in Poland partisan fighters operated in cities villages and in the forests using any means available you've got to be killed regardless the why don't you take a chance when I went into when we got firearms I became a pastor father I was not afraid to anything I didn't commit my mind white bullets were flying through my head right and left I was lucky I wasn't hit our direction was to fight to kill or be killed we could not even surrender because surrender meant death by torture we had nowhere to go it is the wrong direction fight if you could if you kill a German let's say we did kill a German they took out 10 or 15 other people may kill them you know say what they did so the Jewish people the older generation he said to me take out the gun from the house if you do you're gonna bring a disaster for the whole gate of the catcher here you understand the mentality they weren't all even the people in the closest of the families the people were so close please young people some of them did leave their families that went to Russia they went to the partisans they went to the underground and some young people didn't want to leave their families there were many others who had choices that could do just the same thing as I did I'm not talking about families families was very hard my family consists of my three brothers and four sisters I had brothers and sisters well small and I'm the only one survivor I took on my own that I am NOT responsible nobody just for myself Sam Goldberg used false papers to pass as a non Jew among Polish partisans in the morning excuse my expression I had to take a leak so I went out to the forest you know it was everything was in the forest for instance in their forest now extending across and next to a tree I was taken only I got my name's Ruthie it was his name he came out the same thing he looked at me said very dirty in Polish you're Savin a you are jewel you're circumcised I said what are you talking about he said yeah you'd circumcised short to me I said what's what's the matter with you come on Cordell that or after was eating breakfast the owner of the bakery came over to me he said Sigmund he better take off go to Boris off because they already said they're gonna kill you to find out you're a Jew nicer to myself I'm fighting for their country I tried to be a patriot you had nice Polish people you have an element of people who are bad they looked everybody in the eyes just to recognize a Jew Derek and I said you better than Germans because they lived among us they knew us right my friends a like he had a different policy he had a policy a reverse policy if anybody looked in his eyes he went over to him he said you goddamn Jew I gonna call the gentlemen's he made him message you use that averse psychology in a Polish usually when he we start howling at him like he ran away he left us alone there was a group of young men and women who risk their lives day in and day out to assist other Jews who worked on false papers who smuggled money and all they they did this all to have others survive and I am Alive thanks to them they are not celebrated as heroes but the group in Warsaw Ghetto who decided to commit a collective suicide and succeeded in the process of killing few Germans are celebrated so you got you killed one Germans or two or three so what I am much more impressed with the fact that someone had the strength the courage to survive the courage to endure the courage to endure that really is what matters in Holland approximately one hundred six thousand Jews 75 percent of the Dutch Jewish population perished however more than 25 thousand Jews were rescued by an organized resistance movement when we started taking in people we realized that they had to get away if the Gestapo came so we had a first floor alarm that we rang so the people on the third floor could creep out the window in the gutter and go to the Attic of the school you could go and hiding there and I remember once I was so afraid they had come to arrest me and they two guys took me by the wrist threw me against the wall and I was trembling and I didn't want to show them don't show them that you're scared you know that they have become more sadistic so I was trembling in and to hide it I was crossing my legs and uncrossing my legs I had shorts on and this Gestapo Gauleiter Sapphira biter said to me you're not impressing me with your legs so then I stopped trembling automatically because I felt I had gained a little young control he was after all just person like man rather than this devil why did the rescuers do it my mother said to me you know we can get killed but you know even if it's the last thing you do you have to do that because you can't live with that on justice and not do anything and then live with yourself and knowing you didn't do everything you could I don't want to live in a world where nobody cares it down agnes Minton was 26 when she worked with Swedish rescuer Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest Hungary Wallenberg is credited with the rescue of thousands of people Budapest is two cities and in the middle is the so-called Blue Danube for me it is the red Daniel but that's what it was and they took people down there the Hungarian Nazis and they roped three people together and they shot the middle one so they all fell in and if they saw a movement they shot again so that be sure but many people by themselves somehow got out but it was a terribly cold winter as I said and the Danube was frozen with big slabs of ice so route came home the third night and there was no moonlight no stars just cold and dark and he turned to us the first time usually only talked to the man and the Red Cross and how many of you can swim I have a big mouth I put up my hand I said best swimmer in school he says let's go and we went down on the other side the Hungarians didn't even hear us coming because they were so busy roping and shooting and we stood on the left way over we had doctors and nurses in the cars and then we had people outside to pull us out four of us three men and me we jumped and thanks to the icicles the ropes hang on to it and we saved people out but only fifty and then we were so frozen that we couldn't do it anymore but without Rob Allen barek we wouldn't have saved even one single person it was difficult for families to remain together a Jewish child might be saved if placed with a Gentile family