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Would you like to inspect the original subtitles? These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:08,900 --> 00:00:10,567 Who am I? Where am I? 4 00:00:14,300 --> 00:00:16,433 Who am I today? 5 00:00:33,200 --> 00:00:35,267 I am Alex Moskovic. 6 00:00:47,067 --> 00:00:49,833 Beautiful, Alex, great shot. 7 00:00:49,900 --> 00:00:51,900 Excellent shot. 8 00:00:51,967 --> 00:00:56,833 I am a person who lived through the holocaust 9 00:00:56,900 --> 00:00:59,567 and because I lived through the holocaust, 10 00:00:59,633 --> 00:01:04,367 I have certain responsibilities 11 00:01:04,433 --> 00:01:07,100 to the world. 12 00:03:49,600 --> 00:03:52,367 In the winter of 1944-45, 13 00:03:52,433 --> 00:03:55,300 the vice was closing on the Third Reich. 14 00:03:55,367 --> 00:03:57,467 The Russians were pushing from the east, 15 00:03:57,533 --> 00:03:59,367 the allies from the west, 16 00:03:59,433 --> 00:04:01,067 so the Nazi increased 17 00:04:01,133 --> 00:04:03,433 the pace of slave labor and extermination. 18 00:04:06,067 --> 00:04:08,133 Somehow, in the farthest corner of 19 00:04:08,200 --> 00:04:11,200 Buchenwald concentration camp, in central Germany, 20 00:04:11,267 --> 00:04:14,900 more than 1,000 young boys found a safe haven, 21 00:04:14,967 --> 00:04:19,267 and a prisoner became their guardian. 22 00:04:19,333 --> 00:04:21,833 When General George Patton's army 23 00:04:21,900 --> 00:04:26,100 liberated Buchenwald on April 11, 1945, 24 00:04:26,167 --> 00:04:29,267 amidst the piles of bodies and human wreckage, 25 00:04:29,333 --> 00:04:34,133 904 boys were found still alive. 26 00:04:39,500 --> 00:04:44,067 But the guardian slipped away, unremembered. 27 00:05:27,667 --> 00:05:29,533 When you're by yourself and you can think about it, 28 00:05:29,600 --> 00:05:31,433 you don't have an audience, you know, 29 00:05:31,500 --> 00:05:32,667 you can really 30 00:05:32,733 --> 00:05:35,133 think about how you feel about that time. 31 00:06:10,933 --> 00:06:13,233 How important is the framing? 32 00:06:13,300 --> 00:06:15,467 Good. 33 00:06:21,067 --> 00:06:24,167 To have someone else on there I will just turn it like so. 34 00:06:24,233 --> 00:06:25,200 Right. 35 00:06:38,133 --> 00:06:39,367 It's on. 36 00:06:39,433 --> 00:06:40,533 See you later. 37 00:06:40,600 --> 00:06:41,533 It's on? 38 00:06:41,600 --> 00:06:43,500 Yeah. You are on. 39 00:06:43,567 --> 00:06:44,600 Okay. 40 00:07:05,967 --> 00:07:08,200 I'm recording now. 41 00:07:09,433 --> 00:07:11,300 I'm trying out the new camera 42 00:07:11,367 --> 00:07:15,067 and I hope that the audio is fine 43 00:07:15,067 --> 00:07:18,400 and my framing is okay. 44 00:08:07,200 --> 00:08:10,133 My name is Alex Moskovic, 45 00:08:10,200 --> 00:08:16,567 I arrived in Buchenwald on January 26, 1945. 46 00:08:16,633 --> 00:08:20,367 I was 13 years old. 47 00:08:23,100 --> 00:08:24,500 And so it began, 48 00:08:24,567 --> 00:08:28,867 four boys on four journeys. 49 00:08:28,933 --> 00:08:31,333 Pavel Kohn, 50 00:08:31,400 --> 00:08:35,367 from Prague to Theresienstadt, to Auschwitz Birkenau. 51 00:08:38,133 --> 00:08:39,833 Israel Laszlo Lazar 52 00:08:39,900 --> 00:08:42,500 from Oradea to the Oradea ghetto 53 00:08:42,567 --> 00:08:45,467 to Auschwitz Birkenau. 54 00:08:45,533 --> 00:08:48,567 Naftali Furst 55 00:08:48,633 --> 00:08:53,400 from Bratislava to Sered to Auschwitz Birkenau. 56 00:08:55,467 --> 00:08:57,100 Alex Moskovic 57 00:08:57,167 --> 00:09:01,233 from Sobrance to Ungvar to Auschwitz Birkenau. 58 00:09:01,300 --> 00:09:04,067 It wouldn't be until later that their terrible journeys 59 00:09:04,067 --> 00:09:05,500 would bring them together 60 00:09:05,567 --> 00:09:07,067 into the heart of the Third Reich, 61 00:09:07,100 --> 00:09:08,533 to Buchenwald. 62 00:09:16,333 --> 00:09:17,967 The family was orthodox, 63 00:09:18,067 --> 00:09:24,300 so my father couldn't even carry his tallit to the temple. 64 00:09:24,367 --> 00:09:30,067 He could not carry anything on him on Saturday so, 65 00:09:30,067 --> 00:09:33,067 I wasn't bar mitzvah yet, so I could do it, 66 00:09:33,067 --> 00:09:35,500 so I was the one that did it. 67 00:09:35,567 --> 00:09:37,600 I was proud to carry my father's tallit 68 00:09:37,667 --> 00:09:39,600 because I felt that 69 00:09:39,667 --> 00:09:42,067 it's my responsibility 70 00:09:42,067 --> 00:09:44,433 and he gave me that responsibility, 71 00:09:44,500 --> 00:09:46,433 it was me. 72 00:09:46,500 --> 00:09:47,967 We arrived at the temple, 73 00:09:48,067 --> 00:09:51,600 I had the bag and then he wore the tallit 74 00:09:51,667 --> 00:09:54,400 throughout the services. 75 00:12:14,933 --> 00:12:17,233 I'm very happy that federal republic 76 00:12:17,300 --> 00:12:20,833 decided to give us money to invite, 77 00:12:20,900 --> 00:12:23,167 probably for the last time, 78 00:12:23,233 --> 00:12:26,867 so many survivors who still could come. 79 00:12:26,933 --> 00:12:29,400 It's our last chance to meet them. 80 00:13:05,433 --> 00:13:11,500 We're all used to celebrate, let's say the 75th anniversary, 81 00:13:11,567 --> 00:13:13,500 and before that the 50th, 82 00:13:13,567 --> 00:13:16,067 but we know in 15 years 83 00:13:16,100 --> 00:13:18,633 there will be no survivors any more. 84 00:13:33,633 --> 00:13:38,067 We tried to invite as much as survivors as we could find 85 00:13:38,067 --> 00:13:41,167 and we knew it would be very hard 86 00:13:41,233 --> 00:13:45,233 because we had to say so many times goodbye, 87 00:13:45,300 --> 00:13:48,967 because so many died in the last years. 88 00:14:34,367 --> 00:14:35,733 PROF. Survivor memory 89 00:14:35,800 --> 00:14:38,433 about their experiences in the camps, 90 00:14:38,500 --> 00:14:40,933 which some people call traumatic memory 91 00:14:41,067 --> 00:14:42,333 is pretty enduring. 92 00:14:48,067 --> 00:14:52,367 They remember a beating, they remember a block elder, 93 00:14:52,433 --> 00:14:55,567 they remember a routine roll call, 94 00:14:55,633 --> 00:15:00,133 they remember having to work or not having to work. 95 00:15:07,400 --> 00:15:09,067 Most of these survivors 96 00:15:09,067 --> 00:15:12,533 tell the exact same story themselves, 97 00:15:12,600 --> 00:15:15,100 as they would've told after the war. 98 00:16:24,133 --> 00:16:28,333 The really small children, most of them did not survive. 