after a certain amount of people accumulated there, we had a camp commandant there by the name of alcove, billy alcove. i'll be honest with you, i still today -- although i know the man was talking and breathing and doing all the horrible things -- i don't believe that he was not a german, he was not a human being. his greatest pleasure was to shoot people. he was having a little sub machine gun handy and whenever he came into the camp, he was just shooting people for no reason at all. on sundays, he usually invited guests to a show, put on an exhibition, how he was killing people. he was the camp commandant. and so when the sick people accumulated in the quarantine, he usually took them out into

the closest forest and shot them there. i was also inflicted with the typhoid. and then one night, we had -- the lights went on and we had everybody out, everybody out, and i'll make it very brief because i'm the one that take up all the time. there were 87 people in that barrack that night in that quarantine. 86 people were shot right there. only one, only one came out alive. only one escaped that night. and that's the one person that is sitting here and speaking to you now. [ applause ] i just want to go by fast because it's very important that

i finish with -- i don't know whether i'll get more time, so i have to finish with this. going through the different concentration camp in auschwitz in 1945, in the last camp where i was, the american air force came and destroyed the camp. we could hear the artillery and seeing that the war is coming close to an end. we just didn't know whether we were live another hour and see the uniforms, to see the liberators coming and freeing us. we were placed on the dead march. the destination which we found out afterwards was to take us to the salt mines, place us in those salt mines and there destroy us. on the third day on the dead march in the middle of the

forest, if anybody heard about the brick forest, the middle of the highway, we were walking and our guards left us in the middle of the highway, and, of course -- so i'm saying this. i wouldn't be able to finish without telling you. i have the deepest, deepest respect and gratitude for men and women that i see in the uniforms. it is for the men in the uniforms, what we first saw, and especially you guys, you, in our opinion, called the liberators. because if you wouldn't have come, another three months none of us, none of us would have survived the war. so my gratitude, my salute, and my thank you to you men and women in the uniform for serving today and saving the lives of

other people. and you men that liberated the concentration camps. although you did not liberate me or mine, the camp that i was on, but that doesn't make any difference. you liberated other people that otherwise would not be alive today. my deepest gratitude, my deepest thanks to you. i cannot tell you how much and how i can say thank you to you. [ applause ]

>> when invaded by the germans in 1939, izzy and his family buried several religious artifacts in the bottom of a basement in a house. in two weeks, we are taking izzy back to that house where he's going to unearth those artifacts and look at them for the first time since 1939 and bring them back to his family. question up there, please. okay. okay, we'll go over here first, george. sir, in the front row. >> i do not have a question, i have a comment. to the actors, we thank you for supporting the gentlemen to your left. for al, ed, babe and izzy, you are men among men, and we thank

you very kindly. >> young lady upper left. >> my name is leslie granger. >> speak loudly. >> and my question is for the three members of easy company. what i wanted to know is in your experience as veterans, having experienced combat, coming home transitioning back to that lifestyle. what has been the number one thing that civilians and individuals can do, you know, to make you feel appreciated and supported? >> the question is coming back from war and coming back to the united states, what is the best thing that civilians here on the home front, during your war, could have done to make your transition better, to support

you more? we saw in vietnam that didn't go so well when those soldiers came home. what was it about that generation welcoming you back that made your transition easier? >> well, i think, my opinion, it took a lot of american women -- >> cut! that's a different show. i know where you're going, but go ahead. >> let me tell you something. all the american women in this

country live up the creek, you know what creek i'm talking about, and i've seen it. i come home from a weekend pass in north carolina. never knew what existed. in my street, my street, you couldn't get a truck through. it's too small of a street. these women, including my mother, were out every morning with that on their head, whatever they used. and they had the broom, they had everything to clean the windows, the steps. we call them steps. new york, they call them stoops. i don't know why. in philly, a stoop is a guy that's stupid. but this is true.

i don't tell lies sitting here. but the woman was standing in the group. i could tell you their names now. but they were talking. and i said, hey, ma, i'm home. she said go over to the house, babe. i knew she was in a good mood. called me babe. i went in the house. she's going to make soup. so i -- before i walked into the house, i hear my mother holler, oh, my god, here he comes. and here comes a guy made the turn on the corner. had a brown uniform on. guy delivered the telegrams. and they all screamed. and you know what they say? i ain't allowed to curse. but the women, it's all right for them.

