Transcripts For CSPAN2 Max Eisen By Chance Alone 20240713

Challenged visitors intellectually with the dehumanization it with that deeply destructive and to engage in history to never forget. If you are interested in receiving any information of Upcoming Events please join our mailing list that can be found in the admissions desk also with the museums vibrant community were honored tonight to celebrate the holocaust survivor mr. Eisen of 15 was saved from circumstance at auschwitz by a polish physician as the cleaner in the operating room. From his 2016 memoir from persistence deliberation and continued healing after surviving auschwitz the top literary award in 2019 to celebrate the launch of the book american physician we have the privilege to hear mr. Eisen in conversation with veteran producer of 60 minutes. Leslie stall is here for the impeachment coverage we are joyed to join mr. Eisen in the lobby available for purchase in the museum shop we are honored to be joined tonight by the acting Council General the canadian counselor in new yor york, mark gordon executive Committee Member of the Show Foundation board of counselors the National Director Phyllis Greenberg president of march of the living we like to thank those that are presenting tonight the counselor general of canada in new york Harvard Square press and the foundation before we begin please take a moment to silence your cell phones to avoid any disruptions. Thank you please join me to welcome our first speaker tonight acting canadian Council General. [applause] gracefully i was not held up by the impeachment hearings. [speaking french] what an incredibly irony to be here with you tonight with a truly remarkable man and extraordinary comedian. Since we learned of his incredible story at the consulate general seeking opportunity to bring him 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 for joining us and to hanover press and the jewish heritage to bring here this evening to tell his story. As a diplomat i spent time in one of the most the merit on memorable times as family was traveling to auschwitz with my family and wife and my son to share with them the tragedies and the horrors and the legacy of auschwitz. I am deeply and profoundly inspired of the Holocaust Survivors despite the depth of evil that they face in the complexity of their emotion to understand the holocaust needs to be real for those who are not there to reconcile the unspeakable horrors with the enduring faith of humanity. To be profoundly shaped of the 40000 Holocaust Survivors who survived after the holocaust canada has acknowledged apathy toward jews when 1939 jewish refugees on board were turned away and for which our Prime Minister issued a formal apology in the house of commons november 2018. The lessons of the holocaust are clear but need to be repeated as the Prime Minister has said never again is not a phrase. Its a promise to stand up to the dangers of hatred and discrimination and in action and indifference. As a new yorker we know all too well of recent horrific antisemitic attacks it has not yet run its course we must be vigilant because we know the modern hate is way more sophisticated than newspaper radio or film. Speaking with my colleagues and learning i am inspired whoever saves a single life saves an entire world and given that Ripple Effect to educate the Younger Generation i think we can say the surgeon saved much more than one. The opportunity to hear the firsthand account from a survivor is becoming increasingly rare and for all of you to hear him share his story i hope we all leave here tonight with a heightened sense of duty to condemn to defend human rights. Please join me to welcome the daughter of a holocaust survivor and from the congregation traveling with mr. Eisen on the march of the living which he conducted at the holocaust remembrance ceremony in auschwitz. To be joined and accompanied by the grammy awardwinning guitarist lost many members of his family in the holocaust. We wish you all a wonderful evening. [applause] good evening it is an incredible honor to be here with you and to seeing at this wonderful event and attribute. One of the most remarkable people i have ever met, had the privilege of traveling with max 2015 march of living that year and so i would like to share with you a few songs the students and i saying on that trip like my colleague and dear friend introduced and will give context to the song i will sing. [applause] good evening the first song we will hear is written as writing upon the shores of the mediterranean in the 19 forties. Born in hungaryhat e experiencer youth left to help build the jewish state. She returned to hungry to fight against the nazis but was caught and tortured and executed in 1944 she left this remarkable poem whose words are minor the beauty of nature the rest of the waters she was robbed far too early in her young life. [applause] every time we sing this song is the same place hitler went after the jewish people the spirit of values and lessons continues to live on. [music] [singing] [singing] saying with me. [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] [singing] [applause] thank you, its now my pleasure to invite to the stage mark gordon, Member Executive Committee of the abinvolving testimony of max eisen. [applause] thank you, on behalf of the usc Showa Foundation im great 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 tonights event and the council of aconsul general of canada for long support and involvement. We want to thank the international march of the living for our partnership between the international march of the living and the usc yes a abegan working with max and his family in 2019 to the partnership of the international march of the living. Together these organizations have a joint project to gather the testimonies of Holocaust Survivors in a 360 degree video method in the authentic original locations. Together we are working to film at least 10 survivors if they take us on a journey from their hometowns