Full interview with Holocaust survivor on International Holocaust Remembrance Day

[Music] good afternoon and thank you for joining us and taking part in our young Michela or Holocaust Remembrance Day program brought to you by the city of mission viejo and the Jewish Federation of Family Services of Orange County I'm councilmember ed sacks and I'm very proud to be with you today today as many of you know is national day of commemoration in Israel and communities around the world memorializing the over six million Jewish men women and children who were murdered in the Holocaust Yom Hashoah the anniversary of the start of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising also honors the people who survived that era of evil and the heroes who found the courage to resist Nazi oppression during today's program you will see six lit candles representing those six million people who perished in the Holocaust and the heroism of survivors and rescuers because of these unprecedented times with the Cova 19 virus we bring you our code our program virtually while we practice social distancing like I am with our guests here today in just a few minutes I will have the privilege of introducing to you 90 year old a schvitz survivor who was only 10 years old in 1939 when the Germans invaded Poland and occupied his hometown he will talk about how he survived not one but two concentration camps and his daring escape from the death march and I hope we have time where he could tell you a little bit about his exchange with his father an Orthodox Jew about how he felt that the time during this program we invite you to submit questions for our special guests by emailing remembrance at city of mission viejo org or by calling nine four nine four seven oh eight four six four we hope to address as many questions as possible so without further ado please welcome Holocaust survivor Sam Silverberg Sam one of those heroes we talk about from the Holocaust era and one who escaped Sam thank you for joining us today can you take us back in time a little bit and begin to tell us your story thank you very much well start the story by telling the people the old man who knows that time is limited and had the benefit of looking back at the years to evaluate in this time of the pandemic that we all live in the area oh and it's all hyped up in the media and I want to tell you don't worry about it it's not as bad as it sounds or looks and I've I just want to tell you some of my experiences so that you can compare it and take solace in the fact that you have the wherewithal to withstand the test of time and I'm just going to tell you to begin with about how I as I look back at my life you know when you get to be my age and God gave me the privilege to be fairly healthy at 90 you look back what is your biggest accomplishment in life I hope to do people can comprehend it in the spirit of which it was felt and I can remember two things which are most outstanding one of them was do the death march meant the Nazis led 4,500 prisoners into death march one of the Allied forces were advancing to dig trenches for German defenses deep into Germany and they marched us without food or anything in all we had to do it survive by melting snow in the metal canisters that they gave us and people who were starving left and right like flies as a matter of fact of the for the 800 prisoners only 800 survived and got the dead that's the nature and I remember on the fourth day of that March a German peasant mind you took pity on those poor souls and threw a bucket of hooting potatoes which were small as death to the prisoners and I was with my father in prison camp and I my father was a very great gentleman and delicate man devoted to God and his religion and he would not pounce on it but most prisoners did and I managed to get a small wooden put - like this and I was starving and I remember having hesitated whether or not I should chat with my father because the animal instinct and the human being in those circumstances is so awful but thank God that the head room their wherewithal and mind you I was only 15 years old at the time to share it with my father as a matter of fact while I was thankful did I had the wherewithal to shared with my father I was also very disturbed about the fact that Eden had thoughts of hesitation because under normal circumstances you would love to share with your loved ones so that's one aspect of it the second aspect of my pride of accomplishment in life is after 2,000 years of diaspora where the Jews were exiled from the Holy Land I had the chance to join the underground and going through said quarters routes to reach the Holy Land and was able to participate in the row of liberation and establishment of the State of Israel that was look during my subsequent life I did all sorts of stuff I made money and lost money but in the bare essence when it comes down to it what's important in life is your spiritual and emotional at satisfaction of accomplishing goals was superseded material needs and that was one of them now I'm gonna tell you exactly what happened since the age I was actually nine years old in November of 1938 my grandfather was having a bon voyage partly because he was departing to the Holy Land and we were all gathered at the celebration when I as a kid so a bunch of young men gathered and having very serious discussions and somehow as a nine-year-old I was nosing around to find what it's all about what they discussed so an uncle of mine his name was uncle Moses notice me being perturbed by in curious about what's