and my mother and everybody else's mother. and they hollered, oh, my god, my mother said, look at this, look. they looked. and they hollered keep going, you son of a bitch! keep going, you son of a bitch! and every time he would look like he was going to stop, they would say keep going, keep going. and once he did, he stopped in front of mrs. nelson's house. i'm witness to this. and he said it's mrs. nelson's house and they all -- here he had his brace on his pants leg broke and it got caught in the wheel of the bicycle. after he adjusted, he got back on and he continued his ride down the street. my mother come in the house and

i said to her, ma, what are you all excited about? she said, babe, that's the man that tlidelivers the telegram a it could have been your house, her house, mrs. bailey, mrs. thompson. so then i knew. i said how often does this go on? she said, every morning. every morning we're out here doing the pavement, doing the steps and we look for him. when he comes, then we have to worry. this is every day. all during that war. they were out there doing the steps, doing the pavement. they were all housewives in them days. none of them worked because they had big families. we had one family on the street, she had 16 children.

her name was mrs. fwgallagher. never forget her. and they were all out there. so when they tell you about who the heroes is of any war, i can tell you, my hero, i mean this very, very sincerely, we know the kids who got killed. but at least their pain was over. but the women every day, every day they had the pain and didn't get a telegram. think about it. and as i told these gentlemen before, how would you have liked to have been mrs. sullivan who lost five boys? when that priest came knocking on her door with a commandant of the navy. i'm talking here like it should

be safe. and she heard a bang on the door, she looked out the window, she saw the priest. she opened up the door and she said, father, which one? and she said, mrs. sullivan, let's go inside. we want to talk to you. they went inside. and she didn't have to say anything. she knew it was bad. and the priest said, you lost all five of your boys. she didn't carry a child for nine months. she carried five of them for 45 months. washed them, bathed them, fed them. you tell me who the heros of any war are. don't tell me. i've been there. [ applause ]

i don't say this just for the hell of it. i say it because it's true. it's true. what we did we had to do because we wear pants. >> thank you, babe. a question over here, a young gentleman who's decked out, ready to jump out of his suit. >> best dressed man in the room. >> best dressed man in the room. >> hi, i'm ethan schultz from dallas, texas, and my question is for al. can you tell us a story when you jumped off the 34-foot building without a harness? >> i wonder if somebody translate -- >> one more question. >> the story about the building you jumped off of. >> oh, yeah. i claimed that -- they recruited in a specific intent and that

was that they would find the dumbest guys they would find and put them in one unit, but we first got there, my friend, ed pipping and myself, it was the -- the camp was still under construction. and there was a big tented area off in the mud flats there. that was one place we would not -- it would be a complete disgrace to be rejected and thrown into cow company to go somewhere else. so we were walking around there and we saw this tower. it was about 35-foot high. is that what you're referring to? yeah. and 34, 35. and we said, boy, oh, boy, we don't want to be chicken, they're going to have us jump off that thing. so we end up and jump off. luckily, it had been dug up and everything, so we didn't break anything. and the lieutenant came along and said, what are you doing? you're not supposed to be jumping off there like that. we told him why we're jumping.

he said, oh, no, we didn't complete that thing yet. they were going to put a cable down and you'd be able to slide down. i'd like to add something to the question the young lady asked having to do -- and your question relative to reception when we came home. and that is, that war was different. everybody was in that war. women, children, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, the soldiers. and so when the war was over, we were all coming out of the war. not just the soldiers. after that, seems like all the wars were separate from the people at home. and the wars took place in other countries, that sort of thing and our lives here in this country because at that time i was not a soldier anymore. just went on as usual almost. and there was sort of a detachment to the people that were doing the fighting and ourselves it seems like. and they didn't get the reception they should have. they should have been really

brought home properly. and reassembled -- assimilated into our culture again. it was a terrible thing. i think there was a lot of difference, too, between the war in europe and the war in the far east. in the war in europe, there was an awful lot of fighting and a lot of firing. and i don't know why i wasn't hit 15 times over. and people were just firing. in the far east, seems there was an intent to either kill you or maim you. preferably to maim you could take four or five more guys out of the picture. i was lucky i was in europe. >> if you've seen "the pacific" i thought the series did a great job of showing the brutality of the fight in the pacific. that war wasn't fought by a geneva convention. there were no rules in the pacific.

having been there and seeing the conditions and knowing the enemy you were fighting, you know, there was -- there were no villages they could go into and find perhaps a young french girl, you know, just to talk to. there was none of that in the pacific. so it was just a totally different war. george, you have somebody up there who'd like to ask a question? >> hi, my name is sergeant matthew from massachusetts army national guard infantry, 181st. i had the honor and pleasure of serving with the 506 in afghanistan. i just want to let you guys know you're definitely absolutely not forgiven in that unit. every week we have "band of brothers" night. we watch the series over and over. and the amazing part of this, when dick winters passed away, i

