The Kindness Matters Podcast
So. Much. Division. Let's talk about how to change that. Re-engage as neighbors, friends, co-workers and family. Let's set out to change the world. Strike that. Change A World. One person at a time, make someone's life a little better and then do it again tomorrow and the day after that, through kindness.
Kindness is a Super-Power that each of us has within us. It is so powerful it has the potential to change not only your life but those around you, too. Let's talk about kindness.
The Kindness Matters Podcast
Resilience and Survival: Ben Lesser's Harrowing Journey Through the Holocaust Part Two
Holocaust survivor Ben Lesser joins us for a powerful and moving conversation that sheds light on the darkest period of human history. Imagine escaping a Polish ghetto hidden in coal trucks, trusting a stranger with your life, only to embark on a nail-biting journey through enemy lines—this was the reality for Ben and his family. As we explore their harrowing escape to Czechoslovakia, Ben's vivid recollections of bravery amidst constant danger provide a gripping narrative of resilience against all odds.
Our dialogue takes a sobering turn as Ben recounts his arrival at Auschwitz, where hope was quickly extinguished by the brutal reality of the Holocaust. Transported in overcrowded cattle cars, Ben's tale reveals the unimaginable conditions and loss, offering a raw look into the human cost of war. Through his experiences, we're reminded of the fragile hopes that were shattered by the Nazi invasion of Hungary and the subsequent horrors that awaited countless families like Ben's.
In one of the darkest chapters of human history, Ben's story becomes a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. The brutality and inhumanity he witnessed in Auschwitz and labor camps are contrasted with moments of defiance and solidarity. Through personal acts of sacrifice and courage, Ben not only survived but now shares his story to remind us of the past's lessons. As we reflect on these haunting experiences, we emphasize the importance of kindness and remembrance, urging listeners to ensure such stories are never lost to time.
Ben references his book Living a Life That Matters: From Nazi Nightmare to American Dream. If you're interested in purchasing the book for personal or educational purposes, you can buy it here.
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Well, hello there and welcome. You are listening to the Kindness Matters podcast and I am your host, mike Rathbun. What is this podcast all about? It's about kindness. It's a pushback against everything negative that we see in the news and on social media today, and it's a way to highlight people, organizations, that are simply striving to make their little corner of the world a little better place.
Speaker 1:If you want to join in on the conversation, feel free Go ahead and follow us on all of your social media feeds. We're on Facebook, instagram, tiktok. We're even on LinkedIn under Mike Rathbun. Check us out. We're even on LinkedIn under Mike Rathbun. Check us out and, in the meantime, sit back, relax, enjoy, and we'll get into the Kindness Matters podcast. Thanks for joining us again, folks. This week we're going to cover part two of my conversation with Ben Lesser. Ben is a 96-year-old survivor of the Holocaust and he has agreed to tell his story to me so that maybe we can all listen and remember exactly what happened 80 some odd years ago to over 6 million Jews. We're going to pick up our story today, after Ben and his family have survived a raid in a Polish ghetto. Thanks for listening. I know it's hard to listen to some of this, but please listen and repeat these stories and never forget.
Speaker 2:Anyway, mike, where was I? Yeah, I can't tell you. This is too big of a story. But we're now outside the ghetto and Michael befriends a truck driver outside the ghetto who was hauling coal and he asked him if he would convert his truck into a double-decker coal on top, between the coal and the chassis, people could hide and he would take him to the border of Czechoslovakia. We will have a smuggler waiting there. We will pay him a lot of money. He listened to Michael. He converted his truck to a double-decker and, sure enough, there was room for 10 people to hide, five and five, just like sardines and coal on top.
Speaker 1:That's amazing.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. The first group of people were 10 people and we agreed that only two people from our family with each truck would go. So michael and lola went first. Why did they go first? Because you couldn't always trust these drivers. They take your money up front and then they can turn you into the Gestapo and they get paid ransom money for Jewish people hiding to escape, to escape. So he couldn't trust them. So they went first and we made up a passport between us. If the driver comes back with the right passport, you can trust them. So the driver and my sister, lola and Michael left with eight other people. Lola and Michael left with eight other people. Two days later, the truck comes back. The driver gives us the password. It was the right password. Now, trust him. And now there was room for it was time for another 10 people eight people from a family and two from our family. My father insisted that I and my little brother go next. So my little brother and I, we got into the truck just like sartines, laying on one side on our arm. I'm facing my little brother and we're leaving An hour outside the city of Bohnia.
