All language subtitles for March.of.the.Living.2010.1080p.WEBRip.x265-RARBG

We packed Auschwitz

10,000 of us, 11,000
of us packed Auschwitz

We were there marching
out, alive, with survivors.

We were in Auschwitz
and in Birkenau.

It really was the death
march that they made.

The people in Auschwitz
taken to Birkenau to march

to their deaths.

It was very important for me
to be able to see what I saw it,

and I heard people
that went throught it

I remember many years
ago, younger people

never heard of the Holocaust.

It was amazing, that from
all corners of the Earth,

children came to see the place
that this biggest tragedy

probably the whole human
civilization took place.

It is my life duty to educate and
to let the kids learn about it

because I know that I am the
last of those that

are still alive
who can relate what happened.

The essence of the March of the Living
is education.

20 years, we are marching.

More than one hundred
thousand kids.

The idea was to bring people
to Poland visiting Majdanek,

in Auschwitz, in
Birkenau, in Treblinka.

Then, from here,
going to Israel.

The real birth of
the Jewish people.

To come to see a vibrant country,

exactly the opposite of death.

Suddenly, they understand
where they come from, who they are.

These are not only sightseers,

these were witnesses to history.

But what will happen in
the future?

When all the survivors
are gone?

How will the youth
handle the challenge?

The Los Angeles delegation of
the 2008 March of the Living,

who are marching into history
to reverse the death marches.

We are 158 people strong
with 8 incredible survivors

We are joining 10,000 Jewish
people in Israel and in Poland.

We are the last generation
to hear the story first-hand.

The March of the Living
and the timing,

you know, end of senior year
before you go off to college

it's finding out who you are,

especially my connection to Judaism.

Because I also think my
belief in God

really drifted away

when we started learning
more about the Holocaust

We're not religious.

We eat Chinese food every Friday

that's our Shabbat.

I've never been to Poland

I've never seen any
concentration camp before.

I guess it is hard because
you live in a world,

you know, media, the things are
always caught on camera,

and, you know, the internet,
things like that,

you can see everything and you
can find everything, but because

it happened so long ago, it
is so disconnected from now.

I can't even imagine what
happened to them,

what the survivors saw

The Vespa makes
me feel young

I like to drive around
this neighborhood

It is pretty calm, I'm not
going to the freeway with it,

and on Sundays sometimes I am going to the
shopping center and back.

I enjoy the ride on a motorcycle.

I used to ride the big ones,
in my younger years.

Blue is my favorite color.

I live in California,
it's a light color,

so I think is the right choice.

When you go in the morning
to the shower,

and you see the number,
you know, this is real

When the children were small
and, you know,

we didn't want to involve the kids,
nothing with that kind of scenario.

So I told them it was
my telephone number

and I shouldn't forget it,
so I marked on my hand.

I lost my youth.

I was 13 years old.

We had a very nice life as
children in Berlin,

and Hitler came into the picture
and changed our lives.

Let's see what we have
in the refrigerator.

We have to have lunch pretty soon.

When friends of mine were
selected,

they knew where they going.

They said to me:
"Sigi, please,

"if you survive...

you tell the story."

Well, I try.

That was: I love coffee, I love tea,
I love boys and they love me.

I learned that in
Poland, when I was 11.

I always wanted to be a
pianist since I was small,

but the world broke out
when I was 8 years old.

I remember as it was
happening right now.

My sister said: "Now you go
to school with Polish children."

And I begged her: "I don't
want to go, they still hate us."

And, one boy points to
my face: "You scabby Jew!"

I hit him in the nose.

And I hit him again with my
left hand, I broke his nose.

Zoe! Down! Sit.

The kids tell me never
to say old, to say young

So, I am saying
I am 77 years young

and they laugh

because everybody says
I don't look like it.

Hold your breath!

You have to say a vegetable!
You have to say a color!

Blue pickle.

We're the Balkans.
We're from the Balkans.

What are those things down there?

No, there!

It is a whale! Wow!

