Transcript [00:18] The Holocaust, [00:20] the systematic roundup and murder of [00:22] more than 6 million Jews, and the death [00:24] of millions of others during World War [00:25] II was the policy of the German Nazi [00:30] that the Holocaust happened is [00:32] irrefutable historical fact. [00:36] The way to ensure this never happens [00:37] again is to listen and learn and always [00:42] remember. [00:44] The voices of those who perished in the [00:45] roundups, ghettos, transports, forced [00:48] labor concentration and extermination [00:50] camps are stilled. To this day, their [00:53] ashes float silently in the atmosphere [00:55] around us. [01:08] But there are those who miraculously and [01:10] courageously survived the mastrom of [01:13] Nazi anti-semitic violence. There are [01:15] among us people who have endured the [01:17] most brutal inhuman treatment [01:19] imaginable. [01:21] One such hero is Ethel Kersenbomb. [01:28] The Germans came into our town and they [01:31] had a selection where most of our town [01:34] was taken away. They told us that they [01:36] were taking them to work camps. [01:41] My aunt who had 14 children [01:44] was left with one daughter and then they [01:47] put us into sort of like a ghetto. They [01:50] segregated [01:52] um a certain area in town where we all [01:55] had to [01:57] move into [01:59] and we lived there for about 6 months [02:04] and then they made a second selection [02:05] which was a complete surprise. Nobody [02:08] knew [02:10] before we had warning so we could hide. [02:13] This time there was no warning [02:17] and uh they put it brought us all into [02:20] the uh square again. [02:24] Uh my dad escaped [02:27] and they took me and my mom, [02:30] my sister, my aunt and my two cousin to [02:33] the to the town prison. [02:36] People who were trying to escape, they [02:38] were shooting them on the spot. [02:44] and they saw old people. They shot him [02:47] right on the spot. They saw a little [02:49] child. They took the child out of the [02:52] mother's arms and shut the child right [02:54] there. The cemetery was right next to [02:56] the to the prison. They said, "If I'm [02:59] going to we're going to be shut, we want [03:00] to be shut right here on the prison." [03:02] And they took my grandparents and they [03:05] shot him right on the cemetery. [03:11] And we went to prison, all of us. And [03:14] then they came in the middle of the [03:16] night and they took out my aunt and my [03:19] sister and they brought him to the [03:22] cemetery and they shot him. [03:25] And one of the prison guards, which was [03:27] a pole, my dad used to do business with [03:30] him. He saw us in the prison. He opened [03:34] the door and he said, "Run. [03:37] At least you'll be shot like a person [03:39] because where are you going? [03:42] It's going to be horrible. So we ran and [03:46] nobody would hide us and nobody would [03:48] help us. [03:50] And then my mom went into a barn and she [03:55] saw that nobody was there [03:58] and we were hidden in that barn without [04:00] the knowledge of the owners. [04:03] One night we heard someone coming up and [04:07] we thought for sure that the Germans had [04:09] discovered us [04:12] and all of a sudden we heard my dad's [04:14] voice [04:16] and when he found out dural that we were [04:19] going through he said look it's a [04:21] working camp it's not a concentration [04:23] camp [04:25] you will be better off being there and [04:27] that's what we did we went with our dad [04:32] to this camp. My mom was a fantastic [04:37] seamstress and the head of the camp [04:39] whose name was Fees [04:44] went around asking if there was anyone [04:46] here who could sew. And my mom said that [04:50] she was a seamstress by profession. [04:54] and he brought a machine for her and she [04:57] was making shirts for him and she was [05:00] making things for his wife to send to [05:03] Germany. And he made a selection and he [05:07] took whatever old people were there [05:10] and all the young children [05:13] and put them on one side to be shot. [05:16] When he selected me, [05:19] uh I selected a lot of my friends. My [05:21] cousins were older than me, so they went [05:23] to the line where you live. I went to [05:26] the line to be killed. [05:29] And when my mom saw that he put me, she [05:32] was holding me by my hand that he put [05:34] that he was putting me over there. She [05:36] said, "You can't do that. Don't you [05:38] remember me?" She says, "I I do all sew [05:41] all these things for you and your wife." [05:44] and he looked at her and he ranched me [05:47] away from her and she ran back to him [05:49] and she said, "Don't kill