and disguised as a non Jew so we would give away our child any place we knew where she would be welcome and why should she maybe lot has to die when she can live a good life we have a family in the United States who were only too happy to take her so we decided that we had to make it to her for her a heart not to kiss her anymore not to have a too close physically both of us did they came on a Sunday afternoon and we didn't know their name we didn't know where they lived and she saw them and we told us this those as a friends who would like you to see where they're living see that they have no children and she went with we - we went with her to the to the streetcar and we said goodbye like that no kissing nothing that comes afterwards and this is very personal and it's ridiculous to say that it's difficult because it never changes that never changes for all those years in 1939 nearly 10,000 children were rescued from germany and austria norbert Walheim was responsible for kinder transports that took german jewish children West to France Sweden and mainly to England none of us nobody of us could foresee even at this moment that for most of the children and most of the parents it would be the last goodbyes that a year and a half later or so from over the seam railways where the train left to take the children to a new country and then to freedom and liberty the trains would roll towards the east and take the parents through the human slaughterhouses and Auschwitz a lot of places many Jews were part of the underground resistance in France false identity cards were critical to survival in Shalu I connected with the Jewish underground and we were there to produce false identification cards that was our main endeavor I could not say to you from tomorrow one nor name is Margaret Smith there was no market Smith who was she you couldn't do that you had to constantly prospect the city vault and the Church of France and see who died and you had to try to get a wave to take take away the files from that person who had died and get hold of that file and give that indication to somebody who had to learn by heart everything about that person so you had to learn about market Smith you have to know exactly where she was born where she was baptized why priest baptized her where she lived after that I mean it was an unbelievable business and I'm telling you when you were taken in the middle of a street and you were asked for your indication you better knew knew your fact otherwise you everywhere cooked there were many arrests many people killed many people executed summarily executed very good friend of mine Eugene bass was killed in San Junior and southern France when he delivered a pack of ID cards and was arrested at the train station by the Germans and two shots into the head I met my husband for the last time the day of his 35th birthday in Lyon on a sixth floor on a maid's room in France the apartments all go up to the fifth floor and the sixth floor is reserved for maid's room and that very nice person had rented his poop that made him so I spent that day with him the day of his 35th birthday I left that night went back home he left to go back to where he belong the next day the Gestapo picked her up the next day the stopple came to pick up whoever had followed us in that room so that everything was like this you never absolutely never could tell the two friends of mine were picked up in a cafe in lyon because they were so of course you know every time you met you might always for business you were never meeting socially so those two boys were talking about I expect the next and endeavor that they were going to accomplish and they were smoking and in the parachute bundle that we were getting whether it was food or toilet paper or machine gun there were cigarettes and they were American or British cigarettes and they found the two butts in the ashtray they were picked up I mean these are things that you will never be able to make anyone understand it's it's not possible to to actually visualize this kind of life but everything you do you have to be so careful even stroking of cigarette emanuel tonigth mother arranged a safe hiding place for her son in the magua monastery near Krakow Poland with the help of a Polish citizen named mr. godorsky from the train station we had to walk to the monastery which was quite a distance at the time and while I waited outside he went and talked to the prior whom he told a lie namely that I was a converted you that my family was not really Jews but converted Jews and the prior agreed to accept me into the seminary into the novitiate and I at that point became a student sort of say for priesthood father kuhar who was the prior was a really a wonderful person I remember one time he sprinkled me excessively with the holy water and later on I and I could see a twinkle in his eye and later I asked him about it and he said with a smile in German he said see here is he here which means certain is certain which was his way of now of telling me I know it was a lie that you are baptized but it doesn't matter some Jews were able to survive because Gentiles kept them in hiding briefly or for extended periods sarrish Brecker age 10 her two year old sister Nina and their mother haya were hidden in Poland for about 18 months by mrs. Olav ska a devout Catholic now my mother was very Orthodox mrs. arlovski was deeply religious and she respected my mother's religion also she knew that it had to be kosher so she took one pot which she said she will scrub it up real good then she won't use any fat at all so she cooked potato soup for us every single day she browned some flour first never touched and she had one spoon she bought a new spoon and she had this one pot which he always used only for us my mother didn't have any uncultured food for the duration of the hiding never in her life for that matter but this is how she respected my mother's gender distance and my mother would say take a little money from this she would not accept and mama would say take a little money when you go to mass and give it to the poor and she would say they're not poorer people than you your children have no fresh air you have no light you have no freedom nobody is poorer than you she wouldn't take a penny never she never took a penny she did it out of the goodness of her heart she was incredible and we didn't even have a chance to