what do you how do you feel about that? oh, it's very difficult for us because during our greatest generation, we all pull together. we everything was so important. it wasn't my job or your job. like i said. and as time goes on, i know technology has changed our world. something terrible. it's so hard. wonder now i. it's like i said, i the military men and women, i just wonder where all going. i mean, it's hard for us, the older people to adjust because we gradually have to learn to live in a different world and we're losing. like my biggest thing, i think the most important word in my dictionary with respect and we're losing that our honor, respect for each other and to me, i think that's the biggest loss we're losing in our entire world. thank you, man. ladies and gentlemen, it has been a pleasure and an honor for us all to have these these folks be here to see me. just give them a round of time.

thank you for their. thank you. very good. good job. thank you. thank you, sir. good job. thank you very much. in, ladies, gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, going to begin now with our next panel. the term never forget is burned. all of our memories, and rightly so so.

the lessons we're going to learn and the stories we're going to hear in the next half an hour or so are. incredibly. for us to not just learn from but to embrace. to dig more. we are indeed to have with us mandy. tibor, spitz and, know amy spitz. they are getting right. all right. i'm i'm kind of funny about making sure i pronounce people's names correctly. shortly after. manny's birth in 1936 in riga. and his family moved budapest, hungary an important jewish center in, europe. two years later, in 1938, the

hungarian government yielded to the pressure of their nazi ally and all able bodied men were compelled perform forced labor when the did to occupy hungary in the spring of 1944. many it was only seven years old, and all the -- over the age of six were required to wear the yellow star of david badge on their clothes. and shortly after the mass deportation of -- began began in manny's area, most of them went to auschwitz, birkenau, the killing center, the mendel family were among the group of -- that adolph eichmann. some of this is a little difficult. me, the chief organizer of the holocaust, offered to trade two

to the allies for material when the negotiations broke down, they were diverted to bergen-belsen camp, the notorious camp where anne frank died. fortunately, andy was allowed to stay with his mother family or his mother sister and uncle. they escaped into switzerland as the war near its end. and in 1945, manny, his family, immigrated to palestine, where their family was entirely or nearly entirely reunited the mandel family to the united states. in 1949, settling in philadelphia, phil and he married his wife adrian in 1958 and practiced psycho therapy in maryland. right r right next door here until retired in 2014. manny is a volunteer at the united states holocaust memorial right here in dc.

and if you've had the opportunity to visit that memorial, i urge you do so. i also urge you to buckle up before you go in. we're also pleased to welcome tibor. born in 1929, to a --, to jewish parents in the former czechoslovak here, tibor because of his jewish origin, he was not allowed to attend school during. his most formative years. 14, 15, 16. tibor spent three years evading. the german nazis and the slovak government hiding with his family in a small hand cave in the snow covered mountains for more than 200 days, while his entire extended family was deported, never to be seen again after surviving the nazi era era, he was living in prague, where he and his brother wanted

pursue an education, the arts. but the regime arranged for to go study chemistry instead. after graduation, he worked as an engineer scientist in a glass technology in the czech glass industry, which was a burgeoning industry. he was an r&d in 1968, during prague spring. i think i remember it very well. he and his wife amy escaped during a refueling stop in, canada. they were on their way to cuba to finish up a program. when they stopped in canada, they were able to get away and nine years later they moved to upstate new york. still pretty darn cold. in 1960. or excuse me, upon returning from the careers as scientists, he became professional artist and lecturer on the holocaust.

but you can see he has several books that are available paintings wood burnings statue jewelry. his work has been featured magazines in exhibitions, the world. he is an artist an educator, a scientist engineer and a chronicler of the holocaust. we're also pleased to have nurmi visiting a visiting speaking to us today. she was only 22 months old when world war two ended, but she she and rather parents and their three small children avoided deportation by hiding from the nazis. they were the only survivors, a large family in fact, nurmi was only jewish girl born in 1943 to have survived from the city of bratislava, where 12,000 -- were never heard from again.