her. Kill me [05:52] instead and he shot her right on the [05:54] spot in front of me and he let me go." [06:02] I was separated from my dad and we went [06:05] onto this transport [06:08] and we were put on the cattle trains [06:11] without food and without water. It was [06:14] just like a box car with wall to-wall [06:17] people. You couldn't lie down if you [06:18] wanted to. It was so crowded. We're just [06:21] standing up holding each other up [06:24] shoulder tosh shoulder. [06:26] And then all of a sudden [06:29] the doors open [06:32] and we heard rouse rouse, get out, get [06:36] out. And we all went out and we were [06:41] marched into a compound. [06:46] And as we looked up, we saw it said [06:48] Avitz. [06:52] And then we we lined up uh two in a in a [06:57] line marching marching in. [07:01] And as we were going into a room, which [07:05] supposedly they called it the lousing [07:07] room, supposed to take the showers and [07:10] and shave your hair. And we came in [07:14] front of uh an SS man, [07:18] uh tall, were very well-dressed with [07:22] white gloves on. [07:25] And as we were walking on, he was going [07:30] this way and this way, this way or this [07:33] way. [07:33] >> The selection process was as simple as [07:36] it was brutal. The strong, those who [07:39] could work a slave labor lived. The rest [07:42] were exterminated. [07:45] And when he came to me, [07:47] he was just about to go like that when [07:51] my cousin ran up and she said, "She [07:54] looks little, [07:56] but she's very strong and she's really [07:58] 17 years old and she worked in the salt [08:01] mines. Look how how strong she is." [08:04] And he looked at me [08:08] and and he told me to go to the side [08:10] with my cousins. SS women would was [08:14] shaving our hair, not just cutting it, [08:16] but shaving it completely with a with a [08:18] with a razor. [08:22] There was a blonde SS woman that was [08:24] shaving me. And she looked at me and she [08:27] says to me, "Vasu hair. What are you [08:30] doing here?" I was an extremely pretty [08:34] child. [08:35] I had platinum, long platinum hair, uh, [08:40] very wavy, and I didn't look Jewish. And [08:43] she wanted to know, maybe there was a [08:46] mistake. She says, "You don't look [08:47] Jewish. You look Arian." [08:50] And, uh, she shaved my hair. Anyway, [08:55] I was given [08:57] a little short dress up to here. My hair [09:00] was shaved and I was given wooden shoes [09:03] that they wear in Holland, the clogs [09:08] and uh we went to the barracks. [09:14] I was very sick. I was throwing up all [09:16] the time. I I couldn't take the smell [09:19] from the from the crerematoriums and I [09:22] wanted to get out of there from the [09:23] worst way that I could. [09:26] And someone said there was a transport [09:28] leaving in Ashvitz that you had to go [09:31] and tell the comedandon that you wanted [09:34] to leave. [09:36] So my two cousins and I decided that we [09:39] were going to leave if we could get out [09:40] of here because I I I had to get out. I [09:44] just couldn't I couldn't do the little [09:46] that I had to eat. I couldn't eat [09:50] constantly. The smoke, the the coming up [09:52] and the and the odor from from the dead [09:56] from bodies being burnt. I I couldn't [09:58] stay here. So, we went [10:04] and we truly went to a worst hell. [10:17] We went to a place called Stut [10:21] where [10:22] Ashvitz was half a heaven compared [10:26] compared to how this was. [10:32] But I always felt wherever I went since [10:34] my mother was killed that I was going to [10:36] live. I always felt my mother was with [10:40] me. And when we got there we had the [10:43] same thing. We had the selections and he [10:46] just put me with my cousins where he [10:48] took stronger [10:52] people [10:53] immediately to the others. [10:59] >> Once again, Ethel Kersian Bomb was [11:01] chosen for her looks, her near Aryan [11:04] looks. [11:05] A guard took her in tow and brought her [11:07] to the camp kitchen. [11:10] >> I decided that I wasn't going to live [11:12] anymore. [11:13] I how could I go through all of this? I [11:17] had my two cousins, but how could I [11:20] possibly survive all of this? When I [11:23] come home and and come back to the [11:25] American, someone who is bigger than me [11:28] and stronger than me just dies of [11:31] starvation. So, I decided whatever I'm [11:34] going to take some chances. And what I [11:37] did was I uh as I peeled the potatoes, I [11:41] peeled half of it [11:44] and I put it into the [11:47] container where where the potato peels [11:49] were going so that the peel should [11:51] because people were eating it raw so [11:53] that at least they should have some [11:55] potato on it rather than just the peel. [11:59] >> Ethel Kersian bomb was determined to [12:01] help her fellow prisoners and she did. [12:04] But then the brutality of their Nazi [12:06] captives surfaced and life or death was [12:09] once again on the line. [12:11] >> And then they had another selection and [12:13] they took my cousins away [12:17] and I was left alone [12:20] at that time. Said [12:23] that's it. I knew my mom was dead. I [12:26] knew my sister was dead. I knew almost [12:29] everyone was dead. is what did I deserve [12:33] that I have that I'm going to survive [12:35] this. [12:43] As the Allied armies hammered away at [12:45] the collapsing Third Reich, the Soviet [12:48] army approached. [12:50] Now time was on Ethel's side. Or so she [12:54] thought. [13:00] We heard shots, a lot of fire, and we [13:04] were told that the Russians were [13:05] approaching and they had to get the camp [13:09] out. [13:12] And they took us out on a train and we [13:15] drove we we were on the train for about [13:18] 4 days with very little food [13:23] and then they put us on boats. In a [13:25] desperate effort to hide their crimes, [13:28] the Nazis moved the surviving prisoners [13:30] out of the camps. In Ethel's case, by [13:32] train and then by boat. They were on the [13:35] Baltic Sea for 10 days with only salt [13:37] water for sustenance. [13:40] >> My body was swollen [13:43] from from drinking all the salt water [13:48] and we were sure that none of us were [13:51] going to survive. And then we heard [13:53] bombs [13:56] and we all said, "Thank God, at least [13:58] we're going to die like human beings." [14:00] >> But Ethel and the others didn't die. The [14:03] planes that attacked their boat were [14:06] British. [14:07] >> As they s the plane saw that people were [14:10] going into the water, they zoomed down [14:12] and they saw that that it was inmates, [14:15] that it were people who were wearing the [14:16] striped things. So, they threw life [14:18] preservers down. Ethel and her fellow [14:21] survivors swam to shore. It was the town [14:24] of Noat, then in the hands of the [14:26] British army. And so they were finally [14:29] liberated. [14:31] We were in this hospital and they tried [14:33] to get people to speak to us that that [14:37] we could understand. Nobody spoke [14:40] Yiddish. [14:43] It was a strictly German town. They were [14:45] trying to get the water out out of us [14:49] and to feed us uh very very slowly. [14:53] Those who were over 18 were going to be [14:56] released to do whatever to search for [14:59] their families. [15:02] Those under 18 they were going to take [15:05] to Switzerland to arrest homes to [15:08] recuperate. [15:12] I knew a lot of my family was dead, but [15:14] I I could not believe that everyone was [15:18] dead. I felt my dad was alive [15:22] and nobody knew. I didn't see him get [15:24] killed. I felt uh out of all my hundreds [15:28] of cousins and my aunts and my uncles, [15:31] somebody had to survive. And not knowing [15:35] very much about geography, I felt that [15:38] if they sent me to Switzerland was the [15:40] end of the world. I was never going to [15:42] find anybody. [15:45] So I pleaded with them to please let me [15:47] stay. [15:49] So I can go travel through Germany and [15:52] Poland and see if I can find anybody [15:54] from my family. And they said, "No way. [15:59] You're too young." [16:01] I was I was then 12 and a half. [16:05] >> As the war ended, thousands of [16:07] concentration camp survivors began to [16:09] look for the remnants of their families, [16:11] their towns, their lives. For Ethel, [16:14] hope was all she had to hold on to. Hope [16:18] and a stroke of luck. [16:20] >> This man happened to be looking and he [16:23] recognized my name because he was my [16:25] dad's best friend. and he signed that he [16:28] was my uncle and he brought me to this [16:30] to this town in Lubec where I met a lot [16:33] of uh people. [16:35] >> Ethel found people from her hometown but [16:39] not her father. However, a man in town [16:43] had a picture [16:46] >> and [16:48] he said, "I have this picture of all [16:50] these people that I survived with. Maybe [16:52] you'll recognize somebody." [16:55] And I looked at this picture and the one [16:59] in the striped jacket is my father. And [17:02] I looked at the picture and I said, [17:04] "This is my father." And I said, "Where [17:07] is he?" He said, "He's in Philadelphia." [17:10] I said, "Okay, I'm going." He says, "You [17:13] can't go because your father traveled [17:17] through half of Germany and whoever he [17:19] met, they told him that