Good evening, everyone, and welcome. Im rita lerner, a daughter of Holocaust Survivors and trustee of the museum of jewish heritage, a living memorial for the holocaust. It is my pleasure to introduce this special evening. Before we begin tonight i would like to say a few words about the museum. The museum of jewish heritage is the leading New York Institution dedicated to fighting antisemitism and bigotry. For more than 20 years the museum has challenged visitors intellectually, rigorous to understand the ways in which dehumanization of the people can evolve to deeply destructive ends. Engaging with history, people of all ages and backgrounds inherit our mission to never forget and to combat intolerance that endures to this day. If youre interested in receiving any information of Upcoming Events please join our mailing list. A sign in sheet can be found at the admissions desk. I also invite you to become a member of the museums vibrant community. We are honored to have you with us tonight to celebrate the holocaust survivor author max eisen. At 15 he was saved from certain death at auschwitz by a polish physician who employed him as the cleaner in this operating room. Mr. Eisen 2016 memoir by chance alone chronicles remarkable, persistence, liberation and continued healing after miraculously surviving auschwitz. By chance alone received canadas top literary award in 2019. Tonight we celebrate the launch of the books american edition. We have the privilege of hearing mr. Eisen in conversation with the veteran producer of 60 minutes, Shari Finkelstein. Lesley stahl was held up tonight in washington for the impeachment coverage. At the conclusion of two Nights Program we invite you to join mr. Eisen her book signing in the lobby. By chance alone, it is available for purchase in our museum shop. We are honored to be joined tonight by khawar nasim, mark gordon, executive Committee Member of the Usc Shoah Foundation board of councilors, Eli Rubenstein, National Director, march of the living in canada, Phyllis Greenberg heideman, president of international march of the living,. We would like to thank our partners in planning and presenting two Nights Program international march of the living, the counselor general of candidate in new york, Hanover Square press, and the Usc Shoah Foundation. Before we begin please take a moment to silage or cell phones to avoid any disruptions during the program. Thank you. Now please join me in welcoming our first speaker tonight acting Canadian Council general, khawar nasim. [applause] thank you, rita. Gracefully, i was not held up by the impeachment hearings in washington. [laughing] what an incredible honor it is to be a with all of you tonight to pay tribute to a truly remarkable man and an extraordinary canadian, mr. Macks eisen. Since we learned of his incredible story my team at the consulate general has been seek an opportunity to bring out mr. Eisen to new york. I have to say for a man of his age he has a very busy schedule and it was not easy to get him here. Thank you, max, or joining us and thank you to hanover press, Usc Shoah Foundation, the international march of the living and that jewish heritage for bringing max here this evening to tell his story. As a diplomat either to many incarnations. I spent time a lot of time in europe and one of the most memorable opportunities for me as a famine was to visit poland and to travel to auschwitz with my family, with my wife, with my son, and to see and to share with them the tragedies, the horrors and alexi of auschwitz. I am deeply and profoundly inspired by the courage and strength of Holocaust Survivors who, despite the depth of the evil they faced and despite the complexity of their emotions, understand that the holocaust needs to be real for those who were not there. To reconcile the unspeakable horrors of the showa with the enduring faith in humanity. Canada has been profoundly shaped by the approximate 40,000 Holocaust Survivors who resettled in our country after the holocaust. And i must add, candidate has acknowledged the devastating result of her own in action and apathy towards jews in the nazi era. When in 1939 jewish refugees on board the msa those were turned away and for which are primers issued a formal apology in our house of commons in November November 2018. The lessons of the holocaust are clear, but need to be repeated. As Prime Minister trudeau has said, never again is not a phrase. Its a promise, promised to stand up to the dangers of hatred and discrimination and irreversible consequences of inaction and indifference. As a new yorker we know all too well and recent horrific antisemitic attacks right in newark has made all too clear. Hatred has not run its course on this earth. We must be vigilant because we also know is that the modern tools to promote hate are infinitely more sophisticated than radio, newspaper in film. Speaking with my colleagues and learning, i am inspired by the sink and whoever saves a single life save an entire world. And given the Ripple Effect of maxis and using commitment to educate younger generations about the dangers of racism and bigotry, i think we can say by saving max, this surgeon saved much more than one. The opportunity to hear a firsthand account from a survivor is becoming increasingly rare. I am so honored to be with you all here this evening to your macs share his story. I hope we will all leave here tonight with a heightened sense of duty to condemn intolerance and defend human rights in our everyday lives. Please join me in welcoming aviva rajsky, daughter of a holocaust edison you cant tour at toronto congregation have nin. Aviva traveled with mr. Eisen on the 2015 march of the living where she conducted the choir at the Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony in auschwitz. Aviva will be joined and accompanied by a grammy awardwinning guitarist whose parents were Holocaust Survivors and who lost many members of his family in the holocaust. I think you all and i look forward to a wonderful evening. [applause] good evening. It is such an incredible honor for me to be here this evening and to sing at this wonderful event intricate to max eisen. One of the most remarkable people ive ever met. I had the privilege of traveling with max on the 2015 march of the living when i led the march of the living choir that year. And so this evening i would like to share with you a few of the songs that the students and i sang on that very moving trip. I would like to invite my colleague and different Eli Rubenstein to introduce and give context to the songs that im going to sing. [applause] good evening. The first song were going here is a song called illegally. As she walked along the shores of the medics in sea and land of israel in the 1940s. She was born in hungary in 1921 but because of the fsm and his him she experienced a history emigrated to palestine in 1939 to help build the jewish state. She would return to fight against the nazis but was caught, tortured and executed by the nazis november 7, 1944. She left she left us with remarkable poem whose words remind us of the beauty of nature, the sand and a sikh in the rush of the waters, the thundering of heavens that she was robbed of far too early in her young life. Eli eli. They note [applause] every time we sing the song you like the life with the the march of the living, in the very place where sought to destroy the jewish people we know the spirit, the values, the lessons that life represents continues to live on. And that we were making a statement. Hitler, you did not win. We return your year after year reciting the words of the very people you try to annihilate. Our next song is called and it reflects a similar sentiment of hope and defiant. Defiance. Written