99 00:16:28,400 --> 00:16:34,067 So if you were 15, or 14, and you were deported, 100 00:16:34,100 --> 00:16:37,067 they would send you to a forced labor 101 00:16:37,133 --> 00:16:39,600 or to a slave labor camp. 102 00:16:39,667 --> 00:16:42,433 If you were younger, 103 00:16:42,500 --> 00:16:47,467 you would be sent with your mother to death. 104 00:18:17,600 --> 00:18:19,867 So I'm standing on the platform 105 00:18:19,933 --> 00:18:22,367 with my mom, 106 00:18:22,433 --> 00:18:24,833 and my younger brother was also 107 00:18:24,900 --> 00:18:27,067 being picked at that point 108 00:18:27,100 --> 00:18:28,433 and he went off with the children, 109 00:18:28,500 --> 00:18:33,067 so now it's just my mom and me standing at the platform. 110 00:18:33,067 --> 00:18:37,067 A kapo walks up to us and he says to us in Yiddish, 111 00:18:37,067 --> 00:18:41,300 why is he standing here with you? 112 00:18:41,367 --> 00:18:46,533 So he said why didn't he go with your husband? 113 00:18:46,600 --> 00:18:49,400 And my mom said to him, 114 00:18:49,467 --> 00:18:52,300 he's only 13 years old 115 00:18:52,367 --> 00:18:57,333 and he cannot do any hard work. 116 00:18:57,400 --> 00:19:02,067 So with that the kapo grabs me by the arm 117 00:19:02,100 --> 00:19:05,067 and starts walking me towards the men 118 00:19:05,100 --> 00:19:07,933 and he keeps asking me, where is-- 119 00:19:08,067 --> 00:19:09,333 Who is your father? Where is he? 120 00:19:09,400 --> 00:19:13,900 So I pointed to my father and as we are walking, 121 00:19:13,967 --> 00:19:15,067 he says to me, 122 00:19:15,067 --> 00:19:20,167 if someone asks you your age, 123 00:19:20,233 --> 00:19:23,533 tell them you're 16, and we're walking, 124 00:19:23,600 --> 00:19:26,367 taking a couple of more steps and he keeps repeating, 125 00:19:26,433 --> 00:19:28,600 you're 16, you're 16, 126 00:19:28,667 --> 00:19:33,133 you're 16 till we actually got to my father 127 00:19:33,200 --> 00:19:37,067 and then he left me there and walked away. 128 00:19:37,100 --> 00:19:38,533 And I turned back 129 00:19:38,600 --> 00:19:43,900 and my mom was still on the platform there standing, 130 00:19:43,967 --> 00:19:47,500 and that was the last time I saw her. 131 00:19:55,267 --> 00:19:58,867 Mr. Alexander Moskovic, welcome to the ITS. 132 00:19:58,933 --> 00:20:02,467 We have your original documents, you want to see them? 133 00:20:02,533 --> 00:20:04,333 The International Tracing Service 134 00:20:04,400 --> 00:20:06,167 in Bad Arolsen, Germany, 135 00:20:06,233 --> 00:20:09,833 opened its doors to the public in 2007, 136 00:20:09,900 --> 00:20:11,967 50 million pages of Nazi records 137 00:20:12,033 --> 00:20:14,200 were finally available, 138 00:20:14,267 --> 00:20:17,833 after more than 60 years of being locked away. 139 00:20:17,900 --> 00:20:22,000 Now let me ask you this, this is off by one year. 140 00:20:22,067 --> 00:20:26,067 I think you have given this birthday 141 00:20:26,133 --> 00:20:29,167 because you want to be older. 142 00:20:29,233 --> 00:20:30,233 Yes. 143 00:20:30,300 --> 00:20:33,300 To have a chance to survive. 144 00:20:33,367 --> 00:20:36,033 Because young children, and so on, 145 00:20:36,100 --> 00:20:38,933 they often were murdered at once. 146 00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:40,067 And therefore, 147 00:20:40,133 --> 00:20:44,433 many, many children used the wrong, 148 00:20:44,500 --> 00:20:49,867 another birth date because I'm older, 149 00:20:49,933 --> 00:20:51,333 and I can work. 150 00:20:51,400 --> 00:20:52,967 - Right. - I am strong, I can work. 151 00:20:53,033 --> 00:20:55,367 And therefore, this is often... 152 00:20:55,433 --> 00:20:56,567 Yes. 153 00:21:05,467 --> 00:21:08,600 When Pavel Kohn arrived in Auschwitz-Birkenau, 154 00:21:08,667 --> 00:21:11,200 he was told nobody stays long, 155 00:21:11,267 --> 00:21:16,300 we are all leaving through the chimney. 156 00:21:16,367 --> 00:21:18,367 More than one million people did. 157 00:22:18,367 --> 00:22:22,267 Everyday brought the prospect of new terrors and abuses. 158 00:22:22,333 --> 00:22:25,067 From kapos, guards, 159 00:22:25,133 --> 00:22:28,333 SS commandants and for so many, 160 00:22:28,400 --> 00:22:32,067 from the perverse doctor, Joseph Mengele. 161 00:22:32,100 --> 00:22:34,267 Then I came from Mengele. 162 00:22:34,333 --> 00:22:37,067 Thank God, he never asked me my age, 163 00:22:37,100 --> 00:22:40,233 basically he just looked at me and he made a decision 164 00:22:40,300 --> 00:22:43,533 that I should go to the right and I ended up with the boys. 165 00:22:43,600 --> 00:22:45,333 So I stayed in Birkenau 166 00:22:45,400 --> 00:22:47,567 for the next eight and a half months. 167 00:22:47,633 --> 00:22:51,433 My father and my older brother went off to work somewhere 168 00:22:51,500 --> 00:22:54,067 and at that time I just lost contact, 169 00:22:54,100 --> 00:22:56,300 I had no idea where they were. 170 00:23:48,433 --> 00:23:50,833 If somehow you avoided the chimneys, 171 00:23:50,900 --> 00:23:52,467 avoided the gas chambers, 172 00:23:52,533 --> 00:23:54,200 if somehow you didn't starve to death 173 00:23:54,267 --> 00:23:55,833 or weren't worked to death, 174 00:23:55,900 --> 00:23:57,300 it didn't mean that Auschwitz and Birkenau 175 00:23:57,367 --> 00:23:59,133 were behind you, 176 00:23:59,200 --> 00:24:02,867 they would forever stare you in the face. 177 00:24:02,933 --> 00:24:05,100 What lay ahead was the unknown, 178 00:24:05,167 --> 00:24:08,067 inside a camp called Buchenwald. 179 00:24:49,267 --> 00:24:51,367 Shalom. 180 00:25:45,500 --> 00:25:48,433 The numbers coming in reached huge proportions 181 00:25:48,500 --> 00:25:52,900 and the boys arriving in January and February 182 00:25:52,967 --> 00:25:55,933 had been on death marches in the cold, 183 00:25:56,067 --> 00:25:57,833 snowy, frigid weather, 184 00:25:57,900 --> 00:25:59,867 January, February weather 185 00:26:00,067 --> 00:26:03,600 and then they've been placed in open coal cars. 186 00:27:03,067 --> 00:27:04,600 The train pulled into Buchenwald 187 00:27:04,667 --> 00:27:11,100 and the guards got out and keep hollering "Heraus! Heraus!" 188 00:27:11,167 --> 00:27:14,533 Get out of the train, get off the train. 189 00:27:14,600 --> 00:27:15,933 So the... 190 00:27:16,067 --> 00:27:19,133 who ever was still alive climbed out of the train 191 00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:22,133 and of course as soon as we got downstairs 192 00:27:22,200 --> 00:27:28,100 on the platform, they counted us 193 00:27:28,167 --> 00:27:32,433 and then after they counted us, they said to us, okay, 194 00:27:32,500 --> 00:27:36,067 now climb back into the coal cars 195 00:27:36,100 --> 00:27:38,433 and start unloading the dead bodies. 