to the sites of liberation sharing their unique and personal stories and the places where the experience them. Eventually these testimonies will be deeply integrated into the programs and experiences created by the march of the living. Max is one of four survivors so far who have participated in and been filmed on location. Our team traveled with max to the Auschwitz Museum for a day as he shared his story with us and his son ed on the mark for the first time. We traveled to slovakia and his hometown of moldova where max recalled his childhood and invited us to share in what is likely im told his last goodbye to his hometown. The once vibrant prewar Jewish Community that now exists only to him. This community will not be forgotten, thanks to his 360 on location interview and the loving details he so generously included in his memoirs. This is all in addition to the usc ababboth recorded in the 1990s once taken by the usc Showa Foundation both accessible to the visual history archives that testimony is among the 50th at 55,000 testimonies available and accessible through overs 160 universities and Six Continents around the world. And then his book which is what we are here to celebrate today. 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 when he 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 this was a very common reaction among survivors at the that time. I too have, had an uncle max, who survived auschwitz and immigrated to toronto where he build a family and live the life. I visited my uncle max in the summer of 1990, shortly after a month or two after i had been on a trip to Eastern Europe and i had visited auschwitz. Over dinner i told him i traveled and he asked me maybe two or three questions about auschwitz and what i had seen there. After dinner his son harvey, my cousin who is 34 years old at the time said, you know in my entire life thats the most ive ever heard my father talk about his experiences. I said, why do you think that is . He said well, his attitude is, what would be the point, who would listen, it would just be complaining to our children. So i think we are as individuals all here incredibly indebted to organizations like the usc Foundation Like the international march of the living. Like they museum of jewish heritage. And organizations like the hanover press who have created outlets or forum in the structure around hearing and learning the stories most importantly of course we are indebted to survivors like max who did speak again and again at countless Colleges Universities high schools Public Events i think he led 21 trips to auschwitz where he educated students and adults and shared his experiences in addition to of course given his testimony participating in the 360 degrees video with the international march of the living and of course publishing this memoir. I like to share with you a short video that shows behind the scenes of our time with max and his son ed when we film the 360 degree video will be incorporated into the march of the living program. In it you can see the intensity with which max has committed himself to telling the story. Can somebody play the video . [music] [inaudible] [music] to express his feelings to the family. There has always been a void there in some area you couldnt get to you can access that part of him. He is able to speak to strangers more so in ways of expressing feelings that he is with his own family. Thats one of my reasons for coming here is to see if there was an opportunity to break through some of that. The challenge right now is the tours are starting and we are trying to manage the noise and interruption but thats part of what happens here. Its great to be a part of maxs story. [inaudible] we came back and laid down in the bed. [inaudible] we went into a deep depression. [inaudible] [music] [inaudible] [music] [inaudible] [music] [inaudible] [music] [inaudible] [applause] now i would like to invite back up Kelly Rubinstein 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 the program the part we are about to hear from max eisen himself. Ive been traveling with max on the march of living for well over 20 years now and each time continue to be inspired by his courage and his wisdom, and his eloquence. I recall in the early 2000s been with max at Queens University near the Thousand Islands for weekend conference training educators and chaperones traveling to poland in march of the living. As we were milling about the reception area of the conference after, a group of queen students passed by, they noticed one of our staff was carrying a scroll of the law. The agent five books of moses written on by hand on parchment. Observing a curious look on the students faces, max patiently explained to them what the scrolls represented. He concluded in an impromptu speech during the holocaust the nazis burned thousands of sacred works just like this they were looking at now. He reminded the students where they burned books and also burn people. The spellbound students were mesmerized during maxs short speech and only reluctantly tore themselves away to return to schools activities. It was at that moment i realize that max was a born teacher, a natural educator, who had both the desire and ability to share his story and the lessons of the holocaust with the most diverse audiences in the clearest most accessible manner. In that moment of teaching is something max is replicated near literally countless times as these crossed crisscross canada sharing his story of love and loss with thousands upon thousands of people for the last 20 or more years. abwanted something along the following lines. To be jew after the holocaust is to have every reason to give up your belief in god if you know anything about the jewish people and abandon your trust in all humanity. To have every reason to give up your faith in god to give up on the jewish people and abandon your trust in all humanity. But still not to do so. Max like so many other survivors we know, perfectly exemplifies alloways sentiment. Despite