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BILL BENSON:
Good afternoon and welcome to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. My name is Bill Benson and I am the host of the museum’s public program, First Person. Thank you for joining us. We are in our tenth year of the First Person program. Our First Person today is Mr. Leon Merrick whom we shall meet shortly. This 2009 season of First Person is made possible through the Louis and Doris Smith Foundation to whom we are grateful for again sponsoring First Person. First Person is a series of weekly conversations with survivors of the Holocaust to share with us their firsthand accounts of their experience during the Holocaust. Each First Person guest serves as a volunteer here with the museum. With few exceptions, we will have First Person program each Wednesday through the 26th of August. We will also have a First Person program on Tuesdays through July. The museum’s website at WWW.USHMM.ORG, that’s WWW.USHMM.ORG, provides a list of the upcoming First Person guests as well as a lot of other information about our First Person guests.
This year, for example, we offering a new feature associated with First Person. Excerpts from our conversations with survivors will be available as podcasts on the museum’s website, a number of which are already posted on the website, including Leon’s. You can also hear the full program from last year’s interview with Leon on the website. The First Person podcasts join two other museum podcasts series, Voices on Antisemitism and Voices on Genocide Prevention. The podcasts are also available through I-Tunes. Leon Merrick will share with us his First Person account of his experience during the holocaust and as a survivor for about 40 minutes. We will follow that with an opportunity for you to ask Leon a few questions.
Before you are introduced to him I have several requests of you and a couple of announcements. If possible, please stay seated throughout the one hour program, that way we minimize any disruptions for Leon as he speaks. Second, if we do have time for questions and answers and we-- a period and we hope that we do and if you have a question I ask that you make your question as brief as you can. I will repeat the question so everybody in this very large room can hear the question and then Leon will answer it. If you have a cell phone or a pager that has not yet been turned off, we ask that you do that now. For those of you who may be holding passes to the Permanent Exhibition today, please note they’re good for the entire afternoon so you can stay with us through the one hour program. The Holocaust was a state sponsored systematic persecution and annihilation of European jury by Nazi Germany and it’s collaborators between 1933 and 1945. Jews were the primary victims, six million were murdered. Roma and Sinti (Gypsies), people with mental and physical disabilities and Poles were also targeted for destruction or decimation for racial, ethnic or national reasons. Millions more including homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Soviet prisoners of war and political dissidents also suffered grievous oppression and death under Nazi tyranny.
More than 60 years after the Holocaust hatred, antisemitism, and genocide still threaten our world. The life stories of Holocaust survivors transcend the decades and remind us of the constant need to be vigilant citizens and to stop injustice, prejudice and hatred wherever and whenever they occur.
What you are about to hear from Leon Merrick is one person’s account of a Holocaust. We have prepared a brief slide presentation to help with Leon’s introduction. We begin with this portrait of Leon Merrick who was born Leon Kusmirek January 8th, 1926 in Zgierz, Poland. When the Nazi’s attacked Poland in September 1939, Zgierz Jews were moved to Lodz, Poland. The arrow on this map of Poland points to the city of Lodz. Lodz worked as a postal worker in the Lodz-- Leon worked as a postal worker in the Lodz ghetto delivering letters, milk, and ration cards. Here we have a group photo of the postal workers and if you follow the curser there-- the arrow-- there’s Leon in this picture right there on the left hand side about midway up. Here we see a view of the Lodz ghetto as residents cross a pedestrian bridge from one section of the ghetto to another. In this photo, a young child vendor right here as you can see her in the middle, carries wares on a tray slung over her neck in the outdoor market in the Lodz ghetto. In 1944, Leon was taken to a forced-labor camp in Kielce, Poland.
From there he was evacuated to the Buchenwald concentration camp and the arrow on this map points to the location of Buchenwald. This map is a map of the major Nazi camps in Europe between 1943 and 1944. This photo shows an example of the forced-labor that took place at Buchenwald. Three months later, Leon was sent to the Flossenburg Concentration Camp. The arrow points to Flossenburg. Form there, he was sent on a death march. Leon was liberated by United States forces in April of 1945. We close our slide presentation with a photo of Leon posing with friends in Schwandorf soon after his liberation. After the war, Leon worked for the United States Army in Germany before coming to the United States in 1949. With the $23.00 that he received upon arrival he made a new life here in the United States right here in Washington, D.C. He was drafted into the United States Army during the Korean War.
Eventually, Leon opened his own restaurant that he ran for a quarter century. Given its closeness to the White House it was a popular place, especially with the Secret Service who gave him a party when he retired. Following retirement in 1993, Leon and his wife Nina have remained in the Washington area. Leon is a volunteer of the museum’s Visitor Services and you will find him here every other Saturday. He is also active with the Jewish War Veterans. Nina, his wife, who fought with the partisans in World War II continues to work as a Hebrew teacher. You’ll be pleased to know that Nina is here with Leon today. Nina, if you wouldn’t mind waving so people know you’re here. Thank you.