A whale, like right here.

There is one girl,
when I was in the 7th grade,

she was in the 8th, she'd just
randomly walk up to people

in the hall and: "Are you Jewish?"

And people'd be like: "Yeah!" And she be
like "I hate Jews. They should all die"

And then just walk away.

My mom is full Japanese and
my father Caucasian

So, I am half and half,
and I am Jewish.

You guys, it is 45 degrees
in Poland right now.

What's the time difference
in Poland to the Pacific?

It is 10 or 9,
something like that.

It doesn't matter, Going from
Poland to Israel is not big deal.

I have gone to public
school for my whole life.

But, in the middle of the 9th grade,
I just decided I couldn't handle it anymore.

I would never say
that I was Jewish.

If people ask me,
I sometimes even say:

"Well you know, my mom is Christian

I celebrated Christmas growing up."

It's funny, cause I have
Jewish friends

that go to Catholic schools,

but I don't know any Catholics or
Christians that go to a Jewish school.

I am kind of the token Asian
at my school and, then every

now and then, they'll
point that I am Jewish.

But, they're all
Jewish, too, so.

I have to buy more
than this for our trip.

I want to go on the march because
my family is from Poland.

I'll never be able to ge out of my mind
associating Poland with the Holocaust.

So, I am blonde hair, blue and
green eyes, they changes colors.

I just don't look Jewish

So, I could have probably survived
the Holocaust, looking like this.

I'm almost the perfect Aryan, so
ha on Hitler's face, there are jews like me

Every morning,
I do calisthenics,

I jog for about 18 minutes

if I don't exercise I don't feel
as good as when I do exercise.

Probably the first 55 years I never
talked to anybody about it,

including my immediate family.

My sister was
taken to Auschwitz, I wasn't.

He was already
in hiding when they took us.

My mother, father and
four sibblings did not survive.

All of us went, and I am
the only one who came back

But, probably the last time
that I'll have a chance to go

to Poland to see
my family perished.

And I hope I have the
chance to say Kaddish in Auschwitz.

I admire him for the
being willing to go.

I refused to go.

Come on you, guys!

Come on you, guys!

Thank you.

We arrive right now in Krakow,
the reason that the Nazis set up

the concentration camps here
in Poland was because this

was where 3 million Jews lived.

Poland. I don't know

I thought it was a
beautiful country.

It was just all green, all farms,
little cottages on hills,

it was really pretty.
It still beautiful, there

you don't want it to be beautiful
in Auschwitz

The train tracks, that's
where everyone came in from,

everyone was just brought in through
a cattle-car, on those train tracks.

My grandmother was on a train
to Auschwitz with her family,

and partisans blew up the tracks.

I was 10 when I got there.

I turned 11 in Auschwitz.

Only years after the war.
I've always been told,

"What do you know?
You were a kid!"

"You are a child, that's it."

I say that silence
is not an option.

It is not an option.

It's huge.
That is so scary.

WORK SETS YOU FREE.

There is no, not just older now.

It's now the Hilton Hotel.

Everything is beautifully tired.

And it is really upsetting!

I can't make up my
mind, what do I want?

Do I want it to be a museum
or I want it to be deserted?

I think I want anything that
helps people to understand.

WORK SETS YOU FREE.

I think because I was a
teenager,

I never gave up hope that
I would survive

When the Germans
came in, I was 15,

and we were put into the ghettos
and we had to wear the yellow star.

I never heard of the place Auschwitz,
even though I was an A student.

What's interesting for a 15
year old is the confusion,

when we arrived to Auschwitz
we had no idea,

was happening. And that was of course
the tricks that the Nazis played.

It's so easy to forget like
we forget many other things.

And that there is a real
danger about that.

On the fence, there was a ditch,
right next to the fence.

That was for that purpose,
that when you electrocuted yourself,

you could fall in and once a day
they came to pick up the death.

The dead bodies.

My sister, she was taken in
and she was here 2 weeks.

And then she was experimented
on in the block 19.