having every reason to do so, max did not abandon his faith or give up on humanity. Instead he continued to dedicate literally every day of his life, aroundtheclock, to teaching lessons of the shoah that it would never happen again. In the effort he reminds us of a quote, you can 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. Thank you max, from the bottom of all of our hearts for not giving into despair for not giving up on our world, even though you had every reason to do so. Indeed we are all the better for it. [applause] in a moment i like to invite to the stage my teacher, my hero, my mentor, max eisen, max will be interviewed by Sherry Finkelstein from 60 minutes. Sherry is very familiar with maxs story. Thank you. [inaudible] im the substitute, i dont do this for a living. Be understanding please. Leslie is really sad not to be here, she is a huge fan of maxs and really wanted to do this and wasnt able to get on a flight early enough to be here. So you got me. So max, why dont we start by talking a little bit about your life and what we start with the beginning of your life, before these horrors. Tell us a little bit about your family, where you lived, i know it was czechoslovakia, became part of hungary, what was your home life. Your home, your family, before the war . Czechoslovakia was the democratic country which we had 20 golden years in czechoslovakia. abwe considered him as a grandfather. I lived in a town of about 5000 people. We were 10 of the population. Proximally 90 jewish families. I would say 99 percent of these families were traditional orthodox jews, they were Small Business people, farmers, in my town there were two jewish doctors, doctor friede, doctor laszlo, a jewish dentist. A jewish book butcher, baker, and a beautiful jewish synagogue. We had a tomah torah which is a school, a jewish school, we had a camp tour, its amazing looking at towns in toronto its very difficult to get all the jewish communities together and this was a beautiful Jewish Community. I lived in a large dwelling with my paternal grandparents and my uncle and aunt. And many jewish people spent with families together. Imagine so many people would be taking care of you. I was going by smell who is doing the best cooking that particular day. Because you were all literally in the same home . In the same dwelling. It was a large lshaped house and we lived in the front part of the leg of the l and so we had my mothers kitchen, a wood stove, and bedrooms, and every bedroom had a fireplace. It was made up of ceramic tiles. There was no running water. We had a well in the yard. We had a beautiful house. We had an outhouse, i had two younger brothers. In the center of the house lived my paternal grandparents and my aunt bella who was an invalid and my grandmother had her own kitchen and bedrooms and my aunt had another kitchen and bedrooms and so on. Hence the kitchen choices. Lots of choices. Think of fiddler on the roof he said, how lucky he would be if he could have so many chickens. We had chickens, geese, ducks, roaming all over the place. We had a big vegetable garden and a huge orchard with fruit trees. A bicycle ablife was wonderful the first 10 years of my life. I was born in 29 and czechoslovakia abin 1938 during the conference my country was petitioned and given to hungary and we knew that we were immortal dented when this happened in 1938 was too late for the jews to leave. This was a catastrophe in europe and so when this happened you go from a democratic lifestyle in this is a fascist country and i remember so vividly and 38 my father had a radio and somehow managed to find out that hitler was making a very important speech in berlin. 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 hungarian, this is the language we spoke in my home. I spoke german. I remember the speech was poison pouring out of the radio. Hitler said, we are going to eradicate the jews on the face of the world. I was nine years old and something told me something terrible is going to happen. I had no idea what. I remember seeing the faces of the older people, when you are nine and abthey were green in the face. These were being posted in my town where jews were numbered, we were in school hungarian teachers made us sit in the back of the class and were segregated. Fights every morning going to school, we were less than 10 of the student body. And other critics are being posted on a daily basis. This was the medias movement, the boy cost the west jews. My mother had a helper whose name was anna, this was one of the edicts he could not appoint on jewish people. My mother had her hands full. She became a single mother because in 1941 all ablebodied men had to report to battalion. The breadwinners were taken away for many years. Anna had to leave and she didnt want to go. They removed her from our home. Im just thinking of the changing scene for my mother handling the whole family and looking at three kids and at 43 she gave birth to a little girl. That was not a good year for jewish mother to give birth to a jewish child. So i remember her job became so difficult and we all had to pitch in. My mother in her wisdom sent me a way to abto the large city i became an apprentice working in a fur shop. So looking back my mother truly was my guardian angel, she made sure we always had good shoes, good winter boots, made sure that our ankles would be strong and fit us a balanced diet. I can imagine how she did all these things singlehanded. Her helper was gone and my grandfather, who was truly a man of the land, all the gear and fathers in my town they fought in the First World War and the hungarian empire. These were men from the country come the new abevery grandfather my grandfather taught me a lot of work skills and life skills. My mom calls on the maternal side of my family they live in slovakia, i think they taught me a lot of things which really i think help me survive the one euros incarcerated by the nazis. So in 44 abin 43 my aunt bella who was an invalid, she died. In