#88: Behind the Bima - Sam Ron, Holocaust Survivor

the rabbis ephraim goldberg philip moskowitz and josh brody are taking you behind the bema the brs rabbis schmooze about contemporary issues and talk to special guests who give a behind-the-scenes look at how they got to where they are and what keeps them going welcome to behind the bema good evening it's wednesday night at 9 00 p.m rabbi from gold we're joined by my colleague and dear friend rabbi joshua brody we're here to take you behind the behind the bema the special yamashoa edition of behind the bema as tonight is yom hashoah which really is a perfect segue to thank our sponsors this evening i want to thank my autonom bruce and jill minsky dear friends and mahatanam who sponsored tonight's episode in memory of my in-laws parents that is my wife's parents parents so in uh in in memory of the parents of dr robin judy brookstein iron olivia and esther goldsmith and you saw nelson esther brookstein three out of four of whom were survivors the brooksteins my wife's bobby and zaidi were incredible people uh survivors of auschwitz each of them lost a spouse and a child in the war uh their first cousins who were drawn to one another as children but they grew up really hardcore hasidam in hungary and their family didn't allow for that and other reasons but when they both survived and they had lost everyone they went back to their hometown there was no one to say that they couldn't be together and so they got married they had only my father-in-law which is why my wife exists which is why my children exist so it's so they have an extraordinary story and my wife's oppa arnold goldsmith from muncie those new arnold goldsmith and later miami beach and israel he was a towering figure in physical height and also a person of tremendous amount and faith who had lost everyone and everything came to this country with no i'd say the shirt on his back i don't think he even had that and rebuilt so i'm uh deeply grateful to my majesty this evening in in honor of those four three of whom were survivors and and that gives tonight a lot of meaning as it is so rabbi brody normally tonight we'd be doing a live hookup with you we here in boca and despite poland being several hours ahead in time zone we'd be doing a live hookup with you and the students of the march living what happened with the march of living this year yeah this was actually not due to covid this was actually due to the war um two years due to covet and now a third year and when you think about the fact that it's fifteen thousand eighteen thousand twelve thousand numbers are so big in terms of the educational reach that the and the opportunity these kids have to go and travel back to auschwitz back to you know these camps with survivors you saw that tonight this is not gonna be happening for many many more years um it's it's it's it's the end of another era when when sam that's what i was trying to tell you at the beginning he was actually not that he that the march was going to go and then got canceled again sam was actually scheduled to go as a 98 year old he's not stopping sam ron is our guest tonight yeah and our guest was supposed to include a jack as well who the friend with whom he had a reunion after almost 80 years unfortunately jack's not feeling well so unable to join us but sam's got an extraordinary story on his own and we'll talk about that reunion with jack just a month ago when they saw each other for the first time in nearly 80 years so sam had been on 11 march of the living 11 times he relived and walked back on that uh it's not a hallowed ground it's a tragic round of poland and you were there with how many times with him yeah probably 10 or 11 times with him i showed him that picture when we were walking out went into your office i showed the picture with robbie steinhardt and that's right you know and he was that was actually before he went so he he couldn't even recognize anyone in that picture you know it's an interesting night in that yomashua and again even if you're listening you're catching up on behind the beam uh later this week or at a later date it's no longer but it's a fascinating thing because you know unlike pesach whatever denomination of jew you are religious non-religious whatever background you you honor the same calendar says pesach pesach is a universal jewish holiday and we all kept it and yamaha there's segments of the jewish community who do not observe and do not keep and there is some controversy around it people are sometimes surprised to learn that rabbi salovey was not in favor of yamashua he felt that we have a date on our calendar that contains within it collectively all of jewish tragedy and calamity through the years above the ninth of ava is designated as the inauspicious day on our calendar it is in perpetuity a day of jewish grief and mourning collectively and we include and invoke within it not only the destruction of the two temples the tubate miktas but the crusades and inquisition and the holocaust is part of tish above and should be mourned on tish above not at a different day um and yet the state of israel obviously and it's a whole history to this rabbi j.j shafter has an article about the history of yamashita when it was introduced and different days that were considered and the vote that took place and the controversy around it but you know my feeling is that as long as we have survivors it's not a matter of what you believe or what you want or what you think objectively or how you wish our calendar was marked if there are survivors and for them they want to see a program that is full because that gives meaning to their suffering they know that their story will continue to be told then i think we have a moral obligation to honor them and support them and and show them the love that they so deserve i mean survivors yeah you saw that tonight when they came up and lit those candles the fact that you didn't give them a microphone they didn't need a microphone as soon as they lit a candle like for anyone else it was okay let me just take the match let me light the candle for them they yelled out names you know those names are people that they lost right and that was a special moment right and we've had you know since i've been here we've had yomashaw programs and and as i say whatever your personal view or whatever the controversy around it to me it's about respecting and honoring survivors and really i think every survivor i've ever known they loved their family and it was all about the continuity of their family but they were also so concerned and devoted to their story continuing to be told yeah one of the big fears of survivors whether they're articulated or not is that that we'll move on that'll become part of history and not not from obviously some some ego standpoint like tell my story but meaning it's so important to the jewish people it's our story and to learn from it the lessons of it and to go forward and to make sure it's not repeated so that's why i think that we've got to do it and you know it used to be 20 years ago more than 20 years ago and you and i were first here and and the mushroom program at boca raton synagogue there's a big table in the front and there are six large seven-day candles and then a ton of little tea lights around it and we always begin by calling up survivors to light the big candles and it used to be even a little a little complicated because he had many more than six survivors so who would be so to say honored with lighting the six big candles and who would be relegated to the little tea lights right the fact that second and third generation light tealights got it but it used to be which survivors you know who were the older ones or whose story was the most remarkable and tonight six large seven-day candles two survivors two survivors yeah she will think i was full hundreds of people and two survivors who were there to light candles and that just tells you it tells you everything you know so um it's it's the end of an year in a generation and it's a really sad time yeah and it's interesting on the way back so i was talking to sam and his wife in the car and i asked him i said you know how did you think it went like you okay he says first of all he was so happy with the with the reception and he really felt like he said he said i'm just being honest i'm speaking tomorrow night somewhere else and i don't even know what what the story is going to be because i just know the people i'm talking to that happens to me it's an older group let's just say in the community and he's like i don't think that they're really interested so he was so happy to feel that reception there and did you see him just interrupt you i'm sorry yeah he kept looking at his watch looking back at me you know again we're gonna