we are indeed honored that you would take to come and and give a message to our assembled students, cadets, midshipmen and other and others. so mainly i'm going to begin with if you've spoken to a lot of these groups, you know, you've very well the lessons often the hard way that that they need to hear. so i'm going to ask you to tell tell our our group here a little bit more about your experience and your observations. well, i thank you very much. this is not the first time that i have appeared in this particular group. they have been kind enough to invite in previous years to give a vignette a little tiny piece of history that none of you would know about. and i know about either if it

hadn't happened quite that way. let me you a particular example. a particular piece of my history which i remember really but did not understand the moderator said that i was born in riga, if any of you know what that is in. i have nothing to do with, latvia. but you have to be born where your mother is. my was in latvia at the time. my father had a position there from about 1933 or so to 1936. my parents, both ethnically hungarian, which makes me a hungarian as well. but i was born in latvia, espanola. questions about that. in 1936, we moved to budapest, which is with my father's in life, and we had a very nice life. you need to know that the jewish community of europe, between the wars had a very, very good life. it began to disintegrate that piece by piece, but not until

the thirties, the hungarian jewish or anti-jewish laws. i should responding to the 1920s, but not put into effect until the thirties. so my parents young life and my young life was very good. in the winter of 1941. i was five and a half years old and my parents decided to go south to my home area, which is southern and northern yugoslavia, and decided to go there because grandparents live there. i would just love to visit them. in december, just as a family visit. we could do that in those. we arrived by train about 3 hours or so south of budapest before, and we stayed my aunt's house. my mother had two sisters in warsaw, the city where we were and first day or two, i have no recollection of what's going on,

but i'm sure they were pleasant. on the third day, on a friday morning, 730 or so in the morning, somebody came up the stairs of the elevator, i don't know i said, there's something funky going on on the streets. okay. 10 minutes later, knock on the door. two police officers. well dressed, came in and said, ladies and gentlemen, you need to dress warmly and come outside, we have to run a census dress warmly because it's wintertime and not bitter cold. there was some snow on ground. not bitter cold, but it was winter excuse. the nazi government, whether they were hungarian, yugoslavian, german believe. censuses every 2 minutes. no, not the little minutes were important. now we run a census every ten years. you right? they ran censuses in our towns, our places, because they believed if they knew where people were, they could control

the population. they were right. so didn't seem terribly odd. a bit unusual. friday morning, the middle of nowhere. the census is had come on to the street. please turn to the sidewalk and line up, which we did then told to turn left and start walking, not marching. nobody heckled us. we just walked. we walked for a long, long time. i know. i walked. my mother carried. my father carried me. and five and a half years old. i'm an old guy. we arrived at a place which peculiarly i recognized. this is the scene. there's a stockade fence over about seven foot stockade fence. the and a major street. now in europe, in cities, if you're not the ocean, but you're in a or lake, those become summer that this a beach which was on the danube bank.

the river was about three or 400 yards to the left inside stockade fence. and i'd been to previous august and i must remember that two or three months before when was there playing in the sand the restaurants and and the hot and cold pools in a way, fools and all kinds of entertainment possibility. and i remember that we were lined up and we were watching in the street and for a forward direction towards an gate, which was the gate inside to the beach area where the people went when they were coming in the summertime and were supplies. wind were slowly emerging in that direction. we have no idea and i mean no idea why. well, the fact that i didn't have any idea is obvious at five and a half years old, but the adults either we know this, the people went on to this particular gate, turned left and we're not seen again as we were marching down, there's a police officer standing the right.

so it's just my father. mr. what are you doing here? my father was bewildered. he says, well, what do you mean i'm visiting my family is that's not my problem. the fact that you are here and not from here will mess up the numbers in the census. you're from budapest. my father? that's correct. is how do you know that to the officers as well? i'm a foot patrolman in neighborhood where you live. i've seen you many times. walking here. walking there. and i recognize you. step aside as a matter of coincidence, as we stepped aside a staff car with a uniformed officer, comes on the road, gets out, gets a bullhorn and says, ladies and gentlemen, the requirements of the census been met. go home, you're stopped by the school block away from here. this hot coffee and chocolate. you're welcome to have some that was not our intent. we took the first available facts you could find to the house. to our aunt's house. as the phone calls began to come

in. we still had no idea. we just took place. let me tell you what took place you may be familiar with not an organization, much as a kind of a an informal organization called the partizans. these were people who were organizing the various in many countries, including yugoslavia and southern hungary, to harass the german machine explorer to truck, derail a train, do something of that nature, some those activities had taken place in the general community of the city and the local constabulary decided to in some way take population. most of the -- and in some way show what their power was and to in some way teach the community that they should not become partizans what did they do? told you before white people marched to a gate, turn left the danube river as i said, was two or 300 yards to the left. it was frozen in the wintertime, but the crack with cannon fire