196 00:28:05,067 --> 00:28:11,867 They came with an experience of seeing 197 00:28:11,933 --> 00:28:13,967 a lot of violence. 198 00:28:16,067 --> 00:28:20,900 Many hours of suffering, 199 00:28:20,967 --> 00:28:24,833 self suffering or seeing others suffer. 200 00:28:24,900 --> 00:28:26,433 Buchenwald was the last station, 201 00:28:26,500 --> 00:28:29,400 you can say, in the life of these kids. 202 00:28:40,433 --> 00:28:42,300 In 1937, 203 00:28:42,367 --> 00:28:44,167 six kilometers from Weimar, 204 00:28:44,233 --> 00:28:46,833 the Nazis built Buchenwald concentration camp 205 00:28:46,900 --> 00:28:49,067 on the side of the Eldersburg Mountain. 206 00:28:49,133 --> 00:28:52,433 In German, Buchenwald means beech wood forest. 207 00:28:52,500 --> 00:28:54,900 Not a death camp, but a slave labor camp, 208 00:28:54,967 --> 00:28:56,600 with dissidents of all sorts. 209 00:28:56,667 --> 00:29:00,900 Gypsies, Jehovah's witnesses, criminals, homosexuals, 210 00:29:00,967 --> 00:29:03,500 prisoners of war and political prisoners, 211 00:29:03,567 --> 00:29:05,933 especially communists. 212 00:29:06,067 --> 00:29:07,500 Built into the wrought iron entrance gate 213 00:29:07,567 --> 00:29:11,067 were the words "Jedem DaS Seine." 214 00:29:11,100 --> 00:29:13,067 To each his own. 215 00:29:13,100 --> 00:29:15,533 But the Nazis had their own translation, 216 00:29:15,600 --> 00:29:18,467 everyone gets what they deserve. 217 00:29:18,533 --> 00:29:21,067 The communist, Jorge Samprun, 218 00:29:21,067 --> 00:29:22,933 a member of the French resistance 219 00:29:23,067 --> 00:29:25,600 was arrested in 1943 by the Gestapo 220 00:29:25,667 --> 00:29:28,067 and deported to Buchenwald. 221 00:30:12,100 --> 00:30:13,900 During the last year of the war, 222 00:30:13,967 --> 00:30:16,233 large numbers of transports came to Buchenwald 223 00:30:16,300 --> 00:30:20,133 from Polish labor camps in western Poland, 224 00:30:20,200 --> 00:30:23,200 from Auschwitz and its satellite camps. 225 00:30:23,267 --> 00:30:25,867 And among the transports, 226 00:30:25,933 --> 00:30:28,967 the 1000s and 1000s of prisoners who came, 227 00:30:29,033 --> 00:30:33,600 there were about 5-6-8 % boys, 16 and under, 228 00:30:33,667 --> 00:30:36,467 and they poured into the camp. 229 00:30:49,200 --> 00:30:50,867 The "Kleiner Lager," 230 00:30:50,933 --> 00:30:53,933 "the little camp" was a place of mud and cold, 231 00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:55,533 rife with disease. 232 00:30:55,600 --> 00:30:57,567 A quarantine camp, 233 00:30:57,633 --> 00:31:00,600 it was located at the farthest end of Buchenwald, 234 00:31:00,667 --> 00:31:01,967 it was separated 235 00:31:02,067 --> 00:31:04,600 from the main camp by barbed wire. 236 00:31:04,667 --> 00:31:08,367 Historians have referred to it as a cess pool. 237 00:31:08,433 --> 00:31:11,067 For most of the boys coming to Buchenwald, 238 00:31:11,067 --> 00:31:14,067 the "Kleiner Lager" would be their last camp, 239 00:31:14,100 --> 00:31:16,567 but they had no way of knowing it. 240 00:32:04,400 --> 00:32:07,100 The Nazis could use prisoner functionaries 241 00:32:07,167 --> 00:32:09,433 as an extension of Nazi power 242 00:32:09,500 --> 00:32:10,633 to be in the blocks at night, 243 00:32:10,700 --> 00:32:13,067 to be in the work groups with the prisoners, 244 00:32:13,100 --> 00:32:16,333 to be in the key institutions of the kitchen 245 00:32:16,400 --> 00:32:18,500 and the 246 00:32:18,567 --> 00:32:21,433 which was the clothing storage place. 247 00:32:22,667 --> 00:32:27,067 Why did the Nazis need the communists? 248 00:32:27,100 --> 00:32:29,233 Because they themselves were not capable of 249 00:32:29,300 --> 00:32:30,300 running the entire camp 250 00:32:30,367 --> 00:32:33,333 and because frankly they were afraid 251 00:32:33,400 --> 00:32:34,567 to go into some of the camps, 252 00:32:34,633 --> 00:32:36,167 particularly near the end of the war 253 00:32:36,233 --> 00:32:38,600 when typhus was raging through. 254 00:32:38,667 --> 00:32:40,400 By 1944, 255 00:32:40,467 --> 00:32:43,900 Buchenwald had grown to over 100,000 prisoners 256 00:32:43,967 --> 00:32:45,367 and the power held by the communist 257 00:32:45,433 --> 00:32:47,967 underground grew along with it. 258 00:32:48,067 --> 00:32:49,167 This level of influence 259 00:32:49,233 --> 00:32:51,567 and opportunity was unparalleled 260 00:32:51,633 --> 00:32:53,133 and set Buchenwald apart 261 00:32:53,200 --> 00:32:55,067 from other concentration camps. 262 00:32:55,067 --> 00:32:59,400 The consequence was that the communists made a deal, 263 00:32:59,467 --> 00:33:02,933 they entered the gray zone of the camp. 264 00:33:03,067 --> 00:33:05,167 They made a deal with the devil. 265 00:33:11,400 --> 00:33:13,400 For political prisoners, 266 00:33:13,467 --> 00:33:17,933 it was a big shock to see that Nazis also brought children 267 00:33:18,067 --> 00:33:19,300 to the concentration camps. 268 00:33:20,833 --> 00:33:27,167 One can say political prisoners had a certain resentment, ethic, 269 00:33:27,233 --> 00:33:29,367 a certain morality. 270 00:33:29,433 --> 00:33:33,433 Political prisoners had to make a decision whom to save 271 00:33:33,500 --> 00:33:35,500 and they decided we will do our best 272 00:33:35,567 --> 00:33:38,467 to save the children's lives and to save children's lives 273 00:33:38,533 --> 00:33:40,467 means to save humanity in a way. 274 00:34:09,333 --> 00:34:10,433 When we arrived, 275 00:34:10,500 --> 00:34:14,533 there was a lot of SS in front of us. 276 00:34:14,600 --> 00:34:15,733 And I remember, 277 00:34:15,800 --> 00:34:18,567 there was one of the Jews and he says to us, 278 00:34:18,633 --> 00:34:22,233 don't be afraid here, we have no gas chambers more. 279 00:34:22,300 --> 00:34:24,367 He cheered us up in Yiddish you know. 280 00:34:27,367 --> 00:34:29,933 The underground was faced with a dilemma, 281 00:34:30,067 --> 00:34:32,900 what to do with these lost children. 282 00:34:32,967 --> 00:34:34,333 A Czech communist 283 00:34:34,400 --> 00:34:36,133 who had been in the camp for five years 284 00:34:36,200 --> 00:34:38,433 proposed that all the boys be gathered in one block, 285 00:34:38,500 --> 00:34:42,367 deep in the little camp, far from the gaze of the SS. 286 00:34:44,900 --> 00:34:48,433 His name was Antonin Kalina. 287 00:34:48,500 --> 00:34:51,867 It was block, in the distance, 288 00:34:51,933 --> 00:34:55,067 middle of a block, in the little Lager, 289 00:34:55,067 --> 00:34:59,333 in the little camp in number 66. 