transpired so he told me you know what they're discussing they're discussing the German invasion invasion of Sudetenland and they're discussing Kristallnacht which is a German word translated meaning the night of broken glass when German goons attacked destroyed and killed many Jews destroyed many synagogues and so on and did he clouds of war where eminent my uncle told me and he just warned me he said look Sam if God forbid something happens and Germans invaded invade Poland and is a program of that sort and they you life is threatened I want you to go to Palestine to the Holy Land where you will be able to establish your own identity without any persecution and discrimination etcetera he gave me a lesson in geography telling me you know you go through Oh steady go through all these other countries to Turkey from Turkey to Syria and from Syria to the Holy Land etc so that ignited me the spark of Zionism for the church to establish a Jewish National Home in state but you will no longer be persecuted and that spark and do it in me for the rest of my life well in 1913 in September 1 1939 the Germans invaded Poland and immediately upon their invasion occupation they took Jewish people hostages so that in case something happens to a German soldier they will get executed there's a matter of fact in that Jason town two hours they executed two of my uncles and right after that they took my father hostage the whole family was afraid it as to what's gonna happen to him and we were very worried and since the family consisted of our ethnic people surrounding in local towns surrounded [Music] we had to call all our financial resources to bribe some Germans German officials to release my father so took of a few days and after he was released he was unrecognizable they cut his beard off the Sheldon of they he was obviously very changed person it was awful what they did but at least he was alive and now my family and a lot of businesses and the Germans immediately issued edicts where they confiscated all Jewish businesses but since they did not have the personnel to supervise it but they sent a German supervisor to supervise the business and they collected all the earnings of the business depriving my father and the family of a livelihood but soon enough again in our family immediate family we had rebirth for children my brother was four and a half yet my older brother was four and a half years older than me I had a younger sister about 18 months younger than me and the younger brother but four years younger than me and as the Germans immediately issued edicts to prohibit Jewish children from getting education so the family had was in a very very bad situation because we couldn't have an income because they confiscated all the money to the business earned and yet they prevented the children from having an education and in Jewish tradition the education of the children it surmounts any other me that's considered extremely important because what's happening if you have an education and if you know you had do you have the wisdom and knowledge nobody can take it away from you money in material things can be taken away that's right it is so important the kids get the proper education so did you as community instituted in different homes to have education for kids of different grades different levels now the Germans were conducting intermittent trains to take the able-bodied men in to do labor camps because Germany mobilized the entire youth able-bodied men into the army with the idea of conquering not only Europe at the whole world I remember as I just think about it I remember when I was as a kid loving soldiers and so on I used to play it and I was watching I went I was watching as the Germans rolled in to Poland as they marched where they were singing hole to Gertrud torrent Mogan cancer veldt which means today we own Germany to mode entire world oh don't run don't run d by Alice in the world which means Germany Germany above everything else in the world it was with that kind of watch but I say images with that kind of goal they went about occupying all of Europe now you can imagine as a kid ten years old being discriminated against living under those circumstances you older brothers taken into a labor camp now because of the stern edict forbidding education it was my job to take my sis my youngest sister and brother today respectful schooling homes of neighbors etc now the only think about that kind of adventure is that we had to be worried because did not accept conducting intermittent weights together able-bodied young men Jewish men to go into labour can't speak they needed to replace the labor force which they mobilized into the Armed Forces and lo and behold this was invited Lee conducted those rates to also took the older people the feeble people women and babies and took him into extermination camps so it was I was responsible to take my siblings to their respective schooling things and watch out to make sure that they are not caught by the Nazis that in doing so I developed a keen sensitivity to my surroundings and what's going on an ability to hide and protect my siblings but this didn't last long after a while as this was going on since the town I was in was only about 18 miles out of Auschwitz things got worse continually and it was a schvitz it was before the war a Polish officers can't polish soldiers the Germans converted into an extermination camp and as they occupied the rest of Europe they kept building a special railroad track to the extermination camp of Auschwitz when they brought in people from all