Our moderator is barry steelman. He is a graduate of the u. S. Naval academy. Back in 1970 or 1980, he served two tours aboard the uss henderson. Off the shore of vietnam from 1971 to 1973. Then, as combat and intelligence officer. He then served in the mountain norad in colorado. After leaving the navy, he had a career for over 30 years as an attorney specializing in personal injury and civil rights cases. He was also an adjunct repressor of law at the university of baltimore, and presently serves as a facilitator for the Naval Academy capstone Ethical Leadership program in annapolis. An adjunct professor. He is retired, but serves as a mediator for several county courts in maryland. He will introduce us to his guest, and they will carry on a discussion. We always appreciate him and his counsel. He is also active as the leader of his Naval Academy class. Put your hands together for barry steelman. [applause] barry thank you, paul. I first want to welcome all of the students here today, as well as all of the active duty retirees veterans and honored guests to help us carry out our purpose at the veterans center. We are honoring our past iconic heroes from the greatest generation to the present generation, and to help us educate our future leaders many of whom are sitting here today. Over these three days, you will be exposed to some of the bravest men and women who have proudly served our country over the past half century. During this conference, you have heard from various people from different wars, different experiences, and each with different lessons to teach you from their own life experiences. This morning, we are fortunate to have with us as our next panel one of the two Holocaust Survivors scheduled to be here today. The first, henry green bound, and i will act as if he were here. I will tell a bit about his story. I will introduce him as though he were sitting there. I happened to bring a summary of his interview which was published. The other is Emanuel Manny mandel. This discussion is very important. It is timely. Not only for us to recall to the hate, cruelty, and that caused by not see germany, but germany, but the bigotry around us as you all sit on the eve of becoming military leaders. I would like you to remember what secretary hagel said yesterday. Remember to be a leader that treats all of those who serve with dignity and respect. These gentlemen personally witnessed humanity at its worst. And yet, they went on to exemplify the best in society. The only reason they suffered is because they were born in europe and born to jewish parents. They will remind us why 72 years ago at the end of world war ii, why the americans fought on different continents to stop fascism and imperial evil from spreading. By telling their stories of courage, survival, and hope, they will show us all why the holocaust is something we can never forget. I will read mr. Greenbaums introduction. So you know a little bit about him. He was born on april 1, 1928 in poland. He was the youngest of nine children born to Orthodox Jewish parents. His father was a tailor. Their life started off as a rather normal childhood. In 1939 when the germans invaded poland, the jewish people as a people had lived and flourished in poland for over 1000 years. So you can imagine that when this was happening in germany, kristallnacht in 1938, that they they would be saved. Believed because they had been there 1000 years. But when they did invade, henry was just 11 years old. His father had just unexpectedly died. After his death, henry, his mother and their siblings were moved into the crowded jewish polish ghetto. In 1942, his sisters and mother were deported and killed. Later, he tried to escape from a labor concentration camp. When they were just eat away, nazis opened fire. Henry survived. His sister died on that spot. Most of henrys family was killed by the nazis. He survived the ghetto. He survived concentration camps. He survived being shot in the monthand he survived 82 twomonth death march when he was only 15 years old. He would have told you personally about the things he suffered in survived at the ages of only 11 to 17. He was liberated by the American Army on april 25, 1945. I am going to read a summary that somebody a publisher wrote about him, and then i am going to turn the floor over. I just want you to hear something more about his life. The author stated, summarizing the interview, that his passionate responses come from his experiences as a survivor. More than 70 years have passed since that nightmarish chapter of his life ended. Though there is little evidence of the horrific past in his well groomed appearance, he recalled with vivid clarity the moments of death and despair that robbed him of his youth. His family, and yes, his basic human rights. His family sought refuge after evading poland in 1939. He was sent to a series of german labor camps. His only sustenance was cabbage water soup or crust from bread. He remembered the roadmaps, the splits of skin in his back as a result of german soldiers beatings delivered with a whip. The more you screamed, he said, and the more you yelled, the more punishment you got. He revealed the number tattooed on his arm. It would be there forever. The name he was emblem mise with. The number he was given in auschwitz. He did not look down as he recited the number. 