and occasionally something comes up or someone says something that triggers a memory. and i -- but i do think of the people there. i was at -- i didn't want to go to margraten because to me it was like going to gettysburg, where all those people were slaughtered and wounded and everything like that. but i'm glad i went. and my daughter was with me. and i saw the way they were taking care of those graves. each grave was taken care of by a civilian. just immaculate. you couldn't believe how wonderful that cemetery is. and they were truly honored. and i was glad i went. but i do think about them more and more, it seems like, every day. yes. it's a sad thing. >> mr. tipper, the next question is for you. if anyone out there has seen the episode in carentan when you were in the building and the mortar shell hit, it was a

devastating, devastating injury to you. and i know while there is no humor behind that, i know you've told me a story in the past about about how the guys actually thought that day that you were killed. >> yeah. that's true. and i didn't find this out till a couple years after the war. floyd talbert was there when i was hit. and i was very severely wounded and the top of my head was about half off, i guess. but i spent a year at army hospitals. and i guess it looked worse than it would. i put my hand over the top of my helmet, it was knocked over. my head felt like a watermelon and mushy and soft. and i could understand. talbert looked at this and thought he saw me killed. and he just turned away. and back when i was in the states six or eight months later i went to visit talbert's parents because i was in a

hospital in indianapolis and they were up in a place called greentown, indiana near kokomo. and his mother wrote him. ed tipper came to visit from the top. and he wrote back immediately, that guy who claims to be tipper is an impostor. call the mps and get him put in jail where he belongs because i saw ed tipper killed. of course we got all that straightened out a couple years later. >> babe, when you came in as a replacement before operation market garden, what was your concept of war in terms of what it would be like and how was it different than what it was actually when you got into holland and started fighting? >> well, i remember -- can i stand? >> you can do anything you want. >> i ain't got a gun.

when i was about -- it was in the '30s, early '30s. i happened to be sitting on a step in south philly. you want to know about war, the first time you get a taste of it. and i sat next to an old lady. she was up there in years. same as i am now. and a man was coming up the street. and this is about 1932 and i was maybe 9 or 10 years old. and a man was coming up the stre street, and he was walking. and there were cement cracks, all block, squares. and he was walking, and he wouldn't step on the crack.

and he walked all the way up the street like that. he was going to mass. and i said, mrs. lyons, mrs. lyons, why is he not -- he won't touch any cracks? she said that man was gassed in the first world war, and this is what war does to you. so i went home and said to my moth mother, mama, mrs. lyons said that he was in the first world war and he was gassed, a man that won't step on the cracks in the cement. and my mother, of course, she was always very, very into the house. she never would leave the house. irish.

red hair. quite a temper. and had four boys. i guess that was part of it. and anyhow, she said -- and i'm sitting there by myself. she said, well, let me tell you, when she was mad, she'd call me edward. when she wasn't mad, it was babe. so i knew she was in a good mood because she called me babe. so she said, babe, let me tell you something. your father wasn't in the first world war, but let me tell you, that son of a bitch is gassed. i said, well, i didn't know. and not knowing, i'm 9 years old. i said did he work for the gas company? "you're like your father." i'm like, well, the one day -- this is true, what i'm telling you. my father was out at the

republican club all night. he come home about 4:00 in the morning. and we had all just come back from mass. i was sitting at the breakfast table, and we're almost finished, and my dad come downstairs, and my mother's in the kitchen. and he said, ann. my mother said, yeah, joe. this fish is cold. he always ate sea bass in the morning. this fish is cold. so my youngest brother said to him, dad, you were out at the club till 3:00 or 4:00 this morning. we heard you come in. my mother didn't say nothing. he said, ann. she said joe, i'll be right in. and she come in. she had a knife in her hand. but she was using that for cutting meat, i guess, or

something. we got a little nervous. but she said to my father, my father had his back turned, and he was talking to my younger brother. she said joe, and he turned around and said, yeah, ann. she said, go shit in your hat. and we said -- >> hey, babe, we may have to elite that out a little bit. we may have to edit that for c-span, but don't worry about it. >> well, i don't know that. i'm telling the truth here. >> i know you are. >> you want to hide things, i don't belong here. [ applause ] i'm only trying to do what's right here. >> you're doing fine. you're doing fine. >> make sure you edit that. i'm done. >> so mom was boss in the hour, is what you're trying to say?

mom was boss in the house? >> yeah. she is. >> she certainly was. >> yeah. >> let's -- izzy. a lot of people know about auschwitz. they know about the conditions. they can read about it. they can watch it in the documentary. could you describe what the conditions were like at auschwitz? to those who never lived through what you've lived through. >> yeah. first of all, let me say it's a pretty tough act to follow. >> yeah. yeah. [ applause ] >> i'm only telling the truth. >> you are following a guy who tells the truth. he tells it like it is.