think because after the war none of the door actually after the liberation when my mother went back to her and you know just just to tell her that we're going back to our hometown and she says please don't stay in touch with me don't ever come back I don't want my neighbor's to see you I'm afraid for the safety of my of my life my polish people my polish brothers will not forgive me for saving a Jewish life she was in jeopardy and we never could say thank you many Jews were able to survive for a time by living his non Jews on false papers Sam Goldberg lived as a Polish partisan with the Gentile name Zigman yankovsky the people who used to smuggle food into the warsaw ghetto used to come into this apartment house sell their goods what they brought with him in the morning when they could go out five o'clock days to go back to the train and go back home where they came from 90% of those people some people is to bring eggs on the chickens Sundays and that used to be a like a break market was there girl was coming there if she was sitting she was selling eggs what you have added did the mama from them broad L heard from the bordello she comes over to me said signals a good-looking guy why don't you go out there and talk to his girl and find out I think she's a Jew and she's a Jew I called a gas stop but we're gonna kill her she doesn't want to sell me eggs I said well what do you want she probably sell the eggs to somebody she has already a customer okay on and you go out until until they find out that she's at you I said how can I find out sure that you find out that she doesn't want to go with you to sleep up to the battle something you know a seizure jewel because our girls are all Chilika her look as I shall look at this oh look at this one as it was oh oh my god they're worse what she's talking about here to me so I walked out there we had a vault in the ghettos the word was called um who um who was a passport um who means one of us if you want to find out that somebody's I do you said about uncle if they answer you um who then you know the Jews okay nobody knew this well this was created during the world is for dunya I walked out to the school night doctor I said listen why don't you sell so makes the verge of Havana and so on and so on in the conversation I said to word uncle and I talked her some more and she didn't answer I said to myself ok so she probably not Jewish then I said to her talking some more I said if you bring some makes the more at least leave one dozen a gift to my Jehovah so she's not gonna bother you now said uncle she said I'm he said about I'm good to me I said there please don't come here anymore because they're gonna kill you he left the Germans rounded up chosen groups for deportation or execution when they assembled all children in the cove no ghetto fourteen-year-old Abe Malnik hid two mothers with infants hid with him all of a sudden I see that German guard keeps a walking back and forth I could see for the crack from the cellar out and here it comes in with his bayonet instead digging in the in hey and as I was digging you were staying on top that that cover which covered us and I could feel the covers going giving so I kept holding up and Smith was pulling for me and I was I didn't know what's gonna happen I said god help me and all of a sudden is he started walking out it couldn't find out thing was digging me this Bay in it one baby starts crying he actually apparently didn't hear too well and it has turn around and kept him walking and I say please God please and all of a sudden the baby quiet down a little later in the day and the guard was gone all day long back and forth and I had to look outside and see what happening in another baby starts crying and being hungry not having a full of water the mother a UNH in your hand and little baby drink it baby quite undone I would presume around 4 o'clock the German punctuality I heard the whistle blow in this car the truck passed by again and got all the gods together and I'll wait other five or 10 minutes and I opened the the shade open the cover and came out and see nobody there I told the mothers everything is clear come out and one baby was still crying and the other baby didn't say nothing even a mother had put her hand towards maybe baby smiled she took the baby to death and when she realized that she went in complete hysterics I start crying I didn't know what what happened to me as I cry nurses running and I came to my father's place wherever he was the fire department and he was telling me I said what happened here he said there was a kinder action the Germans came and liquidate all the children mass roundups and executions took place throughout the war Swedish rescuer Raoul Wallenberg came to Budapest Hungary in July 1944 this one morning one of the Hungarian officers who already thought that role will help him after the soviet comes in said Raoul iseman just ordered to kill the 70,000 people in the ghetto and the guns are already standing there raw without betting and I said oh boy and we have two of our Swedish girls in there now they just delivered the medication go back to your headquarters and tell them the Germans have cord of the killing and then he looked at us or we were in the office and he said listen to me what I'm going to do because he was always full of ideas and dangerous ideas because he could have been killed he picks up the phone and he dials the German headquarters and he says I want to speak to general Schmidt who were in beautiful Germany says this is lieutenant Krauss so who dares to tell her lieutenant Krauss that he can't speak to the general and the general came to the phone and they're all introduces himself again this is rural America well he couldn't hang up on him and Raoul said I don't understand what you are doing I understand you are a highly decorated First World War General how can you take it on your heart to kill 70,000 innocent people whereby he must have answered iseman ordered now Iran could have been standing right by the general Patrol had to try and he starts laughing and he looks at us and do like this and that with his eye he said iseman told you didn't you know that he left town I had lunch with him yesterday what was of course a lie whereby the man answered I didn't know Sorrell said to him in not simple words that if you don't call off the killing immediately I as a diplomat will be