Europe Jews from all European countries to that extermination camp Auschwitz and Birkenau Vic and I was a mile and a half away from Auschwitz in the trains would come in to Birkenau where they were segregated people were segregated and able-bodied men were taken to work again while women children and all the people were exterminated now the Nazi regime was so intent on eliminating in exterminating the Jewish people that in 19 January of 1942 in the town of RC which is outside of Berlin the Nazi hierarchy gathered and decided upon a plan of examination which was an echo with the most beautiful in human existence of the Jewish people and pikemen and then the entire brass of the German government was participating in it and they called it a solution for the Jewish problem anti-semitism and hatred was so frequently exclaimed and propagated by the German leadership that in hatred was propagated constantly against the Jewish people and that showed itself once they decided to do it now the methods of of extermination was fairly primitive and simple in the beginning they would have prisoners build trenches and then shoot him over the Tibet saw dead bodies fall into the trenches and so on they would take prisoners put him onto trucks and take a pipe and tied to exhaust pipe of the trunk to the exhaust system of the trunk and get them this way but the German genius and hatred was so great that they developed cyclin b12 which was a poison gas where they would take people by the trainload send them to Auschwitz and tell them that going into and that where they could cleanse themselves and take a shower and once they were in the shower over the roof of the shower was the tank of cycle and b12 and they were gashed and then taken into crematoria deep veins going to the Auschwitz extermination camp where so study and I remember that we were still in our town that they couldn't kill him fast enough so there to sidetrack him I remember my mother got word that in our town was a sidetrack train destined to Auschwitz was all those unfortunate people now I was in London and a half years old at the time by then and asked me would you you know I give you two bags of food didn't supply for them and see if you can go down to the railroad station and throw it to them and I want to tell you when I went down there and I showed those people that were in those cattle cars going through the extermination camp of Auschwitz with graded the den stretching out and as I approached it there was a head all ever bushes and I tried you know I was only dead 11 and a half years old so my aim wasn't at the beginning that good then I was a faith because the damned determined sentries over there would catch me and take me in with it but I managed to crawl and the bushes closer to the Train and finally got pretty good aim so when I got home my mother asked me how did you do I wouldn't tell her about the German sentries at all because as a kid I got a kick out of doing it because I thought I'm doing something good for those miserable people that people did are suffering misery no toilet facilities nothing I could even smell the stench of their excrements it was awful feeling but I did it I came back I did it one more time and so on before you know what the Germans started to liquidate the town because the German contacted intermittent weights and they found that if did you just spread out in different towns it is inefficient for them to catch as many Jews at once so they decided to concentrate them into a ghetto so by nineteen by the end of 1942 we were sent into a debtor which was called Schroeder in a town of Auschwitz yet they had my father come back to the town of your version or to run the business for them and so on and we had no means of surviving making any money and in the ghetto conditions were awful the Germans were smart enough to run the ghettos by with with a Jewish a udin rat they caught it with his eduation municipality run by Jews but the Jews did Vanette were subservient to the German orders and were executed the German orders because they thought that's one way that can survive conditions in the awful food was rationed everything wasn't short supply and when everything is he short supply you guys know with the pandemic how how bad it was how people panic to get Gross's can you imagine time of war where everything is racing rationed how that was it was awful and people were starving actually from hunger and what happens in time like this there's price gouging and and the the udin wrath which is did people did run it prohibited citizens from going outside because it was fenced in you had to have a special permit and if you want to get a special permit you would have to pay Paola a substantial amount of money which we didn't have now we needed to survive and since in together we had we were located in an apartment on the ground basement floor which was on a hill overlooking the surrounding area he told me you know what we will open an opening in the fence because which is covered by bushes and he told me you will go out now remember my older brother at that time was in a labor camp my younger brother and my sister and I and my father went this with other members of the family different related family etcetera and all of us were in a condition where we were starving so we had had we were forced you know necessity is the mother of invention and then you staff you gotta do something so my father said to me listen Sam you're gonna go out are you gonna smuggle your way outside of together and what you're going to do with this you will