in the 12th century, the words express and undying belief that one day retention will come to you meant it. Many jews recited these very words with her last breath before they perished in hitlers gas chambers still believing that a better day would get arrive. [applause] thank you, aviva. It is now my pleasure to invite to the stage mark gordon was in the executive committee of the Usc Shoah Foundation. He will now share with us and innovative joint project between the Usc Shoah Foundation in the march of the living involving the testimony of max eisen. [applause] thank you, eli. A bit of Usc Shoah Foundation im grateful to be here tonight to honor and celebrate max eisen and the release of his memoir here in the u. S. I want to thank our colleagues at hanover press for publishing and making this work so widely available. I want to thank the museum of jewish heritage for hosting tonight event and to the Council General of canada for the long support and involvement. We want to thank the international march of the living for the partnership between the international march of the living and the Usc Shoah Foundation and for including us industry auspicious event tonight. The Usc Shoah Foundation begin working with max and his family in 2019 2019 through this partp with the international march of the living, and together these organizations have a joint project to gather the testament of Holocaust Survivors and a 36e authentic original locations. Together, we are working to fill at least ten survivors as they take us on a journey from their hometowns to the sites of liberation sharing their unique and personal stories in the places where they experienced them. Eventually these testimonies will be deeply integrated into the programs and experiences created by the march of the living. A once vibrant prewar Jewish Community that now exists only through him. This community will not be forgotten thanks to his 360 on location interview and a loving details he so generously included in his memoirs. This is all in addition to the Usc Shoah Foundation having not one but two life history interviews of max in our visual history archive, both record in the the 1990s, once taken by the Usc Shoah Foundation and one filled by the seer and hien newberger Holocaust Education center, both , both accessible h the visual history archive. That testimony is among the 55,000 survivor testimonies that are not accessible or available through over 160 universities and museums on Six Continents around the world and there is of course his booklet which is what we are here to celebrate today. Now, as i understand it max did not always wish to tell his story. In the prologue to the book, he talks about the fact that we first spoke publicly about the holocaust and his experiences at st. Josephs high school in toronto he was very nervous and said he would not do it again. And i think, i think those was very common reaction among survivors at that time. If i may tell a personal story, i, too, i have an uncle max or had an uncle max who survived auschwitz and immigrated to toronto where he built a family and lived a life. I visited my uncle max in the summer of 1990, shortly after maybe a month or two after i had been on a trip to Eastern Europe and i had visited auschwitz. And over dinner i told him my travels and he asked me maybe two or three questions about our shorts and what i had seen there. And after dinner his son, harvey, my cousin who was 34 at the time said to me, you know in my entire life that is the most ive ever heard my father talk about his experiences. And i said, why do you think that is . He said, his attitude is, what would be the point . Who would listen . It would just be complaining to our children, or to my children. So i think we are as individuals all here incredibly indebted frankly to organizations like the Usc Shoah Foundation, like the international march of the living, like the museum of jewish heritage, and organizations like the hanover press who have created outlets or a forum and a structure around hearing and learning the stories of the survivors so that they could be passed down so that we can learn from them and so that hopefully never again. Most importantly of course no, we are indebted to survivors like max who did speak again and again at countless colleges and universities, high schools, public events. I think he has led 21 trips to auschwitz where he is educated both students and adult and shared his experiences in addition to giving his testimony, or to submit and a 360 degrees video with the international march of the living, and, of course, publishing this memoir. I would like to share with you a short video that shows a behind the scenes of our time with max and his son when we filled the 360degree video that will be incorporated into the march of the living is programs. In it you can see the intensity with which max has committed himself to telling this story. Somebody play the video. [applause] now i would like to invite back Eli Rubenstein, the National Director of the march of the living in canada. [applause] thank you, mark. I am honored to be able to introduce the main part of our program, the part we are about to hear from max eisen himself. Ive been traveling with max and the march of the living for well over 20 years and each time continue to be inspired by his courage, wisdom and elegance. I recall in the early 2000s 200s being with max at Queens University near the thousand islands. For a weekend conference training our educators and chaperones traveling with us to poland in the march of the living. As we were building about the reception area of the conference center, a group of queen students passed by if they notice one of our staff was carrying a scroll of the law, the age of five books of moses written by hand on parchment, which jewish people had read publicly for thousands of years. Observing teachers look on the students faces, max patient explained to them what these scrolls represented. He concluded his impromptu speech by informing during holocaust the nazis burned thousands of sacred jewish works just like this for they will get now. He also reminded the students of the code where they burn books, they also burn people. The spellbound students were mesmerized during his short speech and only reluctantly toward themselves way to return to the schools activities. It was at that moment i realize that max was a born teacher, a natural educator with both the desire and ability to share his story and the lessons of holocaust with the most diverse audiences in the most clearest manner. In that moment of teaching as u heard, its something max is replicated countless times as his criss cross canada sharing his sort of love and loss with thousands upon thousands of people for the last 20 or more years. Eli mozilla comes from the same part of europe as max once said something along the following lines. To be jew after holocaust is to have every reason to give up your belief in god, to give up on the jewish people and to abandon your trust in all of humidity. You have every reason to give up your faith in god to give up on the jewish people and to abandon your trust in all humanity but still not to do so. And max like so many other survivors we know perfectly example of eyes that sentiment. Despite having every reason to do so, max did not abandon his faith or give up on community. Instead, he continues to dedicate literally every day of his life around the clock to teaching lessons of the show up to young and old alike so it will never ever happen again. In that effort max reminds us of a quote, if you believe the world can be broken, also believe it can be fixed. If you believe the world can be broken, also believe it can be fixed. So thank you, max kemp from the bottom of all of our hearts for not give in into despair, for t giving up on our world even though you had every reason to do so. Indeed, we are all the better for it. [applause] enema i would like to invite to the stage might teach him my hero, my mentor, max eisen. Max of the edited by Shari Finkelstein of 60 minutes. 