18991. , he remembered the endless amounts of blood seeping from a wound on the back of his head, where a soldiers bullet had grazed him while he attempted escape with his sister. He made it back to the barracks, where a female cousin helped to all thee sticky wound way down to his feet and ankles. His sister a was in the camp when they tried to escape. She was not so lucky. He saw her body laying in the dirt by the barbed wire fence. He watched as a guard shot and killed her, and it was over in his mind. She was like my mother, he said. It was terrible. Out of his entire family, only four would survive. Many around him gave up. Simply lost their will to live any further. They laid down in the frozen ground to die during the threemonth death march to germany. Henry did not give up his will to live on. It would have brought him here today. He thought of his sister. There was an older sister who had come to america. He thought of them separated from him on the way to camps. I chose life, he said. No matter what they do to me i will survive. And survived the he did. There were a few fleeting moments of hope. He spoke of his first real shower with soap after several years at auschwitz. He recalled the man in white wingtipped shoes who included him in a group of prisoners chosen to work on the grounds of a factory for german manufacturers. He was my savior, greenbaum said. The work laying out heavy stones to serve as a road in winter was grueling. But a special assignment sparing him from the bombings that the americans dropped on the camps to destroy the enemy. Amountediece of potato to a cause of celebration for this teenager. But nothing compared to the relief he felt when the american soldiers arrived in april of 1945. That marked his liberation. He was three weeks past his 17th birthday, a 58 skeleton weighing 75 pounds. Adjusting to a normal life is strange, but not difficult. He reveled in small things, like the food pantry at the soldiers camp where he spent the first three months after liberation. He helped serve soldiers food. He never had to peel a potato or clean a dish. You felt like having an orange, you just went and grabbed it. By the time he came to america, he now serves as a volunteer at the United States Holocaust Memorial museum, where he speaks regularly about his experiences. I will tell people, dont be a bystander. Speak out against any injustice. That is how we make sure that we wont ever let this ever happen again. That is part of what he would have explained to you about his experiences. Now we are fortunate to have with us today a survivor of the many mandel, born may 8, 1946 in latvia. His family was originally from budapest, hungary, and went back there shortly after his birth, where his father took a position as one of the four chief cantors in budapest. At the time, it was one of the most important Jewish Centers in europe. My grandmother was born in that community. As a sevenyearold boy in hungary, many and his family were a group of approximately 1670 jews. Jews these jewish people were camp in to a notorious northern germany, where tens of thousands of jews died, including a young 13yearold jewish girl that i am sure youve all heard of, and frank anne frank. Mannys grandmother was killed in auschwitz. Over 600,000 jewish citizens in hungary. Thane end of the war, more nearly 70 of all the jews in hungary, had been killed by the nazis. Manny and his mother immigrated on a british troops to palestine, which three years later would become the state of israel. They came to the United States in 1945, where he has lived ever since. Of mandels story and those many other Holocaust Survivors is available for each of you to learn and read about at the Holocaust Museum here in washington dc. Manny and henry both work there and give their time to make sure that the next generations never forget. Rather than asking questions like some of the panels have been doing, i talked with both manny and henry and decided is more compelling if i let them tell their story in the totality of how they want to rather than me parsing it into questions. So without further it do, i will turn the floor over. Please welcome manny mandell. [applause] manny is this on . Can you hear me . Ok. I know that some of you of for are from local areas or from all over the country. How many of you have been to the Holocaust Museum . Good. I can go home now. [laughter] the Holocaust Museum is a memorial that is also a teaching institution. I think it is terribly important for people like me who are part of what we now call a diminishing resource. Henry is 90 89 years old. I am 81. I am not a kid in that sense. Those of us who are still around who still remember the issues of the holocaust need to be able to talk about that and tell us guess many of us are concerned about what we were 120 years ago. Do remember who said those of us who do not remember our history well are doomed to repeat it . Who said that . Thank you, sir. Were you there . [laughter] it is very important. I have used that particular line. The point remains if we dont know where we are coming from, ay we areno w going to know where we are going to go. If you dont know where you are coming from coming you do not know where youre going. It is incumbent on us to learn where we have been. Part of my job here is to talk about where i have been. I will set the stage. Henry is aion about different history than mine for several reasons. One, henry is about eight years older than i. Had i been henrys age, i probably would be dead. Thendly, henry comes from best those of you who may have and the museum may have seen early in the tour of the museum there is a chart of the Jewish Population of various countries of europe. Anybody remember that . Let me tell you. Most of the Population Centers in europe was very flexural us very flexural. Poland was an exception. As a consequence, the greatest amount of people who died in the greatest holocaust that