buy goods because in the Jewish community there were craftsmen which were able to do all sorts of stuff they were making sure there were shoemakers making choose their manufacturing choose suits and so on the gradient Polish community outside of together didn't have a source of supply of that sort so what you do is take some manufactured clothing and shoes did you purchase in together and sell it outside to the grain community with which you can buy food products and so on bringing in two together I didn't I had no idea how to do it she tell me simple look you buy a pair of shoes for 10 bucks you sell it for $12 you buy his room for 15 you sell it for 20 and so on did the same thing to do with the groceries here by outside and so on this smuggling wasn't easy because number one Jewish were prohibited from using public transportation so for me in order to go with streetcar to be afraid that some pole will just send me and expose me to some German policeman and I'd be taken into prison so that was a very problematic things for me to do but I managed to do it everything was fair about it to be a fake as a matter of fact one time when I came back with the food supplies and approached the defense a date at that time my my father mother could see me because we were I was coming up the hill and they were on top of the hell and that we could see me in a German policeman streamed immediately stopped and I knew right away if he catches me he's going to do something and besides I didn't mind infecting my supplies but I was afraid luckily I was smart enough because in ended stuff that I brought back both the bottle of booze and I was smart enough to take out the bottle of booze and drop it on the floor which attracted his attention he was busy looking didn't picking up the battle I managed to get into the ghetto conditions indicator was so bad my sister was ill because she had gangrene in the leg that took on the hospital and she was in the hospital and they were gonna amputate the leg goodness in fact I remember her father got got me and mylanta brother together to promise that God's if we survive this and all this that we will take care of and our sister you can imagine you get this at the age of 12 12 Sam I have to ask you we're running out of a little bit of time and I hate to interrupt you can you tell us a little bit about when you were captured and when you escaped your experience and in the camps in your escape the Nazis liquidated the debtor that surrounded together and asked 35,000 people to assemble and a huge lot where the nature lectures when they made it and it was a roped of sections they ordered they want to report and that's very important as we were important at that time my sister wasn't the hospital we knew she's gonna be taken to Auschwitz and won't make it so my father said you know what my mother mother decided I go with my father my sister my younger brother goes with my mother shall we we went and as we showed they roped of sections and everything else I talked to my father I said to my father you know what I don't want to be handicapped to you because I was you were able but it's you probably be go with the able-bodied man I know I'll be subjected to go to the extermination camp at Saturday night see if I can make my way so my father of course rent and the policeman told them to go Dawson they determined God doesn't go to a certain section I didn't know what to do but as as they were segregated gathered people so I coupled with children the German was busy because the men they were going to separate the man in the children and the woman started crying when I saw that I saw an opportunity to sneak into my house a section that's not in there where there was another selection however when I snuck in there I realized that the other selection today the Nazi officers gonna see me as a kid is going to send me to the extermination camp luckily there was a construction site nearby I was able to take a cinder block and for the de Becque Road stood up on top of the cinder block so did not see one see did I'm a kid somebody made the cell you asked my father what is your profession he said he's a Mason so you send him to the able-bodied section I could tell the difference and then she ended today bo-buddies section he asked me what are you doing I said I'm I'm aces helper so you also told me to go to the AVA but the section but I couldn't step down one when he's still watching that waiting went further away and I was able to sneak in into my father's section I was taken with my father too because he said he was amazing they took into him concentration can to a labor camp called Annabeth Annabeth was a can probably build camps and we were there for three months from which we were taking to tube lemma which is a larger concentration tent there about 4,800 prisoners in that camp which was adjacent to our German industrial complex and I was assigned to work for a welder a German welder who by the way whether lint and was injured on the Russian front that's why he was not in the army so he was fairly pretty good to me very good as a matter of fact I had I was ok but be willing for the concentration camp labor camp to the industrial complex and rows of 5 shackled and so on and we were in different barracks we were together but he was in a different command group than I was going to the industrial complex we were led every morning and every night we were given outrageous now he because he was Orthodox he tried to observe the loss of kashrut of big kosher and so on so I didn't eat non kosher meats and so