Speaker 2:We're being stopped, halt and we see through the cracks, a bunch of soldiers with rifles. Oh, somebody turned us in. We're saying our prayers. And then the truck started to move again. We felt, oh, they released, they don't know about us. And all of a sudden we see, on this step, by the driver, there is a soldier with a rifle. And now we hear soldiers walking on top of the coal oh, geez, and coal dust is filtering through. My little brother is about to sneeze and I'm holding his mouth. For two hours they were traveling with us and then the truck stops. We were saying our prayers. All of a sudden we hear Dankeschön, dankeschön. They were just hitchhiking. They had no idea that there were 10 Jewish people under their feet.
Speaker 1:Talk about miracles, my God, wow, no kidding, they had no idea, so they were just hitchhikers.
Speaker 2:And they, oh my gosh so the driver takes us to a forest, unloads us. He tells us go into the forest about 300 yards. You're going to see a tool shed. Inside the tool shed is the smuggler. He's waiting for you. And we went up there. It was dark, pitch black. We opened it up, there was the smuggler. It was a forest ranger. He was the smuggler. Oh.
Speaker 2:And the forest ranger takes us in the middle of the forest and he tells us to lay down on our stomachs and look up. We lay down on our stomach, quietly, and look up and we see soldiers with rifles and dogs walking back and forth and we see barbed wire. He says that's the border of Czechoslovakia and Poland. At 3 am these guards will come down the hill and they will meet some fresh guards down the hill. They'll have a little ceremony and the fresh guards would come up the hill. During those five, ten minutes there's a chance for you to cross the border if you're quiet. You to cross the border if you're quiet. And at 3 am we started to see them walk down. When they were far enough away, we started to shimmy our way up on our stomachs to the barbed wire. He picked up the barbed wire and told us to cross. However, he says on the other side of the barbed wire there's a big ravine. Unless you're careful and you sit down at the edge of the mountain and slide down quietly, they're going to hear you, it's all over. Down quietly, they're going to hear you, it's all over. So, sure enough, we went to the other side of the mountain. We sit down at the edge of the mountain holding hands and we split down and then we hit a plateau. We hit a plateau.
Speaker 2:I asked my little brother are you okay? He says yes. When somebody taps me on my shoulder I jump out of my skin. Who in the world, in the middle of nowhere? He says Bynush? Well, no one called me Bynish, except my immediate family. I'm your Uncle Bailo, your mother's brother. I says how in the world? How did you find me here in the nowhere? He says when your sister, lola and Michael went across, they contacted me two days earlier and I came out here waiting for you. I knew exactly them spot well.
Speaker 2:To tell you how we crossed the border from Czech, slovakia to Hungary is another long story. I'm gonna going to skip it. It's in my book. Find it in the book, ladies and gentlemen. Only to tell you, only to tell you, that we are now in Budapest, hungary. Michael and Lola are waiting for us. We be embraced, we have a meal together. And then I had to do something I hated to do we had to go into jail in order to get legalized in Hungary. My uncle had to take me to Budapest jail. Legalized in Hungary, my uncle had to take me to Budapest jail. They put us into a jail, in a holding cell, for about 20 minutes, and then my uncle comes back down with a guard, they open him up. Now we were miners and he's our guardian, our uncle's our guardian. And now we were legalized to be miners in Hungary and my uncle boards the plane to take us to Munkach. Munkach is where my older sister is waiting for me. Munkach is where my, where your, grandparents lived, grandparents lived uncles, cousins.
Speaker 2:Everybody lives there. When we arrived next morning to Munkach, the whole family we embraced. We had a don't ask. Everyone was so happy. My sister, my sister, goldie I hardly remember her because she was always in Munkach and anyway she. One uncle asked me and my little brother to go and live with him. He was a very wealthy man. He had a yardage goods store where he sold yardage goods for suits and dresses and above the store he going out like nothing ever happened in the world. People were going to proms and weddings and bar mitzvahs and like don't ask, nothing happened.
Speaker 2:I was telling the people what's happening in Poland. Most of them didn't believe it. Those who believed, like in my family, they said but this will never happen in Hungary because Hungary is an ally of Germany. Why would Germany siphon off soldiers from the front to occupy a friendly country when they need every soldier fighting the front? And it didn't make sense. But my uncle listened to me. One day he comes home with boxes full of beautiful shoes, a pair of shoes for every member of the family. He tells us no, he said, in the heels of the shoes there are diamonds. Use it only in a life-threatening situation, use it only in a life-threatening situation. Every member of the family got diamonds in their shoes.