you can't [17:21] possibly be alive. [17:26] So he decided that he wants to go and [17:29] settle in Israel and live in Israel. So [17:32] I wrote my dad a letter which my dad [17:34] kept. [17:36] And u I sent him this letter. [17:42] It says, "My dearest daddy, it's really [17:45] me. I'm alive and the man told me that [17:49] you're trying to go to Israel. [17:52] If by some miracle you decide to come [17:54] back, [17:56] this is where I am. I've been all alone [17:59] waiting for him and God answered my [18:02] prayer. [18:07] I love you so much, Daddy. [18:11] I can't wait to hug you. I don't think [18:13] I'll ever live to see the moment where [18:15] I'll see your face again. [18:19] If you come back in your findings, [18:20] please put on wings and come fly to me. [18:26] If not, I will see you in there Israel, [18:29] your loving daughter. [18:33] Well, he came into the town, a fellow [18:36] thing, [18:37] and the man was outside and he saw him [18:39] get off the train and he said, "I can't [18:42] believe it." He says, "It's a miracle. I [18:44] don't believe it. Look." and he ran with [18:46] the letter to give to my father and he [18:48] said, "Look, I have a letter. I found [18:49] your daughter. She's alive." [18:52] >> Ethel had no idea that her father had [18:54] returned to continue his search and that [18:57] he had her letter. She made plans to go [19:00] to Israel to find him. [19:03] And then one night we were all sitting [19:05] in at the table and we're eating and I [19:09] hear a little knock, very soft. And we [19:13] turned around said, "Anybody hear a [19:15] knock?" And my friend said, "Yeah, I [19:17] think someone's at the door." [19:20] And the four of us are sitting and one [19:21] of my friends gets up and she opens up [19:23] the door [19:27] and there's two people standing there [19:29] and one is slowly pushing the door open [19:32] like a centimeter at a time and when [19:37] it's a full flank I see my dad standing [19:39] there. Of course I flew into his arm. [19:45] From that moment on we were inseparable. [19:49] Imagining [19:54] the daily horror that 12-year-old Ethel [19:57] Kersian bomb endured is impossible. [20:01] Yet when it was over, she found the [20:03] courage and strength to search for her [20:04] father and he for her. What a marvelous [20:08] act of faith and what a great reward to [20:10] find one another. [20:12] Ethel and her father along with the [20:14] tattered remnants of many broken [20:16] families came to America in October of [20:19] 1946. [20:21] He married another Holocaust survivor [20:24] who had also been in Ashwitz. [20:26] They put the horror behind them as best [20:28] they could and began a new life. Ethel [20:31] grew up, married, had two children and [20:34] three grandchildren. Her father died in [20:37] 1991. [20:39] Although they made a new life in America [20:42] and both loved their adopted country, [20:45] they never forgot what they had left [20:47] behind. And they never took the blessing [20:50] of freedom for granted. [21:13] By wits, by luck, by miraculous twists [21:16] of fate, every Holocaust survivor [21:19] wonders why me? Why did I survive and [21:22] not others who were stronger? Why? [21:27] For Abraham Rodstein, the journey from [21:29] childhood to manhood was a nightmare [21:32] filled with many extraordinary twists [21:34] and turns. [21:36] Until the Nazis invaded the Soviet [21:39] Union, the two countries had a [21:41] non-aggression pact. Part of the deal [21:43] allowed Soviet troops to occupy [21:45] Lithuania. [21:46] Then, when Germany broke the pact and [21:48] attacked, German troops poured into the [21:51] tiny country. As in every other country [21:54] they occupied, [21:55] >> they brought their anti-semitic [21:57] brutality with them [22:00] to bord. [22:02] I was born in a town in Lithuania called [22:06] Shaolai or Shavei as it was known in [22:08] Russian or Yiddishes, October 16th, [22:11] 1928. My father had a cafe, a bakery, a [22:16] movie house and other associated [22:20] business. The atrocities to the Jews [22:23] started mainly in the smaller towns [22:26] rather than in a town like Kovna. They [22:29] took one old part of town which was [22:31] called William Pi or Slabotki like it [22:34] was called in Yiddesh and they [22:37] designated that to be the ghetto. They [22:41] built a barbwire fence. [22:44] And uh one day we were told that we have [22:48] to move in into the ghetto. And the way [22:52] things happened is essentially [22:56] you could exchange houses with the local [23:00] population [23:01] in that particular geographic area which [23:04] was the ghetto. So due to the fact that [23:07] we lived