have valuables as such, but they demanded whatever we did have. >> Bill Benson: Some of the people like the school's superintendent are probably people your father has known all of his life. >> Irene Weiss: Yes, and since they were prominent people in the town, they used them for effect. >> Bill Benson: And this place you were sent to a ghetto which was in a very large brick factory in the town of Munkacs, I believe am I correct that also at that the time you were forced to have your head shaved? >> Irene Weiss: Well, they had rules in that place, all of them very harsh. The transformation from being a citizen a person, a free person and a head of your family and living your free life and working to being one of a mob of people that are considered sub-human and no provisions made for us and no respect of any kind. We were humiliated. We were hoarded together like animals, so this was a terrible shock to all of us and things got worse from day-to-day. They were having all kinds of humiliation and threats, especially to the men, and yes, the women there was announcement about girls under 16 to report to have their hair cut, and without telling my mother I just went to that place, a tent in the middle of the place, sat down. I had my hair cut, because with every kind of order there was a threat, you know, you will be punished, your father will be punished, your, you know, it was always that and your father will be punished if you don't do that and I certainly compiled. I came back to that place and my mother gave me a handkerchief and I put it in my head and from then on my head was covered. We both looked sad. She looked at me and looked sad. And I remember I did not react like I would have in normal life when 13 year olds who have their hair cuts. This is not the worst of our problem and the hair will grow out. In less than a two-month period, a staggering number of Jews from across Hungary - nearly 440,000 people - were rounded up and deported to Auschwitz. You were in the Munkacs ghetto for three weeks when you and your family were deported. Tell us about leaving the ghetto and about your arrival at Auschwitz.
>> Irene Weiss: What was going on was the terrible conditions that we were in I know that the adults were always looking for some kind of explanation or hope that things were not as bad as it looked. Since we were still in our country and not far from our home their idea was, the talk was that this is temporary and we will be sent home soon. This cannot be sustained. We did not imagine that the people in charge of us had plans made and they knew exactly what comes next. This was a gathering place for the next transport, so each time we were horrified at what is happening to us. Being put in the trains that arrived there at the brick factory, announcements were made get your thing, hurry, hurry, line up get in the train. The orders were always harsh, urgent, and threatening, and so everybody was constantly on the double doing whatever they asked us to do. Hurry, hurry, get in the train, so we were literally marching alongside of us are soldiers and pushing the line fast, so we managed, first of all, we wanted to be sure we all get in the same cattle car, so we're holding on the children to each other. We're lucky we got into the same cattle car. The idea they are taking us elsewhere again is a terrifying feeling for my parents. I look back at what they must have felt in how we were being herded from this place to the next place. At this particular point, there was no rational explanation in our minds that something good -- that something good about this. They were terrified. >> Bill Benson: So, you had no idea of the destination of where you're going on the train and it took you to Auschwitz. Tell us about your arrival at Auschwitz, Irene.
