original series "the contenders." featuring 14 key political figures that ran for president and lost but impacted political history. we will air the series every weekend from june 3 to december 2 on sundays. all here on american history tv on c-span 3. and join us as historians preview the series on saturday, june 2 at 10:00 a.m. eastern. as our memorial day weekend programming continues, we hear from three veterans of the army's 101st airborne division and a holocaust survivor as they reflect on their experiences during world war ii. they're joined by two actors who appeared in the hbo mini series "band of brothers" which portrays the lives of the airborne soldiers during the war. this event is about two hours and ten minutes.

ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming tonight. a special occasion in boston. my name is tim gray. i'm the chairman of the world war ii foundation which is a 50c 3 organization. correct, mr. den? b-17 pilot in world war ii. 33 missions. [ applause ] you do have to behave. this is not conan o'brien, so we have to keep everything pretty quiet. the 501(c)(3) foundation is dedicated to preserving the stories of the veterans of world war ii. we've traveled all over the world. some of you have seen the wroe sure we had -- brochure we had out front. we go to guadalcanal, berlin, normandy, holland, belgium, take veterans back to the places where they fought. many of you may not know that we're losing a thousand world

war ii veterans a day, 30,000 a month. of the 16 million americans who served in world war ii, there are only about 2.3 million left. we're losing these guys rapidly and we're losing the stories and the lessons of freedom and preserving our freedom that they fought so hard for. so we welcome you tonight to this occasion. we have some thank yous, little things we have to get out of the way first before we bring out the eyes. the guys. they're back there telling dirty jokes. we'll let them get that out of the way before they come out. but first off, the sea port hotel and their staff, we've had these events all over the country. i can tell you honestly there has not been a more helpful group of people putting this event together than the seaport hotel staff. they have been just over the top with this. they recognize what the event is

about. they've been tremendous. marianna accomando is the events coordinator. if you're having an event coming up, say if you're having a wedding, this is the place to have it because they are just tremendous. i also want to thank tonight's event committee mark romano, tom curry, mark battaglini and tom lyons. thank you to senator scott brown who was here earlier but had to go. he's got a full schedule tonight. he was able to meet the veterans and greet them. some other people, george luz junior, his dad was featured in "band of brothers." george is my omar bradley. while i'm sitting there like eisenhower -- i don't smoke. if i did smoke, george is the guy who calms me down and tells me, everything is going to be okay. i'll take care of the little details. you need little details in operation over lord and other things, the invasion of normandy. lou ledoux from ac bats donated the bats outside that we're selling tonight. we've really benefited from his

involvement. he's a board member of the foundation. we have some silent auction items. all the items out there raise money for the foundation and its mission so we can go to places like guadalcanal and normandy and take these veterans back. there's no more incredible experience than walking the battlefield in belgium or normandy with a veteran and their vivid recollection, any veteran knows they can recall pretty much everything about the battle they were in. and the world war ii veterans, even though they're getting older, their memories are quite vivid. we're selling some of our documentaries out there to benefit the foundation. big thank you to the sponsors listed on tonight's program and all the volunteers who helped tonight. we would like to recognize randy webb and tray harrison, their team from source one distributors. in about two months we're dedicating a monument in

normandy to major dick winter who is the leader of the band of brothers. major winters passed away last year. unfortunately his wife ethel passed aid way yesterday. when we approached major winters about the monument, he said i'm in favor of it in one condition, that you recognize every division, every u.s. army division that fought on d-day. with the help of curt schilling on our board, governor tom ridge and others, we'll be dedicating a 13-foot high monument in the village of saint marie dumont recognizing not only major winters' contributions in that area, but also the contributions of all the american divisions who led the way on d-day. source one and circuit usa have agreed to be our title sponsor just recently of the richard winters dedication. if randy webb and tray harris could stand up, it means an awful lot to us. we'd like to recognize them. [ applause ]