in this very nice modern [23:10] building in Ko [23:13] we the people my father's relatives so [23:16] own that house [23:18] exchange that house with some [23:20] Lithuanians in what's going to be the [23:23] ghetto. [23:27] The only thing is that in one house [23:30] which was meant maybe to house half a [23:32] dozen people, you wind up with about 50 [23:35] or 60 people. So you didn't really live [23:38] in an apartment or a building anymore. [23:40] You only had a room [23:44] and that room usually used to house the [23:47] whole family. [23:50] You didn't go to school anymore. Uh [23:53] professionals couldn't work in their [23:54] professions anymore. You were not [23:56] allowed to walk on the sidewalk. You had [23:58] to walk on the street. You also had to [24:01] take off your head whenever you saw a [24:03] German. Fear was the biggest emotion we [24:06] felt. Fear of everything. Fear of uh not [24:11] surviving for the next 10 minutes. Fear [24:13] of uh of being killed, fear of being [24:18] hungry, fear of being [24:21] fear was a instrument by which the [24:24] Germans were actually uh reigning [24:27] because if you can instill fear in [24:29] people, a very small amount of uh people [24:33] can control a very large amount of [24:35] people. We lived in constant fear. Yes. [24:38] in constant dread. [24:41] Everything the Germans did was with [24:44] control of chaos because in a chaos [24:46] people don't think clearly and they do [24:48] what what they're told to do. [24:51] >> The inhuman brutality that was being [24:53] perpetrated by the Germans in other [24:55] parts of Europe began to raise its ugly [24:58] head in Lithuania. [25:00] Even though he was just a boy of 15, [25:03] Abraham Rodstein quickly learned what [25:05] selection meant and how to survive. You [25:09] started being aware of it because you [25:12] knew what's you knew what was taking [25:15] place in Poland. We also knew about mass [25:19] killings which took place in the forests [25:21] around it in Kovven. They used to bring [25:24] people and they used to kill them and [25:26] then burn them. [25:31] The German Jews were not brought in [25:33] freight cars. They were brought in [25:35] regular cars. We used to work on the [25:38] railroad and periodically we had the [25:40] opportunity to come in contact with [25:42] them. And we used to tell them try to [25:46] somehow blend in amongst us. Try to get [25:49] in with us to the ghetto because we [25:52] don't know what's going to happen [25:53] tomorrow but for today we seem to be [25:55] safe. They never paid attention to us. [25:58] They were not resettled. They were [26:00] immediately taken to the ninth fort, [26:04] shot and burned. [26:07] The following day, there were no more. [26:15] In the three years, the ghetto got [26:17] smaller and smaller and those things got [26:19] less and less and conditions became [26:23] worse because you can imagine here is [26:25] this a house. It's a house almost like [26:28] the house I live in now. And there were [26:30] maybe about six or eight families living [26:33] in that house. So for cooking you [26:36] cooked. We we created little we were [26:38] ingenious enough to make little cooking [26:40] stoves out of sheet metal and we used to [26:43] use kindling wood to cook. There was no [26:46] heat anymore. So we used to burn our [26:48] furniture actually cut of legs from the [26:51] table and little by little you just got [26:53] rid of your furniture by burning it. [26:56] Although life was very hard and fear [26:58] permeated every aspect of their [27:00] existence, the surviving Jews in the [27:02] Kovnog ghetto managed to keep going [27:05] until one day when the German final [27:07] solution began to reach out for them. We [27:10] were told very simply that the ghetto is [27:12] going to close and whoever is here has [27:16] to appear in such and such a place. And [27:19] they were taken by truck to the railroad [27:22] yards and they were [27:26] a whole bunch of u [27:29] cattle cars and we had to go in there [27:33] and eventually they closed up the [27:35] trains. the uh rain started moving and [27:39] we're going towards Germany. It was [27:42] June. It was hot. The cars are closed. [27:47] There's no air to breathe. There are no [27:49] toilet facilities. [27:52] So, uh this after a very short time the [27:55] stench became impossible. I was still [27:59] with my parents with my father and [28:01] mother. The first stop, major stop was [28:06] in East Prussia in a place called Stut. [28:09] Stoof was a concentration camp. [28:13] At that place they made us disembark [28:16] from the um [28:19] trains [28:21] and they separated women and