we're gonna this is the interview tonight so you'll hear this was our yamashita program and this is our interview tonight to share so appropriate any day of the year to hear a survivor tell their story but particularly he kept looking at his watch as if to say to me like i'm probably boring people let me make this quick or let me wrap this up it was like it was like you know you're you're almost 98 years old you have 100 years of stories to tell take your time no one's going anywhere we're here to hear your story how much longer do we have to hear it right like speak but so it's interesting to see that he's concerned about that yeah and he's funny because he says he said i just want you to know i'm completely honest i'm not like the others i tell you they will tell you what you want to hear he says i tell you the way i feel it might not be the the the politically correct thing to do or to say and he just wanted you to know that so everything you're about to hear is is is what you're called i think once you hit 97 your filter is kind of gone yeah you know you just you just say it is it is he um but what what a story what a story and you know something else i asked i said i asked him about his kids now you don't get to hear that because it wasn't that wasn't part of the the thing but he does have kids but one of his children his daughter he has cerebral palsy oh wow so just imagine you know you like you said you recounted every one of the challenges he has been through and now he finally made it right and it gets to america one of the reasons actually stayed in america as opposed to going back to israel was better care back in the 50s for a daughter that had cerebral palsy but he said he just went to chicago they're there all the time like they just want to be with family and you know just you know sometimes yeah we're not you know we're not spoiling the interview but we'll tell you as you watch or listen just watch as he's talking about the holocaust he's talking about being hidden in a barn then being in concentration camps then being on a death march and then um and and then being shot at by arabs and then friday and and now you're saying he has a charisma and all he does is smile and laugh and you know as we finish up the interview you won't hear this he turns to me he goes i think now i should get free membership at the synagogue and then he couldn't he couldn't stop laughing he cracked himself up but you know what i told him he has honorary membership you have to believe that part of the ingredients of survival yeah is that optimism that hope that positive demeanor that ability to laugh and smile even on yomashua talking about this there's no question he's mourning and grieving what he lost i mean he said there's not a moment that goes by where he's not thinking about those train tracks he hears the train tracks in his mind all the time you have his grandparents and shaunie's grandparents that were there tonight is in memory of um they used to go to sleep with the radio on it's a big question because they were very very um but they couldn't go to sleep if it were quiet their mind would go back to those images those experiences those sounds and so they slept with the radio on they couldn't not sleep with the radio on so we don't know you know you meet a survivor and you don't realize that there's this background noise literally figuratively metaphorically this background noise playing in their life all the time and part of the extraordinary part of them being a survivor is that they don't wear that on their sleeve they're not telling it to you they're not asking for sympathy about it they're not feeling entitled because of it they went out to the greatest general they rebuilt they rebuilt you know think about we were talking about the builders of elizabeth new jersey elsewhere but survivors they rebuilt they didn't say like you know hey world you let this happen to us so now set up a little comfortable place where we don't have to work and you take care of us they worked hard and they founded yeshivas and and schools and schools and many of them sacrificed for continuity and even now i'm saying this guy has every reason in the world just to sit back relax retire and he's traveling to poland yeah right yeah we did it we did a trip to poland a couple years ago and uh we had 40 members of the shul it was an amazing amazing trip a real diversity from the shul yeah you had every segment and every background and every level of observance and the first night i don't remember if i told this one behind the beam you'll stop me except that you won't remember either where's our fact checker but the first night it doesn't matter what age you are everyone acts like kids right so the first night everybody sits for dinner at their tables based on their click right so the more this crowd sat there and the more that crowd sat there and this age group said that and the ones that look like that and you send your kids that's cool sat there everybody's a part and i got up at dinner and i said like nobody went to the gas chamber based on where their kid went to school the yamaka they wore or what they davened what level observance they were i said so our goal is very simple by the end of this trip by the end of this trip we're all mixed we're all integrated we're all mingled together and from that trip incredible friendships formed of people with such diversity you'd never believe it or imagine it so the trip was predominantly second generation it was mostly people whose parents were survivors and and being back in poland and walking by donek auschwitz birkenau treblink obviously there's not a lot left there and even just just being in warsaw and krakow and the other places that we went and saw and you've been there so many so many times um what they had heard from their parents or imagined about their parents came to life and they were overwhelmed in pain on this trip because many most likely their parents were no longer here right and now they had so many questions and so much they wanted to know but one person got up i won't say his name he got up and he was very emotional he's a pretty stoic person and he got up he was very emotional and he just started crying he couldn't control himself and he said he said you know i always thought my father was like a nebucha and i was a hero it's like my father worked in the post office he had no education he worked in the post office i remember this was the night after he walked auschwitz and he said i'm a successful business person and i have certain esteem and prominence and success in life so i like looked at my father like i far surpassed him he got up there and he said i lived with a malach with an angel and i never knew it he said my father lived in this place how she survived this place and the fact that he took care of us and gave us a life and a and a family and and stayed true to hashem to god and to religion he said i lived with an angel and i never knew it i'm a nothing and my father was an angel and i can't tell him and i can't talk to him and i can't take care of him in that way now he was so broken by that broken by that so if you have a survivor if you have access to a survivor go get a bracha yeah go get a bracha there's a long line tonight right people right afterwards people take pictures and it's like funny who you think your heroes are you take pictures with people that you admire and yeah these are people how many years do we neglect them they're in shul they've got a funny accent maybe they have numbers in their arm right maybe once a year we hear their story a little bit but these are angels who lived among us you know today i joke but i'm partially not joking today somebody's like my wi-fi is slow there's no god i stubbed my toe there's no god right or i had a middle seat on the flight or we would delay there's no god the survivors like i lost my parents all my siblings my whole town was killed i lost everything i knew i was robbed of going to school right i was hated and you know what i put on filling every day i'd have until shin and song you're the same thing in the march of living when the teenagers are with the survivors they're like i can't believe we're walking all day in the freezing cold and you look at them and the survivors are like i'm sorry in your nice boots and you know i'm sorry in your 300 jacket so it's a little just a little bit different yeah we can't live that way that we don't feel ever sad by our challenges because hey at least we're not in the holocaust we're not suggesting that what we are suggesting is that you we latch on to their to their faith you know i'm a big believer in and i admire the recovery community addiction community recovery community and one of the underlying principles of recovery is submitting