290 00:35:17,433 --> 00:35:19,467 Antonin Kalina, 291 00:35:19,533 --> 00:35:22,233 the block elder of Kinderblock 66, 292 00:35:22,300 --> 00:35:23,867 sat for the only known interview 293 00:35:23,933 --> 00:35:25,200 he ever gave in 1988, 294 00:35:25,267 --> 00:35:28,633 at the age of 86. 295 00:35:32,600 --> 00:35:35,400 Serving as his translator was Dr. Jendrik Flusser, 296 00:35:35,467 --> 00:35:38,500 also a prisoner in Buchenwald, 297 00:35:38,567 --> 00:35:41,233 Flusser was Kalina's assistant in the block. 298 00:35:41,300 --> 00:35:44,467 Their friendship never wavered. 299 00:35:56,967 --> 00:35:59,833 Kalina told the head of the communist committee 300 00:35:59,900 --> 00:36:02,133 that they should make a block just for children. 301 00:36:02,200 --> 00:36:04,833 But some on the committee were against it. 302 00:36:04,900 --> 00:36:06,700 They thought the Nazis would come 303 00:36:06,767 --> 00:36:09,300 and take the children away if they were all in one place. 304 00:36:12,600 --> 00:36:16,067 He was young, much younger. 305 00:36:37,367 --> 00:36:40,967 Yad Vashem was charged with commemorating 306 00:36:41,067 --> 00:36:42,133 the six million, 307 00:36:42,200 --> 00:36:45,067 the destroyed communities. 308 00:36:45,133 --> 00:36:47,567 But the Jewish people also remembered 309 00:36:47,633 --> 00:36:50,067 that there were some people 310 00:36:50,067 --> 00:36:53,533 who stood by their side in those terrible days. 311 00:36:55,967 --> 00:36:58,267 One of the clauses in the law establishing 312 00:36:58,333 --> 00:36:59,533 Yad Vashem, 313 00:36:59,600 --> 00:37:05,100 also gave Yad Vashem the task to commemorate 314 00:37:05,167 --> 00:37:06,467 The Righteous Among The Nations, 315 00:37:06,533 --> 00:37:09,533 they took this term from the Jewish tradition, 316 00:37:09,600 --> 00:37:12,333 who risked their lives to save Jews. 317 00:37:14,400 --> 00:37:17,533 We're excited about the effort to try 318 00:37:17,600 --> 00:37:21,900 and obtain the righteous among the nations' distinction 319 00:37:21,967 --> 00:37:26,100 for Antonin Kalina, the block elder of Block 66. 320 00:37:26,167 --> 00:37:29,467 It's something of a puzzle to me, 321 00:37:29,533 --> 00:37:31,233 why it hasn't happened already. 322 00:37:31,300 --> 00:37:35,900 The process is fairly rigorous and challenging and... 323 00:37:35,967 --> 00:37:39,600 Alex is the lead survivor providing testimony 324 00:37:39,667 --> 00:37:43,500 and so he will petition Yad Vashem along with me 325 00:37:43,567 --> 00:37:46,933 for the recognition that Kalina deserves. 326 00:37:47,067 --> 00:37:49,133 She has to get testimony directly 327 00:37:49,200 --> 00:37:52,267 from survivors in their own language. 328 00:37:52,333 --> 00:37:54,567 We had a very productive meeting 329 00:37:54,633 --> 00:37:57,233 in which I learned a great deal. 330 00:37:57,300 --> 00:37:59,067 It's a much more complicated process 331 00:37:59,100 --> 00:38:00,967 that I thought initially, 332 00:38:01,067 --> 00:38:04,567 I was pretty optimistic at the beginning that 333 00:38:04,633 --> 00:38:06,200 yeah, just snap. 334 00:39:43,333 --> 00:39:44,367 On block 66, 335 00:39:44,433 --> 00:39:46,367 the children didn't work anymore, 336 00:39:46,433 --> 00:39:49,267 so we were just sitting there and looking at each other, 337 00:39:49,333 --> 00:39:53,967 and sometimes fighting each other and so forth, 338 00:39:54,067 --> 00:39:55,900 that was block 66, 339 00:39:55,967 --> 00:39:58,500 but it was the warmest block I've ever been to, 340 00:39:58,567 --> 00:40:03,567 because there you were recognized of being a person. 341 00:40:07,967 --> 00:40:09,833 Once Kalina spoke to a kapo 342 00:40:09,900 --> 00:40:11,967 and told him that some blankets were needed 343 00:40:12,033 --> 00:40:14,067 because the children were cold. 344 00:40:14,133 --> 00:40:17,300 The kapo asked how many? Five or ten? 345 00:40:17,367 --> 00:40:20,133 Kalina told him 2,000. 346 00:40:20,200 --> 00:40:22,133 The next morning they had enough blankets 347 00:40:22,200 --> 00:40:23,900 to give the children. 348 00:40:23,967 --> 00:40:27,600 How many, five or ten? 349 00:40:27,667 --> 00:40:28,667 He said, no, 2,000. 350 00:40:28,733 --> 00:40:30,600 2,000. 351 00:40:58,000 --> 00:41:00,867 Kalina asked us, where are we coming from? 352 00:41:00,933 --> 00:41:03,600 So I told him, we are from Hungary, 353 00:41:03,667 --> 00:41:06,833 but the part of Hungary that used to be Czechoslovakia, 354 00:41:06,900 --> 00:41:09,600 so immediately he took more of an interest in us 355 00:41:09,667 --> 00:41:11,433 and he found us a place and he said, okay, 356 00:41:11,500 --> 00:41:14,100 so this is gonna be your place. 357 00:41:14,167 --> 00:41:16,067 And that time he told, by the way, 358 00:41:16,067 --> 00:41:17,367 just remember one thing. 359 00:41:17,433 --> 00:41:18,900 Every afternoon, 360 00:41:18,967 --> 00:41:24,867 I hold classes and I want you to be there at those classes. 361 00:41:24,933 --> 00:41:29,333 And we didn't argue. We said, okay, we'll be there. 362 00:41:29,400 --> 00:41:32,533 As young men, Abraham Ahuvia, 363 00:41:32,600 --> 00:41:35,467 and his older brother were prisoners in Buchenwald. 364 00:41:35,533 --> 00:41:37,433 Ahuvia often watched his brother 365 00:41:37,500 --> 00:41:40,067 teach classes in block 66. 366 00:42:19,933 --> 00:42:21,433 So we got all different songs 367 00:42:21,500 --> 00:42:24,367 we used to sing together, you know. 368 00:42:31,467 --> 00:42:34,200 Kalina said it was nearly impossible to teach children 369 00:42:34,267 --> 00:42:37,133 who had just seen their parents go to the gas chamber. 370 00:42:37,200 --> 00:42:38,800 But sometimes, 371 00:42:38,867 --> 00:42:40,833 they did manage to get the children to sing. 372 00:44:27,533 --> 00:44:32,067 The founding fathers of this program had realized 373 00:44:32,100 --> 00:44:33,300 that the decisions, 374 00:44:33,367 --> 00:44:35,833 the dilemmas would not be very simple, 375 00:44:35,900 --> 00:44:38,400 that the commission would have to deal 376 00:44:38,467 --> 00:44:42,067 with very complex situations. 377 00:44:42,100 --> 00:44:43,067 Because, you know, 378 00:44:43,133 --> 00:44:45,500 stories are rarely black and white. 