hindsight it was truly a gift from god. I cannot imagine how it would have coped with her a year later. She taught me how to read books. I was able to read, i read all the books by jewish awhen i was eight years old. I was able to read at a very early age. I loved books ever sense. She was the only member of my family that was buried, the casket was made from my grandfathers lumberyard and she was buried in the cemetery. In the rest of the family were deported and wound up being deported on the first day adid passover in 1984. I was going to ask you about that because you had a seder that evening. When you read the book if you havent already, there are many more. Tell us about the seder. Looking back 1944 imagine jewish in hungary about 700,000 jews in hungary. We didnt know what was going on just across the mountains. This is going to be a message to us forever not knowing was a terrible thing. Who would have thought my grandfather said how strong and empire. I keep saying today when we know a lot of things happening and we do nothing about it, thats a terrible mistake. So we were celebrating passover, we had ample food and 44, we heard certain things but life went on. My father and uncle were home, it was truly a miracle. They were somewhere in the southern part of hungary which is accessed by hungary from yugoslavia and 39. It was a beautiful seder. My little sister was about nine months old and we sat around at this beautiful table. We told the story of exodus and went tonight at 12 oclock. We knew the next morning we would walk leisurely to the synagogue and celebrate the second seder, the second night. That night the first night of seder was a shabbat night friday night. It was shabbat and the first night of passover. My father and my grandfather, my uncle, they were in the yard after dinner talking and my grandfather said we managed to hold out another four or five months will be liberated by the army. We hungarians ababout four months later after we were ab Early Morning they broke our gate and kicked in our door and yelling and screaming. They dont have to provide awards to come in. They simply kick your door in. Hungarians are very crude bunch. They have a big black fedora hats with the bread rooster tail feathers. In the big gun with it to foot aband yelling and screaming if you have money or jewelry handed over because when youre going youre going to have no need of this. You wonder what hes talking about. My mother had a baby in her arm and she told us to put on layers of clothing and my father said put your boots on, your winter boots on. And they went to see how my grandparents were doing. My grandfather was 77 years old and a very big strong man. My grandmother was 75, very petite little lady. We were hauled out from our home. We had a guard dog, he knew terrible things, this was a terrible encroachment and ab they tried to shoot him. A neighbor came running in her name was aba christian lady, 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 stop wondering about it if my mother had left my sister which yet survive. We will never know. But we know history many jews in poland in the ghettos, the ghettos being recreated, the gay they give their children to christian families. They all survived and their parents did it. Then you are hauled out in 500 jews put into schools into schoolrooms and you spent the second night of passover instead of having at home in the Florida School room. The next morning abassembled in the schoolyard they have their exodus leaving town forever never to come back. It was set up like a parade by imagine the rabbi gentleman with a beard. This rabbi is really his flock from sexy his wife was an invalid. She is carried by her two sons in a chair. The mothers were not allowed to have a carriage or strollers. You can imagine mothers like my Mother Holding a baby in one arm, bundled in the other arm and pencils and a sheet on her back. Imagine an exodus of jews leaving town. 500 jews were taken away and 480 didnt come back a year later. Less than 20 of us survived from my town, there was one mother with two daughters, we wound up in brooke yards, terrible conditions in russia. 30,000 jews in the brickyard with terrible facilities. There is a torrid open toilet our food was scarce and imagine, excuse me, mothers couldnt breastfeed their babies and they were wilting away. Every day we were given this propaganda the ss officer arrived in the camp. Told us the story we were going to be resettled in the east. To see the nazi propaganda. In the deception they used and it would be working on farms families would be together and everything will be fine. When the practitioner abwhen the petition of abwe were stuck in hungary we could never see them. They had a big farm and my uncles and grandmother and my beautiful cousins slovakia was the bestabthe deception the naz used to see the telegram first that our family disappeared. We were devastated, my mother was devastated. Brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews and mother simply disappeared from the face of the earth. We didnt know in 42 when it happened. A few months later postcards arrived in my town like my mother and many other mothers or fathers who came from the slovak part, it had the german eagle on it. There was a stamp on it was general google map because that part general government with the friedman family only together working on farms and awaiting your arrival. Only years later did i find out were taken to the death camp before put into the gas chambers they were forced to write a postcard to their families in hungary. Here i am listening to this ss officer and i kept thinking i would live somewhere with my beautiful cousin to see the deception how it works and unfortunately. Its a journey you cannot describe. Initially they put in a bale of water and the doors were locked and bolted down. The water was never replaced. The toilet slopping on the ground it was a mess. My journey was for days and nights. Think of Continental Europe ab train tracks