to a higher power right when you stop thinking that you can control it you stop thinking you're in charge one of the steps of recovery the 12 steps is submitting to a higher power so there's a young great guy connected to our community he's not in our community and he's in recovery for many years and such courage and and i'm always honored when someone shares it with me and lets me learn from it so he told me once he was listening to an immunity and he said i want to tell you something he said you know what happens if you're in recovery and you struggle with believing in god you struggle with the higher power so how do you submit to the higher power when you struggle in believing in a higher power so he said in recovery there's an idea that you find somebody with the higher power and you submit to his higher power now they're just saying i don't know i have uncertainty i have doubt it's complicated i don't know if i feel it i don't feel connected right now but you know what i'm going to find somebody who's on fire who's connected who is faith who it's unshakable and i'm gonna latch on i'm gonna ride their coattails i'm gonna grab on the famous blizzard story jumping over the canyon i held on to you and who did you hold on to so you you submit to that higher power so you know tonight and this is a good segue we'll bring sam ron on in a moment you submit to his higher power you know martin judith oliver shalom was that was a amazing survivor in our communities our first yamashita without him we interviewed him last year two years ago yamashita how do you believe in hashem and he said you know i lost my mother i lost my father i had one parent left a vino shabashimayan i should lose him too i should give up on god also so he holds on to that higher power sometimes when we struggle in less significant ways significant for us grab on and latch on to their higher power is a strategy is something that we can do it's something that we can do so we had some some technological problems at the beginning the video may not be great quality but it's well worth watching listening sam's an amazing person really amazing real uh positive and hopeful and when you hear his story contains everything from losing everybody to fighting on behalf of the founding of the state of israel yeah it's got it's got everything to it it's really well worth uh listening to and uh we're grateful that he came we're sorry jack was unable to be here but sam will talk about what that was like reuniting with him and uh we'll see on the other side we'll talk a little bit about about pesach and some other things that are going on so without any further ado sam ron great honor to be able to welcome sam to be with us this evening giving tremendous meaning to our yamaha [Music] and another guest sam's long time friend [Music] sorry excuse me um jack unfortunately was not feeling well [Music] jack is not feeling what was unable to be here this evening before we begin jack unfortunately is not feeling well i was unable to be here this evening he's in our thoughts on filos because god he should gain his strength and continue to speak together with you jack sends his regrets and we'll have the opportunity to hear from him please god in the future but before we even begin our conversation we're so deeply indebted and grateful to sam for being with us this evening it's his wife billo who's here tonight sam would like to say some words before we begin all i just want to say it is a great honor for me to be here this great congregation what we have there and all the distinguished rabbis so it's really a privilege and honorable me too the other thing i just want to add to the story that tonight and tomorrow is young it's the day is designated because on 27 of nissan was the end [Music] so thank you okay we're getting the other microphone up and running in the meantime again it's a great honor um we've all read about and saw the story saying just a month ago this incredible reunion and the circumstances behind it sam is a long-time resident here in boca raton and a friend of our community a dear friend of march of the living of which you've been on how many times 11 times on march [Applause] it was one of the great programs and this year we couldn't go because uh what happened right corona you know this year the only thing i will tell you is to see i am a holocaust survivor from poland the the tragedies that we only survive very few very few of us survive polish jews and they debate in the camps now a lot of survived people survived in soviet union that world or william some secrets arrive fighting in the dead in the forest some children survive in the monasteries but on the campus was only seventy thousand of us probably should survive and a few of us are still arrived there not only this you can see jack same age of mine and he could come today so a lot of my people would have gone there so it's a privilege for me to be here today and now i represent 100 years of jewish experience almost 100 years of jewish experience i'll be happy to answer any questions about it because the main thing i want to tell you something the reason that i could make this house i had a great start as a young man i was born in a proud french family traditional jewish family i went to a dance i went to a hater and i went to study hebrew and in the last last year of the war before the war i went to hebrew high school in the city of krakow because i was born in the little town to be mice away there so i had i had a good a good education i was good looking girls are good students but uh but i got from my parents to my parents or my grandparents that i could i could fight the germans i never fight them with the arms but i fight them and i'm still here absolutely incredible sir we're so grateful that you're still here we're grateful for you being with us here this evening i want to take a step back really and thanking all those who are here in attendance in person it's not a simple thing in our time but the importance of showing up on yom and honoring the kadosha and the martyrs and honoring our survivors and showing them the respect they you are our heroes we can't begin to fathom what you went through and your dedication and commitment to rebuild and we are only here as a jewish people because of you your resilience and your faith and your fortitude and your optimism and your hope and so we the jewish people of today are so deeply indebted to the survivors we wouldn't be here without you and i want to thank those who came tonight those who are here in person those who are watching virtually who are part of honoring you and sam has a cousin ralla feldman one of my mother's closest friends i grew up with so we're practically responding through our mutual his cousin our mutual our mutual dear friend and we want to get into your life story and we want to learn from you and we're grateful for people who've never been on march of a living or went back you can't imagine what it's like not physically grueling but emotionally and for a survivor for a survivor to go back to poland for a survivor to go back to walk the camps in which they suffered is to live a nightmare over and over and over again so same that you did it 11 times and you only did it so that our students would learn and were here and the young people would get testimony from someone who experienced it thank you thank you for your commitment and thank you for going back so many times so sam before before we begin with your life story walk us through one month ago you were an honorary chair of a dinner for the holocaust museum and you were speaking at the podium you mentioned your original name your name was not sam ron growing up in poland and what happened you you mentioned your name and jack was sitting in the crowd what happened not the name i was mentioning that kenpo was in there as soon as i said the man jumped up on the seat tail and came over running to me said you're my brother i haven't seen him for 79 years we were working in the same place for eight months nothing in the same camp but at the same place we were working in a powerhouse for eight months and he was lucky it's the first time he came to the little event i've been there every year so that's a miracle i guess another miracle so we became very friendly and i talked to him we just yesterday went two hours interview with a yummy hero that's in the paper now and he called me he went to the doctor and doesn't feel good that's that's what's going on you know i i lose a lot of friends there so as long i can talk and i i remember i'll be talking and doing this for 60 years trying to educate trying to educate particularly three kids particularly when we're going to march of the living we get kids boys and girls who was ready to go to college next year