on that's a matter of fact I had discussion with him he said dad look I'm sure God is gonna forgive you because under these circumstances you can abide by different rules we had discussions back and forth I was very frustrated to be enclosed and see oh that agony you know that put all the punishment that people were given for little things and people were starving if they were incapable of providing labor for the Germans they were executed and sent into the crematorium as a matter of fact the barrack remember next to the crematorium it was an awful situation I am in fact at one point it was so bad I said to my father look what's the point of me working my butt off for the Germans and then starve from agony America mid suicide says it was at that point my father said to me look you can't you got to hope we gotta have faith that God that God will help you I said to him look dad you talk about God here the Germans and the German soldiers of their battle is this s insignia with inscription cottage mittens which means God is with us you pray to God how can God witness all this agony and let it happen this and that and I kept arguing with him lo and behold he said me look son I'm gonna tell you something I'm gonna tell your story about two flies they both fell into clean one of them was a believer but you don't want to be you are not believing because you have a contentious relationship with God so I'm gonna tell you one of them was an optimist the other one was a pessimist those flies were fell into clean the pessimists had no faith in himself had no value so although through and drowned let go of his legs and everything drown the optimists had a lot of hope and faith in himself his ability he started he didn't want to accept that he started wiggling his feet back and forth and flapping the wings until he made butter out of the cream got out let that be your lesson in life he said I want you to move be hopeful by the way sure enough a few months later as we were walking we were led from the industrial complex to to the camp and so on in the snow I noticed a woman walking on the side beginning I didn't know who it is as we got closer I realized she had the same code that my mother and I got closer yet I realize it was my mother and I because we were shackled I couldn't do anything so I kind of nudged the guy next to me I said hey this is my mother he said me look at shut up because if you keep your mouth open they'll take her by the way I was the youngest person in that Conn situation camera you know that labor camp so lo and behold we got note that my mother left a note my father's section with the contact information and so on so here the problem the question is how do we get in contact with my mother and so on my father tried all sorts of ways to see if we can ever way of contacting funny said to me you know what ask your boss because he was disenchanted that they was injured from the Russian front and so on maybe he will do it don't tell him it's your mother telling you have an end someplace in the monastery and would he go and visit her and so on I did I I did and he went he was willing to do it you see well I really did test Germans and all this they're good people and every nationality you just gotta find them the ref you would find between but I was fortunate enough to have that so he brought back food and and so on I could tell you a million stories about things that transpired and camp because its but despite the food that we got that he bought from her we lived under awful conditions people were dying and so on but my father came back to he says you see when you have hope there's a light shining someplace so it's a lot better better than despair but during this time Sam during this time when you were questioning your father and you were questioning what was going on and all of this pain and suffering did you ever lose faith in God it's I don't know if I would lose faith I I did in a way as I told you I had a very contentious relation for the guy I was angry I was angry what did I do was a kid to deserve such punishment and such suffering I said to my father you say how righteous God is and so on as a matter fact about an optimist and says look at every Passover celebration at the Seder you went the Seder with the sentence the Shema Bobby Arusha line which means I hope we celebrate next year in Jerusalem if you would have gone to the Holy Land before with my grandfather we wouldn't have been through this and all that so it's you know it's not a question but you losing faith in God but then you are under such punishing circumstances you not only lose faith you you am didn't and nobody likes to be embedded but be my father be in any case by January by January of 1945 but we could hear the Russian artillery and everything it was actually January 21st of 1945 the Germans to evacuate decided to evacuate the geta and take the prisoners deep onto Germany both to serve the German army to dig trenches and so on and they called it that's in the annals of the history of the concentration camp known as the Death March because they let us from what everyday without feeding us all they asked us to take along as a blanket in the canister we hope there isn't ask us them in the concert they would feed us they didn't feed us where to go in this no I didn't tell you that were you wearing the Duster complex there were also prisoners of war from England France Russia you name it and as well as other civilians from European countries we were forbidden to contact with them however we did have contact we didn't you