Leon, thank you so much for your willingness to be our First Person today. We’re very grateful to have you here and to have such a good audience today. We’re going to get started because we only have one hour to cover a huge amount of information and for Leon to give us a glimpse into what he experienced. Leon, you were not quite 14 years of age when the Germans invaded Poland and came to your town in September 1939. Let’s begin with you telling us, Leon, about your community, your family, and yourself in those years before war began, your early years.
LEON MERRICK:
Okay, thank you, Bill. I lived there-- I was born in Poland. I lived nearby the city of Lodz. The place was called Zgierz. They had 39,000 people, 4,500 Jewish family. The war started for me September 1, 1939. It was a Friday. From the very beginning, you know, the planes came, they bombed our city and they-- three days after the war started we run away to the woods.
BILL BENSON:
Leon, before we go to that, just- just tell us a little bit about-- tell us about your parents, what did they do and uh..
LEON MERRICK:
Okay. Well, my mother was a housewife. My father was a-- worked in a textile factory. I had a younger brother. I was going to school. As a matter of fact, when the war started September 1 we supposed to go back to school but being Jewish we’re not allowed to go to school back anymore. Okay, I had friends. I had Polish friends, I had Jewish friends, I played soccer. We went on outings together. We had Polish neighbors, we were friendly. My father worked with- with Polish friends in the same concern, you know, in the factory and everything seems to be all right.
BILL BENSON:
Did you have a large, extended family?
LEON MERRICK:
I had extended-- yes, I had…I had an aunt in the nearby city of Lodz, talk about later. I had my mother’s sister was living in Paris. She went to Paris before the war. We also had cousins in Belgium and Holland and- and the Benelux countries.
BILL BENSON:
So it was three days after the Germans invaded you ran away to the woods. Tell us about that.
LEON MERRICK:
Well, if you ran away to the woods you’re-- that’s-- when the Germans invaded, the planes start bombing. Everybody was running, so we- we packed up, too. We run away to the woods maybe about 10, 15 kilometers away from the city. The weather was still warm. We slept in the-- on the grass but at the same time Poland let out all the Polish-- they emptied the prisons, let out the Polish prisoners and they came at night. They were begging for money and they, you know, but-- their heads shaved, this, kind of, eerie feeling, you know, it didn’t seem to look right.
And then a rumor was going around that all able bodied men have to report to a certain place near the city of Warsaw, which is the capital. And being my father was in the Polish Army, so he had to report, too. So he left us and we decided all to-- what we were going to do? My mother and two small children. We have a younger brother. He was three years younger than I was well, went to the woods with all this shady characters so we decided to go back.
And while we’re going back to the hometown, we could see already the Polish Army retreat. The disheveled and the horses, you know, tired and there-- so we came back. Neighbors-- Polish neighbors, of course, they were glad to see us back. They offered us milk and bread and a meal and we settled back to our house-- our apartment and we didn’t know what- what happened to my father and then after several-- this was after several days, we heard shooting and our Polish neighbor says, “The Germans are coming. The Germans are coming.”
And so we went into the bunker. You had a big basement inside and the next day we came out and it was all different. The soldiers, they did-- they were not the same Polish uniformed soldiers. They were gray German and they were distributing bread the first day now, okay? We stood in the lines. We got some bread and didn’t take long, the following day we could see Poles and Germans, I mean, ethnic Germans-- see, I always considered them Poles but then the Germans came in the next several days I noticed they wear arm bands with the swastikas on them. They were ethnic Germans. I always thought they were poles but the German’s background.
BILL BENSON:
And now all of a sudden they’re- they’re showing their colors.
LEON MERRICK:
And now they’re in charge, yeah. They’re in charge, you know, so they pointed out to which one is a Jewish store and which one is not a Jewish store and they start, you know, breaking the glass and the windows and the doors and they went inside and they helped, you know, they’re taking anything they please, that’s it. And then after several days my father came back. My father came back, he went to the woods-- he went to toward Warsaw but nothing was disorganized. They didn’t-- the Poles they’re retreating, you know, so he came back home and one night I remember just like today, I was sleeping at night and through the window I see-- at night-- I see some flames and I look through the window and the horizon I see something is burning.
I knew right away the synagogue is burning, okay? The next day a rumor was going around, all the Jews had assembled to the market square-- to the main market square. So we didn’t- we didn’t know if they’d let us go back or should we pack something up or should we take a younger brother with us or should we leave him with our neighbors. Anyway, we decided all to go as a family, okay?