17, 18 and 19

Auschwitz, was like:
"This is so pretty."

Like this could be a
college campus.

That's so wrong.

This is walking through
thinking "what would this look like?"

And the sad thing is that in my
imagination, it is in black and white.

I can't imagine
this being in color.

Like, this actually happened.

They put the number first.

And the name, second.

1,6 million died
in Auschwitz.

What did they looked like?
What was going on here?

Where do people live?
Where was everything?

And I guess it's kind of
hard but you definetly

had to use your imagination.

I guess because you're Jewish,

you pay attention to the
Jewish side of the Holocaust.

When they show that the
prisoner had to wear badges,

you know, a plaque, gay,
gipsy, whatever, you know,

you are not Aryan and
you could have died.

Oh, my God!

That woman's 33 years old

I think that's the worst
thing that could have happened.

You could have blonde hair and
blue eyes and say, you know

what if I spoke up? Then I could have
been killed, it's not just a Jewish thing.

The Holocaust has always been something
I couldn't really comprehend,

it was shocking,
people of my age,

they had great futures
ahead of them,

they were
just murdered brutally,

it's just terrifying to think that
people can be so heartless to do that.

The photo was right after
the liberation and one of

those kids was actually Paula,

and that was where everything
made real to me

That's me, yes.

This is Paula, when
she was liberated

I was born in a small town
just a few hours away from here.

And it was called
Ostroviets

I was one of the six
children, the youngest.

They kept us in those
wagons for 2 days.

The men had to go to the
left and the women to the right.

I don't remember whether
I said goodbye to my father.

I never saw him again.

And I remember my mother
standing behind me and

saying, don't forget to
tell them you are 14.

It seemed to have been the
magic number for workers.

My memory, of
course, it's faded.

After 62 years, 63 years,

I don't remember
seeing the sun,

all I remember is seeing the
particles falling from the sky

What I saw, not only because
I was a child,

especially because
I was a child,

it took many years to be
able to talk about it

Going back to a place like
that for me it was like,

I didn't dream at up.

The gas chamber. You could see
the scratch marks on the wall.

You could see where people were scratching
for their lives trying to find a way out.

And they walked in
to get a shower,

and you know, this was the end of
so many people lives,

and I'm standing
on the same ground

That people could have been
my family members.

I don't wanna walk in
the crematorium.

I don't wanna walk through the
showers, but you know,

how many people had the
opportunity to walk in there,

and walk out alive?

- How old are you?
- Sixty.

When the survivors talk,

they talk about their family.

What happened to them,
what they saw,

and you hear Paula's story,
or Helena's story,

that's just one
person's story.

There are 6 million
other stories, like this

It makes it so much more real.

You can't drive til you're 18. They can drink
when they're 18, and drive when they're 18.

It sucksi

Do you know any
Polish pop musicians?

No

And you think that these peoples's
grandparents, where were they during the war?

What do they know? Do they know that
Auschwitz is 3 miles down the road?

Hold on.

The history of that
country is terrifying to me.

What happened there I don't
think is their fault,

I don't know whose
fault it is,

it is a terifying place
as a Jew to go back to

What you have to
relive while you're there.

I was here almost 2 years.

Each house had 1000 people.

Nine hundred, two
thousand people indoors.

They counted everybody.

They came out and counted, and we
spent almost half the night outside.

When I arrived at the camp,
they opened the train,

it looked to me like a circus.

All those people with stripes.

When you come from the civilization
into something dark.

We were about 1200 people
from those trains.

And we were chosen, 13 people.
The rest were taken away.

We went in through the barber, through
the shower, and then the number.

Of course we were asking "Where
are the rest of the people?"

So, to the window, they showed us.
"Do you see the fire?"

"Those big chimneys?"

"This is where they
are coming out."

It doesn't feel good

It's creepy. It's so creepy.

One day we hear that
somebody from somewhere

managed to smuggle
apples into the ghetto.

My dad went to get the apple
and he never came back.

