Transcripts For CSPAN3 Oral Histories 20240621

You are watching American History tv all weekend every weekend on cspan3. In 1945, at what forces liberated the concentration cap. We will hear holocaust stories from those who have lived them. These interviews are part of the oral History Collection at the Holocaust Memorial museum washington, d. C. In this interview he talks about his experiences in the concentration camps, the beating death of his father, and being shot while trying to escape a death march right before his liberation. He died in 2002. The history is about an hour. Bradley describe the transport and your arrival at auschwitz. Why dont you give me your age . Braun the transport was about 4 days. So many things happened before the order that probably i will skip it and go right into answering your question. We had no water. We had very little food just the food which we took from home before we had to board a cattle car. And there were a lot of a lot of people died, mainly children and older people. For instance, we were so compact, it was like sardines. If you sat, you could not get up, or vice versa. On the fourth night, we arrived to auschwitz, and we had to wait, and the train was waiting. Then all of a sudden, the doors slid open. And we were ordered out. As we stepped out, the gestapo rushed at us, using their whips. And so did the ss. They were beating and kicking and hitting everyone they could reach. We were ordered to form a line stand in line, men in one, women and small children in the other, while the whip and the lokick and the beating was going on. After we lined up, i noticed that a highranking officer approached. It was the infamous dr. Josef mengele, the angel of death, the man who would decide our fate instant death in a gas chamber or linger in a life of torture and slavery. We had to file by him. As we did, i noticed he had a slender stick. Actually, it was a conductors baton. Being a musician, even at the age of 13, i recognized it. And he was waving it to the right or to the left. He was pointing which way each individual filed by him to go. My mother and younger sister goldie, who was only nine years old she was motioned to the left along with my mother. My older sister violet was motioned to the opposite side, to the right. My brother, who was 15, and my father, the next in line, they were also motioned to the same side where violet, my older sister by the way, violet was 18. I dont know if i had mentioned that or not. When my turn came, to my great surprise, mengele stopped me. Motioned to stop. And he says, tell me, little boy, how old are you . I am 13, i replied, previously coached to say more than i was because they said i had a better chance to survive in being sent to work rather than immediately being sent to the gas chamber. When he was mengele was sort of looking at me with a suspicion, suspiciously, because i really didnt look not even 13. My frail body and pale, and i did not go out to play football or soccer with the boys. But i was always practicing. The violin. Miraculously, he was motioning me to the group where my father and brother were. After the selection was over, my mother, my younger sister, and the group that they were in were led away. I didnt know that i have seen them for the last time. They were taken directly to the gas chamber. They were told that you have to take a shower, in order to camouflage really what they wanted to do. The ss would issue a towel and a bar of soap. There was actually a house where was written the words bath and each of them were issued a bar of soap and a towel, and then they said, you have to go in there and take a shower, but in reality, that was the gas chamber. As soon as they went in, the doors were locked behind them, and then the gas was flowing and everybody in it died. The terrible thing may be to add to that i should say, was they would send some of us prisoners to go and pick up dead bodies and cart them away. When we were just getting to ourselves, what happened, we were taken to another barrack. We were stripped completely and had to take a little shower. And the very same gas chamber where these wonderful people and poor children were taken and were gassed was where we took a shower. Where the gas was flowing through the pipes, now they let water through. I know because i was in it also to shower. In reality. Then we were assigned to a barrack. We managed somehow to stay together. My father, my brother and me. And one night, as we were standing in line to be counted that was the final count, making to our line, and he was picking prisoners for what they call the sondarkommando. Among other prisoners, he picked me, too. We had to go around the camp and pick up the dead and the little bodies and cut them up for the crematorium. No being in the sonderkommando meant separation from my father and brother. I was assigned to a different barrack. In one occasion when it was picking up a body, i noticed this man was not dead at all. I turned to the capo and said if we would give a little food or water, this man would survive. And then he turned around and hit me with his fist in my face so hard, and i fell over, and he said, you are not here to tell me who would survive. You are not here to make people survive. Now if youre not going to keep your mouth shut, im going to put you in the crematorium also. Now, pick up the body and cut him up. And we did. I didnt say no more, anything. But all my life, i had the most awful feeling that i really had to bury my fellow prisoners, had to cart them off to the crematorium so they would