sure that you will be the first one hanged before your office within two minutes he called off the killing and therefore seventy thousand people plus the two Swedish girl have been saved many Jews were deported on trains destined for death camps scores of people were packed into each box car the trip often lasted several days without food water rest or relief of any kind it was a mood of expectation and since it was Friday evening after darkness fell in one of the elderly ladies remember that she had taken some candles along and she was lighting the candles and saying the prayers and we found this somehow encouraging and low it's so absolutely irrational almost irrational that here nobody but nobody knew about that 95% of the people on that train would not live to see the next evening but nevertheless people prayed praising God for what upon arrival at Auschwitz Birkenau Jews were moved quickly from boxcars into line for selection Jewish prisoners were often assigned to this task my friend said if you find our diamonds follow it when he came home before this we can buy vodka we can buy salami whatever you find little small what you can swallow swallow and I was working there the same day I said to myself now that I see it's true what I telling me where they have so much clothes must be from those people what they came in transporting you know on this transport I still couldn't upper-hand this I worked the whole day I came home very disgusted and I mean back to the barracks that was sitting there crying all night I was crying I want to commit suicide I said since I love them and tumbled a lot I said to myself ah yes my god a question we the Jewish people every day of atonement Rosh Hashanah the gone to the synagogue and the praise for God when he makes his judgment on us miss and we say in the prayers who should die by fire who should I beg water who should die by knife who should die by this I said Almighty God tell me the oldest people commit this crime to have to be burned alive tell me where are you I supposed to be one of the chosen people how you do it to us see the answer no answer I call Kim rouse somebody called the German the couple's Air Transport came the winner had the transport the work when we arrived to Auschwitz it was like we had just come into a to a different world they opened up the those cattle trains people in striped uniforms came on the train and they started to shout we should get out and leave everything behind my first impression was of their stride growth people's this must be declared unit this were the workers the Jewish workers that did the job for the Germans they would whisper to us nobody should see give you child to an old lady we didn't know what they were talking about he told in Jewish people with children are going to be killed the same day and as soon as my mother heard that she had presence of mind to run down and I was next to my mother and I couldn't really believe that this could possibly be true but she went over to my sister can remove the child from her arms and told her darling I just found out that women with children they'll have it very easy all they will do they will take care of the children but young people will be sent and hard labor and you know I'm not so young I'll never be able to survive hard labor so she was trying to make myself my sister believe that by giving her the child she's going to help her before my sister had even a chance to resist or to say no I don't want to give the child up it's my my mother had the child in her arm and she was pushed to the side where all the women his children and all the people were standing Cecilia's mother gave her daughter Mina age 22 a chance to live by taking Mina's young son Danny into her arms this photograph is of Cecilia's mother Rizzo and Danny shortly before they were gassed my mother wanted only a chance to yell out to me please take care of your sister my name is silly this is how she called me as she called out silica take care of your sister because she knew the pain my sister suffer and she found out well she took hope you're handsome at auschwitz-birkenau for those prisoners chosen for slave labor processing and registration followed the selection clothes and belongings were confiscated hair with shaven and arms were tattooed you're told that your name is a number forget your name you don't have a name anymore that your head is shaving off and you're hungry and you have no clothes and you're freezing and your family is taken away it was very hard for me to accept that and yet I don't know how I made it because I got a hold of myself and I pushed all this behind me and I said I have to live and I have to be strong and at that young age I felt like I was 90 I felt I had a lifetime already in those two days that I arrived in Birkenau being faced with a crematorium and the smell of of burning that's all they could smell but still not realize I mean not one thing to realize but you were in the midst of that was the smell talking about human smell I can't describe it to you it smelled it smelt even guilty you know how how come I'm here what kind animal am i that I'm in doing all this I must be an animal if I do and that was like a resignation to me to go on so okay God you made me be and AM no more because if and only the animals survived such things losing family smelling human flesh and and and bones and I'm still here and I want to eat and I want to survive okay if that's what you want I'll do it many Jews were deported from ghettos directly into slave labor camps administered by the SS was a tremendous click Esther gates closed sort of a finality and there stood a woman clad all in black and she was literally barking I've never heard a human voice being said harsh she looked like a bulldog she you know and I said this is this is going to be absolutely the worst we were supposed to refer to her as Frau Kugler she turned out to be the hope the inspiration and the knowledge that perhaps not all Germans were cruel she was a decent wonderful warm caring human being no doubt she was picked for her position because of her looks but that looks completely belie what was underneath it all she was decent she was good we stayed in that camp for a little over a year no one was sent to Auschwitz I don't know if she particularly loved us but she pinned a lie to the lips of all those who said they had no choice I personally