that those people were got the river were shot in the back into the river, never to be seen again. ladies and gentlemen, i was just described to a pogrom dog or a pogrom, which a senseless, purposeless and useless exercise in power of people who can do something to you that you cannot stop. obvious that was not part of the pogrom. i lived and went home back to budapest. life continued, but i just want to give you one particular example of the kind of things that happened before the holocaust became really a major issue since 1941. i was just beginning to take place i suppose you'd like to know a particular history from somebody who lived at the time. thank you. thank you very. tibor, the this the story of you

and your family locating and hiding in a cave for such a long period is just hard for i think for almost of us to grasp. can you tell us what your are of that time? have you found cave and then the conditions under which you had to survive for that period of time time? my story is a little bit different because. we have never been in any concentration camp or or in this camp and the evidence is that see me alive. i was 15. it was war was over. that's why i'm only 95 now. but when i was, it took about seven years in germany to all those anti jewish laws and to

prepare the popular action to events followed, which means that mass murder of civilians i, ten years old when i was kicked out of school, returned as. at 15. at 12, the deportation started. auschwitz was only from the location where we only about one hour by train, 30 to 50 miles, depending on the location, which means that we were lucky that somebody escaped from there. we had them get out of prison and told us what was going on there. who is three? they they had to explain and swear that they are not kidding and they are not exaggerating. they how people were emptying

the train where asked to be disinfected, to undress, to get into a shower room and poisonous gas killed them. the prisoners burned their bodies. they could they could process they could process. then thousands people a day, which was roughly as the average analysis about a year and a half were murdering --. they killed also non---. they killed about 11 million civilians. this way and about 6 million of them were jewish. our we live very close to auschwitz my father was employed. my mother was a teacher father was a a hasan cantor of a jewish community and we were trying share that knowledge with other people.

nobody would believe us that in a 20th century something of that terrible process technology would be used to murder people like on a conveyor belt, like a factory. we when we found out what was on in auschwitz and what would happen to us if we entered the cattle cars, which were regularly going through our small town, i think our town no, -- and not only --, also gypsies, poor little girl, political opponents and all kinds of. people who didn't like nazi germany and they retaliated by killing them, which means in 1942 we avoided being pushed into the cattle cars we hide. we were hiding all kinds of things. it would be too long to explain. and we survived.

in 1942. it helped. i said. my father was a clergyman who was in charge of very, very, very jewish. jewish people, and they kept him as their last one, but they never kept their promises. it's right for that year. a lot of times to deport, but we figured it out somehow avoided the rest of our relatives who, lived there about six, 7 hours by train. they were deported and never never seen them again. in. 1944, german army retreating from soviet union and poland reached the borders of slovakia, which was a republic, fascist republic and they didn't need german help. they needed themselves.

in 1944, the german army took over slovakia, and we that they would be no way to escape from from gestapo. ss and the german army we ran into the forest, as you said, found their place. my brother was a genius. he designed the shelter. how to dig it out, how to brace, how to get the water, how to remain i mean, remove any traces of our existence, how not to say a word. and we believed that the army, which was about 100 miles away in poland and ukraine, would reach in a few weeks. our area. and it was september, august, september and. it looked like we would be able to leave out of what we find in forest food and somehow survive. however it took another seven

months, about 200 days and nights at german army, naturally german gestapo, which means secret police had the least of people who were missing from being reported and they were searching forest. they were searching for information where we might where we vanished, which means that it was very difficult to survive 200 days and nights and the a ground in the whole in the camouflage, all through. first make it alive. in 1945 and in april 1945, soviet army finally came. they fighting in the same forest five times until they surrounded slovakia and german army moved to the west and eventually in a must ended up losing the war in berlin, which means that we survived after the war you have

covered during the in two explain that i became i graduated high school i had to study chemistry because soviet needed more mr. army better explosive better with weapons and then they age in the industry. i specialized in glass which was my profession 20 years later came a little bit liberal movement in slovakia in at that time and we had a liberal movement created innovation of half a million soviet soldiers who came to teach communists in czechoslovakia. the government with a human face is not really acceptable. and we escaped to canada most four times and sent to this also moved four times until we ended up in kingston new york and this

is where he came from to tell you my story. we live the equations naturally for we would write to our state. i would like to ask. the that's 200 day is how many people gathered in that? what was the number of of your how many of your family were in that cave? we were our family, five. my parents and three siblings. and then our grandfather joined us, which means that we were six of us in, a very small space, where we couldn't even lie down. we had me like a sitting, half sitting have leaning against each other, believing that in a few weeks we would be liberated, while we would somehow good things that discomfort. but it took really an incredible