Speaker 2:We were waiting for my father and mother to come on the next transport, on the coal truck. It never happened. They never came. One day, a man who knew what happened came and told us the story. As my father and mother were about to go into the truck to hide with eight other people, a farmer, a Polish farmer, saw that they called the Gestapo. You see, they got paid ransom money and they came. They pulled everybody out of the truck, including the driver 10 Jewish people plus the driver. All 11 were put against the wall and all 11 were shot. Everybody was killed.
Speaker 1:Oh, my God.
Speaker 2:My God, everybody out, everybody was killed, including the driver. Well, in March of 1944, the Nazis just marched into Hungary like they were invited guests and when they came in they knew every Jewish person, where they live, their businesses, their education, their ages, how, how. There were no computers in those days. Ibm had punch cards and they would sell these punch cards to whoever paid the price cards. To whoever paid the price. Ibm says they had no idea what purpose they're going to use these punch cards, so they sold it to them. They don't deny it. They sold it to the death camp.
Speaker 2:This is what they told us. Germany needs workers, needs workers. Able-bodied men and women will be working, children will be schooled, older people will be cared for. Bring along all your valuables that you can carry, but leave everything else behind and anyone found hiding will be shot. People believe this, this, and they lined up and they brought along all their belongings and they took us to the railroad station. They lined us up 12 to railroad car. I mean 80 to railroad car.
Speaker 2:I stand in front of a railroad car when I see two men in a stretcher walking a stretcher and they push it down by my feet and I see a woman bloodied. I didn't recognize her. But I take a woman bloodied. I didn't recognize her, but I take a good look, it's my sister, goldie. Oh, bloodied, black and blue. I says, goldie, what happened to you? She says I tried to escape. I went as far as the railroad station. A Hungarian gendarme who went to school with me recognized me. He turned me into the SS. They beat her to pulp and now they ordered us to get into the cattle car 82 cattle car.
Speaker 2:It wouldn't be so bad if it were not for the bundles and valises. Now it was so tight that if somebody wanted to sit down, someone had to stand up. They had two buckets of water in a corner. They had two buckets of water in a corner. Once the buckets of water were gone, there were no sanitary facilities, no toilets, 80 people, no toilets. One day, two days, three days no toilets. People started to use those buckets. Those buckets were filled up and now the buckets were overflowing. You couldn't sit on the floor anymore because human waste was all over the floor. Can you imagine what it was like?
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:People screaming, older people, pregnant women screaming. You can't imagine. You can't imagine. After the third day or the third night, we arrived at a place called Oswiecim. Oswiecim is Polish for Auschwitz. We don't know about an Auschwitz. We never heard of Auschwitz or a Porschungschirm.
Speaker 2:The train didn't stop there, but it went on about 400 or 500 yards further into a gate and we see a sign on the gate Arbeit macht frei. Labor gives you freedom. Those are the gates of Auschwitz. Well, we don't know about the Auschwitzer, but Arbeitmachsfreie made sense to us. It's a labor camp. This is probably where we will be working.
Speaker 2:But the train didn't stay there. It started to move about 300, no, I'm sorry about three kilometers down the road. It stopped at a place called Birkenau. Birkenau was part of Auschwitz. Birkenau was where most of the killing was done was in Birkenau. It was still nighttime. The train moves into Birkenau. They open up the gates and they yell in all different languages. Inmates with striped clothes and Nazis with their dogs are screaming Rouse, rouse, schnell. And the inmates are yelling Leave all your belongings where it is, don't you pick anything up? Women and children to the right men to the left. Women and children to the right men to the left. I'm holding on to my sister Goldie, my little brother Tully. We're just being pulled apart, never to see each other again. They went directly to the gas chambers. Who knew? Who knew about? Nobody knew about Gatsby.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:I'm telling this story and I'm shaking, I'm shivering, I can't, yeah, it's because I remember every, every minute of what happened.
Speaker 2:And I am 15 and a half years old and I decided to go with my uncle and my cousin rather than with my sister and my little brother. Why? Why would I abandon my sister? Yeah, I figured that if this is a labor camp, they want you to labor and if you labor they'll feed you better. That's the only reason why I went with my uncle and my cousin, and that was a miracle again. Can you see the miracle? Had I gone with my sister and my little brother I was 15 and a half I could have gone. As a child, I wouldn't be here to tell the story.