did another follow what do you forbidden to do so I'd contact the defense I managed to get a thread shredder and French and leather shoes because the concentration camp huge had the wooden souls on them and when you walked on snow it would collect like a ball of snow underneath it and you could hardly walk you would wobble then because I had this so when they asked us took us out on the death march on January 21st things were awful they would take us and people were already initiated they couldn't walk and they would overnight us an abandoned German bonds because the Germans ran away from the Russian onslaught because they knew did they were cool to the rushes and the Russians would take revenge on them and we were half of their everything boom things went bad people were dying like flies things were so bad that we wouldn't even take I wouldn't even take the blanket that I had that I was told to bring along because I knew did towards the evening I would be able to take the blanket from a corpse you can imagine a 15 year old kid having to go through all of that it was awful but lo and behold after three days as the Germans worked as a solar assigned on an intersection saying nice and nourished that's 35 kilometers nice and noshed that was the town where my mother was those the address of the target where my mother was as a non Jew in a Catholic monastery so I said to my father look look do you see this let us hide the burn next time we order it didn't work out because we were gonna hide it at the desk of dawn you know it right while the boosters were crowding the Germans got us out of the barn in today's thinks wood bed but the 21st was us was the Sunday coming by Friday where was the 26th they take us out of the barn into an intersection out of the village and as they took us out onto the intersection of course we were filling up our canisters with snow because that was the only means of survival we put snow into the canisters melted on our belly so we could have something to drink and so on they halted us before the interest at the intersection because they were caravans of Germans running away from the Russian onslaught there were convoys of German soldiers going back and forth there was also a column of French prisoners of war reservoir so they halted the concentration dependence we had two stripes uniforms and so on but that day had been anniversary of my grandfather's death and it's a custom and Jewish religious custom to say in the anniversary of death to say a memorial prayer but and this has to be done in the quorum of ten men but since the Germans stopped us that enabled my father to go and say the memorial period but at the same time as he was saying the memory okay I saw the German god Nazi God turning to a sled with his belongings and back to us and I had no time I just ripped off my striped clothes and under which I had a French sweater and so on and although I was able to do it spoke my father on the shoulders I said dad I'm going and I left hoping did they won't shoot me oh that the what notice it and there was a bunch of German kids watching this like Ewok what watch a menagerie or something and so I said the German I said hey you lousy Jew bastards and so on I went by by the time I suffered of dysentery that's I went to a snow bank on the son of the intersection to relieve myself I don't know what happened I passed out I don't to this day I don't remember what happens but I remember that I came to myself so when you say if I believe in God I believe that that was an act of God yes sir God by the way I wanna tell you that was not the only act I've written a book about my experiences it's called from health to the promised land and anyone that wants to buy it it's available on Amazon Sam will will make sure everyone knows about that what an extraordinary story so many things you can sit here forever and listen to listen to your stories but it sounds to me like when you consider the two most important things that you felt about your life it was your uncle Moses who set you on that path and it was your father who set you on that path to become the man you are today look I remember my father it is painful to know did you lost a parent that fashion and that thing so we went back from I was I went I didn't join all these Germans running away my German woman would tell me about would repeat verbatim the German propaganda of the Jews are financing the world Aldous finally in at the at the meantime Russian planes were attacking the German military convoys over this was taking place we had to disperse and to the field sort of that doctors over it was just mayhem do you have time we're gonna let's take a few questions we have people that are writing in some questions for you okay so Holocaust education is mandated in in California yet because there are no educational standards Holocaust education varies from old school and district to district with many California students graduating high school with little knowledge of the Holocaust do you think that Holocaust education is important and why Holocaust first of all all education is important in the Holocaust education is important so the only thing the only way we can improve our present judgment is by learning from past history and because this country is blessed by an assortment of people who seek liberty in the Statue of Liberty and the freedom that they're not a great country of the United States has to offer this is the greatest country in the world and because we value freedom we detest it by the same token hatred and anti-semitism or