told me under the bunk to cover me with a blanket. i said he had some privileges because he had his own bunk which left a thousand men in the block. we slept on the bed, no pillows, no blankets, whatever, that's how we slept. my father was not aware what was going on, and in the morning, when this was over, he came over to me, and he said, morris, you must get out of here. this is pure hell. as i was telling you, there were many going all over germany. we very quickly registered. we were taken to the cattle cars where we were on the way into a concentration camp in germany. little did we know what was awaiting us. we came in a concentration camp.

a couple weeks there, we were sent into another concentration camp. it was considered by the germans a camp of drugs. the original camp was 1200 men. when we came in, there were only 500 left, and we were a group of 350. the conditions in the camp are impossible to describe. my father and i were assigned -- woke up in the morning. morning was night, was dark. we came back to the camp was dark. my -- we walked, i would say maybe three, four miles into this huge campus, whatever. i don't know what it was, but anyway, we were -- my father and

i were saying to picking trouble to dig foundations. it's hard for me even to imagine how my father and myself, but this is what we were told, that's what we did. they are assessed, didn't meet, beat us, and somebody got a beating, they only lasted a day or two. there were anywhere between 30-40 people die every single day. my father can no longer go to work, was too weak, but when i would come back, we used to bunk together in the same bunk, and he would tell me he used to get beatings almost every single day, but there were no marks on the face or body. he was telling me that he was getting beaten up every day because they wanted him to go

into the sick block. he knew the most anybody could -- unless there was -- i would not attempt to describe the conditions. it's beyond description. he was hoping to feel better and be able to go back to work. one morning, they came in, and they dragged my father from the bunk, and i followed, and they took him into a shack, and i stood there, and unbelievable horror, and they were pulling the teeth from his mouth. his body was still warm. you see, in those days in europe, when a person needed -- it was made from gold, and they killed him for it. to pay final respect to my father, i volunteered for the burial commander, which nobody wanted to do, and the burial

commander consisted of four men and a blanket, and everybody holds one end, five or six bodies in there, and we walked outside, right outside the camp. there was a huge tent, two of them, and the body just dropped into the pit. we repeated it seven or eight times until they were all buried. just told to spread chlorine and prepare for the next day. when i came back to the block, the man in charge told me how come you didn't go to your regular work commander? i said i just finished the burial command. shouldn't have done it because they are shorthanded. i'm going to get 50 lashes on my behind. the way until everybody came back to work, and everybody was ordered to gather and watch, even the german camp commander

came in, and they pulled me over the table, pulled down my pants at which point the german commander, high ranking, assessed commander, he said only 25 because i'm a teenager, but the truth of the matter is that the first few, you're numb, you hardly feel anything, but i still have the scars to prove it. after they were done, my friends dragged me into the bunk, and i must confess to you for the very first time, i just lost my will to go on. it was without a doubt the darkest point of my young life. my friends got a hold of rags and soaked them in the snow, and they kept taking turns every long for compresses because they

knew and i knew come morning i have to go to work commander, and i did. i don't know how, but i did. about ten days or so later, the owners came to destroy the camp. 1550 men, we were 118 survive who were taken into the infamous camp. when we mash muched into that camp, we were greeted by the welcoming committee consisting of four gallows with four men hanging there. as we walked through the infactories -- infamous gate that said work will set you free, we continued working towards the showers which were joining the crematory. at that point, we already heard about the infamous gas that the german use, a can of 39 cents

killed about a thousand people. we didn't know what to expect because these men were in very bad shape. anyway, what came out and we were a few days sent to another camp. this camp, i worked, i was assigned to work in the quare ri, and i came down with dissentry, a terrible disease. it's -- you can't keep anything down. all you want to do is die. we were taken into the sick camp which joined the labor camp, and after a few days, i was okay. realizing nothing good would happen if i stay in the camp, i walked over to the stones, and i asked, i said, can i go back to the labor camp? i want to go back to work. he said he can't let me do it

because they found typhoid and the camp was under quarantine. ten days later, several were told we're going to be taken into a central typhoid camp in one of the country camps. when they throw us into the cattle car, looked around, these people around me are almost dead, and i really thought this was the final hour for me, so i said the final prayer in jewish faith, until exhaustion. when i wake up in the morning, i look through the cracks in the cattle car. there was a camp there. i said, good god, why would they keep the people alive when they killed hundreds of thousands of healthy people? i don't have an answer for that.

that's the way it happened. we were taken into this typhoid camp. by that time, it was already beginning of spring of 1945, and the orders came for the infamous death marchs. you see, there was a plan. he called that plan the final solution of the jewish question. the plan was given orders to all the concentration camps in germany to march down south, the furthest point south on the german border outside to a forest called t-u-r-a-r-o. we were given soup, poisen, and after a couple days, by the time the american army would come in, there'd be nothing left but a mountain of ashes, but that's --

thank god that this plan did not work. being we were in a typhoid camp and people couldn't stand up, let alone walk, we were put on -- they ran out of cattle cars, so we were put in open coal cars on the way south into germany, in germany. after l couple days, the train stop. it was a village. i'll never forget it. the reason it stopped because on the next track adjoining to the next was a german what they called a flak choke, a military train with huge untied guns to the likes i never saw in my life. obviously, they were shielding themselves with that hoping the americans would not come to disable the train, which they were trying to do if they see us, but the americans came and

rightfully so because at the road they were sooting them, and as hard as they tried, there were a lot of casualties. this was a huge train pulled and pushed by eight huge locomotives. there were trying to disable the train, of course. to describe -- it's almost impossible. there were hundreds of people laying over, without arms, without legs, just bleeding to death. it was, in the amp, for whatever reason, the germans, nazis, assessed us, allowed us to go to the village for water because these people, a lot of them, had typhoid or just overcoming, they were running high temperature, and so we needed the water, so they allowed us to walk and go

to the village for water. it was in the afternoon that the sky turned black and heavy rains came down, and the troopers took shelter at the houses. we just kept walking and walking. there were five of us that we stuck together in the camp until we walked into a german farmer who took us in, gave us food, and then hid us up in the hay loft. the next morning, he woke us up, and he thought that the war might be over because there was the white flags to surrender, but it was not over. anyway, one of our friends was burning up with temperature, and he said he's not going to last too long if we don't give him some kind of help. he told us that there was a hospital, a convent converted

into a hospital less than a mile away. if we take him, if we go there, they will help us. of course, it was converted into a hospital for high ranking ss officers. we made our way, follow the road, got, in the back of the huge, huge building, it must have been very, very late at night, and we're laying in the forest, being i was the youngest, i volunteer to income on the door. i knocked on the door. the door open up. there was a nun. i didn't have to say anything. she said, come in, my child. i told her there were four friends in the forest, and we all came in, took the clothes off, which were saturated with lice. they burned it all. they gave us food. they came and took us away. it was on april the 28th, 1945

in the morning that they said, children, the american army's very close. there could be shooting. we'll be safer in the basement. they took us down to the basement. i got a hold of an apple cart that looked out through the window, and i saw the american come up the hill, how can i describe to you the jubilation in my heart of knowing finally to be free. how can i possibly describe to you the jubilation? feeling that this nightmare was finally over. now, 68 years later and four generations strong, i stand before you a very proud and grateful man, grateful for the opportunity that this greatest country on earth gave me to start a new life, to raise a family, and to live in freedom and liberty. >> for more information on

booktv's recent visit to raleigh, north carolina and the many other cities visited by our local content vehicles, go to c-span.org/localcontent.