leading from from paris, from rome, from berlin, budapest, all the way to salon alocomotives pulling tons of cattle cars like that with human cargo to the death camps and occupied poland. Millions of jews arrived in this way and not a single transport was advertised where any of those countries even though they were occupied. A single train was sabotage. The documentary just came out on pbs downing auschwitz. That was one thing but what about the transports. On this transport you have no idea where youre going, correct . Do you continue to think did the deception continue that you are going to this lovely farm where your whole family was good to be together . We didnt know, by the second day we all knew we were in real big trouble. That this is not going to be a place of work or whatever. It was the worst. The degradation of humanity was so visible. It was the worst. I saw my mother and there was crying and screaming and the babies were crying their cry was gone they couldnt breathe anymore. You can write a book on what its like to aband then youre on the platform and totally a zombie you cant think because they keep telling you misinformation deception dont worry about your bundles you have it delivered you will see our families tomorrow and taken for this infection and theres a selection women and men are separated its done really fast. Its a german guard we had to do these things very fast in an orderly fashion when hungarian jews were being brought. Less than three months and 44 450,000 hungarians used a these trains were arriving around the clock. Aroundtheclock. You arrived at night. I arrived mayday 8 00 p. M. We were all out on this platform, it was floodlights all over and you couldnt see anything behind the floodlights. You could see some hundreds of little bulbs and there was a huge fire coming up from behind me, flames several chimneys tickets i couldnt see the chimneys i could see the flames and it was terrible. I thought it was a Big Industrial big factory. My father and uncle live you where it later. My mother with my two Little Brothers and baby sister and grandparents and my aunt were sent to the left and i knew by the next day they were marched into the gas chamber. Word 2000 people at a time were aghast and masked. So you get separated, you go with your father and your uncle, how do you find out what happened . You are 15 years old, you think you are in an industrial facility, how did it become clear what actually was going on there . We were selected we were in the clutches of an ss unit. They took away our clothes. They shaved their heads. They shaved our body here. Women that were selected for slavery were processed the same way in the womens camp. Given a shower taken away our clothing and the only thing we are allowed to keep were boots. I was able to lay down for a few hours after standing for three days and nights. The next morning we were hauled off from the baruch with a beautiful sunday morning i could see the spread of birkenau, i said what is this place . I could see i could see for chimneys, fire and smoke and ashes coming down we were naked and few men in snipe outfits with a canister of liquid. My father asked them, are we going to see our families today . Thats what they told us the night before. They were laughing they said where did you come from and theys we said we came from hungry in the middle of the night. I could hear it so clearly, they said in 1944 you dont know what this place is all about . Your families have gone to the chamber. The only way you will get out of here is be beaten to death, starve to death or go to the chamber for sure. We didnt talk about it anymore. I think probably my father and uncle got it and i didnt until maybe the next day. There was no talking about it because you are now in the clutches of survival. You were put into work unit and give given a couple of abthey put all these psychopaths into the camps they were our work bosses. Will your food count was 300 calories a day. I was very lucky i had good boots. Boots became a big thing you had to march every day to work and back 10 a15 kilometers. You had to go to all kinds of things happening to your body. My father and uncle not being with me i dont think i wouldve survived two weeks but not having anybody there who would be helping you, i remember the first swapped they brought us for lunch the soup was called abit was a vegetarian soup. It stunk to high heaven and i said i will not eat this. A few days later the soup tasted pretty good. The trouble was, there wasnt enough of it. You know you were inducted in this terrible life of auschwitz and here we are sitting in a field you have halfhour lunch, you have 12 hours bread baking day of hard work. The lineup 100 people for the soup and there is one of the couple has a ladle and stirring up the slop in this canister its like a double walk he keeps it warm. 100 people lineup and people try to figure out whats the best spot to be on top is mostly liquid the bottom is thick. If you are caught by the couple you got a big hit on your head. When it was all finished there was some left. Its called repeat. I couldnt believe it i saw three or four people running to the canisters and try to crawl in with their heads and lick the last drop. I said never in my life will i stand in line for anything. Can you imagine how you have to get to be a fast learner here because every second there was no second helping and there was no second chances. It was a terrible thing. These couples were absolutely brutal. Ive seen the best and the ab the best of the worst. My father and uncle and i were together for two months. I was very lucky to find a document, somebody found a document in the Auschwitz Museum of the selection and their name on it. They were selected out for medical experiments for pharmaceutical companies. It says on the document. On july 9, 1944. Selection was in july we knew what selection was. He was usually in the middle of the night. The loudspeakers would turn on and you heard very loud ab