josef mengele ordered hideous experiments on twins. one of few who will live to see liberation day. >> we heard a lot of germans yelling orders outside, then the cattle car door slid open. thousands of people poured out. the biggest confusion that i ever remember, yelling, screaming, dogs barking, people looking for one another. >> when you heard them screaming in german -- [ speaking german ] you thought what? >> i was only 10-years-old. i looked around trying to figure out what on earth is this place. my mother grabbed my twin sister and me as we stood here on this platform 70 years ago. we were holding onto mother, and nazis were yelling in german, "twins." he noticed miriam and i because we were dressed alike and looked very much alike. he demanded to know from my mother if we were twins. my mother asked is it good? the nazi nodded yes, and my mother said yes. that moment another nazi came, pulled my mother to the right of me. we were pulled to the left. all i remember is seeing her arms stretched out as she was pulled away. our pr

mengele. for you, your paternal grandparents were both killed at auschwitz.-- what was it like for you? >> it was amazing. i thought of going many times over the years. i never made it there for whatever reason. and i went there, you know, as you know, we were doing the pieces for cnn on our family history, our roots. i decided to go there then. i got involved not only in that piece, learning about my family's history, getting more details, more information, but i also got involved in helping cnn work on this documentary that's about to air. i'm really proud of cnn, that cnn, our excellent team, they put together this amazing one-hour documentary. it tells these stories of the survivors. their stories before the war, what life was like for them, during the war, the hell they went through, and then the lives they created after the war. such an inspiration to hear these stories. and i'm so proud that we all put it together. it's really, really powerful. >> i urge people to watch it. wolf blitzer, thank you very much. >> thank you. it is an amazing documentary.

mengele. eisenhower understood the importance of documented what he saw.mp, he urged washington to send a delegation to witness the crimes first hand so there would be no attempt to dismiss these atrocities as propaganda. the responsibility to ensure that future generations never forget these atrocities false to us. today, i join my colleagues in introducing a resolution commemorating this anniversary. this resolution calls on us to be witnesses to the 1.1 million victims murdered at auschwitz and honors the legacy of the survivors of the holocaust. i chair the senate subcommittee on the constitution of civil rights and human rights. though i am disappointed that republicans chose to change the name of that subcommittee, i am going to continue to focus on protecting human rights and all right -- civil rights. i try to give a platform to voices that are not often heard and examine what needs to be done to protect human rights. our responsibility is to focus on legislation, not lamentation. we wrote legislation and passed bills to hold perpetrators of seriou

argentinian past with nazi criminals and in those files when i was researching the story of josef mengeleome of the fugitives that arrived in south america with wanted tags on their head were held with vatican pass portds. that seemed i wanted to look at. i slowly got involved with it and then i found the publisher willing to do a book. i discovered the story was much bigger than the church and a few nazis. it wals a story of money that extended before world war ii and after. >> why does the vatican have its own bank? >> you ask a question a lot of people ask all the time which is why does it have it at all. it has it balls we forget that it's not just one of the largest religions but it's a sovereign country and used as a bank both as a central bank but as a combination sort of almost as an offshore bank. it didn't have a bank until the middle of world war ii. why then because the americans and the british were looking to make sure that no country even so called neutrals like the vatican were doing business with the nazis. one of the top money men said if we have our own bank we stay off

joseph mengele for the most barbaric kinds of torture experiments and it is so shocking and so horrible doctors, so-called doctors, this was a sick part of the nazi history, sickest that you can even imagine. it's hard to believe that people could do this to other people. >> the parents were taken to the right. the older brothers and sisters were taken to the right and they went right to the gas chambers. >> when i first walked into the gas chamber, i thought about my -- my paternal grandparents. my dad's mom and dad who were killed probably in that gas chamber. i don't know for sure but i know they were killed. they were murdered at auschwitz, and i know that they probably were taken into that gas chamber. i don't know what was going through their mind. did they know that this was going to be the end? >> i waited a long time. i could have gone many years earlier, but for some reason i didn't. i don't know why. on my dad's side he grew up in the town of auschwitz. he was born in auschwitz. he grew up in a village, that town and i walked around that town and i couldn't believe how close

mengele time they could accomplish a number of things the venture improve the quality of life to increase the feeling with the day to day activity that goes on in our streets to create an environment a shared trusting values with public safety strategy to talk about the approach when i became mayor in 2008 coming to office this safety would be the number-one issue in philadelphia because without it increase graduation rates attracting businesses and creating jobs would never be possible. we take this approach would of the primary functions calabria for stadia that no city can be great between the government and its citizens. honestly solid ground with the police commissioner charles ramsey. and across the country knowing that i needed someone who shared my values for a safer and smarter police force and through philadelphia of the entire team assembled the director of public safety with mr. ramsey and his deputy commissioners they have worked together entirely for the last seven years to make this vision and a reality as a long disserving police commissioner 35 years in philadelphia. it i

joseph message lay -- mengele. the nazi physician known as the angel of death. as my mother, grandparents, two sisters, and baby brother were all sent to the left to be burned in hitler's offense my father and i were sent to the right. the first night inside auschwitz my father said we must separate because together we would suffer double. he quoted his father, on your own, you will survive. his father told him. quote, you are young and strong and i know you will survive. if you survive by yourself you must honor us by living. by not feeling sorry for us. this is what you must do. unquote that was the last time i ever saw my father. i'm grateful for my father's words of grace and guidance. they echo in my heart even still. it's a cruel thing feeling guilty for surviving but my father erased any future guilt and replaced it with purpose. it was a gift only a father of wisdom could give. it gave me a reason to go forward a reason to be. it does still. part of heeding my father's words involved replacing the horrors of my holocaust past with a life spent creating b

standing before them was joseph mengele to await their fate, turning left may have meant survival for a few weeks at least. so many voices were silenced that now we have to tell their stories. as the memory of the holocaust passes from those who were there to the generations that weren't, we can't forget the importance of remembrance and speaking out against intolerance whenever and wherever it occurs. unfortunately, these horrible crimes still take place consider nigeria isil in syria and iraq and the barbaric systems of gulag in north korea. we cannot be silent. as ruth eglish said yesterday in "washington post," i used to be an optimist but the situation in the middle east has changed and the world does not notice anything. the bottom line is, it can happen again and it is happening again in many places not necessarily to the jews but to anyone. our promise to hold accountable those who commit the most un speakable crimes will ring hollow unless we lead the world in punishing those responsible for the gravest human rights violations. i look forward to continuing to work with my col