Speaker 2:Now we're lined up. It was nighttime still and we see ashes are flying like crazy and we see chimneys five chimneys with flames shooting out of them and ashes spewing like in snow. Every time we make a step, we make a step left the footprint in the ashes, footprint and the ashes. And we're going forward and I see a doctor, a man with the white frog, white gloves, going like this with his index finger. That was Dr Mengele, the angel of death. He decided who should live, who should die with a flick of finger and he stood there doing this and every once in a while he would ask somebody a question. And when I came close enough, there was a young man in front of me. He asked this young man, asked this young man, can you run five kilometers or would you rather go by truck? He said he had a bad knee, he would rather go by truck. Poor soul, not realizing that meant certain death, they sent him to the right. But who knew, who knew right left what it meant. We had no idea. But it didn't make any sense to me. Remember I'm 15 and a half. Why would he ask such a question? Can you run five kilometers? I see the barracks are down right here. Why run five kilometers? So I figured he's testing us to see if we're strong enough to work. And I said to him, I said to my uncle first, to my cousin whatever he asks you, tell him you're strong enough to walk, you run, you work, you're healthy. But let me go first. I go first. I'm 15 and a half, stretch myself out as high as I could, I salute him and I said 18 Jahre alt, gesund und arbeitsfähig. I'm 18 years old, I'm healthy and I can work. He asked me kannst du fünf Kilometers laufen. Can you run five kilometers? I said jawohl. He sent me to the left.
Speaker 2:My uncle and cousin were also sent to the left and they lead us into a big auditorium, just like a school auditorium, and they order us to get undressed, get out of your shoes, walk up to the line of barbers. They'll cut your hair all over and then you'll go into the showers, take a shower and then you go to the barracks. Well, they ordered us to get on the rest and out of our shoes. Remember we had diamonds in our shoes? Oh, that's right, I'd forgotten. We had diamonds in our shoes. Oh, that's right, I'd forgotten. We had diamonds in our shoes. My uncle, who gave me the shoes with the diamonds, got out of his shoes. My uncle's shoes with the diamonds. He got out of the shoes. I refused to get out of it.
Speaker 2:So picture this I'm naked and I walk up to the line of barbers with my beautiful black shoes. They cut my hair all over my body and they don't say anything about my shoes. The guards are walking back and forth and looking at us. It's like God blinded their eyes. They didn't say anything about my shoes and I walked to the shower with my shoes. Now, after the shower, they gave us other shoes, wooden soles, with canvas on top. I got into those shoes and the striped clothes. I got into those and I put in these shoes with the diamonds under my arm, under my jacket, and we walked out. They lead us to the barracks.
Speaker 2:As we come to the barracks, the Stubmeltester comes out. The man in charge of the barracks comes out, speaking a broken German. I can tell he is a Polish inmate. He says ha, you Hungarian Jews, you think you're here on vacation? Think again. You see those chimneys, those ashes. Those are your brothers, your mothers, your fathers, your brothers and your sisters, your mothers, your fathers, your brothers and your sisters. And if you don't behave and do exactly what you're told, this is how you're going to wind up ashes. I said to myself my little brother ashes, my sister ashes. And they chased us into the barrack. We came in the barrack. We came in the barrack.
Speaker 2:My uncle, my cousin and I chose an upper bunk. We lay down on that upper bunk and all three of us fell asleep. We were so tired. We sound asleep. We didn't sleep for days.
Speaker 2:An hour later my cousin wakes me up. I says what's going up't know singing. Then he says look, it shows one side of the barrack. There was a board missing on the wall and we see a flame shooting up like flames, like fire. He says what's going on here? I says I don't know, but I'll find out.
Speaker 2:Remember, I'm Polish, I spoke Polish and I felt the Stubmelter was Polish. So I went up to the Stubmelter and I asked him excuse me, sir and he heard Polish. His face lit up. He said it's somebody speaking his language and he couldn't try. He couldn't stop talking and telling me all the stories that are happening in Auschwitz. He told me stories I didn't even want to hear. He says you Hungarian Jews, you know nothing. Three months before Germany occupied Hungary, germany occupied Hungary. We in Auschwitz knew that they're going to occupy Hungary because they made us dig ditches for fiery pits for the influx of the Hungarian Jews. Oh wow. They knew that when the trains would come in fast and furious there would be no time just to burn the bodies in the crematorium. They needed help, so they started to make fiery pits. The crematorium was too slow of a process. One person at a time. I. Too slow of a process, one person at a time.