means attention, attention, all inmates on these barracks run naked to the barracks for selection and we knew selection was certain death. The next morning i ran to my father and uncles baruch and they were gone. I had to go to my work, you had to be counted every morning. A daily drill. On a good day to take an hour and and a half when the count was done he could stand there in military fashion three hours to four hours. People were simply collapsing and died on the spot, the strain of standing was so difficult. I managed to see them at night they were in a quarantine area. My father gave me a blessing through the wires and he told me if i managed to survive i need to tell the world what happened here. I never saw them again. I was going to ask you, i know leslie ask you that you have such equanimity in talking about the most tragic horrible memories, i know you talk about it frequently, how do you cope with describing these things again and again . I assume you see them when you talk about it. I managed to cope with it because i think its very important. I started to speak, ive been speaking now 32 years. My first speech was in 1991 and i have a thank you card from high school. What i thought 32 years ago and things happening in toronto, the antisemitism and things about jews i wouldve never imagined so there is no way i can sit by and not talk about it. I think the book gave me a tool to be heard and be invited to speak in many different places. Its important for people to understand, it it starts with the jews but it does not end with the jews. To see this kind of a thing second time around, it gives me a lot of terrible feelings. 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 went into shock i was thrown into a ditch. I knew that my life was over and i kept thinking, how do i get myself onto this . The only way to survive you have to be tough as nails and you had to be very resilient and he had to be able to put one foot in front of the other. Your plans were one second to the next. Thinking all the time, you had to be thinking all the time about the next . You are surviving from 2nd to 2nd. Just bad movements could get this couple in such a rage, people were giving beatings and too many beatings he couldnt survive. The danger was there every second. I was dragged back to camp and dropped off in a surgery department, barracks 21 and auschwitz 1. It was operated on and i was put up in the ward upstairs and found out day two doctors the two surgeons that operated on me, upstairs in the ward were two jewish doctors. Doctor gordon from boersma and doctor steinberg from paris. They were looking after the people. If you had an operation you were allowed to stay stay in the ward for two days. After two days he reloaded on a stretcher and taken to a gas chamber. So if youre not better in two days, thats it. Thats it. If you could walk away, you were gone. I seen a lot of people, they came because they knew nobody wanted to go to the operating, they knew that if you go there, thats the end but these people were in such terrible shape they were the end of their life. They said, i will have two or three days and if im lucky then its the end. I was on a stretcher and the doctor pulled me off and brought me into the prep room of the surgery and gave me a lab coat, middle of july 1944. I was working for him to january 12, 1945. He saved your life . He saved my life. Had he not done this i would not have survived. I wouldve been taken away to the gas, if not that i wouldve had to work outside in the cold in the fall. Do you have any idea what he saw in you . You were there when he needed somewhere or was there a connection . There was a polish medical student working sentenced to go to auschwitz for one year and he was there for one week and maybe there was some discussion with doctor gordon and doctor steinberg because these people talk to each other. Maybe they needed somebody young i will never know. So youre 15 years old and in charge of. In charge of an operating room and getting people prepared for operations and cleaning and getting instruments cleaned. I learned fast i had to polish and sweep and clean and taking bloody sheets next door to the laundry was next door. You know how the operating room has to be run its a lot of work everything has to be sterilized, the clothing and laundry had to be folded and sterilized. Your washing instruments for hours everything had to be sparkle and be clean. Ive seen a lot. So the thing was that abthe nurse were not jews, they were allowed to receive one parcel a month from home and one letter. This was the difference. I found out after, many years after, doctor awent back to auschwitz and made a physician and there was an underground named auschwitz and doctor ab a big part of the underground. I had no idea what was going on there. Is going to ask you, skipping way ahead, you had no contact with him immediately after the war but later on you establish connections i wanted to ask about that. Ellie knows my story and he kept asking me, lets find out. I said i didnt want to open that book. 40 years after i survived i was busy having a family and a life and so on. I said okay. I remember we found a girl from one of the institute and they told her the name of the doctor and of course that was easy to just want to auschwitz and there was doctor was just go all the records were there. The following year she came on the bus ellie came to me with the document and envelope and said you know this man . Because visitors were photographed from inside, not jews were not photographed. I said maybe you contract on the family and he found the family. One day i had a phone call from a fellow that said my name is thomas and who are you looking for . I said, im just wondering whether you know are you familiar with the name abhe said yes. Thats my grandfather. We met the family and so when i go there i see them almost every time im in poland. And his granddaughter has a sixyearold little boy named max and smart little boy. [laughter] he says to me, max, did you have money to go to canada on boats . They know the story. Its interesting, doctor ai know this now he was in auschwitz because he was arrested by the gestapo. His wife was a dentist. And hiding a jewish family in the stable under the stable near the horses. These are things that happen, people have different point of views. I wanted to ask you, you saw the best and the worst of people. I was going to ask you about this. You talk about how all these trains were crisscrossing europe full of people being taken to their deaths and nobody sabotage them but then there was another story you tell in the book also you are being transported, now 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. That was on the death march. Is that right . The throwing of the bread. That was on the death march. 