be burned and they were alive. So we were doing this for about maybe six days. No in the mnow in the sonderkommando there was a man who was about the same age as my father, and he had a son who was in the same barracks where my father and brother were. The son was about the same age maybe a year or two older than i. He heard word came to him that the very same barrack where his son was was going to be evacuated. They were going to go to france. He said, listen, i tell you what, because youd like to be with your father and brother and i certainly would love to be with my son, when you see all the prisoners running from every direction to regroup, the final count in the evening, go into the line where my son is, and my son is going to get into this line, where this barrack line is, and nobody will be the wiser. Because we were only numbers. So the plan worked. He was reunited with his son and i got back in the barrack where my father and brother were. Next morning, next day, we were off to france. I found out later that the very same day when we were transported to friends all of the other sonderkommandos were killed because they feared that if one had escaped, they would tell the world of the atrocities and of the terrible things they had done to humanity. Because we were more witnesses to their machine, you know death machine, than any other prisoners. Because we were the one who picked up dead bodies and took them and burned them on their order. And i tell you, the image of this father and son will haunt me for the rest of my life. When we arrived in france, i was put to work in an ammunition factory. And in that factory, they were making, it was being built i dont know exactly if it was a fee to rocket but v2 rocket but a rocket, which was designed specifically to shoot airplanes. Of course, mainly the americans and the russians. And that was such a tremendous force. All of the airplane is it had contact with the rocket it would be torn to pieces. Then later, i was put into a machine which automatically filled explosive capsules with gunpowder. One day, a french prisoner approached me, and he says what would you do to stop hitlers madness . Would you give up your life . Without hesitation, i said yes. The frenchman i forgot to tell what his right rank was he was actually a captain in the underground Resistance Movement who was smuggled among us as a prisoner, and he organized a sabotage movement. So this is how he approached me because to him i was the most important person by working on that machine which filled the gunpowder, the capsules with gunpowder. He said to me, i tell you what you see those civilians . Those are all frenchmen, electricians. They were working around the ammunition factory. He says, i tell you what you do this man will supply you sand. And i want you to put in this capsule which you have been filling with gunpowder sand and very little gunpowder. So the machine that i was working would be filling the gunpowder automatically. All i had to do was just pull the arm. But now i had to put sand and mix it with the gunpowder. And it worked. I mean, it was fantastic how easy it really was to do that. One day, some new transport came with new prisoners. And another prisoner was put at the machine. Working, cutting parts. And it turned out that was an ss spy. Wanted to know they already deducted they found out that this weapon, the second stage and impact did not work, and that was the idea. I did not know that, i found out later. That the sand was needed to stop the second stage from exploding. And our leader was identified the french captain. He was hanged, and all of us who were around that area had to watch him die. And we were not allowed to avert our eyes from him nor move away. After that, about 60 of us were put in a horizontal line and forced to stand still or stand at attention maybe in english and an ss officer was going down the line picking prisoners at random. He passed me. Then he was coming back and passed me again. And a third time, he still went down the line just looking at the prisoners which he sort of wanted to kill, and he passed me again. Three times, i was to be taken to be shot to death, and all three times, i was passed by. Well the ones that were chosen, they had to step out of line the ones who were chosen, they were taken out of the camp and shot to death. We would back to the camp and received a beating. I cant tell you. Our face and body work. Were offpuffed all. Many of them, their ribs were broken in. I was a saboteur, and i was marked as such, the jacket on my back, and every time a couple would pass by me or an ss officer, they would spit at me, spit on me, or kick me. So i believe in god because god saved my life so many times. That i was not dead yet. Despite the people passing me by, i dont believe it was a coincidence. It was gods way of protecting me. At any rate, about two weeks later, that i had the saboteur jacket. All the jackets were taken from everybody. I couldnt believe it. We had back new jackets which were clean, and the word saboteur disappeared from my jacket. So i was again not molested anymore as a saboteur but freely walked back and forth where i was working, so i also give credit to god for that. I must tell you something that is extremely interesting and maybe one in a million or 10 million that can happen. I had to go to cleveland, ohio for a second because we were still marked for the sabotage. When i was in cleveland about 1950, i was studying in the university. And one of my colleagues he was american, hungarian, and jewish like myself, except