i try to give him a lot of hope and i like that they should advocate our issues there that's very important there then we talk to schools and non-reach kids maybe maybe we'll help maybe maybe one day whatever better worker we have now can you tell us can you describe for us what did it feel like when you saw and when you were reunited with jack did you remember him from the camp and what was it like you never knew what happened that he survived he didn't know you survived what did that feel like in the first minute i wasn't sure yet you know then it came over and started talking like a reference it was an amazing story because i met i met survivors all the time but this is something unusual there you know 400 people around all the newspapers for the last month i didn't stop one day every televisions in the country every newspaper everybody would bother me now so it was a it was a great thing because very few of us still live with life you know so i was reading in the news today last year 15 500 survivors died in israel so we we are very few of us are still alive i'm i'm 97 i'll be 98 in a couple months i i live in a wonderful place here on the federation round in are you dedicating a torah at sinai yes i did you just nozzle tell us amazing if you want me to talk about i'm not going to talk to you about history and what happened in articles i i just want to go through to you what how to feast to be in this in a certain situation should i do that sure okay now let me think and i at age 15 age 15 when i was 15 years old the gentleman attacked poland they came to my town after four days after a couple days let me carry life turned upside down we lost our dignity we lost our freedom everything we lost the first thing we couldn't go to school anymore jesus christ they took most of the business away they uh uh in the city we're not allowed to leave their house there you know and then our first winter came they took our force away in my town they killed a couple people that gave up that first day and then what happened is slave labor everybody stayed labor let me tell you how how they're feeling this we were my parents were well to do we're not very rich but we will to do my father was our desires and was a progressive person there so we were it was a super factory in the county so we were doing a lot of business with them so i used to have it i could have gone in there every time we did there and then one day i became a strange label in that place before i was somebody right now i was nobody i was a state neighbor so to continue like this in the big cities individually they create ghettos and warsaw they have immigrant jews boat crowd of the big cities in my little town was a little down the population of three thousand there were 62 families you know you know so we were there what was the name of your town the town was not as big as the natives in english they called the kashmir yes you know it was stupid so but my family i was born there my parents were born in the city my two grandmothers were born in that same city we lived there for many many generations most of us did well there with such a scenario yeah i started out probably four or five what we learned is how we were teaching you know in your small town as a fader in a small town or you like to go to crack i don't know how he doesn't play this after school but then i had a teacher a cuter i was teaching hebrew i was very good in hebrew i was a i was an attendant in a a zionist scout organization or a theory so i was very good in hebrew it was very good and as a matter of fact you know when i went to high school in capital leicester in the city of krakow this was it's a wonder what it was the greatest city in poland there was four high schools it was synagogues in that through there i don't know how many yeshivas how many stables are there in the jewish cemetery but you know what happens when i i started september and in october october the germans have stayed with 26 000 jews holy citizens from germany and so what they did they came to my town they took away our student home for a this was the first experience and you know what happened is that one there's a jewish kid clinched by in paris his parents was among the survivors the associated gentleman the next day we had the christmas that was my first experience you know this is a little break about myself so next thing in hanukkah it was a big event in a and then what came in the screen the white the white people came british so i think that's here that could make my character my jewish character today so now you know what i'm telling you later and then what happens in in earth january 22nd 1942 in a conference advancing in berlin and they decided on this on a jewish solution of jewish people so what they did created created their chambers contract elsa solidworks where millions of people were gas straight yesterday so when it's 42 when time came for my city for deportation we went in and hiding with polish friends and hiding now let me explain this how how to fix this midnight saturday night we walked out from our house we walked out no one was chasing us we walked out from the house but we had a grandmother over 90 years old we couldn't take her with her so you know the emotions we didn't say nothing but we know that next day she'll be killed i'm just telling you emotions what happens and then we walked in in a barn in the bottom eight people in the bottom was it difficult to find a neighbor who was willing to tell they were willing to risk their own lives yes so we lived in that bomb after two or three months but there was things it was dangerous outside there was a lot of people executed so my parents decided we smuggled ourselves into the ghetto cracker start with ourselves and you know i thought we were smart the gentleman didn't care that you get in they wouldn't let you get out so i mean also i spent some time in the catholic on march 15 1943 they liquidated the ghetto so we would work in different spaces we were marched in with the ghetto parchment so this was as a savage and there was two ghettos from the crocodile a and b and then they were over two thousand people they were killed that muslim was was shot there you don't see that or probably should dislike and then i get the parcel now let me tell you this the first three days the first three days when i was in the camp i was buried they were bringing in the people from the ghetto to very in the capital you know when you were doing it for three days you wouldn't believe this i found a friend of mine you know you know how that feels this a friend of mine was dead and i buried him you know it's unbelievable how old were you i was uh 17. the camp of fashion is probably one of the worst things that was in there because there was a crazy guy wasn't in charge i'm not getting his name he got shoot any anytime one should and then there were other things like this there were selections on the playstation you know selection everyone said there anybody they don't like to send them to auschwitz i was seeing like a woman standing behind me and pinching the kicks you know she wanted to look so fresh then there was execution there angry you know it was a terrible place we're not very hungry over there finally by september i was coming home to work and putting in this decade and the next day they take us in the haircut the first time i walked in that cattle car you know how it seems to be in a kettle car first of all you don't know where you're going whatever they tell you we don't believe what they're saying but they showed that door 100 people in the kettle car they put a bucket of water a bucket for sanitation let me tell you you become an animal there ever this i've been four times in general you know there was a movie there was a movie the show so finally we get to a place yes this guy was working there so they unload the sale that puts you in the shower were any members of your family with you at this time my family i had all my family in class when i left i left my family my mother i didn't know at that time my mother was on the same plane to another place there and i told her my brother did anyone else survive uh my father survived my counsel he spent the whole year in an american hospital in austria and my mother survived in gross roles in the german the russians the liberator and my brother died for a week two weeks before the end of the war he died in my house so i get to go get him in the shower you don't know what's coming out from there and there you look gas or water you don't know this when guests and water came you know we started singing there's a hebrew song by so finally i get in the new camera uh i spent a year in that character that guilty was we we were hungry we were dearly there was not very very bad hard work