379 00:44:45,567 --> 00:44:48,900 I thought of the story as a complex gray story 380 00:44:48,967 --> 00:44:51,400 in which people who were part of the underground 381 00:44:51,467 --> 00:44:54,067 when they could and where they could 382 00:44:54,100 --> 00:44:56,433 they stashed boys in the barrack and took care of them 383 00:44:56,500 --> 00:44:59,233 who were in part collaborating with the Nazis 384 00:44:59,300 --> 00:45:02,500 and in part using their position as collaborators 385 00:45:02,567 --> 00:45:06,500 with Nazis engaging in clandestine resistance 386 00:45:06,567 --> 00:45:12,233 and put their position to use in saving human lives. 387 00:46:47,100 --> 00:46:50,433 Some of the parcels were handed over to block 66. 388 00:46:50,500 --> 00:46:51,833 The children's parcels, 389 00:46:51,900 --> 00:46:54,433 I remember them coming in a box, 390 00:46:54,500 --> 00:46:57,333 in a carton box and then they were opened 391 00:46:57,400 --> 00:46:59,600 and some things had to be boiled 392 00:46:59,667 --> 00:47:00,900 and had to be cooked 393 00:47:00,967 --> 00:47:02,267 and other things had to be eaten. 394 00:47:02,333 --> 00:47:06,133 It was a big adventure. It was a big adventure. 395 00:47:06,200 --> 00:47:09,933 To me came one sardine and since then I loved sardines. 396 00:47:10,067 --> 00:47:14,633 Portuguese sardines, that was a dream. 397 00:48:02,633 --> 00:48:04,367 The bread that we were having, 398 00:48:04,433 --> 00:48:06,133 was a small size, 399 00:48:06,200 --> 00:48:10,067 I would say maybe seven inches long, 400 00:48:10,100 --> 00:48:14,933 maybe less than that and we took it-- 401 00:48:15,067 --> 00:48:18,600 we got for seven boys, one loaf of bread. 402 00:48:18,667 --> 00:48:24,367 So we took a string, we divided and we took a... 403 00:49:05,400 --> 00:49:07,167 Jitka Flusserova and her husband 404 00:49:07,233 --> 00:49:09,433 Dr. Jendrik Flusser were in separate camps 405 00:49:09,500 --> 00:49:11,833 during the war. 406 00:49:11,900 --> 00:49:15,367 After liberation, they began life anew in Prague. 407 00:49:15,433 --> 00:49:18,467 Although she would not talk about her own experiences, 408 00:49:18,533 --> 00:49:21,067 she has vivid memories of their friend, 409 00:49:21,100 --> 00:49:22,500 Tony Kalina. 410 00:49:49,600 --> 00:49:52,967 It was Kalina who put his life on the line 411 00:49:53,067 --> 00:49:54,467 to protect the boys. 412 00:49:54,533 --> 00:49:56,300 He changed their badges, 413 00:49:56,367 --> 00:49:58,500 so that there were no Jews marked 414 00:49:58,567 --> 00:50:02,533 with a yellow triangle in the barrack. 415 00:50:06,100 --> 00:50:08,867 It's-- I told you. 416 00:50:08,933 --> 00:50:10,567 Right before liberation, 417 00:50:10,633 --> 00:50:13,167 the SS came to ask for the Jews. 418 00:50:13,233 --> 00:50:15,467 Kalina said there were no Jews left. 419 00:50:15,533 --> 00:50:18,033 They have all been taken the day before, 420 00:50:18,100 --> 00:50:22,333 he told them the only children left were not Jews. 421 00:50:22,400 --> 00:50:25,333 Kalina had also told the boys that if the SS came, 422 00:50:25,400 --> 00:50:28,200 they were to say they were not Jewish. 423 00:50:28,267 --> 00:50:30,067 And the SS believed them. 424 00:50:30,133 --> 00:50:31,900 Even though 90% of the children were, 425 00:50:31,967 --> 00:50:33,367 in fact, Jews. 426 00:50:35,500 --> 00:50:38,933 DR. I have no Jews here, 427 00:50:39,000 --> 00:50:42,567 here I have only children. 428 00:50:42,633 --> 00:50:44,367 The SS weren't stupid. 429 00:50:44,433 --> 00:50:46,467 They knew they had Jews in the camp, 430 00:50:46,533 --> 00:50:47,900 so they went to the barracks 431 00:50:47,967 --> 00:50:49,300 where they expected there would be Jews, 432 00:50:49,367 --> 00:50:50,433 and they demanded 433 00:50:50,500 --> 00:50:55,300 that the block elders put them forward. 434 00:50:55,367 --> 00:50:58,567 And it was the block elders' responsibility 435 00:50:58,633 --> 00:51:01,133 priced at their own lives to be responsive 436 00:51:01,200 --> 00:51:03,467 to Nazi SS requirements. 437 00:51:03,533 --> 00:51:05,233 He stood his ground 438 00:51:05,300 --> 00:51:07,600 and he said there are no Jews here. 439 00:51:13,233 --> 00:51:15,133 How does it feel to have saved 440 00:51:15,200 --> 00:51:16,967 so many lives? 441 00:51:17,067 --> 00:51:20,933 When asked how it felt to have saved all those lives, 442 00:51:21,067 --> 00:51:23,233 Kalina didn't want to answer. 443 00:51:23,300 --> 00:51:25,367 He simply said he had received a lot of cards 444 00:51:25,433 --> 00:51:27,967 from the children after the war. 445 00:51:41,933 --> 00:51:46,133 Thomas Geve was one of those boys. 446 00:51:46,200 --> 00:51:48,400 Using found materials, colored pencils, 447 00:51:48,467 --> 00:51:50,167 colored water in the backs of forms 448 00:51:50,233 --> 00:51:52,333 from the camp administrative office, 449 00:51:52,400 --> 00:51:54,300 Thomas made drawings of his camp life 450 00:51:54,367 --> 00:51:56,367 that now reside in the permanent collection 451 00:51:56,433 --> 00:51:57,633 at Yad Vashem. 452 00:51:59,667 --> 00:52:03,067 Within one and a half months in Buchenwald, 453 00:52:03,133 --> 00:52:06,900 I drew over 80 scenes of camp life in color. 454 00:52:06,967 --> 00:52:10,300 Everything is in it, the plan of the camp, 455 00:52:10,367 --> 00:52:12,867 the food we ate, the songs we sang, 456 00:52:12,933 --> 00:52:17,100 the work and the illnesses and the punishments, 457 00:52:17,167 --> 00:52:19,267 everything is in these colored drawings. 458 00:52:21,367 --> 00:52:23,067 In the final days, 459 00:52:23,067 --> 00:52:24,833 Jews were frantically being ordered out 460 00:52:24,900 --> 00:52:26,833 on massive death marches. 461 00:52:26,900 --> 00:52:28,433 If the announcements came over the loud speaker 462 00:52:28,500 --> 00:52:32,233 to report to roll call, Kalina told the boys not to go. 463 00:52:34,600 --> 00:52:37,600 At one point however the boys had no choice 464 00:52:37,667 --> 00:52:40,200 but to report. 465 00:52:40,267 --> 00:52:44,433 As air sirens sounded and SS guards ran for shelter, 466 00:52:44,500 --> 00:52:46,900 Kalina ordered them back to the block. 467 00:53:51,500 --> 00:53:52,567 The back was emptied out, 468 00:53:52,633 --> 00:53:55,533 we had to go to the main upper platz 469 00:53:55,600 --> 00:53:57,867 with the rest of the camp 470 00:53:57,933 --> 00:54:02,267 and then there was a marsh pit, 471 00:54:02,333 --> 00:54:06,833 so my brother was picked to go on this march. 