and we love him for it. >> that's the way we talked on the corner. can't hide anything. they all know you. >> you remember i asked you outside whether this is going to be a comedy show. >> yes. yes. >> because that's all i heard, was jokes and all kind of stories. >> i know. >> it's not a comedy show. it's true to life. >> right. >> it's the earliest form of the reality tv show. babe should have his own reality tv show. and he would put the kardashians to shame. there's no question about it. >> okay. so let me go back to reality. >> let's go back to auschwitz. >> you asked me whether i can tell what it was like in auschwitz. >> can you convey it? >> number one, how much time have i got for that? >> we're going to keep it short. so you have to do the condensed auschwitz version, which is not easy to do, i know. >> the reason why i'm asking, because it is very difficult or

practically impossible to tell you in the few minutes what auschwitz was like. so let me just say in general, i don't know how many you people saw movies about the holocaust, how many books you were reading, what you know about the holocaust, what you know about auschwitz. in general, the former chancellor of germany, helmut kohl, on the 50th anniversary of the liberation of auschwitz, said auschwitz is the darkest chapter in german history. it is even for me, for one that was living in auschwitz, living -- living in auschwitz. existing in auschwitz. it's impossible to describe. even if you'll give me the rest of the evening. of what a death camp -- you must

remember, auschwitz was not only a concentration camp. it was a death camp. auschwitz was one of six death camps in poland. where when i was there in 1944 what was called the busiest time, 10,000 people -- please. 10 -- we're talking about 10,000 human beings were being gassed, cremated, in auschwitz every day. transports were arriving from all over europe. men, women, children, babies. the ones like myself that were picked out from my transport to place for slave labor for work, some were thinking and talking out loud, not knowing who is

better off, their relatives, their friends who were sent this morning from their transport to the gas chambers, or those the ones that were picked to live in the camp. that's what the situation were. every day people not being able to take the conditions, live under those condition, threw themselves on the high voltage wires and were electrocuted. i don't know where to start to be able to get into details. but in general, auschwitz was something that never existed before in the history of the world. and i hope, i hope and pray that it will never happen again anywheres in any part of the

world against any people. [ applause ] >> babe, when you were in europe, easy company liberated a concentration camp which was a subcamp of dachau. it was called landsberg. >> landsberg, germany. >> landsberg, germany. what do you say to those people who deny that the holocaust ever happened from somebody who saw it personally? >> you ain't allowed to curse them. and what i'd tell them in no uncertain terms, it was there.

it was there. just as this gentleman said. the german people denied it. the villagers that lived around the camp said they never saw it, they don't know about it. but our company commander, winters, said, well, i don't believe yous because you're going to come in here, you're going to clean it up, you're going to get these bodies and put them on the -- where they can be buried properly. and it was mighty hard. nobody gave them any mass or any kind of medical coverage for their faces. but when they come in to do the job of moving their own people, their own people in the camp, the jewish people were lying

there, the ones that were living, which i want to tell you also, the movie version is quite a little bit different. we couldn't get near them. we couldn't hug them. they wanted to, and it was a sad, sad thing. and i remember one jewish fellow, very thin -- they were all very thin. i remember him trying to talk. in english. and one of the other jewish inmates said to us as a group, especially eddie stein, who happened to be one of our boys, jewish descent, from st. louis. he said -- i think he said it right. he said, "he is american, but he

can't say it. he can't talk. but we know he is an american." so they pulled him out. i don't know what happened. nobody knows because it was very -- i can't tell you because it's not -- not to be told. it's something the gentleman here to my left is saying it right. may you never, never see anything like it again. because it's something you dream about, something you go to bed thinking about. it's very sad what man can do to man. but when these german people walked into that camp, they all had surgical masks on. why did they have surgical masks

on? they must have knew what they were going to face. where'd they get them from? but the german villagers knew because i'll tell you why. the stench would tell you something's wrong in that section of that little village. i don't know how many years they were there. but somebody, somebody knew they were there, and somebody has to sell somebody else, word gets around but they didn't care. nobody came. nobody made an effort. they let things go the way they we

were. bodies on top of one another. and eddie stein said to me, "babe. they're my people." i said, "ed, they're our people. but it won't be long till they're out of here." and then joe liebgott and any one of yous, this gentleman said it all. it's awful. you don't want to ever, ever see it. there's a man who went through it. he can't talk about it. i can't talk about it. and i only saw it. >> thank you, babe. >> i just want you to know that.

it's very sad. and i live with it like he does. but it's something that should be -- i just wish i could get into detail about it, but i can't. i can't. it's the truth. you can't. >> very emotional. >> thank you, babe. >> one of the hardest episodes for the actors to film was the concentration camp episode in lanzberg. ross had a prominent role in that, and jimmy obviously was featured as well. could you guys address how that was set up by steven spielberg and tom hanks? and there was a little bit of a surprise for the actors filming this episode as well, correct? >> yeah. you know, that was -- we knew the episode was coming.