burden because in november snow covers the area. there are 2 to 3 feet of snow. that's why those patrols are on patrol trying to find and kill us. couldn't us? because even at our. houses couldn't. the outdoors was very deep, slope was slippery icy slopes. we couldn't. walk anywhere. they wanted to. dogs were in there and available in such a deep snow. we had very food, practically only berries, which we are seeking out of the deep snow and the winter is just right, jim, as was the war. this was a high contribution for losing the war. it was a cold this winter of the century, the deepest frost,

which means that we were allowed. we did not speak to each other because somebody might have walked, heard human voices somewhere from the ground, tell somebody and this will be our allows a day or two, which means as they would have fungus. well describe what had been through mentally in my head because could only describe myself board as some esoteric discoveries because i started voices they were suggesting these and that every advice was getting was right how to survive how to change my character, how to handle critical, drastic situation and how not to get

mentally ill. how to remain sane, how to remain physically strong. that's why a lot of people who are in distress are asking me to refrain how i have, how i got out of that terrible crisis. usually people don't survive. is a sane or right line? me you were only 22 months old when the war ended, but your family endured trimming this hardships and i'm sure that they told you a lot of stories what? but first, i'm curious, how did you and tibor ever come to how did you meet? where did you meet? and we met in prague. it is it used to be czechoslovakia. i met for a few minutes. he showed me prague, second them, invited him to bratislava.

is slovakia now to visit my parents in my brother's second time he asked me to marry him. insert the name when i so him we were in prague in that do you all have you all had a number of conversations about your experience and and where i'm really going with this is given the fact that you a lot about what happened from your relatives because you were such a small child. what is the lesson is that they really wanted you to know and embrace and you could share with our audience with the yeah okay can you can you repeat that? sure. given that you learned a lot from your relatives, there were some lessons some instruction, some guide that they would give you to that would benefit you

the rest of your life. lots of them in life. and you putting both of them in a lot of what i know my presenter as anything the the head ideas. yeah i was i missed it a very very right but my father wrote in memoirs and in his memoirs was he wrote everything were really to us and he was writing it. i was 15 months old, but as it was then, months old, it didn't. and another brother who was three years old in the village in bratislava and he had to take us to safety. he walked about 15 miles this my two as is, and they left me by myself. oh, mom, he couldn't take three

children. my father came back for me in germany came knocking on the door and there was superintendent and she was gentleman lady. and she told those gentleman people that i saw them and. he's saying, no, they are going to sit over good and they into the apartment and don't do it because you will destroy my whole i mean they left my father my first it would below in my i could i that was you don't know enough the next day they left another 15 kilometers which would be to safety maybe in my father. but then they did. he's working those people where we were hiding the it was an event that the old man my parents and three small

children. wow. and my father pretended that he's working every day to do that for us sleazier. the eight of us came back. in one day. they told that old man us, my father give me your papers. and my father went to police station. he had no choice. we would be killed anyway and the as it were, this he was anti-fascist. this was like and he gave my father and they were hiding for seven months. they came mountains and we and we were indeed we came back bratislava on a donkey. three children. my father couldn't us and wow and ladies the man he said have

you been back to those that area of your childhood and visited and and if so have you run into some folks that shared of your experiences and what do they have to say about that what do you. yes. have been back both to novice with this program took place just visit and in fact budapest several times i've not met anybody that was part of the original business but events some people in other places actually kids i was with in for example i no recollection of their being there but i met them since the last 15 or 20 years and i've had some correspondence. unfortunately, some of them have not passed. one was one of my friends, not friends don't remember him from bergen-belsen, but i met him

afterwards. and he's written a major book about the experience this was a young man who born in romania grew up in hungary, was educated in switzerland, became a german professor in england she would follow that. that's the kind of lives that people. unfortunately died three or four years ago. i'm in touch with his widow so i've had some contact with people but i have no recollection of those people being there at the time. well we're in the lasyes and sadly we have seen a rise in this country of anti-semitism, semitism. it breaks our hearts. so i'm curious as to how how you how you dealt with that how what are your observations and what lessons you give us from your

experience in dealing this new challenge? it's unfortunately, it's not a new challenge. it's an age old. where are we going now? we're going to get there. i don't know. i wish i knew. but i don't know. however, i can say this. with all due respect to everybody here, and i don't mean to insult anyone, but i need to say that essentially we are illiterate. if i were to ask everybody this room, what is the source of anti-semitism and when i'm willing to bet dollars the donors that the answer would be i don't know. yeah. so what i'm saying to is that the thing that we need to do and what i try to do by appearing at places like this and working at the holocaust museum and other places, is to to convey to people that education is a very right history is very important. and we don't it.