472 00:54:06,900 --> 00:54:08,500 I wasn't picked at that time. 473 00:54:08,567 --> 00:54:11,133 Alex later found out that 474 00:54:11,200 --> 00:54:14,067 Zoltan fell out of line and was shot. 475 00:54:37,500 --> 00:54:41,833 We could see from block 66 over the other barracks, 476 00:54:41,900 --> 00:54:43,467 and the roofs of the other barracks, 477 00:54:43,533 --> 00:54:47,467 we could suddenly see the Nazi flag has gone. 478 00:54:47,533 --> 00:54:50,833 And I never remembered any other flags in Germany, 479 00:54:50,900 --> 00:54:52,067 only the Nazi flag, 480 00:54:52,133 --> 00:54:54,133 because when Hitler came to power 481 00:54:54,200 --> 00:54:56,067 I was only three years old. 482 00:55:33,633 --> 00:55:36,100 Buchenwald became peaceful, very quiet, 483 00:55:36,167 --> 00:55:38,333 there was nothing moving much, 484 00:55:38,400 --> 00:55:41,433 it wasn't the usual thing, no roll call. 485 00:55:43,267 --> 00:55:46,400 You know, every morning the roll call in front of -- 486 00:55:46,467 --> 00:55:48,133 so this was something different. 487 00:57:10,233 --> 00:57:12,300 We are free. 488 00:57:19,300 --> 00:57:25,467 I came to the summit of a plateau and there I looked, 489 00:57:25,533 --> 00:57:28,067 and there was all this barbed wire 490 00:57:28,133 --> 00:57:32,067 and these empty guard towers on the corner, 491 00:57:32,100 --> 00:57:34,300 and looking through the barbed wire, 492 00:57:34,367 --> 00:57:37,533 I saw this countless number of people 493 00:57:37,600 --> 00:57:42,067 dressed in that same type of burlap uniform. 494 00:57:48,933 --> 00:57:52,567 We came up to the tree line and looked at the camp 495 00:57:52,633 --> 00:57:54,267 and we started saying, oh, my gosh, 496 00:57:54,333 --> 00:57:57,233 it's a Nazi training camp, we... 497 00:57:57,300 --> 00:58:00,467 you know, we're in for a big fight. 498 00:58:00,533 --> 00:58:04,100 We ended up in a concentration camp here in Buchenwald. 499 00:58:04,167 --> 00:58:07,067 So we waited and then all of a sudden 500 00:58:07,067 --> 00:58:10,267 we saw the naked bodies, out in the-- 501 00:58:10,333 --> 00:58:12,067 they're unburied. 502 00:58:12,100 --> 00:58:15,267 I got them here. Look. 503 00:58:15,333 --> 00:58:21,233 We saw these very skinny people, eyes sunk, 504 00:58:21,300 --> 00:58:26,333 sockets just back of their head, no hair, half of them... 505 00:58:26,400 --> 00:58:29,967 they were just kind of swirling around like water. 506 00:58:30,067 --> 00:58:31,900 Now these are some of the pictures that I took 507 00:58:31,967 --> 00:58:33,433 when we came to Buchenwald. 508 00:58:33,500 --> 00:58:35,433 Now these people were here 509 00:58:35,500 --> 00:58:37,267 at the request of General Eisenhower. 510 00:58:37,333 --> 00:58:39,867 He wanted to see what was going on in this part 511 00:58:39,933 --> 00:58:43,600 and as I said, see, I was conscious, 512 00:58:43,667 --> 00:58:45,067 I was assuming that 513 00:58:45,100 --> 00:58:47,067 these pictures were going to be reproduced, 514 00:58:47,100 --> 00:58:50,133 so when I photographed the guests with naked bodies, 515 00:58:50,200 --> 00:58:52,067 I tried to make it very subtle, 516 00:58:52,100 --> 00:58:55,333 because they would not have used them at that time, you know, 517 00:58:55,400 --> 00:59:01,433 showing naked bodies lined up like log wood. 518 00:59:01,500 --> 00:59:05,467 It's as if those sights 519 00:59:05,533 --> 00:59:11,133 of what we saw just occurred yesterday. 520 00:59:11,200 --> 00:59:12,967 We had never imagined that 521 00:59:13,067 --> 00:59:17,833 men could do this to other human beings, 522 00:59:17,900 --> 00:59:20,900 that what we witnessed there. 523 01:00:54,100 --> 01:00:57,467 Six kilometers from Buchenwald is the city of Weimar, 524 01:00:57,533 --> 01:01:01,533 the historic center of German culture and intellect. 525 01:01:01,600 --> 01:01:04,467 Throughout its rich history, Weimar has been home to Bach, 526 01:01:04,533 --> 01:01:08,067 List, Strauss, Schiller and Goethe. 527 01:01:10,167 --> 01:01:11,767 As for Buchenwald, 528 01:01:11,833 --> 01:01:14,533 the locals barely acknowledged its existence, 529 01:01:14,600 --> 01:01:16,467 even when they saw it with their own eyes. 530 01:01:50,533 --> 01:01:53,433 But behind the curtain of civilized behavior, 531 01:01:53,500 --> 01:01:56,233 many of the most depraved Nazi medical experiments 532 01:01:56,300 --> 01:01:58,933 were conducted at Buchenwald, 533 01:01:59,067 --> 01:02:01,300 including the burning of prisoners with phosphorous 534 01:02:01,367 --> 01:02:04,233 to observe how long it would take them to die. 535 01:02:25,333 --> 01:02:27,333 Ironically, Buchenwald was referred to 536 01:02:27,400 --> 01:02:29,233 as the singing forest, 537 01:02:29,300 --> 01:02:30,967 because of the screams from prisoners 538 01:02:31,067 --> 01:02:34,133 who were hung with their wrists tied behind their backs. 539 01:03:23,567 --> 01:03:25,467 For the anniversary of the liberation, 540 01:03:25,533 --> 01:03:27,967 the boys are returning to Weimar, 541 01:03:28,067 --> 01:03:30,600 the city they pretended that didn't exist. 542 01:03:30,667 --> 01:03:34,333 They are returning as men who 65 years earlier, 543 01:03:34,400 --> 01:03:37,433 were together in block 66. 544 01:03:37,500 --> 01:03:40,967 So we are very happy that we will have with us 545 01:03:41,067 --> 01:03:46,400 50 former children of Buchenwald, 546 01:03:46,467 --> 01:03:52,067 children who survived and were protected 547 01:03:52,100 --> 01:03:55,067 by the political resistance by the camps underground 548 01:03:55,133 --> 01:03:57,467 and then brought back to life 549 01:03:57,533 --> 01:03:59,200 by members of the -- army. 550 01:04:07,333 --> 01:04:09,500 This is second birthday of the survivors, 551 01:04:09,567 --> 01:04:13,233 that's how they call the day of celebrations. 552 01:04:13,300 --> 01:04:15,700 It's their second birthday. 553 01:04:25,667 --> 01:04:27,433 As a young woman of 22, 554 01:04:27,500 --> 01:04:29,333 the social worker Judith Hemmendinger 555 01:04:29,400 --> 01:04:31,367 was given an overwhelming task, 556 01:04:31,433 --> 01:04:33,567 to run an orphanage for a train load of boys 557 01:04:33,633 --> 01:04:37,433 coming directly from block 66, after the war. 558 01:04:37,500 --> 01:04:39,467 Located just north of Paris, 559 01:04:39,533 --> 01:04:40,900 Taverne became the home 560 01:04:40,967 --> 01:04:43,400 for nearly 100 Buchenwald orphans. 561 01:04:43,467 --> 01:04:45,633 They never, never spoke about their families, 562 01:04:47,667 --> 01:04:51,367 and you know that I wrote, 563 01:04:51,433 --> 01:04:54,567 I made a doctoral dissertation about them, 564 01:04:54,633 --> 01:04:58,333 and then for the first time I asked them 565 01:04:58,400 --> 01:05:02,233 how was your brother, how was your mother? 