>> Irene Weiss: Yes, so we were locked in bolted from the outside people sitting on the floor and everybody wondering what is our fate as the train speeded along, my father looked out and told the people that the train was turning towards Poland and that was our destination and that definitely made everybody understand something they did not want to understand. We heard about persecution of the Jews by Nazis in Poland. What we heard was entire villages were marched out to the forest and the firing squad would wait for them and they would be literally mowed down and there would be Synagogues filled with people and Synagogues would be put on fire and everyone would be murdered. The reason we heard that occasionally, a young person would escape. There is one young woman who ended up in our village for a short time and she told these things about what was going on, about how the Jews in Poland were being murdered and we thought this person was exaggerating and it could not be that bad. But now that the train was heading towards Poland, people were reminded of what they heard and began to realize this is a possibility. I remember being great sadness, but total silence. No one spoke again in this moving train after that. It was absolute terror, so eventually, the train stopped and the doors were open from the outside. My father looked out before we got out and he said that he sees barracks and sees prisoners in striped uniform and suddenly the terror about arriving in the forest facing a firing squad melted away. They began to rationalize again that there is some hope. I remember adults saying, well, if we have to work, if this is a labor camp that is possible. We were relieved, absolutely relieved, but pretty soon things changed, so we were again heard shouting and yelling to get out, get out, and leave everything behind and do it fast and there were dogs and Nazi soldiers and people jumping out of the cattle cars filling the entire platform, probably 2,000 people pouring out of this train. As soon as the shouting of "out, out, leave everything behind and line up " and more shouting about men line up to one side in a column and women and children to another column, and even as we were out on the platform the shouting continued to move, to move. >> Bill Benson: Irene, I want to draw our audience's attention to this particular photograph. The Museum has a remarkable and disturbing collection of photographs called The Auschwitz Album. These photographs were taken by Nazi officials platform, probably 2,000 people pouring out of this train. it just so happens on the very day that your family arrived at Auschwitz. In this very personal photograph for you We see you personally circled in this photograph and we have another photograph that we will turn to in a minute that is a closer view of you. Tell us about this picture, Irene. >> Irene Weiss: Yeah, so now we are out of the train and you can see the train on the side and the larger column is the men that are lined up. I'm in front there. My family had just reached the front of this column where we were faced by about 10 Nazi soldiers, one of them had a stick in his hand and he was motioning people, separating people from one side to the other. My mother and my two little brothers who were about 9 and 7 were sent off to one side very quickly, as soon as they appeared in the front. My older sister, Serena, who was 17 was motioned to another side and I was standing there with Edith, my younger sister about 11 holding her hand and very quickly, the stick came down between us and she was motioned to where our mother went and I was motioned towards where my older sister went, Serena. When my sister was so abruptly separated from me and she disappeared in a very fast moving crowd, because the separation was crowds were sent to -- if any woman was -- any mother were holding children, maybe some grandmothers, too, any people like that, he did not stop to examine who was in the group. It was such a group of children and the entire group was motioned, so while I was standing there for a second horrified that my little sister was taken from me, large groups of people were going in that direction and she joined this fast-moving crowd. I understood right away that she would not catch up with our mother and I was so frightened of what would happen to this little girl. As we were being separated, again, we had this feeling and we had this assumption that this is being separated as though this is a work camp. Women and children will not work, they are separated. Men are separated, they will work. And young adults will work. All of a sudden, if you take a young child alone and move her with a crowd without asking names or questions who you are something is wrong here. They are not keeping track of the promise that we had thought we saw here, so I was absolutely terrified. I knew she would not catch up to our mother. >> Bill Benson: Irene, here we see a close up of you from the train and the large crowd. >> Bill Benson: we have another photograph that is from the same collection that same day that is as intensely personal for you and incredibly painful. If you don't mind saying a little bit about this photograph for us. >> Irene Weiss: This is an incredible picture. Yes, Nazis were taking photographs of this particular train and perhaps other trains and the arrival of the people. These are my two little brothers Wayne and Gerswhin. Wayne is about 9 and Gerswhin about 7 and with them is my mother profiled there within the circle. She is sitting there with them. And the other people are women and children who came off the particular train. They are sitting here in a wooded area resting, looking like resting but what is happening here but they are very near one of the gas chambers and because of the huge influx of thousands of Hungarian Jews, the trains coming day and night, there was a backup in the gas chambers, four gas chambers could not keep up with the killing, day and night, so they are made to sit and wait for their turn when they are able to continue to the gas chamber. Obviously , they too have no idea. People look very calm. Originally, they were told they were going to go have a shower. People are always trying to look for something that is bearable or at least familiar, so these people are sitting there all old people or people with women and children and still have the same idea that it is a work camp and that this group will not be working.