took place was in poland. That is henrys story. But you need to know the holocaust took place in other places, including where i was raised. But canrn in latvia tell you absolutely nothing. Theres an old story that says you must be born where your mother is. My mother and father were latvian, but as soon as i was born date transferred to budapest. My mother comes from southern hungary, the former yugoslavia. My father comes from east hungary. You know one person who comes from east hungary, from transylvania. I take it you dont know him. The reason i mention that is because hungarys relationship to the nazi government was unique. Anyone know what the uniqueness of that was . Relationship same as the allies. As a consequence, the holocaust itself comes very late to hungary. Ends ll that the war what day, what month . Very good. Why is that significant . The war the end of the war and i were born on the same day. But who was the president of the United States when the war ended on may 8, 1945 . Arry truman is that thet point holocaust is not come to hungary until much later. I want to give you an anecdote about an incident which had into to the holocaust as i understood it at the time. In december of 1941, we traveled by train to yugoslavia, where my mother and her parents were from. We went down for a weeks vacation and that kind of thing. I dont recall what we did the first day or two, but about the third day in the morning, somebody came up the elevator and said there is something going on on the street. Twoin five minutes, policemen came up and knocked on the door. They were very decent and civil and said, you need to dress warmly, come outside. We have to run a census. We do a census every 10 years, right . The nazis did a census every 20 minutes. They believed if they knew where , theyody was at all times could control the population, which was very true. But it was unusual for a census in the middle of the morning on the street. There wasseem that anything about it that was dangerous or anything. They had us in the streets, lineup, turn left, and start walking in that direction. We walked for some time. I was five and a half years old, a little guy. I walked and my mother and father carried me. Iter maybe two hours or so remember we arrived at a place which i recognized. For those of you who have been know that you might the river becomes a summertime beach. The gnu river the danube river runs through budapest to the black sea. Having been there the previous summer, in the whirlpools and wave pools and hot pools and parks and restaurants by the edge of the water, it was a beautiful place. But this was winter. The river was frozen three feet thick. But i recognized the fence that we were walking next to which separated the street from the beach area. Here is the major road, here is the sidewalk, here is the fence, and about 300 yards to the left is the beach. No idea why we are here. , of course, as a five and a halfyearold, but neither did the adults. Why . Everyone moseying along this sense which was quite this fence which was quite long. People did a left turn towards the beach area, and again, we think nothing of it, but dont know why this is happening. ,s we go towards this gate there is a policeman standing on the right side who tells us to enter. What are we doing here . My concern is that you are not from here. We cant have that. So our group is moved to the side. As we stood aside, the staff comes out from the other directions, the uniformed officer says ladies and gentlemen, the requirements of the senses have been met. Census hasof the been met. Go home. We felt bewildered. What happened . We had no idea what just took place. They said, there is a school over here. You can go get coffee and hot chocolate. Who are back to my apartment my aunts apartment where we were staying. So we asked what happened . The first call was from my sister from the other side of town. She said, we had plans today to do something. Where were you . We told her the policeman came to the door, did a census. She invited them for coffee and cake. Gave these guys the best breakfast of their life. They asked a few questions and said goodbye. That was her experience. It was then we began to understand what happened. Do you remember my description that the water was 300 yards, the fence, the main street . The people who made the left turn towards the river marched to the edge of the river, which. Ad been broken by cannon fire they were found floating 50 , at thewn the river edge of the river, in march when the river thawed. This was called a pogrum, a senseless, useless, valueless experience which you can do nothing about. Those of you who study history might know in those days, and yugoslavia in other states, there were some people who attempted to fight the nazis in their own fashion. Theye karen fighters were guerrilla fighters. Tried in some ways to impede the nazi approach. Something happened someplace in the area of this community, and the retaliation for that was they put on this pogrum. 