566 01:05:02,300 --> 01:05:06,067 And they all said the same thing, "my brother was, 567 01:05:06,133 --> 01:05:09,600 my father was wonderful." He was not a strong father? 568 01:05:09,667 --> 01:05:12,533 "No, he was wonderful." And your mother? 569 01:05:12,600 --> 01:05:17,300 "My mother also was exceptional and wonderful and nice," 570 01:05:17,367 --> 01:05:20,467 and I'm sure it's not true, I'm sure it's not true 571 01:05:20,533 --> 01:05:25,633 because it's impossible that all the fathers were ideal. 572 01:05:25,700 --> 01:05:28,633 No, I think they needed it to make an idolization 573 01:05:28,700 --> 01:05:30,567 about their parents, yeah. 574 01:07:12,200 --> 01:07:16,400 After my return home from Buchenwald, 575 01:07:16,467 --> 01:07:18,600 I came home and of course 576 01:07:18,667 --> 01:07:22,233 I didn't find anyone in my immediate family 577 01:07:22,300 --> 01:07:26,500 or the other extended family, like my cousins, uncles. 578 01:07:26,567 --> 01:07:30,533 No one returned and I felt lost 579 01:07:30,600 --> 01:07:35,600 and with this feeling of being lost, 580 01:07:35,667 --> 01:07:40,433 I kept asking myself questions, why did this happen to me? 581 01:08:17,067 --> 01:08:18,067 Alex. 582 01:08:18,100 --> 01:08:19,067 We meet again. 583 01:08:19,100 --> 01:08:20,333 Yeah. 584 01:08:20,400 --> 01:08:22,233 Was this really planned? 585 01:08:23,500 --> 01:08:25,533 This is not the place where we were supposed to meet. 586 01:08:25,600 --> 01:08:27,567 We were supposed to meet in Jerusalem. 587 01:08:27,633 --> 01:08:29,333 Yes, you can come. 588 01:08:29,400 --> 01:08:30,367 You are invited. 589 01:08:30,433 --> 01:08:31,400 Thank you. 590 01:08:33,500 --> 01:08:36,133 I would like the nice weather... 591 01:08:36,200 --> 01:08:38,533 This is not really cold. It is... 592 01:08:40,433 --> 01:08:43,300 Remember, like, when we came here in January-- 593 01:08:43,367 --> 01:08:45,167 Yes, 23 year in January. 594 01:08:45,233 --> 01:08:47,533 1945. It was freezing. 595 01:08:47,600 --> 01:08:50,667 You come also in 23, January? Yes? 596 01:08:50,733 --> 01:08:54,200 Well, I think we came from -- 597 01:08:54,267 --> 01:08:59,300 Yes, same train. In the first class. 598 01:08:59,367 --> 01:09:00,467 Oh, yes. 599 01:09:00,533 --> 01:09:02,667 Open coal cars. First class. 600 01:09:02,733 --> 01:09:04,533 With snow. 601 01:09:47,400 --> 01:09:49,167 In this block... 602 01:09:49,233 --> 01:09:50,567 here. 603 01:10:59,600 --> 01:11:02,333 Antonin Kalina was part of an effort 604 01:11:02,400 --> 01:11:06,067 to protect 900 to 1,000 boys. 605 01:11:06,067 --> 01:11:07,467 In terms of scale of effort, 606 01:11:07,533 --> 01:11:11,067 in terms of central importance in the effort, 607 01:11:11,067 --> 01:11:15,567 I just don't see how the case would be turned down. 608 01:11:15,633 --> 01:11:18,067 Yes, of course, there are nos, yeah. 609 01:11:18,133 --> 01:11:20,900 Wherever you have criteria, there are those who are not, 610 01:11:20,967 --> 01:11:23,233 who don't enter within the criteria. 611 01:11:23,300 --> 01:11:26,067 So and very often, you know, it's agonizing. 612 01:11:26,133 --> 01:11:29,467 It's agonizing and they have to vote yes or no, 613 01:11:29,533 --> 01:11:31,567 it's not the historian who can write 614 01:11:31,633 --> 01:11:34,100 on the one hand and on the other hand 615 01:11:34,167 --> 01:11:37,267 and if I look at it from this perspective and from the other, 616 01:11:37,333 --> 01:11:40,967 no, in the end, it's black and white. 617 01:11:41,067 --> 01:11:43,067 When you were in Buchenwald, 618 01:11:43,067 --> 01:11:46,433 you took a tremendous risk, your life was at stake 619 01:11:46,500 --> 01:11:48,967 to do what you did for these children. 620 01:11:54,633 --> 01:11:56,067 When reflecting on whether 621 01:11:56,067 --> 01:11:58,067 he ever risked his life in the camps, 622 01:11:58,067 --> 01:12:00,433 Kalina said 1000s of times. 623 01:12:00,500 --> 01:12:01,600 It was nothing. 624 01:12:01,667 --> 01:12:03,233 If there's righteous among the nations, 625 01:12:03,300 --> 01:12:05,400 this guy in the gray zone belongs there 626 01:12:05,467 --> 01:12:08,067 along with all the rest. 627 01:12:27,333 --> 01:12:31,333 So when I was asked to make a research about Antonin Kalina, 628 01:12:31,400 --> 01:12:37,200 the main problem was that I knew only a very few things. 629 01:12:39,433 --> 01:12:42,633 I knew that he was born in 1902 in Trebitsch. 630 01:12:42,700 --> 01:12:49,067 Therefore it was logical that he is not alive anymore. 631 01:12:49,133 --> 01:12:52,233 So I asked the lady in the state archive 632 01:12:52,300 --> 01:12:57,467 responsible for that files whether she could look 633 01:12:57,533 --> 01:13:03,300 and within a week I had a copy 634 01:13:03,367 --> 01:13:07,200 of an entire file of Antonin Kalina. 635 01:13:07,267 --> 01:13:10,300 And I found Kalina's last address there. 636 01:13:10,367 --> 01:13:14,233 Okay, so I had the address, then I went to the house. 637 01:13:16,067 --> 01:13:20,067 I've managed to find the owner of the house 638 01:13:20,133 --> 01:13:24,567 who was an inhabitant of the house, even 20 years ago, 639 01:13:24,633 --> 01:13:29,633 that Kalina was living there, even died there, 640 01:13:29,700 --> 01:13:35,600 was barely visited by someone in the last stage of his life. 641 01:13:35,667 --> 01:13:39,667 You know, the next stop was the central cemetery of Prague. 642 01:13:39,733 --> 01:13:44,367 They told me there were three Antonin Kalinas buried here, 643 01:13:44,433 --> 01:13:50,467 so I told them, give me the location of this one. 644 01:13:52,667 --> 01:13:56,600 After the war, coming back to Trebitsch, 645 01:13:56,667 --> 01:14:01,500 receiving prominent communist positions, 646 01:14:01,567 --> 01:14:03,233 then gets divorced, 647 01:14:05,300 --> 01:14:12,967 then goes to Prague to work at the ministry. 648 01:14:13,067 --> 01:14:19,167 And then in 1968, went into pension. 649 01:14:23,200 --> 01:14:27,067 That's Antonin Kalina. 650 01:15:05,567 --> 01:15:09,067 The survivors are so important in everything we do. 651 01:15:09,067 --> 01:15:12,233 So what will our work look like? 652 01:15:12,300 --> 01:15:14,067 Not only in the righteous project, 653 01:15:14,067 --> 01:15:15,467 but in every other respect. 