hard work this is why i worked with jack for eight months in one place there and then so there was all of our attentions jack jack in 1944 and somewhat when the rationality was clear get closer they stopped they had a half of poland they stopped at the distillate our camp was six miles away from there so as they were planning to take everybody through our sheets jack ran away i was we were planning or digging a town together but you know when the time came four guys left two of us to the states one of them survived from the fourth so what happened what happened there is that they stopped working there was a big ammunition that they won the largest ammunition victory and uh the manager the owner of the company he didn't want to go to the world for this he got permission to move the machine away to germany to rebuild effectively so he got permission to take 300 jews to germany so i [Music] one day airway to shore the one day i went to work on saturday i came back all the 3 000 people went to auschwitz and we remained to 300 people and finally they told us that we're gonna go to germany eventually we got to germany i got the jackson house in orlando and almost 1944 but you know when we got to jackson house and we were sitting on the and the cowboys cobblestones they didn't want us they didn't order they build the jews they didn't have jews in the running boat at that time the only jews they had in the running boat was people were printing horse money i don't know in the movie they were about 200 printers they printed british money there but there were no jews they didn't want us but they never knew choice after six hours we marched through the camp and we get again in the shower wow the shower that they they cut them and then they did it and i don't know what it is and then they gave us paper clothes no shoes and they put us in isolation for three weeks if we get well and we can go back then it took us places where the machine learned it was another candidate sometimes the problem was in germany in the world there we were hungry hungry eight months hungry you have an idea what eight months hunger is you know what the menu was there in the morning after rojo you get coffee look like coffee then you go out to work you'll come back and get soup with clothes about to the end of the world you're going to find a piece of wood in that and then on sunday they're two slices where you know there was nothing unusual you wake up in the morning and next something next to you is it's called then so hungover i had no idea you know i take it straight to you what means hunger it was terrible i mean it doesn't matter how hard work hunger was the worst thing there i had some i had some good jobs one time in germany you know we were digging out unexploded bombs 250 pounds the americans of the british redundant and then they have the german firemen who took care of the detonation here but what happened but the good thing about it is there were irates so they showed us in it with the germans and then showed it and we would get in there and find a special cigarette a scrap of apple so that was a good job you know this was the end of the war for the eight months the worst we had a red triangle and then the jews that put that yellow triangle in the other way to look like a mug adobe so one day there were rumors that this at the end we're gonna no i never liked rumors but they always like next day they're gonna separate the jews from the vessel that means the jews is a bad idea so what we did two of us we pulled off the hero and then we became polish polish prisoners the next morning the nationalities so we decided we're going with the polls you know so as we go into the post they kicked us out they said your dirty jewels go to your but they said the guard didn't know what's going on he pushed us in with them so anyhow but this was beginning of that march april 11 and 12. you know it's very interesting then on the 12th of april the god came over and he said to me like this to us your uncle just died mike that was my uncle so this is the end of you guys you know who just died that's another story so we were we walked out from the gym there they gave us you know a fresh bag for six people i caught my part for two and a half weeks no food was given for two and a half weeks no food was written so the first week we marched anybody stepped out that shot no christine no julian or jackson the second week anybody stepped out they didn't carry lay on the now we know this what happened is him there you know himmler was the head of the ss he started making some beasts with the swedish people who want to save himself so they stopped shooting and swedish ambulances came and picked up these people i would never walk in an ambulance because the germans always come across today so finally until the week they walked us in the forest like two thousand people in the forest you know who those people were eating the barks on the trees you know i went with my wife we visited poland in 89 in germany and we went to that place the park on the north side of the trees never grew up on the north side of the trees he bought them everywhere so hundreds of people died there i wasn't one i had one friend so we were watching each other one was sleeping one was watching because he got the guys shipping their blanket and the shoes so finally on may 2 1945 at midnight the cars disappeared we were left in the woods and i was free my nightmare of five years nine months was over that minute i became a free person a survivor when i became a survivor where did you go from there so first of all uh we had settled down in the city for a while two or three weeks there was a lot of stories about it we walked out of the city and i seen some uh american soldiers doing the traffic you know deciding the two guys standing there we i don't know what's my idea or the other way that guy looks like mushy from brooklyn so we went over there and they asked him why she won't work he said i'm not from brooklyn but i know i live in the nation so he took us in the apartment store he told us to take anything you want i resist them well we spend a few weeks there and finally i went back to home i went back to poland now in poland we were not very welcoming not welcome there you know 1500 survivors was killed by polish nationalists after the war and there was a big program in culture with 42 so i came and went back to the city of krakow because this is why i knew the city and there was a jewish jewish community and there was a book from the table and nobody counseling so before i send your name i was sleeping around you said i found my mother's name my mother's name in the netherlands so i just took off like a storm and see my mother so i knew the city i knew the place that's when you learned that your mother had survived yes i was seeing her name in that book yeah because she came back from from gross frozen to krakow you know so i knocked on the door nobody answered the door the janitor comes out and said i knew that janitor she worked for my uncle she said your mother's in hospital i said what do you mean she's not sick but the sister is in husband so i sit on the steps waiting waiting i don't know how long eight hours finally my mother came now do i have to describe you the emotion after two three years i didn't see my mother my wife said make up a story don't make it flips don't make me watch it she said but you know so i said why is his sister in the hospital she said you know we went back to the living town because we stayed with the jewish men who survived there and one night they came some bandits or nationalists and whatever so i then jumped out on the window over lake my mother too so they went to the hospital to crack up so my mother says don't go back to your house i own the house here in the city wow so many questions and so much to talk about tell us the name sam ron how did you get you weren't born with the name now blame my wife for it she's an israeli born after we married she changed my name my name was lacoste she changed my name but then okay this is very interesting because i i don't know i was i had a cousin they told me that one of my cousins who survived in the soviet union was an officer in the polish russian army so he was in the city players today my mother said don't see other you know so i went so i stopped in the city of catalina and when they are walking in the street the guy is happy oh yeah think about it you'll say what's that say my age he said sam what are you doing i said i'm not doing nothing i don't know so why don't you join me i was working with from eastern europe all the jews out to italy and then they went on the illegal ships of palestine israel and eventually eventually i went in 46. to arabs israel i i went down in lego ships because