the documentary part of the winters leadership project is narrated by damione lewis who played him in "band of brothers." finally, we'd like to thank all the veterans here tonight, not only from world war ii but all the wars and all those who help preserve our freedom. we'd like to ask you to please stand briefly so we can recognize the contributions you make to america. [ applause ] it's always a thrill for me to watch the veterans of today interact with the veterans of world war ii. there's a mutual respect there. a lot of us who haven't been in a war don't understand. there's a bond there that remains from generation to

generation. you may see a few extra tv cameras here tonight. that's because c-span is here tonight taping this for a future national broadcast. i need everybody on their best behavior. we're happy that c-span is here and they recognize the contributions that the veterans make. look for this in the near future on c-span. welcome to c-span. it's pretty much show time at this point. first, because we do have so many military folks here tonight, we always like to start out an event like this with the national anthem. i would ask you all please to rise and we'll play the national anthem and get on with our event. ♪ [ national anthem playing ]

[ national anthem playing ]

>> thank you very much. time now to meet tonight's panel. for our special event band of brothers, normandy to the hole cast. holocaust. please direct your attention to the screen above as you learn who will be here tonight and the incredible stories they have to share. ♪ ♪

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♪ that is a shot overlooking omaha beach in normandy. it looks a little more peaceful than on june 6, 1944. i thank my editor and photographer for putting that together. time to meet the boys. wow. the boys. it's going to be a fun night. if you like to laugh and learn about history, then these are the guys that you want to hear it from. i'm going to open up the magic door and see if the wizard is ready.

babe went to the bathroom. [ laughter ]. >> we will move on. he played joe liebgott and recently seen in "white collar," he's on leave from the movie set from the great country of scotland where they all talk funny, mr. ross mccall. [ applause ] he played frank per canty in band of brothers. in his younger days he appeared in the movie "hook" directed by steven spielberg and

"basketball diaries" with a guy named leonardo depap i don't. dicaprio. he's a great writer, producer and actor, and despite the fact that he's from new york city and a huge yankees fan, he's a good guy, too. mr. james madio. [ applause ] time now to meet our easy company veterans. wounded in episode four of "band of brothers," the replacements episode coming the the laid of lieutenant robert brewer who was shot in the neck in holland. please welcome medic mr. al mampre. [ applause ]

>> our next veteran was an original takowa man seriously wounded in france after d-day, if you've seen the tv series, you remember the scene when the building he was clearing out was hit by a mortar round. in fact, ross mccall who played joe liebgott in the series came to his aid in the hbo series. he is from the great state of colorado and a big denver broncos fan, mr. ed tipper. [ applause ] our final easy company veteran joining us tonight is simply known as babe. he joined easy as a replacement just in a time after norman day. in a tv series he bumped into

another south philly guide named wild bill gar near. garne garnere. he was featured in the final seven episodes of "band of brothers." please welcome edward "babe" heffron from south philly. [ applause ] >> thank you. thank you. thank you. >> our final guest tonight knows far too well the horror of war. he was 14 when the nazis entered his city in poland. his mother, father and young brother were murdered in the

labor camps. he unfortunately has the tattoo on his arm to prove that. please welcome holocaust survivor mr. israel arbeiter. [ applause ] gentlemen, please be seated. have a seat. relax. this evening one of the interesting things we like to do is encourage audience participation. so if you have a question about a series, if you have a question about what it was like to be in auschwitz, we are going to be passing around a microphone tonight, and we encourage you to please ask questions. we want it to be as interactive

as possible because so many of you have seen the series. so many of you have read about auschwitz and the killing of over a million people in the most infamous concentration camp in world war ii. so we're going to start the panel off with a couple of questions from the floor down here and then please don't be shy. please raise your hand. when we call for it, we'll get some great audience participation from you guys tonight. so we're going to begin actually with a question tonight for the actors. for jimmy madio and ross mccall. we've talked about this in the past, that jimmy, ross and i, about what it was like to play these men, these veterans and what it took. it took a lot more than people realize. and these guys went through a boot camp. they were put through a boot camp by dale dye who played colonel sink in "band of brothers." dale dye loves to put people through boot camps.