children. [28:29] I was tall enough so I could pass as a [28:34] nonchild or a adult. My mother was taken [28:38] away at that time [28:40] and she wound up staying in Stutoff. [28:43] >> Abraham and his father boarded the train [28:46] again and moved deeper into Germany. It [28:49] was a journey that took him away from [28:51] his mother and toward a life of slave [28:53] labor and unimaginable hardship. Two or [28:56] three days later [28:59] we wound up in Bavaria in a place called [29:02] Lansburg. [29:04] Lansburg was also the same place where [29:06] Hitler wrote my camp. Lansburg was a [29:09] satellite camp of Dhal. Around Lansburg [29:13] there must have been at least half a [29:15] dozen camp. Each camp [29:19] housed probably about three or 4 [29:20] thousand people. And I wound up in a [29:24] camp called Laga Einman's camp one which [29:27] was right at the outskirts of the town [29:30] Lansburg. I was in that camp from [29:34] June or July 1944 [29:37] till middle of April 1945. It was a [29:41] labor camp. But the minute you got sick [29:45] for more than a day or two and you could [29:47] not work anymore, they sent you to [29:50] another camp. And over there they didn't [29:53] shoot you. They just let you starve to [29:56] death. The fact is that 95% of the [30:01] people who came to all these camps died [30:06] in within the uh 10 months we were [30:09] there. [30:12] The roll call was done every morning and [30:15] they used to rouse you middle of the [30:17] night and you used to stand there from [30:19] maybe 5:00 in the morning till 7 and [30:23] then they used to give you some black [30:24] coffee and a piece of bread and that was [30:26] your ration for the day. And the other [30:28] ration was when you came back they gave [30:30] you some water down soup and another [30:33] piece of bread and margarine. It wasn't [30:35] enough to sustain you in a lot of the [30:38] cases. It wasn't enough to kill you. So [30:40] people just uh existed somehow. [30:43] >> The prisoners were slaves. They worked [30:46] from dawn to dark. The conditions were [30:49] subhuman. [30:50] >> About four or five kilometers [30:53] outside of town was a huge construction [30:57] project and I happened to have been [31:00] working on that construction project. [31:02] They dug out the ground and then they [31:05] put in over the ground reinforced [31:07] concrete and on top of the reinforced [31:09] concrete they planted trees. So from [31:11] aerial photography you couldn't see [31:13] anything [31:15] and [31:17] they my job was to work on the [31:20] reinforced concrete where you connect [31:22] the girdles together and you twist them [31:25] with wire. Now you can imagine it was [31:27] winter. All I had on was my striped suit [31:30] because I didn't have any civilian [31:32] clothing anymore. All I had on was [31:34] clogs, not even shoes, and I had no [31:37] gloves. When I worked there, my hands [31:39] used to freeze to the to the metal geros [31:45] and my skin used to get torn off. [31:47] Luckily, [31:49] the way I prevented infection when I [31:50] used to finish work, there was a big [31:53] diesel a a big barrel with diesel oil. I [31:56] used to soak my hands in diesel oil. [31:58] That may have done the trick. I don't [31:59] know. [32:05] Somebody was cold in the winter, so they [32:07] cut a piece of blanket to wrap around [32:10] their feet. That was translated as [32:14] destroying German government property [32:16] and the penalty for it was death. So I [32:19] remember very vividly three people got [32:21] hung in the camp because of trying to [32:24] keep their feet warm. [32:27] We became very very fast lice infected [32:30] in infested [32:32] and uh [32:35] the first time I saw a house that was a [32:37] lot of horror and then you just got used [32:39] to it and all you had to do is just uh [32:42] kill them between your fingernails. [32:45] The Germans decided to clean us up that [32:48] we shouldn't have any lice anymore. So [32:51] they built a [32:54] bath which was maybe about half a [32:57] kilometer outside of the camp. [33:02] We didn't know what's going to happen [33:04] because when they say bat, we figured [33:06] it's probably a place they'll guess us [33:09] because that type of information already [33:12] seeped out and came through. The German [33:14] killing machine was now in high gear. [33:17] Millions of Jews and others were being [33:19] systematically murdered. [33:22] Abraham Rodstein knew about Nazi gas [33:24] chambers and so did the rest of the [33:27] world. [33:28] >> So here it is. I have the equivalent of [33:30] about 102 or 103 fever. It's winter. I [33:35] have nothing on. Just striped