we had permission to take 1100 young people legally so i i was a madrid 130 kids so i went to palestine for years israel and it came in april the 24th of 25th so what's happening we got to regard 1100 we have 1500 so the british speakers are not making a good contention but after a few days how long did you stay in palestine palestine i don't call it palestine whatever i joined a group of survivors who were waiting for a place to get the settlement now they came wasn't the naked the most was the post there so we were 30 people there i was again i was the executive director i was killed so we we were there on the negative you know and uh just like shot there uh on november the 27th 29th they decided in the united nations soon as they decide the nation the arabs start shooting so 10 days later hundreds of heroes protect us i was wounded in another problem but this it was a very amazing story because the negative was cut off from the easter so we had a pilot on a little plane playing a piper and he used to come when he debated so one day you come with domain you see that out of shooting so he went back to another place that they say you know and they opened the door and they came back they threw a few hand grenades in the tube it was a movie showing the sons of water what they did so the arabs disappeared but meanwhile i was wondering so he was one of the worst the guy so he took him first he couldn't take two people so he meanwhile british british military came over to help us so the guy my mother could not stop my blood they helped me the british and then they took me to meditation and uh and then the piper came back and take me to the hospital and the attenborough came so sam your story is extraordinary and and listening all of us listening you you were hit by a polish family you went to concentration camp slave labor camp death march and even after being liberated and having a second new lease on life you're shot at by arabs and injured israeli army serving the israeli army [Music] and now when i had a bad job there we lived for 10 years with two children in israel my life was teaching israel i had a very good job with the company what happened my parents lived in ohio and they got sick ill so they asked me to come back to them so in 56 we went to the united states on a visit and we stayed and they had to take care of my parents it's not too late you could still make aliyah it's not too late [Applause] so it's a it's a remarkable story it's an incredible story and here's my question and i'm sure it's on the minds of many listening to you said you're describing the worst atrocities in the history of mankind and yet you still have the ability to smile and to laugh and to be joyful and to be positive how how is that possible how after everything that you went through did you not give up hope in humanity i told you at the beginning i had a good start a good start my parents were like infamous my mother told me that i'll make it i hate it i had a story i tell you school there was three jewish kids there there's one boy and two girls and in the fifth game jesus was on the wall they were praying there one day the guy in vegas called me to the jew you know what sunday i picked up my ink and i spilled on them there i get that myself who's moving now [Applause] i came home my mother said you will make it amazing [Applause] i want to say i want to ask you as a follow-up a serious question there are many people who go through a lot less than what you did who don't believe in god they don't believe in hashem anymore they give up on judaism they give up on the religion and we don't judge people who went through what you went through of course we don't sit in judgment of others but i want to learn we want to learn and be inspired from you how do you maintain amuna how do you maintain your faith in hashem how do you maintain a commitment to judaism in the jewish continuity after everything that you went through you know this is a very a very complicated question about hashem i'm not going in in this about hashem what happened yeah you know i i the only thing i was i was i am a jew with over a mafia i very i happened not to be a member of this congregation remember with a foreign temple but i am still a very jew i i i swear to israel and i get blood in his ear and i suffered for five months and never they never cut me down they never cut me down i never never gave up [Applause] and i'm teaching the kids not to give up yeah and teaching them two things hate not to use hate is not a good thing for you what they hate doing doesn't do good for you if you hate somebody that's why i'm teaching the kids okay and in hope and believe in yourself you get someplace amazing when you were when you were in the camp or on the death march did you see kindness did you see kindness between people when people were trying to know there was no kindness i i i don't want to say this even in the catholic there was no kindness no kindness i don't think i ever seen it well we were friends you know but uh everybody was horizontal everyone was trying that's my opinion there's a lot of you know a lot of stories lao has a story about that came to the college i i have never seen miss anything there i i've been five years nine months i tried to stay alive that's all yeah now this this week the torah portion that we'll read it's called which is after after aram lost his two sons after tragedy that is and there's rebirth and that's your story certainly coming into the state of israel the rebirth what was it like to go from thinking this is the end of the jewish people this is the end of our story after 2000 years seeing the miracle of the birth of the state of israel to live both sides of that and to be present for both parts of it what was that like i did my part i was in the army my wife wasn't young you know but during when you were living through the atrocity did you think it was the end of the jewish people no way i well you know something in the camps i was looking to survive another day i didn't know we didn't know what's happening the rest of the world you know we know that uh millions of people were dead but we didn't know this there was no i you know some people have some rabbis have miracles i have not seen anything i don't i don't say that it wasn't it was a miracle that was survived anyhow you sitting here you're the biggest miracle that's why i'm sitting here right now the last one jack you know you know the state of israel is a miracle say there isn't a military right it's a great leader no my wife my wife was in the army too and she wrote me a letter she said i'm writing you a letter in there to say but when you finish the letter we uh [Music] and each number has a capitalistic theme to it and the the number that we're going to count tonight is ho chi minh the splendor the glory of strength and you are a model and an inspiration of strength of a physical strength to endure and survive but a spiritual strength and a positivity and a hope and i want to ask the last question is that please god will have you and jack and survivors please god still for many more years but there'll come a time that the young people will live in a world without survivors what's your message to them what's your message to us what do you want us to know what do you want us to believe what do you want us to fight for you mentioned what you tell the young people well what's your message you want to leave us with tonight there's one thing there's one thing that after week one there's a new zone in washington zone in dayton that's missile all the places and there's a lot of it's a big show of business you know a lot of people writing stories well i hope i hope that we will all will come overcome all the troubles we have in israel either i am not very much worried about that in america it doesn't bother me sometimes why is that why why is that why why is that well then this way they remain they're the jews they have to be jewish somebody tells them even if you're not doing the neighborhoods of these jewish so you know you can never never never assess attentively jews another pink league our our strength is whether we believe or don't believe or become if we jewish we've suffered for 2000 years we lived in poland you know we lived a good life mostly a lot of us with good life for generations my family for my father's cycle the biggest state in poland you know uh there was a lot of poor people that they love anti-semitism but we live there every day so israel is not foreign [Applause] enjoy you know you come from new jersey you know my family my friends all these rich guys in the business you know the builders the builders there's a lot of pool tourists too we here in i am on a advisory board for helping survivors in this half country we have 260 