and that was a big -- big conversation that theyme. leibgott i think was one of two jewish company members that were featured in the show, and so the producers had talked to me early on and said we think it's probably a good idea if we send you to one of the camps in europe to go see him now. and that sat really strangely with me. i believe everybody should be aware of it and everybody should see what went on out there in the ruins that they are now and i think everybody needs to be privy to that, but for the job, i knew that nobody had witnessed these camps until came across

landsburg and i kind of wanted to convey that as much as i could in a realistic enough way so i said i'm not going toe go. i don't want to go. i want to see it on film for the first time. so we shot the show in europe all over the place, switzerland and england and they got a camp and build a camp in the middle of the forest that was a 20, 25-minute drive from our base camp, and the first time i saw it was the first time we saw it on film. and they recreate something that was just, man, i don't know, when i first saw it, i couldn't believe the hollywood had made

something for us to see. but also just hearing the stories from the men, hearing israel's stories right now, i kind of feel even pathetic talking about it in a hollywood way, but you know, it was important that we showed this episode. it was important that everybody's aware of the situation that happened in nazi, germany, and everybody is horrified by it, but to truly get as close as you can in today's society to this thing was heartbreaking is not enough, and it's just, you can't fathom it. you can't fathom that, you know, people actually put time and effort in to build these things, and then to imprison human beings, man. it's just, you know, anyway i'm

digressing. the camp we used for the show was just as real as they could make it, to show the world we're hoping the show was going to be as big as it was and to show the world what it must have been like for any company, for any man or woman to see this firsthand, and to are experience what these people went through. we even went as fares agetting animatroincs made because we couldn't get any as epaceiated as we were finding in the pictures so there was a lot of body makeup used on guys who were of slender build, but even then, we used green screen to

just convey the brutality of this situation. it was a hard thing, just because i knew, i'd grown with joe leibgott, he'd become a part of me and all of a sudden i'm seeing this as much as i can through his eyes. i know it's a film shot. i know, i get that, but they made a wonderful effort to make this be as shocking and as heartbreaking and realistic as humanly possible and that did it for me. i'm not jewish, so i wanted to study the jewish faith. i wanted to get into joe's skin a little bit. and when this episode came along, as important as it was for the show, it just -- you know, we all lost something that episode.

that was a rough time, but it was important. you know, we have to continue telling that story. you know, it can never, ever, ever be forgotten. it can never be, you know, remotely discussed that it didn't happen. so hopefully we managed to do that with the show. >> jimmy? >> we got -- i remember us getting -- we had good times as we shot. i mean, we joked around a lot. we had fun as you can tell. and i just remember getting the memo that this is going to be a very hard episode and let's just focus and concentrate on the job at hand. and then david frankel directed that episode. terrific director. and word came down that david

had family that spent some time in the camps. and so i think all the jokes went away for that month. and i remember it being set up, the world was set up, like we said, before we even got to the set. when we got to the set, everything was set up already. all the extras, and they were all terrific and dedicated, were set up, and the fencing and the huts and, forgive me, truly forgive me. it was very -- it was very hard to pull up and just look around and it was just quiet, man. not too many people were saying many things and the jokes stopped. and it was a very, very hard episode. it was a really hard episode. and david was great. david frankel was great. but you saw, you know, what you saw. it's a powerful one.

hopefully we did, you know, a fraction of what maybe -- what really happened. yeah, it was a very -- it was a very tough episode. >> a lot of fans from the show actually would single that episode out in particular of being, you know, obviously the most heart wrenching but one of the most memorable which i always found, you know, fascinating and wonderful that people really did click into that. they wanted to know about it. they wanted to learn about it. so. >> yeah. yep. >> we're going to open it up to some questions. i have one final question, gentlemen, for you, and then we'll open it up for the audience, so please, get your questions ready. when you talk about the television series, were you guys happy? did they do a good job portraying what war was like, or can you portray that on tv? ed?

>> well, some of it was very, so realistic, it shook me up. the anti-aircraft fire. people asked me, isn't that a big exaggeration in hollywood, use special effects? i said, oh, no, it was exactly the way it happened. but they took liberties in a couple of cases. early on after the jump when private hal bleith confessed to an officer that he didn't know what to do. he was very sympathetic. the officer that i know would never have been sympathetic to him. he wouldn't have shot him, but he would have said you don't belong in this outfit, get out. and i guess there was some dramatic reason for putting that in. but the book i think was much

more accurate. and yet, nobody can ever describe to anybody else what war is like unless they've been in it. we for probably 60 or 70 years after the war, almost none of us talked to our families. i taught school all those years. i didn't tell my kids war stories or anything. and you just, it's so horrible, it's so wasteful, and you just can't talk to anybody about it unless he's experienced it, himself, and knows what you're talking about. >> babe, how about you? how do you feel they did with the tv series in terms of accuracy and portraying war? >> well, i -- my personal feeling, and i don't think -- i don't want you to get irritated because you're going to say, you