75 years ago i arrived in auschwitz on 25 january. We went to a place called ellison which was occupied czechoslovakia. We arrived in the afternoon and i didnt know where we were. Imagine i dont know how many open flat cars carry coal and we were guarded by ss units patrolling around. When it got dark there was no movement of trains on the road on the rails. They were picked up by american fighter planes. You see a locomotive. The trains stood at the station all night, everything was locked out. In the morning it was a wet morning, the snow was coming down and there was commotion behind me. There was an overhead bridge and a look back and i see people with bakers baskets throwing chunks of bread into the open cars. I asked the guards start yelling dont throw bread these are jews. I said my gosh, people still care for us. It gave me three months to go on. That was truly a high. These people just kept throwing bread. They didnt stop when the guard said dont throw bread. There were college misers and they sprayed the bridge and the people ran away. That was very high and really something. Three days later we arrived in athe train comes to a stop theres a bridge over a big river you could see ice floating down the river. And it was just beyond belief go here im looking at sparkling windows pico and he said i would die happy but then and they are looking at me with their eyes they didnt want to see who was walking per cow that was total rejection. So that was the high end that was the very low and then i see inmates looking at us hanging from the cliff go and i said this will be the end. So that was a wonderful thing what people did in jerusalem. But now we work in the underground shaft i almost bought it i had a terrible case of dysentery. I was so sick. They said they need this to take the place so i couldnt eat for three days. And then to find out and then i keep thinking but every time you move it is a terrible ordeal. But then to show the foundation and then were back to last year and then we were there in may by those American Tank units and then they were from new jersey. [applause] i will never forget. Tell us that pic i can listen to you talk all my. Im not a very good timekeeper. Emilys was to talk a 40 minute. A few hours. [laughter] but talk about that moment. In the three weeks before liberation day they shut the water off and then they carry the sickness of the others about another bunk those that have high fever. And they cap mumbling away and i knew if i dont get out of this i will never make it out. So im looking at is empty and i could hear heavy equipment and then suddenly they come flying in it was the American Tank coming through with the white star. You could tell it was american quick. I knew right away. And i remember those soldiers they did not know. And they came through with the battle of the bulge. And with the encampment so they go up and see when that is. But all they saw was thousands of bodies. And i could not get up on my feet but those looking at the soldiers ripped themselves up higher but they can only go up so far and they did not know who these monsters are. But i but they had to keep on going. And it was very difficult they had some food so meet or stew but then their stomachs ruptured because we couldnt keep any food down. And i know on my way back home and took me a month. I would take a piece of salami and we would have to eat it. So we had to be fed with an eyedropper. And then the announcement came out and with czechoslovakia and then i knew i had to go. So i arrived home i was in terrible shape. I dont know what was wrong with me but it was not good. I had shirt and corduroy pants and my legs were like that. And the boots i had to cut out of it. So then it was at that place and then the year before and i knew when i was half a kilometer away and then i was sitting in my mothers kitchen and to get a glass of water and then when i came back from a terrible journey. I cannot put my head back. So it took a while. One neighbor took your house and the other neighbor treated you with kindness and also did another wonderful thing for you. Yes. Last year back in my town but the crew was a people with the houses down the road hes yelling and he was yelling my nickname everybody thought this is wonderful. Somebody remembers him seven years later. That everybody was amazed that he even remembered my two brothers. He remember their names and we invited them in for lunch. Said what happened here when we were locked up in the school. And the synagogue and i said what happened cracks oh that was a terrible time. I remember he had a lady said if you ask a question you dont get an answer the dont ask anymore but i could not drop it. I said what happened cracks those were terrible times. So now this is 75 years later. Terrible times. Okay i was going for the answer of the woman saving the photos but i was trying to end on a happy note. She gave me for pictures she saved four of them so i had those and i got off the boat and so i have four pictures. That was the story. I wanted to thank you so much go wish we had endless time but now everyone can get the book and read. Harpercollins it took me years to put this book together