Speaker 1:Bye. I've seen pictures in textbooks, but listening to you talk, Ben, it's just.
Speaker 2:Mike, I'm telling you this story, but, believe me, inside my body, my whole body is shaking. I hear my heart is jumping. My whole body is shaking. I hear my heart is jumping.
Speaker 1:Well, and I'm sure you've told this story many, many times before and I can't imagine having to relive it over and, over and over again.
Speaker 2:Every time I tell this story, I relive it, but I feel it's important. The world has to know it. The world has to know it and I leave it up to you, mike, to take over from this point on. The story has to be told and, believe me, I'm not finished. I've got a lot more to tell and I hope you give me enough time you can take all of the time you need, sir.
Speaker 2:All right, he's telling me that it takes a half an hour to kill a person inside the gas chamber. But they don't have the time to give you a half hour to kill you. After 15 minutes they see everybody's laying on the floor, sort of knocked out. They open the doors, they let it air out for another 20 to 30 minutes and they have to send their commando come in, pull out these bodies, cut their hair, pull out their gold teeth, check their body all over and then put them on a gurney five on a gurney with a rope and push him to the crematorium. But that is too slow. Now they have trucks waiting and you can throw in all these half-dead bodies into these trucks. And they had children that they wouldn't allow the mother, when they went into the crematorium, into the gas chamber, to take the children with them. They would pull the children away and tell the mother to lift their hands. They wanted to put in more people into the gas chamber. Put in more people into the gas chamber, these living children. They threw on top of these trucks, on top of the half-dead bodies, and they took them to these fiery pits. And they were throwing them into fiery pits.
Speaker 2:I couldn't believe them. I didn't believe them. I made a mistake. I snuck out at night behind my barrack. I walked behind the other barrack and I couldn't believe what I see. I see people holding these kits out there, screaming, and they're throwing them into fiery pits, screaming A load full of people and they had about four or five people on every truck pulling each person through. They couldn't wait. On every truck pulling each person through, they couldn't wait. They had to throw in four or five people at a time. My God, it won't leave me. I see that picture in front of me every time, day and night, every time. So that's the mistake I made. I should have listened to him instead of checking it out personally.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:Anyway, now what we've been through in Auschwitz for two weeks, I could talk here another 30 minutes unbelievable stories. We went through selections every morning. Every morning we had to stand naked in rows of five and they were going around and looking at you. If you were too skinny they put you into the gas chambers. They send you to the line to the gas chambers Unbelievable every day. After two weeks they put us in trucks and they took us to a labor camp called Durnhow.
Speaker 2:Durnhow was a rock quarry. As they dynamited the mountain and the boulders were coming down, it was our job, with sledgehammers, to break these boulders into manageable pieces, throw it into mining carts, run it down the hill, then put the empty mining carts back up the hill. It was back-breaking work. I didn't think my uncle is ever going to survive this work. I didn't think my uncle is ever going to survive this. So I bribed the kitchen chef with my diamonds to give my uncle a job in the kitchen. He took my diamonds and he gave my uncle a job in the kitchen. It got a little easier on us, but my uncle in the kitchen, he could eat and then he would share his ration with us. It was much easier.
Speaker 2:But every day when we came back from work, my cousin and I, we had to line up with rows of five and they would count you and after they count you they would dismiss you and you would go for your rations. You'd go into your barrack. That was a daily routine. One evening we came home, we came back to the camp. Home, we came back to the camp and they count us and they count us and they count us and the commandant comes down with his fräulein, his girlfriend. He says I'm going to teach these schweinhund a lesson they'll never forget. I'll teach these pig dogs a lesson they'll never forget.
Speaker 2:What happened? Three inmates escaped and because of this he orders his henchmen to pull out every tenth person in the line to receive 25 lashes, to receive 25 lashes. So as they're counting every 10th person aligned, I can see that my uncle, who is standing in front of me, is going to be a 10. Who is standing in front of me is going to be a 10. So I push him behind me and I took his place. I became a number 10. They took us number 10 in the middle of the yard and they brought down hardwood stakes, one inch by one inch, about two and a half feet long, and they brought down a sawhorse. You know what a sawhorse?
