Transcripts For CSPAN2 Max Eisen By Chance Alone 20240713

Welcome. I am part of the Holocaust Survivors trustee of the living memorial to the holocaust its my t pleasure to treat you to a special evening before we begin i like to say a few words about the museum the museum of jewish heritage is dedicated tofi fighting anti semitism and bigotry. For more than 20 years the museum has challenged visitors to understand the ways that dehumanization can evolve to engage in history people of all ages and backgrounds inherit the misted under submission to never forget if you are interested of upcoming ngevents please join the mailing list at the admissions desk help you become a member of the community we are honored tonight to celebrate max eisen who was saved from certain death at auschwitz. The physician employed him as a cleaner in the operating room the 2016 memoir by chance alone chronicles the remarkable and persistent liberation and continued survey one surviving auschwitz the top literary award in 2019 tonight we celebrate the launch of the book and we have the privilege of hearingar mr. Eisen in conversation with Cheri Finkelstein from 60 minutes and then to be held up tonight with the impeachment coverage we will join mr. Eisen with the book signing in thehe library its available for purchase we are honored to be joined by acting Council General of the canadian consulate in new york, mark gordon executive Committee Member Foundation Board of counselors Ellie Rubenstein National Director and president march of the living thank you to our partners who are planning and presenting tonights program for the consulate general Hanover Square press. Before we begin please take a moment to silence yours can one her cell phone thank you now please join me to welcome the Council General. [applause] thank you. I was not held up by the impeachment hearings in washington. [laughter] [speaking french] what an incredible honor it is to be here tonight to pay exibute to a truly remarkable man mr. Max eisen. My team at the consulate general takes the opportunity to bring mr. Eisen to new york i have to say for a man of his age he has a very busy schedule and it was not easy to get him here. Thank you for joining us and to hanover press and the museum of jewish heritage for bringing him here this evening to tell his story. Asas a diplomat with many incarnations one of the most memorable opportunities for me for poland to travel to auschwitz with my family and my wife and to see and share the tragedies of auschwitz. Iwi am deeply and profoundly inspired by the current trend of Holocaust Survivors who despite the evil they face and the complexity to understand it needs to be real to reconcile those unspeakable horrors dealing with faith and humanity and to be profoundly shaped by the 40000 Holocaust Survivors and i must add the devastating results of our own inaction and apathy when in 1939 jewish refugees on board the ss st. Louis were turned away and then issued a formal apology house of commons november 2018. It needs as Prime Minister trudeau has said never again is not a phrase covets promise to stand up to the dangers of hatred and those consequences of an action and indifference. As a new yorker we know all too well as these attacks right here have made clear hatred has not yet run its course on this eart earth. We must be vigilant we also know the modern tools are more sophisticated than radio or newspaper or film. Am inspired those who save a single life save the entire world and with the Ripple Effect to the commitment to educate younger generations of the dangers of racism and bigotry as if we can save by saving max his surgeon saved much more than one. So to have a firsthand account is becoming increasingly rare so we welcome you all here to share his story. I hope we all leave here with a heightened sense of duty to condemn intolerance and defend human rights in our everyday life. Please join me to welcome a holocaust survivor and from congregation in traveling on the movement where she conducted the Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony in auschwitz. Joined and accompanied by a grammy awardwinning guitarist as many members was also lost in the holocaust perk i look forward to a wonderful evening. [applause] good evening in such an incredible honor for me to be here this evening and you have this tribute to max eisen one of the most remarkable people i have ever met perk i had the privilege of traveling with max 2015 march of the living when i met the choir that year so thisit evening i would like to share with you a few songs the students and i saying on s the trip my colleague and dear friend introduced and gave context to the song i am about to seeing. [applause] good evening first song is rich in on the shores of the mediterraneanin sea in the early forties. Born in hungary in 1921 but because of what she experienced in her use sheer immigrated to help build the jewish state she was caught and tortured and executed she left us with a remarkable poem the rush of the waters the fender and the thundering of the heavens and was left far too early in her life. [applause] every time we sing this song in the very place hitler sought to destroy the jewish people we know the spirit and the values and the lessons continue to live on hitler, you did not win we will return here year after year reciting the words of the very people you try to annihilate. The next song reflects similar sentiment written in the 12th century to express the undying belief many jews recite these very words of