tv is featuring anaheim, california. the city's name stems from the word for "hole." we visited many sites showcasing the city's rich history. learn more all weekend on american history to be -- american history tv. this library started, which was in 2005, it was envisioned as a sort of mini research library. something i had really never anticipated began, and that was the holocaust survivors that we had come to know and build relationships with began to give memorabilia, objects that had

great meaning to them in their lives and that they entrusted to , not only to take care of, but to share with our students. the path now is to find ways for those objects to speak to visitors. so, bringing these objects that i in no way expected to have to light is the challenge that we have now. behind every object is a story of a person. have been people we so privileged to have the part of our university life for the last years is an extraordinary - in what wasorn - now pressure -- prussia,

part of poland. he and his brother and parents early on in the nazi era went to berlin. he was actually in berlin in 1938 during kristallnacht. he and his parents -- his brother had already gotten to england. he and his parents were actually among the very fortunate people who were able to secure a visa to come to the united states. time, seemed like, at the their life was heading in a very positive direction. he recounts how he and his parents got to rotterdam. they were so excited. the next morning they were going to get on a ship and go to the united states. what they never could have anticipated -- here they were, feeling a sense of freedom as they were in the

netherlands. the next morning was the very day in which the germans invaded holland. they tried various ways of getting out. they did not succeed. ultimately, he and his parents separated and went into hiding. curt was a teenager at that point. he was very energetic. he felt very strongly he had to do something. he could not just live with this hidden identity, present to be someone else, and not do something to help other people. so he did something -- there are not enough stories about those who became members of the resistance and rescuers. those stories are not as well-known as many others are. curt actually asked the people who had helped rescue him and his parents if he could join them. they accepted him, which also put their own lives in danger,

had he ever been caught. he was traveling with false identity cards. and he became a rescuer. over 100 to hide jewish children that were placed on farms throughout the netherlands. he bought them false ration coupons, false identity cards. and then, in a really amazing moment, he was bicycling and looked up and saw a plane that was exploding, saw two parachutes coming down. once again, he raced to do something and managed to look around and find two american pilots who were hiding in a haystack. he had some english. "i'm a up and said, friend. trust me." which they did.

and he plays a really extraordinary role in bringing these pilots to the farm, eventually helping to smuggle them out. his courage and his ingenuity were recognized after the war by then general dwight eisenhower, who, of course, commanded the forces coming into normandy, and he has a letter that we are proud to have in this library that recognizes his extraordinary heroism, in saving the lives of these two american pilots, with whom he has, in fact, stayed in contact, with them and their families. along with his forged id cards with his photo on them, certainly one of the most valuable, historically speaking, aspects of his collection is the briefcase that he used to carry those forged ration coupons and id cards that then went to

farmers throughout holland, so that they could buy food for the children they were hiding. and i think this briefcase that he had, which, if you didn't know better, you would look at it, think it is kind of a beaten up leather briefcase, big deal. but, to him, it almost took on a kind of a personality, almost a companion to him in what he was doing. and i know that because we were taking him once for a project some of our students were working on, and he did not know that we were going to bring the briefcase into the taping. and it was asin, if a person walking. he responded with a look of surprise, and he literally just kind of padded the briefcase -- patted the briefcase and he

said, "my old friend." for those of us who were there, it was this amazing moment that again speaks to the power of objects and the power that objects can have when they are combined with stories. after the war, when he makes his way to the united states, he starts studying acting. the becomes very well-known -- he becomes a very well-known american character actor, but, again, with another kind of ironic twist. it was a twist for the boy in hiding to become the rescuer in the same way it was a twist for someone who is really just trying to survive and live under another name to become so good at that different identity that he becomes an actor, and then, often, is given the role of the nazi or the guard, and ended up,

in fact, portraying a guard in the original broadway production of -- a really extraordinary person, who is very much part of our lives here at chapman. history is all about story. people that think they don't like history, somehow, it hasn't gotten through to them that history is story. part of the impetus for the holocaust writing contest that we do for midland high school, now in its 17th year, is to invite students and teachers to listen to survivor testimonies. we have been very fortunate to be able to collaborate with the institutefoundation and a remarkable number of holocaust testimonies that steven spielberg made possible after schindler's --

"schindler's list." arrived, loads of people, loads of people, cars, dogs. we are asking students to do is to move out of their own life experience and find the connector in their lives and their interests that connect them to the story they have heard. don't just talk about all the dates. don't try to explain the history.whole find that one memory that really resonates with you. and it is now yours. it is now, through listening and watching and creative activity -- it is now really part of your life. and express that in prose and poetry, in art itself. and as you see here, you just look down the road of these tables and you see this,

extraordinary diversity of in the form of responding. just as the history, the story of every person during the so, too, was unique, is the expression of these young people in response to those stories. >> our cities tour staff recently traveled to anaheim, california, to learn more about its rich history. learn more at c-span.org/cit iestour. you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. >> senator blanche k. bruce was the first african-american

centered -- senator to be elected to a full term. after the war, he became a planter in mississippi. up next, the u.s. capitol historic society hosts a panel discussion on senator bruce in honor of black history month. due to technical problems, early remarks are not included. this program runs about 40 minutes. was born intoce slavery in 1841. his experience with slavery was far from typical. the son of an enslaved woman and ast likely her white master, a young boy, he lived in virginia, mississippi, and misery. with his parentage, this light-skinned bruce became a favorite of the master and a servant and