survivors a lot of them sam thank you so much for being with us tonight and sharing your story we'll ask everyone to remain standing [Applause] sam ron the great sam ron what a story what a demeanor what a display christian what a person wow wow and even at the end there when he was saying how he is helping 260 he serves on a committee or on a board which they're helping those survivors that aren't are the ones that are in poverty the ones that need our help the question where are we you know he's 98 again and he's the one that's doing what he can to help them do you see his strength you see his strength his character his positivity it's hard not to smile during the entire in the entire interview smiling but then he's the survivor telling his story and he's smiling what'd you think of that comment he made he covered his mouth he leaned over and he said i'm not worried about anti-semitism in america a little anti-semitism is not a bad thing again if you and i said that it'd be in hot water we'd be getting a lot of emails here you have somebody right survivor definitely listen we we we're not saying i guess you know no one wants to get in trouble but you you know the the reality is that when the jews have faced a lot of anti-semitism they've they've it's not about fighting back it's about you know galvanizing as a community and standing up for what they believe in and we've seen throughout jewish history whenever we've had it good whenever we've had to you know have that opportunity to coast a little bit yeah things don't work out well for us so yeah you know it's been said that in europe they tried to kill us with hate in america they're killing us with love you look at these demolition the intermarriage rates and it's it's not always great jews forget their jews they forget why be jewish they forget the importance of the jewish story and of jewish continuity you recall on a march of living i got in big trouble uh you and i were at the warsaw cemetery standing around the warsaw cemetery we're in a mass grave and i was at warsaw and i spoke about the fact that you know talking to a group of of public school kids we're going to go back and they were going to secular colleges universities and i said you know to the degree that you assimilate and you lose or forget your judaism if you were to intermarriage and end your family's jewish story you become an accomplice to hitler's agenda and there was an adult on the trip who was very unhappy with me because we we see you know if intermarriage is in your family either you oppose it you fight it and you do everything you can to to try to thwart it or or you just move the goal posts and you embrace it and you come up with new definitions of it and and you know we of course with love and with warmth and welcoming and and respect but we have very clear definitions of who's a jew and what defines a jew and the jewish story in the jewish continuity and you're seeing you're seeing parts of the jewish people hemorrhage and disappear and that was hitler's goal hitler's goal of the world free of jews and you could get free of jews through gas chambers and crematoria and you get free of jews through assimilation and intermarriage and that person was very very upset at me for saying it to personal offense for saying it but i stand by it it's many years later and i stand by it and i'd say it again is it the most effective thing to say i don't know kid going to college campus today um maybe we have to make a more compelling or persuasive or sensitive argument maybe that's not the way to say it uh but but the idea of it and the principle of it i still stand by the challenge is that you said that 20 years ago now if you would say that in front of those kids remember there's a good chance that i'm not saying on our buses from our community it might be a little different in terms of statistics but you know in the greater jewish world you know 70 80 percent of their parents are intermarried right now right and when we have adults coming on our trips the assumption is that a significant number of them are also so it's it's it's a it's a complicated statement it's one thing you're talking to you know the audience and the school or behind the bema it's another thing when you're when you're out there it's it's no i agree so what's the argument you're talking to a kid who went to public schools parents on the peripheral jewish life who maybe had a bar mitzvah confirmation whatever they had but they really are not living i'll tell you i'm not going to make this comparison because i'm just going to try and just maybe flex a little bit i mean if you uh this past week in uh ifamas when we're talking about the definition of you know the the moms are it this is not the same thing let's just be clear we're not talking about the same thing but the question there became at least in this year was you know ellie was talking about was the um why would you blame the kid for the fault of the parents so to speak whatever that means and right getting into that philosophical discussion there's a big that is a big philosophical discussion if you had to bet which host of behind the beam would be quoting your vamos i'm not saying that it wouldn't be you i'm just saying i wouldn't bet it'd be you but rabbi brother we'll come we'll come back to our rabbi brody torah learning update now he's wearing a jacket look at him he's that's that's that's on my show i just couldn't take it off we'll come back we'll come back to the rava verde total learning update in a moment but what would you say what would you say a kid comes from a home where they did not observe he doesn't have a jewish education he's going off to a college campus and you say hey buddy hey young lady remember you're jewish don't forget your judaism and when be friends with everyone in the world but when you're looking for a spouse do not marry outside our people they say well why not really i'm just a human and i'm looking for another human it's all about being a human and they're a good person what are you saying to them for the record the last speech that i give and i guess i took it out of your playbook was you know it's always at the uh treblinka around the roast what they call the roast again without getting into to what it was you could obviously imagine when you talk about roasting and the holocaust but the message that i give there is you know i've been complaining she started yellow and and be that next link in the chain and and intermarriage is a big part of it and most of the time the adults that are there because the adults are at that point as we begin to transition you know as we go to israel um there are many that come over yeah pat on the back you know but but you know what's interesting you know what i learned also the pat on the back is not that i i'm not going through the challenges that you're speaking about it's usually that i am and and i'll say it also my family my both my uncles right they intermarried both all my first cousins are brody first cousin they're not jewish yeah there's nothing challenging so there's no there's no family here i think everyone just recognized i think that i think that the answer to your question is that people do recognize the challenges that are there and it needs to be said let's just put it on the table and and well maybe maybe we'll talk about it next week because we're not suggesting that if someone's into married we should shun them we're living in a different world we don't today sit shiva for them right we want to have any hope or possibility of of of a proper conversion or they're coming back in the future you need to leave the door open so we're not suggesting that i'm not even at the point of they are intermarrying i'm talking about how do you make the argument how do you make the case and by the way is anyone doing it there was no one better to have done it than rabbi lord saks you know and and he did in some ways i'm not sure he did explicitly did he ever write a book now how do you address you have a room full of of uh non-observant with no jewish education young jews and you're trying to make the case for them why be jewish right how do you make the case why it's very hard and from from their perspective again you're you're you're you're excluding like we're we're all part of the the modern world and why don't we all uh i'm not going to say this correctly but you're like it's like you're racist by saying right you have to only be with the jews and united premises discriminating right discriminating yeah i once had a father who was not a member of our school but asked me this goes years ago because i was assistant rabbi my office was all the way on the other side and um that wasn't a flux like i remember officers our officers are on two sides of the building that's all