their last breath before they perished in the gas Chamber Still hoping for a better day. [applause] please welcome to the stage the member of the executive committee from the board of counselors to now share a joint project involving the testimony of max eisen. [applause] thank you. On behalf of the foundation i am grateful to be here tonight to honor and celebration max eisen and the release of his memoir here in the us. Want to thank our colleagues at hanover press for publishing and make this work so widely available. Thank you to the museum of enwish heritage to hosting tonight and the Council General of canada for long support and involvement. Also to the international march of the living for the partnership between the International Partnership and the foundation for including us in this auspicious event tonight. The foundation began working with max andnd his family in 2019 through this partnership with the partnership of the international march of the living with a joint project the testimonies of60 Holocaust Survivors in a 360degree message in the authentic original location. Together we are working with ten survivors as they take us on a journey from the hometown to the site of liberation sharing the unique and personal stories in the places they experience the burglar eventually these will be deeply integrated into the programs and experiences e created by march of the living. Max is one for survivors so far who have participated and filmed on location. Our team traveled with max to the Auschwitz Museum for a day as he shared stories with us. We traveled to slovakia where he recalls his childhood and invited us to share what we are told his last goodbye to his hometown. The community that now only exist through him. His community will not be forgotten things to his 360 on location interview and the loving details he included in his memoir. This is in addition to the foundation having to history interviews of max and the visual history archive. Recorded in the nineties once by the foundation and once filmed by the Holocaust Education center, both are accessible through individual history archives. That testimony is among the 55000 survivor testimonies now accessible or available to over 160 universities and museums on Six Continents around the world and of course his book which we are celebrating today. Max did not always wish to tell his story. In his prologue he talks about the fact when he first spoke publicly about the holocaust and his experiences at the high school he was very nervous and said he would not dohe it again. I think this was a reaction among survivors atat that time if i may tell a personal story i have an uncle max or had one who survived auschwitz and immigrated to toronto in the summer of 1980 shortly after i was on the trip to Eastern Europe and had visited auschwitz. For dinner i toldau him i traveled may be asked to or three questions about all auschwitz and what i had seen. After dinner his son said to me in my entire life that is the most i have ever heard my father talk about his experiences. I said why do you think that is quicks his attitude is what is the point who would listen is just complaining to my children. So i think as individuals we are incredibly indebted to like the international march living in the museum of jewishrn heritage and organizations like hanover press and a structure around survivors so they can be passed down to say never again. Most importantly we are indebted to survivors like max. The countless colleges he has led 21 and trips to auschwitz and shares his experience. And with that 360degree video of the march of the living and of course publishing the memoir. A short video that shows behind the scenes when we filmed 360degree video incorporated into the march of the Living Program you can see the intensity he is committed to telling the story. Play the video. The feelings of family that you coulde not get your access that. So to speak to strangers more so so thats one of the reasons. [inaudible] [inaudible] [applause] now i would like to invite back up kelly rubenstein. [applause] i am honored to hear from the part we are aboutle to hear from max eisen himself we have been traveling over 20 years and each time continue to be inspired by his eloquence. Early 2004 those educators and chaperones. As we were at the Conference Center a group of queen students passed by one was carrying the scroll of the lost the ancient five books of moses that the jewish people have led read from publicly for thousands of years. But the work on their faces he patiently explainedhm to them what the schools are presented in with those sacred works just like you are looking at now and then but they also burden people. Those that were mesmerized during his short speech and then tore themselves away. That moment i realized he was a bornrn teacher and natural educator with the desire and story and share his the lessons of the holocaust in the clearest most accessible manner. In that moment that has been replicated countless timespl sharing the story of love over the last 20 years. To be a jew after the holocaust is every reason to give up your belief in god and to abandon humanity of every reason to give up your faith in god and the jewish people in the trusted humanity but so and that like so many other survivors that we know and despite having every reason to do so or to give up and humanity but instead to dedicate every day of his life around the clock to teach the lessons so it never ever happens again. In that effort also believe it can be fixed. And