he was a highly decorated officer in vietnam and also a very talented actor. in order to play these guys, they had to experience their own form of boot camp. ross and jimmy -- we'll start with ross. what was it like heading into this and your evenings expectations and you realize that wow, this is a pretty serious thing we're doing. >> well, for me it was -- these guys are sick of hearing this. but being from the british isles, i didn't know too much about boot camp. so when i was told i was going to boot camp, it kind of sounded like fun to me. and i guess the moment i realized that maybe this was going to be -- let's call it an enlightening moment in my life, was when i got -- all the guys got a better through the mail, and it was hand-typed from captain dye, and it was dated 1940.

and he was welcoming all of us to join this boot camp. he told us what we were allowed to bring. i had my nikes ready, my sweat pants ready. i was told to bring nothing except the uniform that we would be wearing and maybe one pair of sweats i think. we weren't allowed any reading material except for religious reading material. obviously this was before iphones and internet access everywhere you go. so we could handwrite letters, and that was basically it. we were told to bring one green towel. and i remember being kind of -- really? it has to be green? okay. so i get to the studio and still i'm aware that we're going to training. i'm aware of the shape we have to be in to match what these men were in. and i knew it was going to be a slug, but i had no idea that it was going to be such a slug.

and from day one, i think within five minutes we were screamed at, yelled at, made to do push-ups in front of people we didn't know, knew-found friends, new actors. i'm like, really, i got to do 20 push-ups in front of this kid? okay. we did it and everybody dug deep. i've got to say, it turned out to be one of the most exhilarating and exciting experiences of my life. it was -- we always argue about this. some people say we're in boot camp for three months. we were there for -- what? two weeks? >> 2 1/2. 18 days. >> maybe i just forgot a lot of it. >> three months -- i think 3 1/2 months we were there. >> 18 months we were in boot camp, and it was amazing. what was great about it was we all stayed in the period, we all stayed in our character names.

in fact, a story we've told many times is we didn't know any of the guys' real names for a good six months. i was calling jimmy perco for a good year after the show i think. >> maybe more. >> we were all in character. we all knew what we had to portray in these men and we knew we had to do it justice. so there wasn't any laziness. there wasn't any whining, everybody dug deep and it was hard. from what i've heard, actor boot camp can be a little easygoing. dale dye who is a dear, dear friend of ours now -- trust me, he wasn't then. he put us through our paces. i don't remember the last time i ran a mile and all of a sudden i'm asked to run five miles every morning. and back in those days, we were all a little younger, perhaps into smoking or drinking, so

probably weren't the fittest we could have been. by god, they whipped us into shape pretty quickly. also what it did for me was put me in a mental space and put me in a space of bonding the guys. i've said this from day one of the shoot, genius stroke that the producers made of our show is putting us in a boot camp because it made us tight, and it made us a unit. speaking to servicemen and women around the world since, that's one common in that case tore i hear is that boot camp just unites you, and that's what it did. it gave me ten immediate brothers. 30 really. but ten close-knit guys from the show. it bonded us to a place where we could be believable as these good men. we could actually show the world what a tight unit these men were, what easy company was. to me that was genius stroke that our big boys pulled off. i'm sure glad i went through it. i would do another boot camp

tomorrow, i really would. it was hard. we hit walls. it was painful at times. we were sleep deprived. it was nothing, and we knew it was not a scratch on what these men we were about to portray had gone through. with that in our heads, we knuckled downed and did it. i'll be forever grateful. there's my story. >> jimmy? >> i echo a lot what ross said -- >> don't, because that will be boring. >> first off, i speak for ross. it's tough for us to sit up here and babe and these men have heard us many times. it's tough for us to sit up here with these guys and tell you about our boot camp. i'd like to let them to talk first, tim. this is the first time you've done this. it's actors' boot camp. he mentioned 20 push-ups. i don't think i've ever done 20. i remember it being 50 each time