discrimination of any kind we were born equal under God regardless whether we are black white blue yellow whatever and that's how I feel about light terrific terrific what you almost talked about some of the lessons that should be taught to our to our young people and what do you what do you think people here today do to people and do people understand what she went through and did they try to put it into their lives today to be honest with you it's impossible for person under the circumstances in the United States to understand the severity and the real cruelty of war and discrimination unless you personally went through it it's very hard but I was telling you about that potato did that shared with my father you know a person not going through anything like it would have a difficult time perceiving it even that this would be a source of right for a 90-year person of an event did happen 75 years ago yes sir yes sorry it's hard to imagine it sorry it's very hard to imagine we have several people that have asked you questions related to God so I asked you if you ever lost faith in God but during your experience and the time in the camps how did you keep your faith in God how did you keep your hope up and how did you keep going to the next day as I as I told you you started making it was my father who had an extraordinary strong belief in God who maintained my spirit and believe because as I mentioned to you before it wasn't just me it was my father then build me with that faith and the very fact that I was able to survive and that escape it wasn't me that alone did it I was really led by a higher Providence and able to do it the emotion and the feeling he must have had when you tapped your father on the shoulder and said dad I'm leaving while he was saying Kaddish I can't imagine but I I did you know we have limited time so we cannot discuss a lot of things but I had subsequent suffered enormous guilt feelings about why I didn't take my father with me I want to tell you dinner previous akai appeals occasions when I was leading my cousin and children and we were caught and I escaped while being loaded on the track to Auschwitz with a cousin of mine I was able to take him with me but here I escaped without taking my father with me and I know mentally that it was physically impossible for me to do it because you take the risk to my life was enormous but for me to take the responsibility of taking my father me being the kid you know the relationship equation doesn't quite work but it didn't happen but and I knew mentally did it couldn't not happen yet the agony and the pain that I had about me not having attempted to do it was enormous and has punished me almost all my life you know one of the next questions we we have that I think most people would like to understand is after your experiences how did you come to learn to recover for those and start to enjoy life because even in the short time that I've gotten to know you which has been a blessing on my life you love life I can tell how were you able to come and transition from the horrible horrid experiences that you had back in World War two to your love of life today for one thing you can't live in the past any person I don't care who it is advice to kick himself in the rear for mistakes he learned made in the past and all this is wasting a lot of time as this calls for this as well as eight if you spend the time hating you just failed to enjoy life in its fullest life is really short and I let me tell you I might be 90 years old but I try to enjoy life even pandemic we here launched country a blessed with a topography which is gorgeous we have mountains we can go we have we have trails you can go and enjoy the wonders of the world and if you are really limited in this pandemic if your parents that watch it whoever I suggest you take your children for walk in nature and enjoy God's wonder how God created the world you'll be surprised the closeness it gets you to your siblings to you children and the spiritual enjoyment that you get out of life you know today even we still see an alarming rise of anti-semitism in the world today and we see hatred towards Jews and and we see all sorts of acts of evil what is in your mind prevented mankind from learning the lessons of history so that we don't have to experience this any longer it basically stems from one thing - one thing only ignorance these people don't learn from history they don't understand what my dad basically unhappy with themselves and project their bitterness on through others it's like bullying in school you know ya know it's that's very very well said very well said what a what you know your love of life keeps you going forward and keeps you moving for you've had children you helped liberate the State of Israel one of your two real things that you're so happy about and so thrilled about when did you come to the United States I came to the United States in 1952 what happened was I escaped from the deathmatch to my mother at the monastery did you find her did you see her but did you find your mother but let me explain to you let me tell you this as I told you be well-matched we were merged and I was I came I didn't know that nice and which is the time where she was as a river when I came when I escaped and I came towards the town and I saw this bridge and there was a German sentry staying standing in the bridge asking for papers legitimation yeah and papers I got scared that was shaking in my breath said what the hell am I gonna do now that's it look let me see ya go then she faced the situation I