thank you for not giving up on our world even the you have every reason to do so. [applause] i would like to invite max eisen to be interviewed by Sherry Finkelstein currently producing a documentary on his life for 60 minutes who is familiar with his story. [applause] okay i am the substitute. [laughter] i dont do this for a living. Please be understanding. Leslie is really sad not to be here is a huge fan of max and wanted to do this but was not able to get on the flight back early enough to be here so you me. So max, tell me by talking about your life and lets start with the beginning of your life tell us about your family, where you lived so what was your life like your home and family before the war quick. Just as the voc it was a democratic country it was a town of about 5000 people and i would say 99 percent were orthodox. But in my town there were two doctors we had a beautiful Jewish Synagogue we went to a jewish school. It is amazing looking but then it is a Large Jewish Community with my parents and the jewish people and so to imagine so many people. Because you were literally in the same. And every bedroom had fireplace. There was no Running Water but we had a well in the yard. And in the center and then to have their own kitchen and bedrooms. So like fiddler on the roof. And injustice of nokia 1938 and then we knew that was too late and then finding out much later so when this happened from the democratic lifestyle but somehow my father found out they were making an important speech in berlin. They all came to our home to listen to the speech. So we were inviting and i remember the speech and then talk about the jews as the face of the war. Something told me something terrible what happened. I had no idea what i remember seeing their faces but when you are nine years old so we were marked and numbered and then we were segregated and then on the daily basis and then to be confiscated so my mother became a single mother because in 1941 they had a battalion. Everybody had to one dash places for many years. But then i had to leave. She didnt want to go. And then to handle family and the political effort and that wasnt good for the jewish mother. But i remember but then i became the apprentice working in the shop. So looking back my Guardian Angel made sure and then she said that diet on that diet and he was truly a man of four. But then to fight in the First World War my grandfather taught me a lot of life skills and my uncles from jealous of nokia. I think they taught me a lot of things that i think help me to survive and i was incarcerated. So when 43 and i thought it was a different god but my mom taught me how to read books and i just love books and the only member of my family and the rest of the time we were deported on the first day in 1944. I was going to ask you about that because as you obviously see his memories for detail if you have not already read the book there is many more. Looking back 1944 imagine hungary in jews there were 10000. We didnt know what was going on just across the mountains. Who would have thought so i keep saying that we knew better and did nothing about it. So we were celebrating passover. We had ample food in 44. But yet they were the second part that was accessed and then my little sister was about nine months old. And then we found the story and exodus and then the next morning so then that night on a friday night of passover and grthen after dinner they were talking and then to be limber on liberated by the red. Army. And then about four months later the red army of one arrived late and then kicked in our doo door. I was younger they were yelling and screaming hand it over. And you wonder what hes talking about. My mother later told us my father said put your boots on. Put your boots on my grandfather was 77 years old a big strong man for my grandmother 75 and was very petite. We were hauled out from our hom home. And knowing that this was terrible they tried to shoot him and then to say to my mother where are you taking this x leave the baby with me. And then they start wondering what my mother have survived. But history with many jews in poland were liquidated but then they all survived. O most of them but their parents didnt. Then they are hauled out and then the next morning and then having that exodus. So it was set up she was carried by her two sons in the chair mothers were not allowed to have their carriages or their strollers mom had a baby in one arm and then on their back imagine leaving town so 500 jews were taken away and then they did come back a year later there is one mother so with i those terrible conditions of 30000 jews in the brickyard and in those facilities but food was scarce we didnt imagine and every day we stop again. It is almost a story and that deception. And then it will be fine so half of my family was stuck in slovakia. We could not see them. We had a big farm my uncles and cousins slovakia was the first country to deport the jewish people. So talk about the deception with our family with those that disappeared my mother was devastated. Brothers, sisters and simply she would just disappear from the face of the earth. We didnt know what happened. A few months later mothers or fathers that but then with the general government look into the state and the message was we are all here together. 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. Thank you for sharing with us your profound music this evening. To close out this evening i like to call our president of 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]