am adapted to her for my own life at one point when this infamous Lindner was known for his cruelty swooped down to for an inspection of the camp and I had been very ill at the time I was running a very high fever and I was permitted to stay in my bunk and she came in there were two nor there were three of us who were ill she came and she said girls get yourself together and I remember I couldn't put my ID my skiing boots in my father made me wear my skiing boots when I left home skiing boots in June and I blessed him for it because I was those boots for three years and every season I remember she stooped down to tie my boots and she literally dragged me into two other girls to the factory she had worked in the factory before and she said my looms in motion and she said pull yourself together this is life or death today in some instances parents and labor camps tried to conceal young children living with them from the age of six Ruth Marcus lived with her mother in a series of labor camps when she was 9 years old Ruth was liberated from Auschwitz in the first camp that we were food was not a problem because I guess my father still had money and there would be food brought in from the Aryan side from the Polish side so food at that camp was not a problem but in the other camps when we were in stock Abbot's and then in Australia and in Auschwitz I mean our portions were so small to start with when I finished mine my mother's was always waiting for me she actually made me believe that she wasn't hungry and whatever she had she shared with me so that's why I'm here we had little love for each other my father and I it may at times be she lay in the bunk we used to reminisce so the holidays do you have with your mother family family you should tell me my son please don't remind please don't talk let's continue our life together the way it is many people in concentration camps formed close friendships often referred to as camp families my camp sister his name was Frieda Wrangler Frieda and I were like sisters she was Czech we became friendly engraven the first camp and we shared everything when Frieda got an extra bowl of soup for some extra work she would save me a half of it even if I wasn't around when she got an extra piece of bread she would leave me some when I had an extra soup I remember I would always make a line on that ball to mark off which is hers and I remember eating that soup and eating it so slowly and I would eat and I would come so close to what was read as part for sure I'm sure never never giving her an extra spoon but never taking a spoon of hers I never cheated on Frieda and I don't think she ever cheated on me this man just couldn't take it nobody could take it but some had more strength than others one day after exhaust the day in a special hearty I think it was he come back and his ration of bread was stone per disappeared he says that's it he wanted to get kind of our approval that we did not let him die we did not just feed him his words the three of us each got a third of our meager little ration what did it consist of of a piece of like a bed like a brick which was as we know now was sawdust in a tent and and and everything and we gave a third of that a third of our life for to this man so he should not give up matter of fact the best of my knowledge he survives I think it's a terribly important lesson one should never ever ever give up no matter how difficult a thing is you know giving up is a final solution to a temporary problem our problem wasn't so temporary nevertheless it had passed but one was keenly aware of the preciousness of life many concentration camps had a secret resistance movement Shoni bran was approached by a Frenchman who asked whether he was willing to give his life to stop the Germans to him I was the most important person but by working on that machine which filled gunpowder the capsules with young brother and he said to me I tell you what you see those civilians those are all French and electricians they were working around the ammunition Factory I says I tell you what you do now this man will supply you sand and I want you to put in the capsule which feeling with gunpowder sand and very little gunpowder so the machine that I was working would be feeling the Gunpowder automatically as I just are actively just fully armed so that now I had to put sand and mix except the gunpowder and it worked I mean it was fantastic how easy it really was to do that the Russians did a lot of solid I they used to make airplanes there so we they used to make some holes into to put it some screws in it so they then he it was marked everywhere to make tolls the Russians used to tell us don't make the hole you make tell you don't make told you know this what we used to do as possible we could nothing else a lot of guys got killed a lot of Germans got killed for because I don't know all some of the planes ever took off the baby works they were two Germans always watching the barracks that we should worked up early and fast because you couldn't stop for one minute we in turn had our own watchman to see when the German was coming and we had a password which was gas him which means rain in Hebrew and whenever they heard - and then everybody was working very diligently and otherwise in our own Navy sabotage if he could he cut up everything to shreds not that it had but it was good for us we you know we were no human beings anymore bill we were stripped of our humanity our dignity our pride our existence but we had to have some kind of some sort of a strength within this was some of our way of resistance I know it wasn't much but it made us feel like they're doing something we did everything possible to sabotage everything possible at the risk of our lives when we figured if I have done something to hold back their progress I'm killed but we'll do good for others this happened on a daily basis constantly one day during the work in section housing depicted random MN well said here dick he took the shovel big hole and when he was ready he said jump in the man wanted to jump in business legs first I said oh no first with your head and they buried him it was close to in the evening before we go home so it was maybe half an hour before on this SS man he was satisfied with it he killed him and this way he walked away when we took the advantage we went and uncovered him and we took him carried him on