wasn't there, i was in walter reed, but my lieutenant informed me when they stopped all missions in afghanistan on the day of his death. big salute to you. you're not forgotten. from the bottom of my heart, thank you. [ applause ] >> the gentleman who talked was a member of the 506 in afghanistan. the gentleman who talked was a member of the 506 in afghanistan. veterans who come back talk about watching, they're in a tent in the desert and they're all gathered around watching "band of brothers." and i think what a tribute that is to you guys that it's a different war, they're out in the desert fighting a different type of enemy, and yet they're gathered together and take motivation from their heros. and i think that's what he said. >> that's one of the greatest things that i've ever been told about the show is, jimmy will go

with me on this, we've traveled the world and every -- even when it's not involving band of brothers, i've been it's not involving "band of brothers," i've been on other tv shows where people come over to me and usually military guys and women and will say i had a friend of mine, brief story, but i was on set once and a soldier who became an actor, and he was -- it was his first day and we'd been doing the show for like a season. and he came over and he was a little sheepish. and i said are you okay, kid? and he was like, yeah, i've just got to tell you, man, i've watched you and the guys every day two years. he served in afghanistan. and to hear that from fellows like yourself, and by the way, thank you for everything you've been doing. [ applause ]

goes for everybody. to hear that show has this impact on today's military and today's men is a testament to these fellows. but to hear that and to hear that this show has that impact on today's military and today's men is absolutely a testament to these fellas. we show up. these are the real guys that did that. it's one of the greatest things i can hear ever is from today's military who have watched the show and said thank you. >> another question. >> good evening. two-part question. first one for mr. tipper. is the fence-cutting story accurate? is it portrayed accurately in the series? >> the fence-cutting episode with sobel where the fence was cut, george's dad was doing a major horton impersonation, did it very well, and there seemed to be some renegade cows that made their way out. was that a true story? >> that all happened, it was true.

but the thing that maybe was not included was that the cows went all over the landscape and the english farmer that owned those cows presented a bill to the united states government and was paid money. >> the second part real quick. just because we haven't heard about it all night. anything on boston you could share? in terms of the weather. >> can tell a little about bass tone. it lasted from december 17th to january 27th. so there's a lot of stuff in there that wasn't shown, which couldn't be shown. they couldn't do that. but what do you want to know

about boston? >> one of your close friends was killed. and i know julian -- and i know even today it's difficult for you around christmas and new year's because of his death. >> we just sit home and don't bother. it gives you a lot of thinking to do. of the kids, it was serious, lose a lot of men. in other words, there wasn't snowball fights like they had in the movies. the guys from california throwing snowballs and all that was a lot of huey. but boston was bad. we had conditions there that you don't know at night -- it ought to be on the camera.

it's about human nature and being guys and gals and all that stuff. but we were on our post one night and me and my assistant gunner, we were pretty tired. i thought we'd go right off to sleep because we lost a lot of men. we'd go two on and two off or two on, one off, or whatever it required. and two men in a foxhole, body heat and takes up less space for the artillery shell to hit. instead of two holes, it would be just the one. anyhow, i guess we come back

maybe 2:00, 3:00 in the morning. we hit the sack. wet, everything in there, but warm, nothing warm about it. i felt something in my back. i thought what the hell is this? so al has his hand over my arm like this and he's snoring like hell. like i was shot in the belly, i said, al, what's going on here? he said what's the matter? they coming? i said no, no, what's going on here. nothing. okay. i try to go back to sleep. about five minutes later, i wake up and he's got his hand up here. i said, oh boy.

i gave this one in the belly. i said, al, i can't turn around because the dirt comes down and the snow. al said, oh, honest, i swear. i was just dreaming of my wife. i said, dreaming of your wife, i'm in a god damn foxhole with you and you're dreaming of your wife. so i thought that was one of the funny things that ever happened in boston. but you want to talk about war, that's war. that's part of it. you don't want to face it then you're kidding yourself. you're dirty, you're filthy. one time went 78 days without a bath.

i have one sock about eight or nine days now. when i asked them when they were going to bring anything up, supplies started to come up. i asked him, we need clothes up here. i have one sock about eight or nine days now. bring them up tomorrow. tomorrow never came. that was -- it was very deep water and they say to you, you're going to have it easy. you're going into a barn. you won't have to lay out on the ground. we went into the barn, we certainly did, but the barn had no roof. here we are back again.

we had a very, very serious incident that happened. every morning on the day, every morning when we were up there, the soldier would look at our lines and he would go like this. the next morning, same guy, same thing. so we had a forward observer there. he said -- you ain't allowed to curse here. anyway, he said i'll get him. he gave them the artillery hit, the next morning, there he is. he said i got a surprise for

him. tomorrow morning, you watch. the next morning, here comes the krout. he was the most surprised guy in the world. his body ended up in scranton. it was over his head, the shell instead of hitting burst over his head and all we seen was a lot of little pieces. the birds had a picnic because, i'm telling you, this is what war is. this is what you have to face. so whether or not you like it or not, you want the stories, you get them. you don't want to hear them, i don't belong here. [ applause ]