i was not american, unfortunately. He gave me a check to pay off my debts, which i had been paying and it never got smaller. So he says to go to any bank and cash it. What you see but to see he but you see did not have an account in that bank in the area, and i did not have an account at any bank in the area. I did not speak any english very little and i said to him, how do i do this . Oh no, he says, its very simple heres a check. Go to the teller and just say, give me cash. That is all . Yeah. I look around where is a bank. And im coming from around lunchtime. I certainly have to go back to school in the afternoon classes, so i saw a bank. I go in. Cleveland trust. I remember now. I went up, waited in line. Went up to what was the teller and i said cash. He looked at me. We could not communicate. So he was a compassionate man. He says just a second. He came from his window and escorted me to the president s office. He spoke several languages. Were going to find out what this foreigner wants, he thought probably. So i started with, i spoke to the president of the bank. I asked if he spoke french german, hungarian. He says he speaks german. Thank god. We waited a little because the teller had to find out if there is the money in this account. And he says to me, why did you ask me if i speak french . Are you french . I said, no, im a transylvanian, but i was in france. They are looking at my violin case being next to me. He asked me if i studied music there, and i said no, but i told him what i did in france, that i was doing sabotage, filling up with sand instead of gunpowder. So the planes would not be obliterated. He sprang up from his chair, ran to me, grabbed my hand. God bless you. God bless you. I said, thank you. Thank you. He saw my puzzled face. He said, please let me explain. My son was a captain over nine crew, and they were bombing around that area where the demolition factory was. And they were shot with one of these rockets which penetrated the airplane but did not explode. I think they were caught in the wing end or in the tail, whatever. When they got back to the bases, very carefully, they took that weapon, that rocket apart to see why it did not explode. They found sand in the capsule. So we both hugged and started to cry. And i knew then if i would have been killed and died, it would not be in vain because i knew that at least 10 people or nine plus the captain 10 lives were saved because of my sabotage. Bradley im going to jump to the incident in the salt mine. Braun yes. Bradley the electric wire. That resistance incident. Go ahead. Braun ok. In september, we were transferred from france to a large salt mine. It was terrible, grueling work. And the day of yom kippur, suddenly, the whole area of the salt mine became dark. Completely dark. And we put our hammers down and sat down immediately. At least a little rest. We thought it was gods will that on yom kippur at least, sending us something. Darkness so we can rest. One of the prisoners started chanting. And honestly, i can hear it now. Then the other one got into it. And then another one. We were also about 60 to 80 persons around there, and we were sitting, and then even those who did not know the words, they probably did not even know the melody, but they were humming along. And in a minute or two, the entire section was full of the song of yom kippur. We did not know that the ss we were not aware that the ss were listening in. Within 10 minutes, the problem was found, restored, and the light came on. Then we found out what was the source of the darkness one of us, in fact, he was, which i did not put in my booklet, was a hungarian jew who used to show , he had secretly hidden his wife and his little sons picture. And that gave him the will to live. Because constantly, we had to talk him out of committing suicide. Constantly. And my father was the one, always. But he could not stand it any longer, and he went and cut the wire with a spoon made into, sharpened like a knife. He was beaten severely until he fell unconscious. Then we had to form another line, exactly like it was in france, and one was picked, the other one wasnt, let go. Then the ss passed and picked a third one and a fourth, then again. Here, half of them were picked taken out, and shot to death. I also again was bypassed. So you have to puzzle, you have to think, how come i didnt i was saved one day before i would be killed as a sond erkommando, then in france i was bypassed three times . Coincidence, maybe. Who knows . I believe differently. So we were severely beaten. Its a wonder we were not picked. In february, 1945, my father turned 42. We didnt have nothing to give him. We at home always used to exchange gifts. We would put our pennies together to buy for our parents anniversary or birthday, but here, we had nothing. So i came up with the idea to give our ration of bread to him for the day as a birthday present. I talked about it with my brother, and he liked the idea. In the evening, we held out our hands and said, father, for you. He would not think about it. He knew bread meant nourishment, meant life. We were starving. In fact, we were on starving russians and that was the rations and that was the idea, we would work until we dropped dead. We were not permitted ever to leave the concentration camp none of us, but here is the bread. No way, he says. Im not going to take it. You need that nourishment. But we kept on insisting. Finally, not wanting to hurt our feelings, he accepted the gift. He said, thank god that allowed me to live long enough to witness the gracious