Speaker 1:is Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Yep Brought down a sawhorse and this is what they ordered us to do Stand in front of the sawhorse. Tiptoe your heels cannot touch the ground. Tiptoe Bend over, but your stomach cannot touch the two-by-four. One man is holding your trousers real tight. The other one starts to hit with those stakes and you had to count out loud. If you miscounted, it starts from one again. Oh God, if your heel touches the ground, you start from one again. If your stomach touches the two-by-four, you start from one again. You had to stand midair. One man is pulling your trousers and the other one starts to hit and you had to count out loud.
Speaker 2:The first man goes up. He miscounted, and he starts again. He touches the floor, starts again, touches the two-by-four, starts again. He finally falls. When he falls, the commandant goes over, kicks him in the face Get up, he couldn't. He pulls out the revolver and he shoots him. He killed him. His storyline goes over to him, gives him a hug and a kiss like he just performed a heroic act. He killed a man. Oh my god, remember I'm number four.
Speaker 2:Number two goes up. Now the same thing he miscounted touch impossible, he falls. Number two goes up. Now the same thing he miscounted, touch Impossible. He falls. The commandant kicks him in the face Get up, he couldn't, he shoots him. So we have two dead bodies. Number three goes up. Number three was a little younger. Number three goes up. Number three was a little younger and he also miscounted and he touched the ground. He touched two by four. Anyways, he screams out please have mercy on me, don't kill me. Then the commandant says then stand up, come over here and face me. The poor guy. Stand up, come over here and face me. The poor guy stands up, makes three or four steps and his knees gave out for Mother. He falls. He falls. The commandant goes over, kicks him in the face, get up, he couldn't, shoots him. We have three dead bodies and Ben Lesser is next in line.
Speaker 1:I can't imagine what's going through your head at that point, ben.
Speaker 2:I psyched myself out and I talked to myself. I and I talked to myself. I says Ben, you want to live another five minutes, you better do exactly what you're told. No ifs or buts, no touching anything, no touching the ground, no touching the two-by-four. Count out loud and don't miscount, because you'll have to. Anyway, if I want to live another five minutes, I better do it right. I walk over there, bend over tiptoe. My stomach is not touching the 2x4. They go.
Speaker 2:The commandant goes over and checks to see if his hand can go in between my stomach and the 2x4. And he starts to hit and I start to count. Eins, zwei, drei, vier. I scream out fünf, sechs, sieben. Finally zwanzig, einundzwanzig, zweiundzwanzig, dreiundzwanzig, vierundzwanzancy, finwoon, swancy. I made it. You can hear a pin drop in the whole camp.
Speaker 2:No one believed that anyone can survive this. I didn't believe it myself. The man who's holding my trousers tight tells me in Yiddish go over and thank the commandant. So I stand up, walk over. Blood is running down my legs. I walk over to him, I salute him and I say Dankeschön, herr Commandant. When he hears that he puts his hand on my shirt collar, I figured now what it's going to kill me. His shirt collar whispers to me, facing the number tens to be beaten. He says now I told you it could be done. If you do it like this, junge, you have nothing to worry about.
Speaker 2:While this is going on, there is a commotion at the gate. They caught those three inmates and they were bloody. They were pulling the men, black and blue. You couldn't recognize any of them. When the commandant saw that, just like a child gets sick of a toy and throws it away, he told all of us number 10, to go back in our original lines. In our original lines, he orders his henchmen to bring down a portable gallow. He brings down the gallow and we had to watch while they were hanging, each one individually. If you dared to close your eyes, he got whipped. You had to watch.
Speaker 2:I'll never forget the third one. The third one was a little younger. They put the noose around his neck and he yelled out Shema Yisrael, adonai Eloheinu, adonai Echad. When they heard that they kicked the stool out from under him, they wouldn't let him complete. Adonai Echad, god is one. They were such monsters. And then they dismissed us like nothing ever happened. We went for our rations and then to our barracks. I could not lay on my back. For weeks I had to lay on my stomach because of my welts on my back.
Speaker 1:I just can't imagine and I appreciate those of you who have stuck with this. I know it's incredibly hard to listen to the inhumanity, the brutalness of these people. The fact that this happened is undeniable, but it seems hard to believe in this day and age that this happened, and that's why telling this story is so important so that other generations can remember and learn. And we will be back again next week with the final episode. I hope you'll stick with it. You've been listening to the Kindness Matters podcast. I'm your host, mike Rathbun. Be kind to each other.