We were about ten of us across,
on this wood with one blanket.

But it was winter time, and we were
standing barefoot for hours on ice.

And somebody comes over everyday and says
one to the right and one to the left.

Did people talk?
Or was everyone separate?

There weren't many subjects
we were discussing.

The only thing that was
important was to get food in

your stomach and survive
through the next day

Holocaust means in
Hebrew "Burnt offering".

Because people were
actually burned.

And as long as the survivors
are here,

and that is not going to
be for very long,

there will be nobody to ask
questions.

So, it is very important, that this a march
to learn a lot about themselves.

I will just tell you the
story of this swimming pool,

because we are standing here.

One day, we were taken to a
baths, and it was hot,

hot, in the middle of the day.

And I see this swimming pool.

And it was a mirage

I was 16 years old
and I didn't think,

I just got
out of the line,

dove in, and swam across the pool,
came out on the other side.

My mother had
a heart attack.

Everybody thought
I would be killed on the spot.

And I wasn't

I wasn't killed and my mother,
of course,

told me I was foolish, but...

Every time we talk a
little bit is lifted up.

So, I wanted to celebrate
my birthday with you

May you have many more years.

My favorite band? Kiss and then
Pantera, and then we got Opeth.

On the bus ride back from
the camp,

the music defintely helped me to relax
and think about of what I saw.

- We're going to Treblinka, right?
- Yeah.

Any other survivors from there?

No Treblinka was just a death camp.

Oh, wow.

One lady she was an
18 year old Polish Catholic,

who hid 12 Jews in the basement
of a Nazi office's house.

For about 2 years.

She was amazing, she wans't
Jewish, she was Catholic.

She didn't have, she didn't know any...

Not everybody was forced, you
weren't forced to be a Nazi.

Like the current Pope,
was a Nazi.

When I've found this out, I flipped.

What was your faith like?

I thought I lost God, but
after talking to him,

I realized I really didn't
completely.

I was always hoping to
find the rest of my family.

That's the only thing
that kept me alive

- Any more questions?
- I will...

Wow, it's pretty here.

Where, where do you see?

I guess right here.

Oh, it says the 20th July 1942.

- Oh, oh, I see.
- So it was right at the beginning.

I was only nine.

I had braids and blue eyes

He looked into my face,
he thought I was Polish.

The Nazi saved me.

On the 19 of August, and
this is where my parents went

They were burned and the ashes
were thrown into the forest.

That's why they
grow so beautiful.

Treblinka is where my
two sisters were taken.

It's just unreal to bring
almost a million people

to a beautiful place like that.

I never went there, and that's
where I wanted to go desperately.

It was like finishing something.

I can finally say good
bye to my sisters.

- Each stone, has a name.
- Ostrviwiec

O - S - T - R

Ostrviwiec.

It starts with an O.

Is that it?

No. It is O, S, T,
R, V, I, W, I, E, C.

Ostrviwiec.

I will help you find it.

Okay.

And they were 18 years old, and 16.

The prime of their lives.

Have everything to live for.

I was not supposed
to survive.

They were strong and young.

And here I am.

They denied me my family.

And they denied
them, their life.

What do you wish for that?

For the Nazis, for those who
did this to your sisters

I don't know

I wish they could feel
the feeling, right now

It's so cruel.

I was walking and I was like, my
feet hurt, but I am wearing shoes.

I'm lucky,
I can't complain if my feet hurt.

I remember saying like:
"I'm starving."

You know, I am just kinda hungry,
I could deal with this, I'm not starving.

It puts it all
into perspection.

Perspective!

In Majdanek, my uncle,
his wife and 3 children,

they were all shot to death.

The feeling was awful just
seeing the monuments,

it was like going to cemetery
without markers.

But, you do know that
your family perish there.

And all I can identify are the ashes.

It looks like a little kitchen.

It's just a room, a hundred feet down, full
of shoes, from the floor to the ceiling.

It's the most little mundane thing, when
youthink: "Oh yeah, people wear shoes".