love from my sons. It was like he would have sensed it being his last day on earth. Next morning at 5 00, we were already in line to go to the salt mine. One prisoner was missing. After several recons, the prisoner was still missing. The kapo went to the barrack to look for him. They found a missing person sleeping in a corner, my father. They dragged him in front of the ss. They picked him up by the collar, and it was bitter winter, and he just had his under rules underalls on. Practically nothing. He was ordered to stand still or at attention. Then the kapo went to the ss and the ss turned to the rest of the assembly and said, i understand that that dirty jewish dog has your two sons. Has your has yourhere two sons. I want them to step out of line and stand by him and see what the punishment will be because he kept germany from victory 10 minutes because thats how long it took to find him. Then he gave a hard, swift kick to my father, which signaled the start of the punishment. From every side, every corner, they started to hit him and kick him and beat him until he fell on the ground. My brother and i fell on our knees and went and begged the ss to stop it. We went and tried to grab the arm of the kapos and then the hitting and beating and whipping were on our backs, and they were beating my father until he collapsed. He was so badly beaten he was unrecognizable. I started to chant the 22nd psalm. Oh, god, my god, why hast thou forsaken us . The beating finally stopped when my father was motionless except for his lips. I saw that he was trying to say something. And i came close, and then i heard he was reciting the declaration of faith of the jew to god. Hear, o israel, the lord our god, the lord is one. Then he became very silent. He didnt speak no more. He didnt move no more. We went, my brother and i went off to the salt mine. The first time in my life i lost faith in god. I was born in an orthodox family. My father was a wonderful, wonderful human being, very pious jew. He would not harm a soul. In fact, in the concentration camp, he kept people alive. Really alive. Lots of them went and touched his barbed wired to end. He could not stand it any longer. And he used to say no, no youll see. Like god sent moses to get the children of israel out of egypt, out of bondage, youll see he will send somebody to treat us and in fact to take us back to our homeland, israel. It was like he foresaw that. Like it was a prediction or not a prediction, it was a prophecy, sort of. You know . Now that wonderful man is no more. And i said, if god allowed such to happen, there is no god. If god allowed for him to be killed, then i dont believe anymore. And thank god that it did not last long. Because in the very same night, in my dream, my father appeared, and he called me by my hebrew name. He said dont ever lose your faith in god. God is real. And youll see that you will survive. What was so strange to me was that he said you singular, not the plural you, which would have meant that my brother and i would survive. He said you will survive. Meanwhile, my brother was so angry about what we witnessed that he said he is going to go and wring the ss officers neck and he is going to choke him to death. I said he could not get two feet close to him. Not even two feet. You would be shot. He said he would do it. Given that he was not quite 16 years old, he was very, very strong. Since some people practiced god knows what all day long, he was muscle builder, a bodybuilder. I mean, incredibly so. He said, ill just grab him and crush him to death because he killed our father. And i said, a miracle happened. My father appeared to me in a dream, and he said we should believe there is a god, and we should never lose our faith in god because were going to survive. He said that. You know our father even in dreams, he never said anything that was not so. So he gave up the idea of killing because that would be killing himself right away. Not long after that, in the beginning of april, we were transferred to dachau. The trip was the worst that i have ever accounted. On one occasion, the ss stopped the train they were american flyers, very, very low. They wanted to see what was a train because they had all these cattle cars. We were transferred in cattle cars. We were so packed. I am telling you, worse than when we went to dr. O i mean dachau i mean auschwitz. The dachau trip was the worst i have ever experienced. For instance, you could not even sit down. Once you sit, similar like an auschwitz, except it was a little more. Even if we did not have food and water, at least it was more room that we could move a little bit better. But here, there was no way. The worst was that if you try to move, then bickering among prisoners themselves because they were shoving and pushing and hitting with the elbows on prisoners. So what happened as the american flyers came low enough because they wanted to see the ss train and took cover under it, and they start shooting at the airplane, at fighter pilot. They shot back. The americans shot back. And the bullets would go through the top of the cattle car, unfortunately, hitting quite a few of the prisoners. After we arrived to dachau, i knew if something would not happen soon, i would not survive. I could hardly walk, let alone do the chores or the work that i was required to do. For a second, id like to go back to my childhood. When i was four years old, i got lost in the forest. My governess took us we went for a walk, and we landed in the forest. And she sat down. After a while, we got tired. She said later, she fell