our shoulders into the camp we saved this man when I was arrested by the Gestapo and I was in in this camp my mother who was in Budapest at the time was approached and that if she become an informer they would rescue me they would get me which wasn't incidentally true but it was a setup she was on force papers and she she refused and I'm proud of it in concentration camps Jewish religious practices were strictly forbidden in September weaver transferred from france into calendar which was a large salt mine it was a terrible grueling work and and day of Yom Kippur all of a sudden the whole area of the salt mine became dark completely dark and we put our hammers down and said die immediately a little rest lease a little rest we thought it was God's will that onion keeper at least you know sending us something darkness that we can rest and one of one of thee the personís started chanting the corn a dry and honestly I can hear it I can hear it now like if then the other one got it into and then another one we were also about 60 to 80 persons around there and we're sitting and then even those who did not know the words and they did not probably even know the melody but they were humming it all along and in in a minute or two the entire section was full of of of the of the corny drive did a song of the yom kippur near the time of the jewish holiday Hanukkah in retaliation for an escape from a forced labor camp 10 prisoners were singled out and so the germans made haruka celebration on the poles of the various outside Falls they hung up the prisoners who were chosen to be one of the ten of the tents on their feet head down we had to pour oil on them and they had a bonfire and we had to think Christmas songs hiding an art I mean we need a we had sing the songs while our brothers our fathers of Brevard our cousins were burning that same night which we had prepared before a little bit of all was sneaked from here instead with the wall from there and we were in small groups with lookout post hundreds gathering to say the prayers and the blessing of Hanukkah of the miracle of Hanukkah we really did not give up I mean give up future there was not but we didn't give up and all of a sudden I saw that friend of mine who was standing there not far from me praying and I was looking at him and asked him Yaakov what are you doing I mean you have said probably your morning prayers if it's too early for the evening prayers what are you doing he said no I am that's right I say a special prayer to God I said what I said I am praising God I said are you out of your mind praising God here in this situation where we are insulated where we are isolated left alone in this in this held and you are praying to God and you are thanking him he said yes and thank again certain was very irritated and I said what I am thinking but I got thinking for you said I'm thanking God for the fact that he didn't make me like the murderers around us Sobibor I came to the camp with a pair of brown leather boots which not everybody had properly nobody and I said to the group that we slept together I took my boots adapt them up nicely and put him on the bunk bed under my head but they said why you put I said with these boots I'm gonna escape from Sun don't ask me why don't ask me how and maybe it's not it doesn't even make sense but I'm gonna escape with these boots located in a sparsely populated swampy area in a forest in eastern Poland Sobibor was one of the six Nazi death camps house which was a half slave labor camp energetic suburb of was just attention nor slave there you know work no producing no doing nothing full Sun SPOTs of people came to and just brought into slaughterhouse killed him the few people at work to you didn't count we didn't count as a working because we were just cleaning up the mess after business started booming night and day you had transport we used to work 14 16 18 hours a day so before operated from April 1942 to October 1943 about 250,000 people were murdered there I promised myself I will never go to the kitchen outside the runnings also do they have to race the bulletin when we lived there workplaces like a Goldschmidt a tailor shoemaker and it was they worked only for the German said it was not for us for the Germans every buddy had sand in his pockets in a knife this fear all had because he felt if you throw sand in the face then it's easy to stick in the knife because the person gets blinded that was assigned to kill the German on the on on on the walk there in hide I've walked through that place at four o'clock and I remember vividly very well that one of the first ships give us his name I think his name especially he killed just a fake him and he killed just a few SS s already and that started working and I was like messing to girdle donkey afore I killed and five four kill just throwing signals not talking somebody was in the office we had to be killed and there were two people are silent for it and the last minute one of them got scared he didn't want to go hi I'm took a knife quickly a knife put it in his pants in his shoes Susie had boots on and then the way I didn't even see him going and I remember I didn't see hi man it is he hi and I've been looking for him and I hear from a room buddy when he was killing that and noise like it was killing a pig every job I gave him I said this from the father there's some rather and that is for my for all the people who choose people you killed and the time came out of this house for meat blood and I thought she'd be going into the world I had no idea I know that we would run away my head no I started going there were a lot of people so I couldn't quickly all the blood from his face and he had a big wound on his arm and he took something I don't know what and he put it around his arm I already start to yell him to end on different directions now some people than the mines and got killed and some people just refused to move they sat down and gave up already on everything and some people we tried to render the main gate I saw that somebody put the stepladder behind a carpenter shop and that people are climbing ja no one explained it this was all split seconds and I just jumped up that stepladder and as I was on top I noticed a lot about he's already undermined some people went before me I got a bullet shot from the tower right here and I felt that as I fell down I was so much away and