60 minutes is going to produce a segment on max his life and share is very familiar with axis story. Max and shari, please. [applause] so i am the substitute. I dont do this for a living so be understand, please. Leslie is really sad not to be here. She is a huge fan of maxes and really wanted to do this and was unable to get on a flight back early enough to be here. So youve got me. So, max, tell us, why do we start by talking a little bit about your life, and why dont we start with the beginning of your life before these horrors. Tell us all a bit about your family, where you lived. I noticed czechoslovakia then became part of hungary but pubr lifelike, your home, your family before the war . Czechoslovakia was a democratic country. We jews have plenty years and czechoslovakia. Our president , we considered him as our grandfather, and i live in a town of about 5000 people. We jews were 10 of the towns population. Approximately 90 jewish families, and i was 99 of the families were traditional orthodox. Jews and, they were Small Business people, farmers. In my town there were two jewish doctors, there was a jewish adventist. A jewish butcher, a baker, and we had a beautiful jewish synagogue, and we had a school, a jewish school. We had a can tour, a rabbi. Its amazing looking at towns in toronto where it gets all the juice squeezed together and this was a beautiful Jewish Community. And i live in a large dwelling my paternal grandparent, uncle and aunt. And many jewish people spent family together. That was a wonderful way of growing up. Imagine so many people that would be taking care of you or i was going going to spell, who g the best cooking a particular day. You all in the same home . It was a large lshaped house and we lived in the front part of the leg of the l. We had my mothers kitchen, a wood stove and bedrooms and every bedroom had a fireplace made of tiles, ceramic tiles. And there was no Running Water we had it will in the yard. We had a Beautiful House and an outhouse, and i had two younger brothers. And in the center of the house live my paternal grandparents and my aunt bella was an invalid and my grandmother had her own kitchen and bedrooms and my aunt had another kitchen and bedrooms and so want. Hence the kitchen choices. Lots of choices. Anyway, think of fiddler on the roof. He said how lucky would be if they could have so many chickens here we had chickens, geese and ducks roaming all over our place and wit a big vegetable garden and we had a huge orchard with fruit trees. A bicycle and id friends, not jewish kids, and life was wonderful at the first ten years of my life. I was born in 1929 in czechoslovakia and i was [inaudible] between 1938 during the munich conference my country was petitioned and we were given to hungary and we knew unsure what would happen. And i can 38 it was too late and we find a it much later there s nowhere jews were taking anyway. This was our catastrophe in europe, and so when this happened you go from a democratic lifestyle, and its a fascist country, hungary was a fascist country, and i remember so vividly in 38 my father had a radio, and somehow he managed to find out that hitler was making a very important speech in berlin, and i remember all his friends, my father mustve been in his late 30s. They all came to our home to listen to this radio speech. We spoke, we were hungarian. This was a language we spoke in my home. I had to learn slovak in school and learn german. I remember this speech, this poison pouring out of the radio. Hitler said we are going to eradicate the jews from the face of the world. So i was nine years old and i knew something in my gut told me that something terrible is going to happen. I had no idea what. And i remember seeing the faces of the older people. When youre nine and her your father is about 39 and you think hes an old man, and sort of green in the face and this was a tragedy in czechoslovakia. So these edicts were being posted in my town, the jews were marked, we were numbered. We were in school, hungarian teachers made to sit in the back of the classroom. We were segregated. Fights every morning going to school. We were less than 10 of the student body. And other edicts were being posted on a daily basis. My fathers jewish businesses were confiscated through the bds movement, sort of boy cost boycott. So i mother had helper whose name was anna. This was one of the edicts that jews could not employ help. My mother had her hands full. She became a single mother because in 1941 all ablebodied men had to report so every breadwinner in my town of a jewish families, the breadwinners were taken away for many years. And an edict came up that jews cannot employ nonjewish people so anna had to leave. She did want to go and they removed her from our home. Im just thinking, changing scene for my mother and handling this whole family and looking after three kids. She gave birth to a little girl and that was not a good year for jewish mother to give birth to a jewish child. So i remember our job he came so difficult. We all had to sort of pitch in and i was 12 years old and i was thrown out of school. My mother in her wisdom sent me away to the capital city of our province, a a large city, and i became an apprentice. So looking back, my mother truly was my guardian angel. She made sure that we always had good shoes, good winter boots, make sure that our ankles would be strong and she got as a balanced diet. All these things, i cannot imagine how she did all of these things singlehanded after her health was gone. And my grandfather who was truly a man of a man, all the grandfathers in my town, they fought in the first world war. These were men from the country. They knew animals, and every grandfather had a beard like the emperor. My grandfather taught me a lot of work skills and life skills. And my uncles who are on my maternal side of the family lived in slovakia, so i think they taught me a lot of things which really i think helped me to survive the one you that i was incarcerated by the nazis. So in 44 in the 43 my aunt who would invalid died. In hindsight it was truly a gift from god. I cannot imagine how difficult it would been for a year later. She taught me how to read books. I was able to read, i read all the books when i was six years old. I was able to read at a very early age. I just have loved books ever since, and she was the only member of my family who was buried. The casket was made from my grandfathers lumberyard and she was buried in the cemetery. And the rest of the family were deported. We wound up being deported on the first day of passover in 1944. I could ask you about that because you had a seder that evening, and as you obviously seeing, his memory is unbelievable for detail and when you all read the book if you havent already theres many more. But anyway, yes, tell us about the seder. Looking back, 1944, imagine jews in hungary, there were about 700,000 jews in hungary. We didnt know what was going on just across the mountains in occupied poland. This has got to be a message to us for ever, not knowing was a terrible thing. Who would have thought, my grandfather said, you know, how strong and there. Jews were emancipated. They would never do things like that. And i keep saying today when we do a lot of things that are happening and we do nothing about it, its a terrible mistake. So we were celebrating passover. We had ample food in 44. We heard