654 01:15:15,533 --> 01:15:17,233 When the survivors are gone, when they are not there, 655 01:15:17,300 --> 01:15:18,433 when I cannot pick up the phone 656 01:15:18,500 --> 01:15:20,300 and say, sir, you were in Auschwitz, 657 01:15:20,367 --> 01:15:24,100 so tell me, was it this or was it that? 658 01:15:24,167 --> 01:15:27,200 Many of the boys have told me that after liberation, 659 01:15:27,267 --> 01:15:29,433 they carried Kalina on their shoulders, 660 01:15:29,500 --> 01:15:32,600 you don't carry somebody on your shoulders, 661 01:15:32,667 --> 01:15:35,233 especially if you're weak and you've been in a camp 662 01:15:35,300 --> 01:15:37,533 and you've been in a block where other people have been dying, 663 01:15:37,600 --> 01:15:40,433 unless this is some deeply felt feeling 664 01:15:40,500 --> 01:15:43,533 and not very many of the block elders in Buchenwald, 665 01:15:43,600 --> 01:15:45,300 I believe, were carried on their shoulders 666 01:15:45,367 --> 01:15:48,500 of anybody after liberation. 667 01:15:56,967 --> 01:15:59,567 So he hasn't heard anything from Yad Vashem, 668 01:15:59,633 --> 01:16:05,300 however, he feels that this is a very difficult thing 669 01:16:05,367 --> 01:16:08,567 to get the righteous from Yad Vashem 670 01:16:08,633 --> 01:16:12,100 and he doesn't have too much hope 671 01:16:12,167 --> 01:16:14,333 that we will be able to get it. 672 01:16:14,400 --> 01:16:18,100 We are here in the garden of the righteous, 673 01:16:18,167 --> 01:16:22,533 it's a very quiet corner on the mount of remembrance, 674 01:16:22,600 --> 01:16:25,200 Yad Vashem, 675 01:16:25,267 --> 01:16:27,567 and here we have walls where we engraved 676 01:16:27,633 --> 01:16:30,267 the names of the righteous amongst the nations 677 01:16:30,333 --> 01:16:32,600 and it's engraved in stone, 678 01:16:32,667 --> 01:16:35,700 so it will be there forever and for perpetuity. 679 01:16:40,800 --> 01:16:43,400 In his memoir, Man's Search For Meaning, 680 01:16:43,467 --> 01:16:46,467 survivor Viktor Frankle spoke for so many survivors 681 01:16:46,533 --> 01:16:50,067 when he wrote, "everything can be taken from a man, 682 01:16:50,067 --> 01:16:52,733 but the last of the human freedoms. 683 01:16:52,800 --> 01:16:56,133 To choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances. 684 01:16:56,200 --> 01:16:58,600 To choose one's own way." 685 01:17:00,567 --> 01:17:03,067 And so 904 children could be saved. 686 01:17:03,100 --> 01:17:08,233 1,600 children and young people couldn't be saved, 687 01:17:08,300 --> 01:17:10,333 have been killed by torture 688 01:17:10,400 --> 01:17:14,267 as a reality of German concentration camp. 689 01:17:17,067 --> 01:17:22,233 And I said to myself, how come they still believe in man? 690 01:17:22,300 --> 01:17:24,400 That they still believe in history? 691 01:17:24,467 --> 01:17:27,800 That they still think we can do it better? 692 01:17:32,433 --> 01:17:37,067 Why don't they hate Germans, especially, 693 01:17:37,100 --> 01:17:40,800 and why do they have hope? 694 01:17:45,333 --> 01:17:47,500 And that's why I call them my teachers 695 01:17:47,567 --> 01:17:49,800 to learn to how to live in a better way. 696 01:17:53,633 --> 01:17:56,167 And that's part of the meaning of Buchenwald, 697 01:17:56,233 --> 01:18:00,700 because why do we remember the dark sides of our history? 698 01:18:00,767 --> 01:18:04,633 Because we don't want to let that have the last word. 699 01:19:59,500 --> 01:20:05,133 Years ago, he had like a little basal cell removed from his back 700 01:20:05,200 --> 01:20:07,567 and he went to the dermatologist on his own. 701 01:20:07,633 --> 01:20:10,500 He came home and he looked a little ashen and I said, 702 01:20:10,567 --> 01:20:12,067 was it painful? 703 01:20:12,133 --> 01:20:13,167 He said, no, he says. 704 01:20:13,233 --> 01:20:15,367 But as all this thing happened, 705 01:20:15,433 --> 01:20:17,600 when they started to burn that off, 706 01:20:17,667 --> 01:20:20,267 immediately he'd smelled the crematory. 707 01:20:23,767 --> 01:20:25,000 Dear, Mom and Dad, 708 01:20:25,067 --> 01:20:32,700 I wish that you would've been here longer 709 01:20:32,767 --> 01:20:39,300 and see what I did in my lifetime. 710 01:20:40,600 --> 01:20:42,733 At the end of the war, after I found out 711 01:20:42,800 --> 01:20:48,267 that I was the only one to survive it, it was difficult. 712 01:20:52,633 --> 01:20:57,533 The first time that I met him, he told me about, 713 01:20:57,600 --> 01:21:01,667 about himself being a survivor, holocaust survivor. 714 01:21:01,733 --> 01:21:06,433 And he told me that he's invited to Buchenwald, 715 01:21:06,500 --> 01:21:09,133 he invited me to come with him. 716 01:21:09,200 --> 01:21:14,467 I was very tense to see how he will feel here. 717 01:21:14,533 --> 01:21:16,367 And he's a hero. 718 01:21:16,433 --> 01:21:17,700 Quite an hero. 719 01:21:17,767 --> 01:21:23,500 In a way, he cried several times, 720 01:21:23,567 --> 01:21:28,567 but he enjoyed every meeting, 721 01:21:28,633 --> 01:21:34,667 every thing that they arranged for the survivors. 722 01:24:04,767 --> 01:24:08,100 Before we got married, I made the decision, 723 01:24:08,167 --> 01:24:10,633 he didn't ask me, I made the decision to convert. 724 01:24:10,700 --> 01:24:13,433 I just thought out of respect for his parents, 725 01:24:13,500 --> 01:24:16,233 I mean, they died because they were Jewish, 726 01:24:16,300 --> 01:24:20,133 so why would I want their son to raise someone, you know, 727 01:24:20,200 --> 01:24:23,633 his children in another religion? 728 01:24:23,700 --> 01:24:28,300 I met my woman who is still my wife today 729 01:24:28,367 --> 01:24:31,567 and we had a wonderful life, 730 01:24:31,633 --> 01:24:39,633 I was able to start and continue our family 731 01:24:40,633 --> 01:24:48,633 and today I have two sons and we have four grandchildren. 732 01:24:50,533 --> 01:24:54,300 I would have really loved you to see all that 733 01:24:54,367 --> 01:24:58,433 and I hope that I have accomplished 734 01:24:58,500 --> 01:25:00,100 what you wished for me. 735 01:25:31,767 --> 01:25:35,967 See, Naftali is a person that goes forward always, 736 01:25:36,067 --> 01:25:41,300 this year, he had cancer and heart operation 737 01:25:41,367 --> 01:25:44,433 and you cannot see it on him. 738 01:25:44,500 --> 01:25:46,633 He looks perfect, you know. 739 01:25:46,700 --> 01:25:50,567 He walks, he goes to the gym almost every day. 740 01:25:50,633 --> 01:25:52,700 He meets people. 741 01:25:52,767 --> 01:25:55,600 He's not depressed by anything. 742 01:25:55,667 --> 01:26:00,067 He's the kind of person that walks on and on in life 743 01:26:00,067 --> 01:26:03,300 and takes all the flowers that he can pick. 53169

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