they will to live for so great there's no measurements to it that I started hopping and that parties and so nice reach the woods I took several by the hand and I I figured if we don't learn here we are dead and I grabbed it and ran to the main gate and people after us and we're on and it took my coat off and it took everything off and all the warm clothes were there but they had on they took everything off and we around and we're running around around you have to go and you and you try to survive even if you have all of the bodies you don't look back during the Sobibor uprising eleven SS men and several Ukrainians were killed although 300 prisoners managed to escape most were killed by their pursuers prisoners who did not participate were all killed and so be war was closed by the Germans in the wake of the uprising at the end of the war about fifty Jews who had escaped survived people fought there they fought back in the woods they fought back and the train stations they fought there every step of the way but they're not here to tell and that hurts the deaths and in in time runs out and the survivors to during the final stages of the war as Allied forces drew closer concentration and death camps were evacuated prisoners were forced marched over long distances or camps in German territory these evacuations became known as death marches those who could not keep up were shot it was freshly fallen snow for as far as that I could see an enormous surface was a plateau and then came up to to a gentle hill that was just covered with snow it was gray and was snowing and we were told to assemble four abreast so first it was a four of us and we held hands and we took the first step and I guess we all knew that this is going to be the first step to the end of the road he's a to liberation or to to doom and in front of us stretch this incredible line when people look you know his gray camp blankets over him look like wink death that's all you could see way way I had 4,000 girls and on the side was a SS men and says as women and he lifted her whips and they said forward march and we started too much if you stayed out of the line you were shut so you had to behave yourself you had to be strong the baby slept the five people in the row for held on to one they took turns in sleeping one slept five minutes then we walked each other up while walking that was our existence and that lasted from January till practically the end of the world how we we left a lot of girls thank you to snow and you were killed it was something when compared it can really not describe my father had asked me when I last saw him in June the very last day practically in the last moment before he left he said to me where you're skiing boots and I said why and he said I want you to wear them today as a Papa's King shows in June he said I want you to add them one didn't argue was once father so I put on those boots and I wore them throughout my entire stay in the camps for three years and in the mad also hidden the pictures of my parents and my brother I didn't know and I don't know how my father could have known that those boots were really instrumental in saving my life and said March I had ski shoes some girls had sandals we slept outside so Frost I saw girls breaking off their toes like twigs I had my ski boots two young children were brought into a barracks in Auschwitz Birkenau where Sam Goldberg was imprisoned Sam was 18 and cared for one of these children throughout their time in the camp but later together on a Death March they often slept outside or in a farmers barn hair bespoke Chancellor back in this little boy the farmer took a liking to him and took him out and he Harry was running between finally the farmer begged the German God to let him cook some potatoes for us both potatoes at least we eat something because they didn't eat for days the cooked of a lot of potatoes in heavy was running between the bark bit fiend the house in the shack back and forth he could go in and out no Elaraby I wish I could find him Harry so he brought me hot potatoes you know healthy baby so he gave it to me in in the barn and this bond was a place for pigs was tree for pigs in there okay in this bomb it was a lot of straw day you know on this and that landing I said happy you not from here you not going with us anymore you have to stay here oh I cannot believe you I want to go with you us and you not come with me I'm just telling you I had a lot of problems for this child on the road he got sick I had to cut his finger up because it a lot going up his arm you know it's very bad for in I said you not come with me I said listen Herbie this just la guy this farmer likes you and you have a chance stay here no I'm not gonna stay here I wanna go with you and this and that one day being in camp he this little child ten years old yes miss Merrow he calls me called me smaller he sex one of what is a jewel why am I here 10 year old child something because it circumcised Jewish he said I'm not to lose and I said you are you are circumcised you said this threesome on here this thing's ready kill my parents Teddy it all child so the day had to leave there early in the morning I grabbed him night roam and ended the BitFenix and I covered him up his throne he was calling in smaller I want to go which I says you're not going with me you stay right here because I gonna kill you myself I left him there and we looked away I hope he's alive hope you saw where it is estimated that 250 thousand prisoners of Nazi concentration camps were murdered or otherwise died on death marches approximately twice that numbers survived as the Allies advanced during the last phase of the war liberation of the concentration camps and death camps took place liberation was incidental to the war effort soldiers were stunned by what they saw we were very ill I weighed 68 pounds my hair was white so I was going to be 21 the following day and as we walked in I remember two rows of soldiers saluting and crying as we marched into that camp I mean just the remnant of death they heard but they couldn't you know as obviously nobody could visualize it they were they had the facility of listening to news and they knew something was going on that they are finding this Gamson but we were the first one that they were able to witness and you know while they cried Ricky called they really catered very close to the entrance was