certain things but life went on. And my father and uncle, it was truly a miracle, came home for a seder. They were somewhere in in the second part of hungry which was accessed by hundreds of yugoslavia in 39. There was a beautiful seder. My little sister was about nine months old and we sat around this beautiful table, and we asked questions and we were told the story of the exodus and we retired about 12 00 and we knew the next morning we walked leisurely to the synagogue and there would be a second seder the second night. So that night, the first night of the seder was shabbat night, friday night, so it was shabbat, night of passover. My father and my grandfather, my uncle were out in the yard about after dinner and were talking. And my grandfather said everybodys to hold out another four owe five but we will be liberated by the red army. We hungarians were that close truly about four months later, after we were deported from hungry when red army arrived from the east. Early morning they broke our gate and kicked in our door and they were yelling and screaming. They dont ask you for why or worn to come in. They simply kick your door in. They are a very crude bunch. They have big black fedora hat with a red rooster tail feathers and the big gun with twofoot bayonet affixed and they were yelling and screaming, if you have any money or jewelry, hand it over because where you are going to have no need with this. And you wonder what hes talking about. And my mother had a baby in her arm and she told us to put on layers of clothing. My father said put your boots on, your winter boots on. They went to see how my grand parents were doing. My grandfather was 77, a very big, strong man. My grandmother was 75, a very petite lady. We were holed out from our home. We had a guard dog, he knew that terrible things can this is a terrible encroachment. He would not they tried to shoot him. A neighbor came running in and she was a Christian Lady and she said to my mother, where are you taking this baby . Why dont you leave the baby with me . I think about it. I can hear it and i never could start wondering about it that my mother left my little sister. We will never know, and but we know history. Many jews in poland in the ghettos when the ghettos were being liquidated a gave their children to christian families and they all survived. I would say most of them and their parents didnt. And then your hold out and 500 jews are put in to two schoolrooms and you spend at the second night of passover instead of having a seder at home on the floor in the school room. The next morning 500 500 jews e assembled in the schoolyard, and they have the exit is leaving town forever, never to come back. Back. So it was set up like a parade by imagine rabbi tannenbaum and other rabbi with long white beard. He was made to walk into front. He is leading his flock out from moldova and his wife was in invalid. She was carried by her two sons in a chair. Mothers were not allowed to have a carriage so you can imagine mothers like my Mother Holding a baby in one arm, a bundle in the other arm. Imagine an exodus of jews leaving town. So 500 jews were taken away and 480 didnt come back a year later in less than 20 of us survived my town. There was one mother with two daughters. You wind up in a recharge, terrible conditions. 30,000 jews in a brickyard terrible facilities. There was a torah that was open, a toilet, you could smell of from miles away. Our food was scarce. Imagine mothers couldnt breastfeed their babies, and babies started wilting away. And every day we were given this propaganda, an ss officer arrived in the camp and he told us a story that theyre going to be resettled in the east. This was nazi propaganda. But the section they used. And we would be working on farms. Families will be together. And everything will be fine. So when petition of czechoslovakia have my maternal family was stuck in slovakia and we are stuck in hungary. We could never see them. This was my maternal family and they had a big farm and my uncles and my grandfathers and my beautiful cousins. Slovakia was the first country in Central Europe to deport the jewish people. Just two to about the deception the nazis used, we received a telegram first that a family disappeared. We were devastated. My mother was devastated. Brothers, sisters, her nieces, nephews and mother simply disappeared from the face of the earth. We didnt know in 42 what happened. And a few months later postcards arrived in my town, like my mother and were many other mothers or fathers who came from this part. Postcard arrived. It had a german eagle on it and it was a step on the said that part of poland was the message was, we are all here together. We are working on farms and we are awaiting your arrival. Only years later did i find out that all these slovakian jews, my family, were taken to this death camp before there were put into the gas chamber, they were forced to write a postcard to the families in hungry. So here i am listening to this ss officer, and i kept thinking that i will meet up with my beautiful cousins somewhere. You see the deception how it works and, unfortunately. So we arrived in a cattle train them like a cattle car use outside you. Imagine 100 people. Its a journey that i cannot describe. Initially, they put in a pail of water and the pale for the toilet and the doors were locked. The toilet was slopping on the ground. It was a mess. It was a terrible thing. My journey was about four days and nights. Think of continental europe, entire landmass. Train tracks leading from the hague, from amsterdam, from rotterdam, from paris and from rome, berlin and budapest and bucharest all the way. Locomotives pulling tens of thousands of cattle cars like that human cargo to the death camps in occupied poland. Millions of jews, not a single transport for any of this country even though they were occupied. Many underground, not a single train was sabotaged. Theres a documentary that just came out i think yesterday on pbs bombing auschwitz. But there was one thing. But what about the transports . But on this transport you have no idea where you are going, correct. Do you continue to think, you thought youre going to this lovely farm where your whole family is going to be together . We didnt know. I the second day we all do we were in real big trouble, that this is not going to be a place of work or whatever. It was the worst. I mean, you know, the degradation of humanity was just so visible. I mean, it was the worst. I saw my mother, there was crying and screaming and the babies, theyre crying was gone. They couldnt breathe anymore. You can write a book for what its like to be for one of people. Then you arrive on the platform and you are totally a zombie. You cant think because they keep telling you this information, deception. Dont worry about your bundles. They would be delivered. You will see your families tomorrow. They are taken for disinfection. The men and women are separate. Its done very fast. They say, german card, ss guard said when he was, when i was at is flyer in 2015. We had to do these things very fast and in an orderly fashion that im giving jews were being brought. In less than three months in 44, 450,000 hungarian jews were gassed in auschwitz. These trains were arriving around the clock. Around the clock. You a ride at night, correct . I arrived at eight in the middle of the night. Were all out on this platform. It was floodlights, floodlights all over and you can see anything behind the floodlights. You could see hundreds of little bulbs and is a huge fire coming out from behind me, flames, several chimneys. I could see the flames, smell the terrible stench in the air. I i thought is a Big Industrial factory. So my father, uncle and