asleep, and when she woke up, i was nowhere to be found. I was wandering around, hopelessly lost, i started crying. And a little gypsy woman a young gypsy woman, i should say was picking mushrooms flowers. She heard my cry. And took me into their gypsy camp. This was the first time in my life that i heard violin music. And it was beautiful. They could make it sound like a bird, chirp like a bird. They could play fast, they could play sweet, they could play slow. I was just drawn to it. Later on, when finally i was found, i said to my parents, i want that and im mimicking the violin. I want that. I want this. After about i was four years old as i mentioned but a year and a half later when i was five, finally gave in because every single day, i was pestering them for a violin, and i started formally taking lessons. When i was 10, i gave a concert. It was my first debut. In bucharest. When i was 13, i finished conservatory. Which, the diploma is right there. So it seems like my career was really wellestablished. Low end to her. To go and tour. However, a man named hitler thought differently. Now, here i am in dachau. And i was just praying to god if youre not going to help me, im not going to survive. And a night, one night, the day after, an ss came to the the barrack, holding the violin up and saying, announcing, who can play to the violin, come to the front room, and if i like the playing, im going to give food and water. When he mentioned food, we would do anything and water we would do anything. We could not think talk. We dreamt about food. Nothing else we had booked food, had but but food, food, food so hungry. So i eagerly volunteered, and so did two others. We went to the front room where three kapo, the ss, and the barrack doctor were waiting. The violin was handed to the older man who tuned it. And his fingers were shaky. He had not played the violin is about a year or so like myself. He started to play a sonata. So beautiful that i have never heard anything like that in my life. And i thought what am i doing here . The man is going to get the food. The ss signaled he did not like it. And signaled the kapo. K oneapo one kapo took the violin away from this amazing violinist. The other one took an iron pipe and walked behind this man and hit him so hard that he cracked his skull open. Blood and brain was splattered all over the floor. I got terribly scared. I have seen death around me but never nothing like that. Immediately, i realized like in the past, they dont want really playing. They did not want any violin music. Its just a way it is a joke. Now we kill another one. And were having fun by that. Now, the violin was handed to the next man, who was about 25 and he was so scared that he could not play a straight note. He was standing there shivering and just going like that. I never found out if he could or could not play. The ss was terribly angry. He said, how dare you come out and say that you can play . And you expect me to give you food for this . They started kicking him, and they were beating him to death. Now it was my turn. When i came out of the barrack i was intending, if i had a chance to play, i am going to play a sonata by dvorak or a encore a beautiful piece by six chrysler frtiz chrysler. After all, i was classically trained, but i was scared stiff. My mind went blank. I wondered how the sonata started, how does the fitz kaiser piece start. How does anything start . I was completely black. And i noticed that the murder kapo went for his pipe again, it up his bite picked up his pipe and was was walking toward me. Every nerve in my body was concentrating on the blow that im going to get killed now. And i was standing there may be a few seconds maybe five, maybe 10, motionless, and then incredibly, my right hand and my left hand started to move in perfect harmony, and this is what came out of the violin. The beautiful blue danube. Everybody looked at the ss and the kapo with the iron pipe waiting, waiting for the sign, when shall i hit him, but the kapo was singing, humming the melody, and he was tapping his fingers, on the table. Like a waltz. Hitting the rhythm. Let him live. So really, honestly, i got food, but i was so terribly overtaken by what i noticed, by what i witnessed that i could not eat it, but they let me live. The kapo picked up his guitar and accompanied me. And that gave the ss an idea. So that was not the only time that i played for them. We had to go and entertain the ss, and after that specific debut which i did in the front room i could play anything it was ok. I can play anything. But when the ss got tired of our playing, the kapo came along and accompanied me on the guitar. They played differently. He would say, that is enough. We had to stand next to a brick wall, both of us, the kapo also. And they were shooting at us. I have to say the truth they were excellent shots. They were missing. They were aiming at my head, for instance, right between my eyes, aiming, and at the last second a little move, and the bullet went above my head or on the side of me. Sometimes, it came so close that i could feel the wind of the bullet. If somebody did not have that, they dont know what im talking about, you know . And every single time, i was praying. I said god, let them kill me. Because its just too much. Just 10, 15 shooting at you, and at the end, i looked like a bloody mess because from the brickwall, little chunks of brick with sometimes hit me and cut me, but they never touched a bullet until later. One day, an ss came back and called for the german prisoners and russians, too. Were