suit. I [33:38] have to walk through the cold, to the [33:41] snow, into that bat to get cleaned up. [33:46] I get there, we go through the cleaning [33:48] up, the shower, and there was no guest. [33:51] It was really exactly what it was [33:53] supposed to be. And I collapsed and I [33:57] fainted. A lot of people died. They [34:00] threw me on a wagon with dead people. [34:03] So, here I'm in the cold. Maybe it was [34:07] 25 or 30° Fahrenheit and [34:12] I'm on this wagon with dead people. I [34:14] wasn't quite dead yet. It so happened [34:16] that that [34:19] Dr. Berman walked by and it so happened [34:22] that he took my pulse and it so happened [34:24] he recognized me. My pulse was running. [34:26] He dragged me back to the hospital [34:29] and he took care of me. In one of those [34:33] incredible twists of fate that so many [34:35] Holocaust survivors experienced, young [34:38] Abraham Rodstein was rescued from [34:40] death's door. His good luck and special [34:42] skills landed him a job inside. [34:46] >> There was a German hospital on the ances [34:49] hospital actually outside of the camp [34:52] and they didn't have enough of their own [34:54] doctors. So they used our doctors to [34:57] actually [35:00] uh [35:02] take care of Germans and they used to [35:05] come with all kinds of fractured legs [35:07] and whatnot. And at that time I made [35:10] veneer fractures. You have this needle [35:14] rods going through the knee and you have [35:16] pulley you know to keep it straight. And [35:18] I was very good. I used to make those [35:20] things. So that kept me you know doing [35:23] things and doing things uh I was useful. [35:26] I also [35:30] learned how to take care of radio. So I [35:33] used to go out of the camp from the [35:35] inner camp which was and then go to the [35:38] outer camp where the Germans leave just [35:39] tell them my uh number which was [35:43] prisoner number 81 170 was my number and [35:47] I used to go in and I used to fix radios [35:50] while I used to fix it I used to listen [35:52] to the BBC in German so I got very [35:55] quickly a very good idea what's going on [35:58] I memorized it and I used to come back [36:01] to camp So the other people and you know [36:04] so we knew really what's going on. Also [36:07] if they would have caught me they would [36:08] have shot me but life didn't mean much. [36:10] So it didn't really [36:13] the Americans used to come and used to [36:15] could hear the drone of the airplanes [36:17] and they used to hear bombs dropping and [36:20] the Germans used to run right away to [36:22] the shelters. didn't even bother going [36:24] to shelters because even when we worked [36:26] on the sites where there were shelters [36:28] because I figured why should I go to [36:30] shelter it's friendly people then I [36:32] think even to plenty of people who died [36:34] from friendly fire [36:38] command of this particular camp his name [36:40] was courage says Germany is going to [36:44] perish at 12 but you are going to perish [36:47] at 11:59 [36:50] >> Abraham Rodstein's Nazi captives were [36:52] quite wrong. You see, they were the ones [36:55] who never left Lansburg. [36:57] >> After the war, there was a war crimes [37:00] trial. [37:05] >> Curse was tried. [37:09] Curse was executed. [37:15] middle of April, the small camp like [37:19] camp one, the satellite of Dhaka was [37:22] starting to be closed up and we were [37:24] being transported now again and cattle [37:28] cars to the main camp Dha. It was a very [37:30] short ride. [37:32] >> Dao, the first concentration camp the [37:34] Germans built was also one of the most [37:37] brutal. But at the time Abraham Rodstein [37:40] and his father were transferred there, [37:41] the American army was closing in fast. [37:44] The Third Reich was crumbling. Germany [37:46] was in flames. [37:52] >> A day or two later, I was sort of half [37:54] asleep. It was in the evening. Some [37:56] Frenchman tugs on my blanket and he [37:59] starts yelling, "American, American." [38:01] And and he drags me out and I go out and [38:04] here I see American soldiers and they [38:06] liberated the camp. [38:08] >> On April 28th, 1945, the US Army entered [38:11] Dhau. [38:13] Most of the German guards and SS [38:15] officers either fled or tried to blend [38:17] in with the prisoners. When the soldiers [38:20] realized what they had liberated and [38:22] what had gone on there, some of them [38:24] could not be controlled. They killed [38:27] every German they found. The sight of [38:30] American GIs chasing down and killing [38:32] the SS tormentors must have been surreal [38:35] to those long-suffering prisoners. While [38:38] Abraham Rodstein, a victim of Nazi [38:41] oppression, was on one side of the [38:42] barbwire, Lester Strickoff, a Jewish GI [38:46] from Brooklyn, was one of those American [38:48] liberators. When we got like about 10 [38:50] miles out of Taho, that's when this [38:52] smell hit us. [38:54] And that smell [38:58] is the worst thing I've ever had to [39:00] count with. Everybody, we have these [39:03] wool knit hats in the army under the our [39:06] helmets. Everybody was taking them off [39:08] and putting him up to their noses. They [39:10] were men vomiting from the smell. That's [39:12] how strong it was. We knew already the [39:16] smell of death. We knew. We had smelled [39:20] death when we had come across dead [39:22] soldiers laying in the field. So we knew [39:24] that pungent sweet odor. But this was so [39:27] strong [39:29] that men were were getting sick. [39:33] When we got into the town itself, [39:36] beautiful town, like I told you, white [39:39] flags all over, people walking around [39:41] like nothing happened. It's [39:42] unbelievable. [39:49] We drove the last mile to where the [39:53] fence had been broken into at the ovens [39:56] and we got out and we started to walk in [40:00] and it was [40:05] it was the most horrible thing I've ever [40:07] seen. [40:15] People saw these things, but they could [40:18] not imagine in their wildest dreams what [40:22] had taken place here. And we walked into [40:25] these ovens, and this is a day later, [40:27] and they were still smoldering with [40:29] bodies in there. [40:32] And they deliberately left the bodies in [40:34] there, the officers, they wanted the [40:36] people to see, not because it was a they [40:39] were they were had been burned already [40:41] and saw dead bodies. [40:46] We walked by corpses that were still [40:48] alive. We call them corpses because [40:50] that's what they were. The ribs were [40:52] sticking out. The whole thing, the [40:54] smell, the smell was just [40:59] when we saw [41:01] the gold fillings, the teeth in one of [41:04] the barracks [41:07] and the suitcases [41:09] and the hair. [41:11] It was incomprehensible. [41:17] You know, when people are dying, you [41:18] leave them to die and that's it. There's [41:21] nothing you could do for them. We [41:22] couldn't. Those that we saw that were [41:24] lying there. But those that we [41:28] were piled [41:30] 10 high, 20 high, who knows how long. [41:33] Skin and bones. [41:38] The pit was about, I guess, the worst [41:40] thing of all. The pit must have been [41:43] about the size of a football field. [41:47] Easy. Oh, easy. It's not as wide, but [41:52] long. [41:56] Skin and bones. [42:01] Mostly bones. [42:03] Eye sockets that no eyes. [42:13] It was a sight that you remember for the [42:17] rest of your life. [42:20] Abraham Rodstein and his father were [42:22] liberated on April 28th, 1945. [42:25] Miraculously, his mother survived. [42:28] The Rodstein were one of the few [42:30] families left intact after the [42:32] Holocaust. [42:34] They immigrated to America in 1950 and [42:37] started life a new. Abraham Rodstein [42:40] became a successful engineer, married [42:43] and had three children. He has no [42:46] interest in visiting Lithuania, but he [42:48] has been back to Germany on business and [42:51] has a witness, a survivor. [42:55] 53 years after the fact, in a very [42:58] special moment, prisoner and liberator [43:01] finally met. [43:03] In fact, they may have passed by one [43:05] another. A young American soldier [43:08] shocked numb by what the Germans had [43:10] done and a 17-year-old prisoner grateful [43:13] to have survived for one more day. [43:20] Perhaps the lesson is best captured in [43:22] the words of a German Protestant [43:23] minister named Martin Neimler who [43:26] himself was imprisoned in Dhau for seven [43:28] years. [43:30] In Germany, they came for the [43:31] communists, and I didn't speak up [43:33] because I wasn't a communist. [43:36] Then they came for the Jews, and I [43:38] didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. [43:42] Then they came for the trade unionists, [43:44] and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a [43:46] trade unionist. Then they came for the [43:48] Catholics, and I didn't speak up because [43:51] I was a Protestant. [43:54] Then they came for me, and by that time [43:57] there was no one left to speak up. [44:02] Stories of survivors told in their own [44:05] words and passed from generation to [44:07] generation, from millennium to [44:09] millennium, is our assurance that [44:11] humanity will never forget and will [44:14] never repeat the evil of the Holocaust. [44:39] Heat. Heat.