i were selected for slave labor. My mother with my two Little Brothers and my baby sister and my grandparents and my aunt, they were sent to the left at the nearby the next day that they were marched into the gas chamber, a crematorium where 2000 people at a a time were gassed. How did so you get separated. You go with your father and your uncle. How did you find out what happened . You are 15 years old. You think youre in an industrial facility. How did it become clear what actually was going on there . Well, we were selected. We were in the clutches of an ss unit if they took away our clothes. They shaved our heads and they shaved our body hair. Women were selected for slave labor went to the womens camp and give it a shower, took away our clothing. The only thing we were allowed to keep our boots and with were put into barracks. I was able to lie down for a few hours after standing for three days and nights. Next morning we were hauled out from the barracks to a beautiful sunny morning and i could see the spread of birkenau. I said what is this place . All i could see, barb wire. I could see four chimneys, fire and smoke and ash is coming down. We were naked and two men brought a canvas of liquid and they gave us dish. My father asked of them are we going to see our families today . Thats what they told us the night before. So they were laughing. They said where did you come from . He said we came from hungry in the middle of the night. And i can hear it so clear to. They set in 1944 you dont know what this place is all about . And your families have gone to the chimney. The only way youll get out of here is we beat you to death, youll be starved to death but you will go to the chimney for sure. We didnt talk about it anymore. At a think probably my father and uncle taught about it. I didnt until maybe the next day. I i knew, though still talk abot it because you you are now in e clutches of survival. We were put into work units and were given a couple of boss with psychopaths from chairman shuster a put all the psychopaths as work bosses. You are now on a survival, you were dancing on the edge of a razor. Your food was 300 calories a day, and very lucky that i could boots. Boots became addicting because you have to march every day to work and back, ten, 15 kilometers. Your body starts disappearing pic yet to go through all kinds of things that are happening to your body. My father and uncle were with me, i dont think i wouldve survived two weeks. But not having anybody there would be sort of helping you. I remember the first slop they brought us for lunch, this soup. It was a vegetarian soup. It stunk to high heaven, and i said i will not eat this. My father crammed down my throat. A few days later the soup tasted pretty good. There was enough of it. You know you were inducted in this terrible life of auschwitz and who we are sitting out in the field, half an hour lunch, you work a 12 hour backbreaking day of hard work. They lined up 100 people for your soup, and they say one of the couple has a ladle and these stirring up this slop in this canister in this double walled canister that keeps it were. 100 people lined up and people try to figure out which is the best spot to be. The top is mostly liquid, the body is big and if you are caught, you got a big hit on your head. When its all finished there was some left. So called repeat. I couldnt believe it. I saw three, four people running to lick out the last drop. I was totally shocked. I said never in my life i stay, if i survive. Can you imagine how you have to be a fast learner. Because every second, there was no second count the end is Second Chances here. Couples were absolutely brutal and ive seen the best in the worst. My father and uncle were there together for two months and their selected, and i was very lucky to find the documents. Somebody from the documents in Auschwitz Museum of their selection and the name on it. Their selected out for medical experiments for pharmaceutical companies. It says on the document. On july 9, 1944, and selection was in july we knew what selection was. It was usually in the middle of the night. The loudspeakers were turned on and you heard very loud, attention, attention. All men in these barracks run naked to this barracks for selection and we knew selection was certain death. The next morning i ran to my fathers and uncles barracks and they were gone. I had to go to my work, had to get counted every morning, had to light up. This was a daily drill. And my father if i managed to survive i needed to tell the world what happened here and, never saw them again. And so yeah, i was going to ask you, i know leslie would ask you, but you have such equanimity in talking about these you know the most tragic, horrible memories. Do you i know you talk about it frequently. How do you cope with describing these things again and again and seeing them. I assume you see them when you talk about them. I manage to cope with it because i think it is very important. I started to speak ive been speaking now 32 years. My first speech was in 9091 and would have thought 32 years ago of things happening in toronto, the antisemitism and things about jews, i would have never imagined. So, theres no way that i can sit by and not talk about it and i think that the book gave me a tool to be heard and be invited to speak in many different places and its important for people to understand. It starts with the jews, but it does not end with the jews, and the seed is kind of a thing the second time around. Its very you know, it gives me a lot of terrible feelings to if possible, you know, so i just want to say after my father and uncle were gone i had a hit on my head by a guard and i lost a lot of blood and i went into shock. I was thrown into a ditch. And i knew that my life was over and i kept thinking how do i get myself out of this trouble. You see, the only way to survive in this camp you had to be tough as nails and you had to be very you had to be very resilient and you had to be able to put one foot in front of the other. Your plans were one second to the next. You couldnt youre thinking all the time. Pardon . You had to be thinking all the time. And you had to survive from second to second. Just bad movement could get the gestapo in such a rage and peop giving people beatings. You couldnt survive. I was taken back to camp and dropped off in the surgery department, number 21 in auschwitz 1 and i was operated on and i was put up in the ward upstairs and i found out that the two doctors, surgeons that operated on me, Political Prisoners, and upstairs in the ward were two jewish doctors and dr. Gordon from warsaw and a doctor from paris. They were looking after the people. And if you had an operation you were allowed to stay in the ward for two days and after two days you were loaded on and taken to the gas chamber. If youre not better in two days, thats it. If you couldnt walk away, you were gone. Id seen a lot of people they came because they knew, nobody wanted to go to the operating, they knew if you go there, thats the end. But these people were in such terrible shape, they were the end of their life and they had no they said, well, two, three days maybe and if im lucky, and its the end. So i was on a stretcher and the doctor pulled me off and he brought me into the prep room of the surgery and he gave me a lab coat and i began to clean there, this is mid july of 44 and i was working with him till january the 12th, 1945. So he saved your life. He saved my life and definitely, had he not done this, i wouldnt have survived because i would have been taken away to the gas or if not that, i would have had to work outside in the cold in the fall. Do you have any idea what he saw in you or if it was you were