>> Bill Benson: As I look at this photograph Irene and I look at your two brothers looking into the camera thinking that somebody had just taken a photograph of them. So, now you and your sister Serena have been selected for forced labor for slave labor. You are together You would actually remarkably run into two of your aunts, Aunt Rose and Aunt Piri who had gone ahead of you and you were able to connect with them. Tell us the forced labor, the slave labor that you were forced to do. You were sent to work in a part of Auschwitz that became known as "Kanada." Tell us what you had to do there with Serena and your aunts. >> Irene Weiss: Yes so my two aunts were in their twenties. They arrived in Auschwitz the day before and we just accidentally ran into them. They were They saved my life and my sister's life no doubt about that because I was terrified and I needed someone to cling to. We were first tattooed and selected, about 1,000 women, we were tattooed on our arms and sent off to work in an area, which became a storage area where the trucks brought the belongings of the people who came from the You were sent to work in a part of Auschwitz that became known as "Kanada." Tell us what you had to do there with Serena and your aunts.
>> Irene Weiss: Yes so my two aunts were in their twenties. They arrived in Auschwitz the day before and we just accidentally ran into them. train and later on we realized the belongings that came out of the gas chamber also was brought to this area of storage. We were assigned to bring all of these things first into the barracks out of the weather, and continue day and night shifts to sort out these belongings in a way that was consistent with what it was, like shoes with shoes and pots and pans and blankets, and baby carriages and books, and everything that people brought from the many places that they thought would be useful, all of this had to be sorted in categories and prepared to be shipped to Germany for the use of the German population >> Bill Benson: And what we see here in this particular photograph Irene is a literal mountain of shoes We couldn't even pretend to try to know how many pairs of shoes have been taken and put in this pile for you to sort. Unfortunately, we don't have the time for you to tell us about the eight months that you spent at Auschwitz, but you remained there under horrific circumstances for that period, eight months in January 1945, as Soviet troops were advancing, the Nazis evacuated Auschwitz. Tell us about the evacuation and what happened to you and your sisters and aunt at the time. Where did you go? >> Irene Weiss: We heard noises of war, bombs and shootings. We heard the front line was approaching. We thought that we would all be destroyed that the Nazis will not allow for the Russian army to witness what is going on in Auschwitz with the gas chambers and piles of bodies. We were sure we would be killed, absolutely, so when there was announcement that we should line up at the gate and camp is being evacuated, people began to wonder what it means. Some people thought they should hide and stay, because the war seems to be coming closer and it will be over. Our little group decided the gate is open, let's get out, anybody who stays behind will be killed. The whole thing will be burned down, so we lined up and exited in the winter of January 1945, out into the cold weather. A huge column filled the highways and the sideways and we were escorted by soldiers day and night, they pushed us on. People were exhausted. People were not ready for for such exhaustion and exertion. We didn't have clothes and shoes properly In other words, it was a death march, and people were falling by the wayside. If people sat down or leaned on people, they were shot side of the road was many dead people It was literally not indurable It was not survivable, this kind of exhaustion. >> Bill Benson: And remarkably, you were able to survive and ended up after a series of different camps that you were forced to march to hundreds of kilometers, you ended up at a place called Neustadh-Glewe from where you were liberated. Say a little bit about your liberation from Neustadh-Glewe >> Irene Weiss: This march took many days and we did arrive at this concentration camp which was already filled with people and there were no room for more and we were jammed in and the German soldiers and the people taking charge of the concentration camp were also worried about their own safety, so they were beginning to move on with a small crew of taking care of us. They actually abandoned us to a large degree, the system broke down. They stopped feeding us almost entirely and we were starving, in addition to that, we became infested with lice and there was typhus in the camp and people began to get stick. This camp did not have a gas chamber, but don't worry, they had a system. The killing and the selection of people who were sick or emaciated, they always had time to select those and they had a truck coming almost daily from another camp that had a gas chamber. The truck would arrive. We recognized the truck and they would select out the sick and the emaciated and put them on the truck and off, and these people were killed. Truck turned around and came back. After we were here for four and a half months, by the end, starvation made us just totally skin and bones. My sister was selected for trip on the truck and I was so scared of being alone and I certainly was not in much better shape. I said "I'm her sister," so I was told you can go, too. So, they put us in a room with many others who looked like skeletons, locked the door and we sat on the floor waiting for the truck to come. After a full day, the truck didn't seem to arrive, and somebody must have opened the door from the outside, and somebody pushed the door and it was open and we walked back to where we came from into the Barack. We entered the room, the people there started to chant almost. The children came back, the children came back. It seems they were mourning us and they called us the children, which was a big surprise. We were never called children, because being called children meant we were going to be killed. The children did not survive. The children were killed in these camps, but apparently, they knew that we looked like children. They were so happy to see us and we were really rather surprised that anybody noticed that we were even missing.