we hit the deck because i was always in trouble. and i snuck a camera on. i didn't bring my green towel. i did sneak a camera. but i came from the streets of the bronx and we had our own little concrete war going there. so i had no idea what i was in there when i got off that bus. when we landed, they sort of put us in a hangar, they shaved our heads -- not shaved our heads. they gave us haircuts from the era and gave us a big green bag. i'm not even kidding. the bag was the size of me. it was just a couple of toiletries, towel, socks,

whatever you need to live by. then they threw us on a bus. like he said, we didn't know anybody's name. i remember getting off that bus and a lot of people have heard this story, a lot of people have heard this, a few people i've met quite a few times here. i got off the bus. no one really spoke on the bus. everybody was like, what's going on? we didn't expect this, like, okay, i don't know who you are, i just got a haircut, i got on a bus, i don't have my phone. i have a green bag. now what's going on? i start to go, okay, i thought of the show, i'm used to the perks. i remember getting off that bus and a guy came up to me and singled me out right away. he ran right up to me, made a beeline to me, and he said oh, we got a short guy in our platoon. started screaming in my face, get in line, shorty! i just remember going, buddy, no one speaks to me like that, i'm from the bronx.

i got a napoleon's complex and you're about to see it. but for some reason, i don't know what. it made me go. i didn't answer him. he said get down and give me 20. i'll give you those on one hand, buddy. you need 50 of these. we bonded at that moment. ross said he had to jog five miles. forgive me guys. i know you did a lot more than this. we jogged five miles before we even ate anything. do you remember that? we got up and jogged five miles. then we ate. are you going to feed us? >> 25 miles. 25. >> three times a day. >> then we did some weapons training and maneuvers and all that stuff. but, you know, it was very smart on tom and stephen and the company.

when you actually got to filming, these directors would come up to you and they would say to you, okay, so you play percante. listen, you're cold, you're homesick, you're hungry. you're tired. and you would say, okay, roll the camera, i'm cold, i'm homesick, i'm hungry. roll the camera. you're going to get what you need. it got to that point. boot camp built that. >> they also trained us to a way that they could at any point during the series say, hey, you know what? throw a hand grenade or reload your m-1. they would give you a direction that, if you didn't have training, you would have to bring somebody in. it was just smart. they never cut in for anybody else reloading -- >> i'll give you a quick example of that. i'm sure you want to get to these gays. later the open associated, you showed up onset. one of the directors came up to me.

they said per canty, that's your squad. i said yeah, that's my squad. >> they said, okay, here is where my cameras are. here is my hedge. here is where you're going to bring these guys. where are your cameras? i said right there. where are they? >> is this bon in your shawn? i'm not going behind a hedge. there's a barn right here. i'm not going to go behind trees. they would be like, oh, yeah, right, right. at some point you might say, hey, i think this will work a little better. i'll get in trouble if i don't open my mouth and the big dies guys see that i did it. you had that sort of thing going on. >> i have a question of al mampre. al, when someone says you guys are heroes, i know the first reaction right down the line in most veterans that i've ever talked to, when someone says you

guys are heroes, you say the heroes are the guys that never came home, the guys buried over in margr ta en and belgium and luxembourg. those are the heroes of world war ii. how often do you think about those guys who never came home? >> well, actually after the war, i went back to school and i put the war behind me and went on with my life. and i didn't really start thinking about fellows that we left behind and my fellows that were still here until just recently when i pretty well retired and i began attending some of these kinds of affairs, and i began to realize there's a whole part of my life that i had sort of forgotten and actually have forgotten. occasionally something comes up or someone says something that triggers a memory. but i do think of the people there. i was at -- i didn't want to go to mar