there when he needed someone or was there some connection . I write in my book, there was a polish medical student who was working, doing the he was sentenced to go to auschwitz for one year and he was there for one week and maybe there was some discussion with dr. Gordon and dr. Steinberg, you know, because these people talked to each other. So maybe that was my they needed somebody young and maybe that was it. I will never know. So so youre 15 years old and youre in charge of cleaning of an operating room and getting people prepared for operations and cleaning and getting instruments cleaned and i learned fast. I had to polish and sweep and clean and taking the bloody sheets next door to the washer, the laundry was next door and you know how an operating room has to be run. Its a lot of work, everything sterilized and clothing i had to pick up from the washer needed to be sterilized and washed and instruments after hours of operations and sparkling and clean. Ive seen a lot and so the thing was that the polish Political Prisoners were not jews, they were allowed to receive one parcel a month from home and one letter. So this was the difference and i found out after, many years an of, the doctor made when he survived he went back to auschwitz and he made a deposition and there was an underground and the doctor was a big part of the underground. I was going to ask you, skipping ahead you had no contact with him immediately after the war, but later on you established some connections. I wanted to ask you about that. Yes, he knows my story and kept asking me, lets find out. Said, you know. I didnt want to open that book, you know, i mean 30 years after i survived, i was busy building a family and a life, you know, a livelihood and so on, and i said, okay. So i remember girl from the institute in warsaw and i told her the name of the doctor and of course, that was easy, she just went to auschwitz and there was the doctor, the records were there. So the following year she came on the bus and came to me with a document and envelope and he says do you know this man . It was the doctor. With his photograph, because Political Prisoners were photographed like, you know, front, side. Not jews, were not photographed. So i said, well, maybe you can track down the family and he found the family. And one day i had a phone call from a fellow, he said my name is tomas, why are you looking for us . And i said, well, im just wondering whether you know are you familiar with the name of the doctor. He said, yes, thats my grandfather and we met the family and so when i go there, i see them almost every time im in poland and his granddaughter, his sixyearold little boy whose name is max and smart little boy. [laughter] and he says to me, max, did you have money to go to canada on boat . Because they know the story. I mean, its interesting. I mean, the doctor, i know this now, he was in auschwitz because he was arrested by the gestapo. His wife was a dennis and they were hiding a jewish family in the stable under the horses. Really . I didnt know that. These are the things that are happening. People have different point of views and i wanted to ask you, i mean, you saw, you know, the best and the worst of people. And i wanted to ask you about this, you talked about how all of these trains were crisscrossing europe full of people taken to their deaths and nobody sabotaged them. And theres another story, now youre transported. This is after the war, youve been liberated and there was a remarkable act of kindness that really meant a lot to you. I was hoping you would tell about that. Well, that was at the is that right . The throwing of the bread. That was on the death march. The death march, forgive me. 75 years ago i was auschwitz on the 22nd i arrived in auschwitz the 25th of january. We went through a place which was occupied czechoslovakia and we arrived in the afternoon and i didnt know where we were. Imagine a train, i dont know how many open flat cars carrying coal or and we were guarded by ss units that were patrolling all around. When it got dark, there was no movement of trains on the road, on the rails, because they were picked up by american fighter plains. You see the locomotive would. So the trains stood at the station all night, everything was blacked out and there was a big air raid and in the morni morning, it was a wet morning and snow was coming down and it was a commotion behind me and there was an overhead bridge. And i looked back and i see people with bakers baskets throwing chunks of bread into the open cars and the ss guard are saying, dont throw bread, these are jews. So i said, my gosh, people still care for us, you know, that gave me, i think, gave me three months to go on. That was truly a high and these people just kept throwing bread. They didnt stop when the guard said dont throw bread. And the machine, this he called them smiezers and they sprayed the bridge and people ran away and that was a really high and was something. And as soon as we arrived, the train comes to a stop, theres a bridge over a river, a billing riv a big river, and ice flowing down the river. I said this is it, this is the end. I couldnt figure out why the train didnt go across the bridge. So the bridge was damaged by allied bombings and there were many Railroad Ties and people were falling through the cracks. We were marching up the hill, can you imagine what we looked like . And following us, we were black from fifth and we come into this beautiful town, and these two, threestory houses and what hit me right away, sparkling window with beautiful curtains and drapes. It was just beyond belief. I couldnt understand, i said these people are still living like normal . I mean, what it was, i came from hell and im looking at sparkling window and i kept thinking if i could get into one of these homes and a bath, i would die happily, but then i keep going and there are three beautifully dressed women putting space on the sidewalk, a lot of snow and kid bundled up, beautiful knitted toques and scarves and rosie chiefs and theyre looking with their eyes, the monsters in the middle of the road. And the three young women, they looked the other way, they didnt want to see who was walking on the road. That was total rejection. So the difference, the high and this was the low. And we keep going and i see inmates, prisoners hanging from a cliff, hacking away at granite and this is what this he were doing, and i said this is going to be the end. So that was a wonderful thing what people did. And i went through a terrible four days and went to an another camp where we worked in underground shafts and there, i nearly had a i almost bought it. I had a terrible case of dysentery and i was so sick, you know, you didnt keep any food down and how can you keep on walking and working. And there was a blacksmith and he gave me a piece of coal and he said eat this coal to take the poison off my body and that what i was eating for three days is charcoal and did the job. I wound up every time move from one camp to the other, i was there in march, i sort of found out march the 15th was. And i knew, im not sure how im going to make this, but im going to be able to make it. I kept thinking will you be 17 years old . Will i still be alive . And so i made it, but every time you were moved, it was a terrible ordeal and i kept thinking and could i head in auschwitz, i had my own burning those few months when i worked in the hospital so its we made this documentary and we finished it up in the beautiful alps and we were back there last year before living there. Beautiful, beautiful hotel, tourists all over and theres the agency and the alps are there there we were there in may, i think. Snow. And i was liberated may by . By the