a big tree which I never had seen and uh under this tree with the lilies of Savannah his belly so beautiful so white I had forgotten that something Nexus existed there was no way of painting down and rhythm of I wouldn't do that so I put myself into them and I still feel this feeling wonderful that morning I went to look for Suzy because Lisa said to me so she went out to get some water and she has not returned I went out to look for her and I found her near the pump I thought she had fainted but I touched her and she was gone I wanted to tell her Suzy and I did tell I said to leave her liberated we are free we had made a bit more than serious Italian on a train which took us to camp a bet for a quart of strawberries and cream to be payable after the war I said we will be liberated and she said we would not and memo every be embraced each other I was in a small group of people and we were laughing and we were crying and was a tremendous feeling of relief but also of turn because we realized that this moment for which we have waited years and years we couldn't share with those of us who deserved it our own families every earlier realized also something else especially the Jewish persecute is that we had no home left to go to Sam Goldberg was trapped in a boxcar when the train was liberated by the American army the doors of the boxcar were jammed Sam was very close to death finally a father body I could hear talking to everybody oh they're giving soup they give him bread to give him this and here I'm laying I wish I have a little water if I don't die let me sleep just let me sleep I just so wanted nothing let me sleep finally the door opens up and I feel somebody is picking me up by my shoulders to pull me up okay then come to my mind he said tear all tear all they're gonna kill me they're gonna kill me I'm not gonna let him kill me you know them in my mind I don't know what them kill me now after at this time then to somebody they're gonna kill me now no way no not gonna kill me and I grab this shoe and I felt the person who picked me up night heaven with his wooden shoe like this the guy stuck I he said I'm not gonna keep you over I'm an American I came to the bridge you free Gerda weissmann lost all of her immediate family she was imprisoned in slave labor camps for three years and spent the last four months of the war on a death march my vague clear view of freedom in liberation came that morning when I stood in this doorway of that abandoned factory and I saw a car coming down the hill and the reality of that came when I saw the white star and its hood and nuts as fasting there were two men that car one jumped out I saw some skeletal figures trying to get some water from a hand pump but over on the other side leaning next to thee and against the wall next to the entrance of the building I saw a girl standing and and I decided to go walk up to her I remember that aura in after all of the disbelief in daylight to really see someone who fought for our freedom for my ideals and he looked like like God to me and I asked her in German and in English whether she spoke either language and she answered me in German and I I know what I had to say and I said to him we are Jewish you know for a very long time at least admit seemed very long she didn't answer me and then his own voice betrayed his emotion he was wearing dark glasses I couldn't see his eyes he said so I'm high I asked about her companions he said may I see that as a ladies the form of address we hadn't heard for six years I told him most of the girls were inside they were too ill to walk and he said to me won't you come with me I didn't know what he meant so he he helped a door open for me and let me proceed him and that was the moment of restoration of humanity of - dignity of freedom we went inside the factory it was an indescribable scene there were women scattered over the floor on scraps of straw some some of them quite obviously with a mark of death on their faces I took him to see my friends the girl who was my guide made sort of a sweeping gesture over this scene of devastation and said the following words noble be man merciful and good and I could hardly believe that she was able to summon a poem by the German poet Goethe which was called is called the divine at such a moment and there was nothing that she could have said that would have underscored the grim irony of the situation better than then what she did and his first young American of liberation day is now my husband he opens not only the door for me it's a door to my life in my future the closest that I was to a group who was taken to the crematorium beause the group that were taking him we saw him from a distance but they never came out but these people marched through our gates I mean they were very close to us and they think the Shema the hero God that was there less or aneema I mean I believe those were their last words as they march to their death anima mean I believe and yet these people knew where they were going and they went with her free they went with Aryan soul immunity that's how it sounded to me not talking about the children and not talking about the screams but this overrode a NEMA mean I need I believe overrode the other sons be might being clear so few lifts to know the joy of freedom is the most painful thing but sometimes a difficulty to to enjoy all the things to know how many were deprived of it that's it's the hardest thing but I think if one can somehow give the legacy of the nobility to the inheritors of this new spring a new generation the children the grandchildren who have grown up in freedom if they can understand it and value it then they have the chief to sort of the mortality if anybody comes to the museum and will see the momentous that we left behind [Music] whether it's a little shoe but it's a letter and it's a 2-player book remember these are our precious precious valuables remember that from these books these children studied from these player books our families chanted their players and remember them when we are gone and the member the agony of the survivors that had to live with these memories and could never touch them could never have them back and we hope that future generations will never know if our pain and not everybody will stand up to any form of persecution I taught my children love and not hate but I could never forget I couldn't ever forgive