>> Bill Benson: and Irene after that the Nazi guards ran off and you were left there and unsure if they were going to come back and you ended up leaving the camp, walking out because nobody was there to stop you and that was your liberation. After the war, did you go back to your home and if you did, who lived there and what did your neighbors say or do? We wanted to know who survived and we talked to other survivors and we looked at lists posted on walls about names of people who were searching, names of people who they were announcing that they were alive. Eventually, after many months, about six months after, when we realized who the few people who were alive and we gathered together in Czechoslovakia, I went back home with one of my young uncles, my mothers brother to my hometown and entered my house, and there was a family living there. It was a woman and children, she went over to one side when I entered. We did not greet each other. She just pulled to the side. She seemed to know who I was, and we didn't know each other. I went through the house from room to room, there was nothing that was ours left in the house. I went around, sort of a circle, came back out into the kitchen and left the house and went down into the garden and there was an orchard in the back. I realized how long we were gone because the fruit tree were ripe ready to be picked and I suddenly and I couldn't bear it any longer. No one in our house nothing in the house was ours, but here was the fruit that survived waiting for us to pick it and there was no one to pick it. I began to cry and the first time I was able to cry. In Auschwitz, I never cried. People around me never cried. We worked in this Kanada place next to the gas chamber number four divided only by an electrified fence. We watched columns of women and children and elderly walking to the gate and disappear and within a half hour or so, we would see the chimneys of the crematoriums belching not only smoke, but belching flames and we had just seen these people. They had just talked to us a little bit. We just saw these little children in their mothers' arms and the flames were so high in the sky and the flames were so strong. They made a noise like a wind. We saw this over and over and tears did not come. We even spoke about it, why are we not crying? The trauma, the disbelief, the horror it was so enormous that we were kind of frozen. We could not absorb it. >> Bill Benson: Irene, in the time, in the short time we have left, I want to ask one final question of you. Bur first, I want to show a photograph of you and your sister Serena when you arrived in the United States with the help of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and this is 1947. I want to make sure our audience saw the photograph of the two of you getting to the United States. My last question for you is please tell us why, after listening to you relive the horrors and tragedies that you describe, why do you continue to share your firsthand account of the Holocaust? >> Irene Weiss: With the greater awareness of this tragic history, plus the personal testimony, I hope people are realizing or realized that this tragic history cannot be repeated and they are learning from what they are hearing and seeing from testimony that the hate and the discrimination and separation has to stop. I'm speaking because I hope that they understand that the tragedy that they are hearing about makes them be aware and stop this discrimination and hatred, which is even present in our time. And in addition to, that I am speaking for those, my family, and thousands of others who are -- who perished and should be remembered and I speak for them as well. >> Bill Benson: Irene, and you speak so eloquently, so movingly, you described events that most of us can't begin to imagine. We are grateful for you for doing this. I know everyone who is watching and hearing you they are not only profoundly moved, but grateful for you continuing to do this. Thank you for sharing with us for this past hour. It is so, so important. Thank you. >> Irene Weiss: Thank you for providing this opportunity to speak about this tragic history. >> Bill Benson: I would also like to take a moment to thank our donors - First Person is made possible through the generous support of the Louis Franklin Smith Foundation, with additional funding from the Arlene and Daniel Fisher Foundation.