American Tank units, the battalion and most were from new jersey. Yeah, these were [applause] i tell you, that was a moment i will never forget. Did you tell us . I could listen to you talk all night so im not going to be a very good time keeper, but i think were we have another what, 40 minutes or so . A few hours. So tell us about the that moment. So the last was, everything fell apart. The reich was finished and they simply locked the camp and threw away the key and didnt give us rations and shut the water off. There was an sistern of water and carried lice and i was in the burning with high fever and somebody came in and we were ghosts. Those that were walking, they were walking ghosts, skin and bone, and couldnt lift their feet off the cement floor. And kept mumbling away that the guards are no longer in the tower. And i knew that if i dont get out of this burning, i will never make it out. And i crawled out over cadavers all over and i was outside and im looking and i see the guard tower is empty. And i could hear heavy equipment and suddenly, the gate came flying in. And there was an American Tank coming through with a white star. And you knew it was, you could tell it was american. I knew right away it was american. German tank, black and white. I knew americans had arrived and i remember those soldiers. They were in total shock. They were liberated they liberated it and they didnt know what this place was. This unit went through, they were attached to general pattons 3rd army and came through the battle of the bulge and they saw, you know, there was an encampment up on the mountainside and said, look, Johnnie Stevens was a sergeant, he was the leader of a squadron of tanks, i think its about 12 tanks, he said go up here and see what that is, barbed wire and see. So they came up and they went through the gate and all they saw was thousands of bodies in the square piled up like mountains. And i couldnt get up on my feet and these ghosts were coming to the tank and trying to touch the shoes of the soldiers and these soldiers, they tried to lift themselves higher on the turret, but you can only go up so far. I mean, they didnt know these monsters are, you know . And it was and they had to keep on going because they liberated it and another American Unit came to administer the camp and it was very difficult for them to cope with it, i know. Many people were given food aft after, they got a pot of food, i think it was some meat, stew or something, and they ate the stew and they simply dropped dead, their stomachs ruptured because we couldnt get any, and before we were dying from hunger and then give us food and we had issues for years. I went home and for a month, gave us a piece of bread and salami and whenever we ate we were in real trouble. So we had to be fed with an eye dropper. And it was a real mess and so you were liberated, but you were really not free. And the announcement came out and anybody that wants to go to czechoslovakia, tomorrow the truck is leaving so i was at the gate and i kept thinking where am i going . I knew i had to go because the camp was closing and so i arrived home and i was in a terrible shape. I was retaining a lot of water, i dont know what was wrong with me, but it was not good and the clothing we had, all the clothing that the americans found a huge store house of used shirts and corduroy breaches from the hitler war and i had the shirt and cordur cordur cordur corduroy breeches, and i had it cut them down and thats the way aarrived home. A farmer gave me a lift and about a highly from my home he made a left turn and i got off and kept walking towards the house and it was that place, a year before, it was a busy place with three families. And i knew when i was a half kilometer away if he would be arrive, he would of come running through the gate. There was nothing. There was a neighbor sitting in my mothers kitchen. And wouldnt give me a glass of water. And i went to see a lady who asked my mother, why wouldnt she and she did for me what my mother would have done for me had i come back from a terrible journey. She got me to a hospital right away and and i had pleurisy and couldnt put my head back, the water line was up here. Recovery took a while and so one neighbor took your house and is in your kitchen and the other neighbor treated you with kindness and she also did another wonderful thing for you. Yeah, yeah. So we did this documentary for the Foundation Last year. Im back in my town and standing right in front of my house. Its a scrap yard now. And it was a sunday morning and the crew was there about eight people are the crew, and a guy comes on a wheelchair down a few houses down the road and hes yelling my name is thats my name and he said tiby, thats my nickname, and everybody thought, isnt it with you feel that somebody remembers me. I wasnt really happy to meet anybody, believe me. So anyway i, you know, i kept very civil and everybody was amazed, remembered my two brothers. My two brothers i was called tiby and my two brothers, he remembered their names so at lunch i said to him. His name is toth, toth. Tell me what happened when we were locked up in the school . See what happened in my town, every the synagogue, they come and they prayers books and books are put in a fire and torched and the cut into ribbons and worse. I said what happened when we were locked up in the school . Oh, that was a terrible time. I said but what happened . He said oh, you know, i remember we had a a wonderful lady who was doing interviews on tv, she said you ask a question and if you dont get an answer, you ask one more and then you drop it, i couldnt drop it. I said what happened . What happened to our furniture . Oh, those were terrible times, wouldnt say anything. This is now 75 years later. It its theres not a single jew living in my town there. So terrible times. Okay. Well i was going for the answer about the woman saving the photos. I was trying to get end on a happy note. And she gave me four pictures when my home was ransacked, everything started flying through the air and she saved four pictures and those are truly the treasures. Thats what i brought four pictures when i came to canada and i had less than a dollar in change when i got off the boat in quebec city and i had four pictures. So that was the story in continental europe. I just want to thank you so much. I wish that we had endless time because you obviously have i want to ask you so much about your life since the war and right, but now everyone can get the book and read. I tell you, Harper Collins never published a holocaust story and it took me years to put this book together. I tried everything and the last three years i had to write because i couldnt type on the computer, so i wrote it in pencil and paper and then i had to dictate to my wife and my granddaughter and my son, and it took over three years. And i had a professor from the University Western who did everything, took me three years to do this and it was finally done in 2015 in early april and i phoned the editor at Harper Collins whom i met years before, came on a mission with me to poland and another group. I said, you know, i have my memoirs, can i send it to you . I sim mr. I simply want to know if its worth anything. He said ill be back in two weeks and ill find out. What do i know about anything, publishing a book. He said send it, push a button and it was gone. I forgot about it, i was getting ready to leave on sunday, this was tuesday. And two days later i had an email they would be honored to publish my memoirment i simply fell off the chair. And my book was a finalist for an award, and this year, in canada reads, and i think its a very important book at the right time. It gave the book tremendous public