i tried everything and then the last two years i could not type on the computer so i wrote with a pencil and paper. But then i had to defer to my wife and my granddaughter and my son and it took over three years. And i had a professor at the university who did everything. It took me three years to do this. But then in 2015 i found the editor of harpercollins who years before went with me and i said i have my memoirs i will sell them to you if they are worth anything he said i will give it back to you in two weeks and we will find out. So then we just pushed it back and i forgot about it. It was a sunday this was tuesday and i got the email they would be honored to publish my memoirs. My book was a finalist its a very important book in it received tremendous publicity in canada from the atlantic to the pacific and its very important that we need to be aware of what is happening and we cannot repeat the same mistakes see you need to stand up and say we will not allow you to do this. This is not a jewish problem this is everybodys problem. [applause] thank you so much i think there will be another musical performance. So when you listen to a witness should become a witness max like so many others who were privileged to hear you share your story on the march of the living and countless other experiences come all of us here now are your witnesses. We pledge never to forget your story and pass it on to future generations pick off course we will look at your segment on 60 minutes. The final segment is called lay down your arms to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of auschwitz january 27, 1945. If you ask any holocaust survivor world war ii veteran their most favorite wish, it is peace. This last song is among the favorite pieces of music to sing at the march of the living the piece on lay down your arms. Written by an israeli soldier in honor of his fallen comrades. Nations shall not let nation fight against nation anymore. By his words written have instilled peace lovers of every generation. Every handhold or to hold the baby and every heart can learn to love. Lay down your arms. Love will set us free. [applause] thank you for sharing with us your profoundly human music this evening. To close out this extraordinary evening, id ladies and gentlemen to in id like to invite the president of the international march of the living. [applause] as was done so beautifully this evening not only his personal story but his belief and understanding how our commitment to the messages of memory and those that have the opportunity to benefit from the gentle demeanor and the personal responsibility and the communal book of life to strive. Since its inception in 1988 from the international march of the living was devoted to a mission to educate the next generation of a historical truth. And with those means to improvement with that is fundamental to our existence and then to remember those that so brutally met their death during the holocaust and to honor and pay tribute to those fortunate enough to survive those atrocities so as we approach that march we would be joined once again by 10000 participants students and adults and survivors clerg clergy, lawenforcement professors and educators and World Leaders we will stand together against the evils of antisemitism of bigotry and prejudice in all ugly forms. We believe that together we are making a difference we wont remember that we will also never forget. It is our hope that humanity will strive to see the truth of reality more clearly. We are grateful for the vision of our founders who long ago sought to understand the moral obligation to remember the past as we prepare to grasp the future and pass it on to the next generation. We are very grateful for the fortitude in the inner strength and through the words of max through you and countless others like you that face unbearable memories and to share with us descriptive stories of your youth of these events that shape the lives of so many and the introspective impact of the lessons on all the people of the world. I am very pleased tonight on behalf of the board of directors to publicly thank you max for showing us that it mustve remain alive in each of us against all odds. Serving as a true role model the resilience is remarkable your commitment to memory is inspiring. We read and prepare in chapter two it is not incumbent to complete the task. My friend, max, the very way you have led your life exemplifies that most prophetic. We at the march of the living join you in a steadfast commitment to memory and to education. I pray deeply our educational journey together will continue for many more years to come and together we march with the common goal of learning from the past to preserve a better future. I would like to thank our distinguished guests for joining us this evening and the transmission of memory and to join us this evening for a special moment in time. Have a pleasant rest of the evening. Safe travels and max will be signing books in the gift shop at the conclusion of the program. Thank you. [applause] this weekend on booktv, africanamerican history, the likelihood of secession and challenges for the working class. Today at 6 20 p. M. Eastern, kevin meredith, editorinchief of everything spns the undefeated on their latest book on africanamerican history, the fierce 44. We dont say this is the greatest black achievers ever, we dont, we dont try to put that on these are just 44 that we looked at that fit the sensibility of the first africanamerican president in the sense that heres something, they did something pioneering, something disrupting, they were, you know, in some cases i say noisy geniuses or quiet inslow iters innovators. And then at 9 p. M. , professor f. H. Buckley examines the possibility of states exiting the union in his book, american secession. Well, every morning the Washington Post arrives on my doorstep, is and it seems to me like a fresh argument for secession. It just drips with contempt on the other side. Theres a lot of that. Hi