But when you see, shoes of
thousand of people that died.

It's one of those things,
that you can't ignore it.

- Whoa, there's a deer,
- Oh, my God.

There's a deer that
just ran through

He wrote us a letter that they
were having here a soccer club playing,

orchestras playing, and the work isn't
as hard as they thought it would be.

All phony.

They made him write it.

And I just found out now
when he perish

because I see the date there.

It's unbeliveble that innocent
people just driven in to their deaths.

The eternal question is
always will to be: "why?"

I don't think anybody
has an answer.

Let us now unite our
house and joins our hands here.

With sound of the Shofar
We will begin our March.

Our Torah teacher says:
not to hate, but to remember.

Because there too many that
say it never happened.

And I tell them, that faith
and hope and strength

are the three major things
that made me survive.

This was called the March of the Living
in contrast with the Death March.

And that we need to
celebrate our lives,

and that doesn't take away from
our sorrow and our loss.

As long as we are able
to experience both.

The march in Jerusalem was
completely different.

It was all celebration,
as opposed to memorializing things.

This is us after the Holocaust.

We are surviving, now we're
in Israel surrounded by

millions of Jewish people
celebrating lsrael's birthday.

So, it really was a great
contrast to the trip

Look what these people
created, look how they rose

out of the ashes, this
is what happened.

They built Israel,
they created a country.

You know, I'd seen the result of
some of the worst anger and hatred

in the history of the world.

Some of my friends
in school ask me why

I would put myself in a situation where

I would have to
face those things.

But I think once you face
it, that's when you become

someone who is a little more
able to live in the world.

And had a greater
understanding of life.

Previoulsy, I wanted
to hide my past,

not only for other people,
but for myself.

After going to Auschwitz,
all the stories came back,

and I think about it
probably everyday now.

Where I did not think about it before.
Didn't talk about it before

And now, wherever I go and anybody
talks to me about it, I open up.

You know, people ask
how the trip was,

nothing puts it into words.

The things like being there.

And walking in the concentration camps,
being in Israel, being with the survivors,

Like my kids aren't gonna get to go
there listen to the survivors talk.

The young people from today
should appreciate what they have,

the home, food on
the table, school.

I can only say: our
hope is not yet lost.

It's their job now to
carry it on.

and I often feel like maybe
I should stop talking

about the Holocaust
and pay more attention

to Darfur, or some other attrocities
that are happening now.

But I think our story will help
people to understand what can happen.

I think that with this
generation,

there is more hope which
make them become aware of

the suffering
of other people.

I voiced my opinion when
it comes to Darfur, any injustice

that I hear about or
know about for a fact, I voice it

I'll send email to
the White House.

And sure, they don't read all of it,

but the more numbers they
get, that means people care.

How's Israel?

- I now know more people than you.
- Probably.

I think I need to
go back to Israel.

I think it's a good place
for me to go, right now, and

so, I'm going to be a student
at Herbrew University.

When people mention something
that's false or just really ignorant,

I have the confidence
to actually say

I went to a concentration camp and
I stood in the gas chamber like

don't tell me whatever you are telling me,

because I know it is not
true, because I was there.

My family, I wrote a letter to
them, as if they were alive.

How I imagine they
suffered, the last breath they took

in the gas chamber of Auschwitz.

I wrote them the letter that
I'm very sorry that I could not save them.

And I left it there.

And I hope they answer.

So many times,
I wonder why am I alive?

And so many times, my parents,
even though they are dead,

67 and a half years, in my mind
they are still alive and in my heart,

my whole family.

And I see them in my
dreams, very often.

So they are really
alive for me.

This is Dorothy Greenstein.

It was kind of a little
quick mention one day;

the survivors never
got a graduate.

They should
graduate with us.

For the most part most of them,
didn't graduate from high school

because, they were 11-12
when it happened.

Hopefully, there won't
be anymore Holocaust.

Even though it's happening right
now in other parts of the world.

Hope.

I am hoping for the new
generations to change that.