city in canada. Ais i mean, i get letters from countries, atlantic to the pacific. Inge its very important and its the right book for the right time and we need to be aware of what is happening around us. You know, we cannot repeat the same mistakes. It starts with jews y, but it does not end with jews. When students ask me, what can we do . I say, you need to stand up, you need to say, we will not allow you to do this, not in my school, not in our cities, not in our town, not in this country. This is not a jewish problem, this is everybodys problem. [applaus [applause] max, thank you so much for all of us. I think theres going to be another musical performance. [inaudible conversations] eli weisel once said when you listen a witness, you become a witness. When you listen to a witness, you become a witness. Max, like so many privileged to hear your story on the march of living and countless other experiences, all of us here are now your witnesses, we pledge never to forget your story and promise to pass on your story to future generations. Of course we all look forward to your segment on 60 minutes. Our final song this evening is lay down your arms, commemorating 75th anniversary in 1945. If you ask any holocaust survive world war ii veteran what their fervent wish is, their answer is piece. The last song is among the favorite pieces that students like to sing on the march of the living. Written by an israeli soldier in memory of his fallen comrades. And the words are taken the hebrew book. And isaiahs words written over 2500 years ago have spoken to peace lovers in every generation. Some the english words read every hand that hold a sword can hold a baby. Every heart can learn to love. Lay down your arms, let time heal every wound and love will some day set us free. Lay down your arms. Dear god please hear us, listen to our prayer and help us do thy will upon this earth let the children suffer war no more and let a Peaceful World be given birth every hand that holds a sword can hold a baby every heart can learn to love lay down your arms, begin the journey home and join the human family somewhere deep inside the soldier theres a dreamer dreaming of a world of peace lay down your arms, let time heal every wound and love will some day set us free love will some day set us free love will some day set us free love will some day set us free. [applause] thank you for sharing with us your profoundly Healing Music this evening. To close out this extraordinary evening id like to invite our excepti exceptional president of the march of the living. [applause] good evening to each of you. As he has done so beautifully this evening in his own words, max has shared with counselless participants on the march of the living. Not only his personal story of survival, but his belief and understanding of how very vital our commitment to the messages of memory are to the meaning of our lives. For over 20 years march of the living students have had the opportunity to benefit from maxs gentle demeanor, his intuitive wisdom and his belief, and our personal responsibility to protect the early chapters in our communal book of life, even as we strive to preserve a Better Future in the foregoing chapters. Since its inception in 1988 the international march of the living has been denoted to an unwavering mission to educate the next generation on the historical truth of our Jewish Communal past. Weve seen memories as a means to improvement. We see truth as fundamental to our existence. We feel morally compelled to remember the six million of our ancestors who so brutally met their death during the holocaust and we feel passionately driven to honor and pay tribute to those fortunate enough to survive the atrocities that they face during this most bleak and dark time in jewish and world history. As we approach our 32nd march from auschwitz, and this april, we will be joined once again by 10,000 participants, students, adults, survivors, clergy, law enforcement, professors, educators and World Leaders from 150 communities around this globe. We will stand together against the evils of antisemitism, of hatred and prejudice in all their ugly forms in nature. We believe together we are making a difference that we will remember and we will never forget. In this year of 2020, the year of vision, it is our fervent hope that humanity will strive to see the truths of reality more clearly. We are grateful for the vision of our founders who long ago sought to understand our moral obligation to remember the past as we prepare to grasp the future and pass it on to the next generation. And we are very grateful for the physical fortitude, the inner strength and the will of max eisen. It is through your words, max, and countless others like you who brace yourselves to face unbearable memories, open your hearts and share with us descrip tiffive stories of youth and the events with i shaped the lives of so many, and the intro inspective impacts on those in the world. Im very pleased on behalf of the board of directors of the international march of the living to publicly thank you, max, for showing us that the will to live can and must remain alive within each of us against all odds and against all evils. You serve as a true role model for our young people, the leaders of tomorrow, the witnesses for the witnesses. Your resilience is remarkable. Your commitment to memory is inspiring, and your ability to motivate is very enviable. We are fortunate to have you as a torch bearer of memory and truth, and their meaning and their importance, the relevance they have to our lives. We read and prepare the ethics of the fathers in chapter two and i quote, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but neither are you free to desist from it. My friend, max, you and the very way that you have led your life exemplifies that most prophetic ethic. We at the march of the living join us in steadfast commitment to memory and to education. I pray, i pray deeply, our educational journal i together will continue for many, many more years to come, as together we march in the common goal of learning from the past to preserve a Better Future. I would like to take a moment to thank all of our distinguished guests for joining us this evening, for our partners in the recordation and transmission of memory and to each one of you who have seen fit to join us this evening for this very special moment in time. I wish you a rest of a pleasant a pleasant rest of the evening. Safe travels home and i will remind you that max, our dear max will be signing books in the book Museum Gift Shop at the conclusion of the program. Thank you. [applaus [applause]. [inaudible conversations] youre watching a special edition of book tv airing now during the week while members of congress are working in their districts because of the coronavirus pandemic. Tonight a look at crime. First Joshua Hammer tells the story of a black market animal smuggling operation and reports on international and Domestic Trade regulations and university of texas journalism professor Kate Winkler Dawson looks at the life of edward oscar heinrich, forensic scientist. And a general from the george w. Bush administration and recalls the life of a stepfather, an associate of teamster jimmy hoffa. Enjoy book tv now and over the weekend on cspan2. Cspan has round the clock coverage of the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic available at cspan. Org coronavirus, watch white house briefings, updates from state officials, track the spread throughout the u. S. And the world with interactive maps. Watch on demand anytime, unfiltered at cspan. Org coronavir cspan. Org coronavirus. [inaudible conversations] okay. Good evening, everyone, and thank you all for joining us tonight. Onal