going to evacuate here. The americans were closing in, and they did not want us to fall into american hands. So the barrack doctor would come. He said the barrack doctor was there and he would determine who was able to walk. They would walk. Its the very famous death march, by the way. And the others would be put on pedal carts, and we would be evacuated and go to tyrol. However the truth was we were taken to a forest nearby, and the barrack doctor was also brought just to camouflage the whole thing so that we would not find out, really, why we had been taken to the forest. Or taken out of the barrett in fact barrack in fact. He knew, and he was helping people to get organized in a horizontal line, but the machine guns were hidden from our view ready to fire. And then, all of a sudden, he turned to me, this doctor, and he says, alex, run. Run and i then realized that it was no evacuation. It is the end. Iran right into the forest. And i ran right into the forest for cover. As i was running, again, chanting the declaration of faith of the jew, something terribly hot entered my chest, and then i had difficulty breathing, and i fell, and i was on the ground, and i saw that blood was going down on my body. And the doctor noticed the same thing. I did not hear the shot. I did not hear the sound of the shot. I just felt something hit me and felt blood flowing, but i did not hear the shot. And then and i had difficulty breathing. The doctor came right away, ran toward me, and he sort of put one knee down on the floor and took my pulse. An ss guard was running right behind him with a drawn revolver drawn aiming right at my head. This wonderful, french doctor turned back to him and said, dont shoot. In three minutes, hell be dead. So the ss turned to the doctor and said, let this jewish dog suffer for another three minutes. Because hes not worth the cost of another bullet. He went to another of his compatriots. They started the shooting. That day there were Something Like 17,000 killed, machine guns. Of course they started the day before, im sure, and we did not know about it. And when the trucks came and the bodies loaded on the truck and they came back to the camp to be cremated, the doctor gave orders to the french prisoners. They were the one , thesonderkom mando. He told them he picked me up and threw me on the top of the bodies, and i dont know anything about it. I was unconscious. But you could see how many dead bodies were among them because i was just wounded. Mortally wounded, but wounded. I was not dead. Meanwhile, we were supposed to be thrown in the ditch or be cremated, but as i said, when he arrived, they took me off of these bodies and took me into a french barrack. Then he changed the insignia of a jew to a french man. To a french origin. He had a tweezer, a pocket knife. He fished the bullet out of my chest without any anesthetic and the next day, the wonderful americans invaded dachau. The first thing that they did the attention, the americans attention were called to the very sick ones and the mortally wounded ones. This is how someone called the attention of me to the americans. They took me immediately to a hospital right away in da chau, still in dachau and they attended to me, so i was told later that the doctors found very definitely that i would not survive because i had tuberculosis. I had blood poisoning. And i had typhoid fever, among other things. Plus the malnutrition and frozen feet. Announcer this has been an excerpt of an oral history interview with sandor shony braun. To learn more, visit the United States Holocaust Memorial museum at ushmm. Org. This is American History tv on cspan3. This weekend, the cspan city tour is partnered with Time Warner Cable to learn about the history and literary life of lincoln, nebraska. Will a catheter was one of the most important writers. She was given almost every award before she died except for the nobel prize. She was known for some of her masterpieces like my antime, death comes to the archbishop, and many others. In 1943 she made a well but had a few restrictions will; that at a few restrictions not wanting her letters to be quoted in the or in part. The biggest collections are in nebraska. She left one other important thing to the discretion of executives and trustee to decide whether or not to enforce her preference. They believed as educational organizations that cather belonged to our shared heritage. An important figure was Solomon Butcher. Solomon butcher was a pioneering photographer in western nebraska. He took photos from about 1887, 1886 until the early 1890s of homesteaders and hoses and was houses and was able to tell the story of this important development. I will show you one of my favorite images from the Solomon Butcher collection. It is a photograph of the christian sisters. It is for sisters who each took a homestead claim in custer county. Women homesteaders. The first time women could on land on their own. It did not belong to their husbands. It did not belong to their fathers. Single women could own their own land. That was a big deal with the homestead act. Each of the sisters took a homestead near their fathers ranch. They each built a small house on th homestead, which was part of the homestead act. They would take turns staying in each others house and working on each others farm. The sisters pulled together and made it in nebraska. Announcer watch all our events from nebraska today on American History tv on cspan3. The congressional directory is a guide to congress with color photos of every senator and house member, contact