if we learned it, we might do better. we've all heard the the phrase it was quoted from santayana in spain when he said those that do study history are doomed to. repeat it. so it is important. education. i'm curious as to if you a personal message to do you have a personal message that that we can benefit from your experience experience of your family, your memory. and now today help us out here we need we definitely need some guidance. we need a light to follow. i was exposed to like hatred based on religion, ethnicity, geography and so on all my life since very beginning. it was four years old when hitler over nazi germany in 1933

as a chancellor and the anti-semitic anti-semitism became a. state council philosophy idea. all logic and suggestion to our state about anti-semitism. i came to this conclusion. imagine a class where it's an outstanding student who is always right, who is learning very quickly always has the assistance of one. instead of those. she as a children who are less talented talented instead of them learning from that person and then learning through that boy or girl, learning how he reads. he remembers how he or she perceives knowledge or

memorization. they hate his guts. and i believe that this is a source of anti-semitism. it is like a mixture of jealousy and and we and so it's one -- to 500 non--- as this planet. they are 60 million -- on this planet and 8000 million people live here on. and still that point to of humanity is persecuted if you open any radio tel a vision shows and so on this little tiny is visible group practically how much one in 500 you know so totally minuscule are. accused of all kinds crimes against humanity so on which means that i believe that anti-semitism is a mental

illness it is a instead of a person making mistake, instead of correcting that mistake is going to blame somebody else for the mistake. and it is certainly unproductive and certainly murders of some kind of a mental impropriety in, appropriating kippah over to many as we're starting run out of time very very quickly you mentioned something a minute ago, which is something that's important to remember ask yourselves. herman any of you have ever heard of the quote that was given by a moderator that written by george santayana in california, an italian philosopher, when he said, those of us who do not remember our may have to learn to relive it. i don't think we going to relive the history, but the fact that we don't know it is important. i would ask ask yourself, how many of you even have of that statement and if you've heard

the statement, how many of you heard of george santayana? thank you. and then that statement is credited to lots of different people because it's so it's so important of a statement. it's such a great message that a lot of people have used it. churchill and of course, the quote him quoted frequently, well, maybe before we go to the questions, we're going get a couple of questions from the audience there, a message that you would like to give our audience. and then be anti-semitic. it you know, i, i am so used to anti-semitism since i was born, did i i really don't feel i don't care. and if somebody tells me you are dirty -- or something, i just him i'm so used to people who. and that that is a good message

not everything that someone needs to be responded to. yeah i respond to everybody suffering or my in this way i am very good in hating people because we do. we have a mic so we can take couple of questions. we've got a very short time left, but if you've got questions for our presenters, we would be happy to see so do have. hands full with a photo or something. go ahead, please stand up. identify yourself. good morning, everyone. my name? audrey schmidt. i'm a cadet from the lake braddock secondary battalion. if you had. if you have any advice for our generation, the newer generation, new policymakers, new lawmakers, people soon to be in the military, what would you say to them? to our generation? did you understand the question? unfortunately, i know. i can come up with, but just repeat the question. if you have any advice.

for our generation, new policymaker and people who are soon to come into positions of power that affect others, what would you to us do you have any advice for this? what would you say these young people that are at the beginning of their lives and leadership, what advice would you give them. in one sentence? don't cry over spilled milk. bring a cat. perhaps in a more active sense, i would test your own knowledge and find out what the gaps on what you don't know and learn to fill that gap. not only do you have any you'd like to leave with these people,

just the educate and learn is really anti-semitism because as it was, if you don't know what what you are talking about for nothing, we have one more question. about we come back to life. your. style up. i'm skye roberts and i'm a student at lake braddock point. the dare d.c. program. obviously, this boundless suffering in the world, but what can we as individuals, especially young people, possibly to prevent or lessen genocide? question is, what can i do? what can these young people do

just to do their best to prevent this from happening again? you have an action that they can take production people don't get fooled by. don't get fooled by what you see. verify what you see. verify what you hear. because the world is full of information. more lies are available to. listen to and we are forced to listen to then the truth. and this is the most important seeing most information are not reliable and the young people should learn how to distinguish between information, fake news and the real. and this is what a basic thinking person from. my closing comment is. listen to my newfound