had no choice so you asked me give me your papers please so I said to him in the broken German with a French accent because I had the French stuff on me said I don't have any of that could could you I said look I was working for German present in German and while the Russian planes were attacking the convoys we dispersed in the fields my peasant and all my papers and we got lost now I come here to look for work and I came there so him we were going back and forth funny said get that obviously I did and I went towards the monastery then you imagined that Jewish Orthodox kid going to a Catholic monastery living after two years in a concentration camp I go to the monastery everything was and span I just barely opened the door and see this beautiful banister on the left there was this huge cross of Christ and so what I was afraid to expose my mom's identity and so my app was beating like a drum I go in stable uh Khalidi de nonce with prayer I go and stay behind the cross my heart palpitating and I see this woman walking down the stairs in a white uniform and so on but that they didn't know I wait I wait and I get impatient finally the woman is coming back with a tray cookies and ever think and so on so say to her German excuse me please do you know a certain woman by the name of Bob our segment that was her area name I didn't recognize her that she's my mother did white uniform and I also I grew taller so you know there was a discrepancy there that I didn't quite know how to make out and I was effect so she she looks at me she says yeah it's bin Laden yeah I am the one person children I can't like who are you actually mama don't you recognize me and she taught me to go out which I did and she took me to another monastery when aunt of mine wasn't it was an agrarian monastery but that house is so on so she could put me in the summer residence and that's how we survived the war and after the war we hope that other members of the family would survive but out of the family if I hadn't made total only five people survived okay so I joined in the communist occupation of Poland was totally discriminatory towards Jews and anti-semitism in Poland was horrendous so I'm again to survive we engage the black market stuff so nothing cracked our young guy who was again I was then not even 16 years old submitting crack I were young guy who was in an orphanage which was run by the Zionist Organization in Budapest Hungary he told me how the goal is to go to Palestine which exactly matched what I wanted to do right so I told my Ben I came back from Cracow to our tyrant that's it to my mama about me joining it she we discussed that that could both she agreed to it and she escorted me to the railroad station because I had a date with him to go to Budapest adjourned the dolphin it's me well as we got to the very word station his name was law like we met and he was going the train was that the conductor was already whistling for the train to move my mom started crying she says don't leave me you know this and it was a horrible moment do you know of separation so but I could the train was almost moving such a tear look mom maybe you could afford to lose your husband and three kids I don't want it to happen to me and I gotta do something about it and I'm going to I love you and I've jumped on the train but it was moving you we went to Budapest through an orphanage again you know I could talk about this story for how long that's in the book if you want to know everything we'll plug the book don't don't Sam it your courage is extraordinary and and people are asking questions and they want to know what kept you from going crazy what held you together I was crazy what thoughts pushed you forward I think your little meshuggener right now to by the way but what what you don't know it that wasn't a decent economy I could give it a right come back and give it him go go in the mountain and I'm probably the only 90 year old guy did you know what they called me up there no sir mr. Peavey you know what it is sense for you're full of piss and vinegar and that's what kept you going yeah you got you got to take light lively look every problem it's so possible time without the B have a pandemic believe me you will forget about it yeah thank you so I want to let everybody know this is Sam's book here from hell to the promised land it's on Amazon it's $15 Sam I hope that your book sales explode in the next couple of days or so with this I could sit here all day as you can imagine listening to your incredible stories and I know we had more questions from the people in the audience and from our viewers but our time is has come to an end thank you for helping us to keep the memories of the six million that were lost men women and children and we keep them in our hearts today and we should keep them in our hearts and prayers every day history is what we should pay attention to history is what teaches us going forward what to avoid unfortunately we don't listen to history learn the lessons of this thing you have to learn the lessons from history and so thank you to our viewers and the Jewish Federation of Family Services of Orange County for participating with the city of Mission Viejo to make this program possible stay safe stay healthy and be good to one another thank you thank you [Music] [Music]

Channel: Mission Viejo, CA

Views: 9,988

Rating: 4.742857 out of 5

Keywords: holocaust, survivor, jews, sam silberg, mission viejo jewish federation

Id: UCOJZg1fY-g

Length: 80min 31sec (4831 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 23 2020