um and my father meet with me called me someone recommended he meet with me and with his son his son was dating a non-jewish girl and this was let's just say maybe a severity father who wasn't observing himself but the thought of his son into marrying i think he might have killed his son he would have been a murderer on our hands right so we're sitting there and the father is geared up says rabbit this is my son he's dating an unju and this can't be and he thinks i'm going to tag team with him and partner with him and come out and rail against the sun and i turned to the father and i said no i understand it i really you know it's your fault like i took my own life in my own hands yeah he turns me to father's day what are you talking about it's my fault i said let me ask you a question do you keep kosher he said no does he keep showers no so you're not willing to sacrifice a cheeseburger for the religion but he's fallen in love with a girl who thinks will make an amazing wife an amazing mother she's got all the attributes he's ever looked for kind-hearted good and he should sacrifice that you're not willing to sacrifice your saturdays but he should sacrifice what he believes should be the mother of his children what does he see you willing to sacrifice what are you willing to give up what are you doing and observing in your life and then i tried to pivot and say so buddy you're not off the hook i'm not telling you what you're doing is okay what i'm saying is get educated learn and practice and and try out this religion and see what you're walking away from and giving up be an educated customer an educated consumer for those who used to shop at sims but be a be an educated consumer and if you're making a choice to walk away from judaism then do it as a choice right now you're not doing it as a choice right you have you have no education about judaism this huge temptation to walk away level the playing field learn and practice and experience and now as an educated person you want to walk away you're walking away but at least give yourself a shot don't do something you'll regret before you can give it a shot i said basically to the dad show him model it's not too late all right take it out now what are you willing to work on now you want him to give up what are you willing to give up you want him to try it out what are you willing to try out and show him i don't know whatever happened so don't ask me because that was that one meeting but that was the posture so it's a complicated question it's complicated and and we we can never forget right you know is that the further we we we move away you know the generations and those children that guy's children his grandchildren they don't even know and it's not the the blame is it's like it's not it wasn't a choice at that point right like they're immersed in a different world right now where no one's choosing to yeah leave numbers the numbers are startling the hemorrhaging is starting and the impact in the future is is startling and troublesome and yeah you one of the things we face is not just the anti-semitism external to us which is trying to eliminate our people but we have to do i think i know masha what's appropriate to do a introspection and gut check internally what are we doing yeah um to make sure that we're continuing which is a perfect a perfect way to end rabbi brody give us uh first of all thank you again to bruce and jominski my machetem my beloved beloved family the minskys just been pesach with them they were down here for pesach and it was great to be together it's the best thing because then you don't have to split your children their time and who cares about the children but their their child you know the granddaughter you get to just have so it was great to have the minskys here and thank you for the sponsorship this evening rabbi brodie close us out with your update we had rabbi ellie stefanski he challenged you during the show sign up for his daff and what's been happening since then i got to tell you that that you know like you always talk about those moments in your life that that was like a game changer i don't know how much longer i'm able to do this because it's the pace is like a really fast pace right now but um he really changed everything and and i'm still trying to figure out exactly what it was you know what what what kind of turned on what what what the switch was i can't figure out if it's the cover of guys that you just keep feeling there's a constant encouragement every day whether it's the photos or the emails constantly pushing each other you know even if you if you missed a day or you missed something just just start again it's like you never feel like right like without without the chevra right um and and it's great but then i think what happened over uh over over hula muy this was the most exciting part i got up and i gave some speech you know at the at the at the boca point minion and i'm speaking about how you know this i probably heard this from you you know column is a vacation but don't take a vacation from torah so let's all get into it now i think i was just talking myself because i mean you know it's not a big minion there's 15 guys there and at least at that minion and i said let's just all do it and and you know i said we have more time it is halamoid you aren't you don't have the same responsibilities and yet we we find it that it's usually the time to take vacation and then i was like you know what i love that mr brew it's been so long you know you know i love learning mr brewer and right and and then i was like you know what i i was looking at my bookshelf consolidated a lot just to the things that i really wanted to get to and i've just never gotten to and i was like you know what i'm doing mr brewer already and it was the same day as the omer so i'm like you know what day one of the omers siminal of mr brewer simon alefchito so what's now what's the rabbi brodie routine we're not going to say what it used to be because we're not going to say all right but what's the rabbi brodie routine now it's it's the daf mishna barua kitchen nephew you're like you're back in yeshiva i'm back in the chief i'm unbelievable i'm back in your seat and i'm and you know what it feels great it's just hard it's just i woke up this morning i was live at 5 30 i would normally go to the gym and i was like still have to like catch up so i'm doing this these are the monuments you you would skip over because it's so technical right this length of the strings and how do you tie it and what's it made out of let's really close that with a mrs brodie reference because you haven't brought up your mom in a long time i met today with mrs brody okay and her co-chair for the empty nester group it was just simply a check-in at the national house going what could we work on but they sit down and your mom says what do we do wrong i said what'd you do wrong i said nothing it was great she's like why'd you call us in i asked josh and josh had no idea why'd you call us in she didn't believe me i said so and then her co-chair says if you if we're here because you want us to be on behind the bema we're not doing it so that was the truth is that was the reason i met with them i wanted to be on behind the bema um mother's day coming up but uh instead we just talked about the empty nesters and what we can do and ideas of programs and how we can expand and they're great powerhouses they're they're great they've done great programs and for years they've been serving and fantastic energy so what's like before before you close out like i'm saying pesach for you what did it do where what are you feeling right now like what's what are we going into uh i feel great invigorated and um it was a great pesach great pesach packed house standing room only every um best layout for pesach ever the whole holomoid the two shabboses it's good for people taking off work it's good for rabbis and people who cook to not have to constantly produce the whole layout of the calendars here was just optimized had great sadaram it's great it's great it's the best i feel so blessed great weather unbelievable boca in almost may and we had beautiful weather beautiful weather davin that broke a point all right satellite one day right with you it was it was great we'll we'll do more we'll do more next week oh you know what i forgot i'm doing the hyena also don't forget to kill him you're doing it all got every minion in the shore covered it's a beautiful thing i'm loving every second beautiful three weeks of awkward it doesn't get any better unbelievable unbelievable all right thank you again to sam for sharing your story with us big thank you liminski's for sponsorship and uh in memory of of dear grandparents and rabbi brody until next time stay happy stay healthy stay