700 people were killed. Inlaws were shot in the hall. No one knows why. They were shot and killed. I was a five and a halfyearold who did not know what this was all about. Then i begin to understand what took place in what i witnessed. It was kind of a birds eye view of the holocaust experience that lace. Best that took place that took place. Trip as a vacation trip, and for me it became a vacation because if im in a half your old has no understanding. I need to add a few more things to this. The next morning, something could place that i thought was great fun. My father decided that what we needed to do was leave early the next morning on the first available train back because when catastrophe takes place, you want to go home. Here we are with my grandparents and my two aunts. Budapest game home, and my father thought that is where we needed to be. , and ind for a taxi those days they were very interesting to a five and a halfyearold. Horse and sleigh. To go to the railroad station in a horsedrawn sleigh was fun for who i was at the time. As i said to you, the holocaust comes to hungary late. But the war doesnt come to hungary late. We are bombed once, sometimes twice a night. Raid time there was an air , down into the shelter in the basement. The problem was that when the fell byll with one the russian allies and the others from the western allies the problem was when you came up in the morning and saw the you had noround you, idea who around you had been bombed. Anyone who has been under any kind of bombing experience i it was much more of an issue to us. Let me jump ahead. That the holocaust comes to hungary in 1944. . Ny of you know the name he was a flyer in the First World War and came very important in the german flying situation, who created the luftwaffe, the german air force. By that time he was too fat to fly a plane, but that is not important. [laughter] they talked about the final solution to the jewish problem. What was the final solution . Annihilation. It would not be put into practice in 1941. In 1942, there was a conference called by the leader of the not the movement in Eastern Europe the not the movement the Nazi Movement in Eastern Europe, to make sure that all the countries are cleaned. The man was mentioned before, a colonel in the german army, and very good at what he had to do. He cleared all of the various countries. The last country he comes to is hungary, march 19, 1944. Arrived, to go and see him and talk to him was more difficult than seeing the pope. He was that much of an important figure at the time. They began to discuss with him some kind of arrangements for some kind of deal. , the assumption was which was ridiculous that if hillary was to release one from concentration camps, they would supply trucks to the war effort. None of this happened and everybody knew it. They were sent to cairo, where the british held sway. This discussion was initiated because by this time, much of the german command knew that the end of the war was going to come sooner rather than later. They were looking for ways to make arrangements for themselves for something to do with as for the war. Iceland survives the war. Where do they go . Argentina. Himmler himself, number three in the not the regime in the nazi regime, would have gone to argentina if he had not been caught and taken cyanide. Hitlers position was, get the jews out of the world, out of europe. My father also survived the war, but it was another story. We are taken to some neutral point, which was not a death camp. There, andve months after five months negotiations continued, and we are transported by germans from germany to switzerland. Why . In order to get the diamonds and jules and gold and stuff like that, in order to have that given to him, he had to release the people. He couldnt kill them. You cant deal with dead hostages. We had to be kept alive so that at least we could be traded in december 1944. That is when my time in the were stopped. In the war stopped. [applause] we are very fortunate to have mr. Mandel here today. We have time for one question. Make it a good one. Nice and loud. Stand up young man. My question is, how has your experience during the war affected your opinions on humanitarian crises today like in syria and sudan and myanmar . Manny number one, it makes me understand it. I caution you, what is happening in the world today looks like what happened. It is not the same thing. Not permit ourselves to think about what is happening in all these terrible places as what happened in most of europe from 1933 to 1945. Why is a much longer story to answer, but you need to understand the difference. I would never connect what is happening in miramar myanmar or sudan. Not what genocides are happened in the second world war. The reasons were different, the effects were different. Questionly, that was a that henry was also asked. Im going to read one sentence of his answer. That is wrong, that connection. He shook his head to underscore his conviction. That was one of a time. There was only one not to germany. Only one nazi germany. Though it is terrible, you cannot make the connection of the size and enormity of that. Thank you gentlemen. Lets give them both a big round of applause. We appreciate it. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] announcer youre watching American History tv, 48 programming of American History every weekend on cspan3. Follow us on twitter for information on our schedule and to keep up with the latest history news. Announcer sunday night on afterward, goldstar fathers khizr khan oner his book. Some things are common between authoritarian mentalities. One is they dont like free press because free press criticizes them. The second is rule of law. They do not like judges. They do not like rule of law. Me such aad given perspective of not having any Civil Liberties to having all of these liberties. As we speak further, i will tell you what a moment it was when i went to take the oath of citizenship. I wish every american would at least read the oath of citizenship. It means so much and speaks to dignities enshrined in our constitution and bill of rights. Night at watch sunday 0 p. M. Eastern on to send on cspan2s book tv. 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