We went to the market square and this market square it’s all cobblestones. We- we sat down on the cobblestones. We’re guarded by German soldiers with rifles. After waiting it seems to be an hour or so a German came out and he announced that this place is to be Jew free. Give us three days. This place is to be Jew free. So everybody was going-- they let us go home, okay? So we went home and we packed some stuff up and we call-- that was already-- maybe the the 4th or the 5th of September. At that time the I mean, England and France declared war on Germany September the 3rd. So we called in our Polish neighbors and said, “Listen, two big powers declared war in Germany. The war’s not going to last long. We’re going to go to the city of Lodz to my mother’s sister and when the war ends we’re going to come and reclaim our furniture.” And that’s exactly what we did. So in fact, we hired our neighbors downstairs, their horse and their wagon. Well, we couldn’t take any furniture. Just put a little bit bedding and clothes, okay? We didn’t need any pots and pans. Where are they going my aunt had pots and pans.
BILL BENSON:
And just- just so everybody understands you- you left your furniture with the neighbors assuming you’d be back to get it before long.
LEON MERRICK:
That’s exactly what it is. We’re told to come in, take the neighbors and we-- so we walked- we walked alongside the wagons and we had no room to ride the wagon. We just walked alongside the wagons and I remember just like today because at that time we had already the yellow patches, a German leaning out the windows near calls us, okay? So the wagon stopped so I went up with my mother. I don’t remember if my father was come-- because it was dangerous. They were grabbing all the men and we went upstairs and just ask where we’re going and we told them we had to leave, okay.
So they just let us go. We came to the city of Lodz. We moved in with our-- with my aunt. They were already a family of four and we got four. That means eight people in one- one room apartment, okay?
So we slept in the floor with the bedding we had and then, you know, the Jews start to organize themselves, so we had to eat-- went to eat at the communal kitchen, you know, the communal kitchen you ate. And then while we were there we heard that they were going to make a ghetto in the city of Lodz, okay? And so there’s a big exodus going on at that time. The non-Jews had moved out of that part of this-- of the designated area where the ghetto’s going to be and the Jews had to move in. But it was already January, February of 1940, okay? And a lot of snow on the ground and ice and it seems like it’s a little bit-- but the movement of Jews was too slow, so the German stage a pogrom. You know what I mean? Some of them were beating Jews, they hung a few people from the lampposts just to scare the people to move faster. Maybe the Jew’s are going to feel safer to live in the ghetto and we felt the same way because we’ll get-- we have a house by the Germans and by the non—
BILL BENSON:
So- so the message they’re trying to convey by- by beating up people and then hanging them was to say, “Oh, you’ll just be so much safer if you move into this area. This won’t happen to you if you’re out here.”
LEON MERRICK:
That’s right. So anyway, so everybody-- so then the non-Jewish population moved out. There was a lot of room available, some apartments. My father knew somebody over there. He went to him to find us an apartment, okay? They find us an apartment and we got one room and then we need job, okay? So my father-- before the war he worked with somebody who was-- became the head of all the hospitals in the ghetto. So he went to him to ask him for a job.
BILL BENSON:
Let me stop you for a minute, Leon. When-- tell us how large the ghetto is and how many people were in there.
LEON MERRICK:
Okay, all right, okay. So the ghe-- the Germans designated the most the northern slum of the city of Lodz as a ghetto. The place was less than two square miles and no running water. The houses were fit for demolition, rat infested, bed bugs, no sanitation facilities and the- they’ve all wooden framed buildings, you know. At night there are bed bugs traveling around, the rats crawling around and then-- oh, the- the bathrooms were all outside. They had outhouses and so they packed in 185,000 Jews in the area less than two square miles, okay? And the Germans closed off the ghetto. What I mean, closed off the ghetto, they had guards around. I would say the ghetto was hermitically sealed, okay? And nobody could go in, nobody could go out and then right-- food was getting scarce.
The Germans appointed the head of the Jewish-- make a Jewish Council and he in turn appointed a few prominent Jews to help him run the ghetto and they took the orders from the Germans and we got the ration cards. The ration cards wasn’t enough. From the beginning, we got a loaf of bread for eight days and then the same loaf of bread has to last us for 10 days then for 12 days, so on. Food was very scared [sic] and the Jewish Council figured maybe if you’re going to make yourself useful to the Germans with a war going on, so the head of the Jewish Council approached the head of the German ghetto and he was in charge. He said, “Listen, we have a lot of people who are tailors and shoe makers and craftsmen. Maybe we can make our self useful.” He agreed to this, so at one time or another they had 90 factory in the Jew-- in the ghetto producing for the German Army uniforms, snow boots, leather boots, belts, anything you can- you can think of, okay? And then from the beginning when the Jew approached the Germans he said, “Well, a little bit food and a little bit money.” They didn’t agree to the money but they gave us food but the food wasn’t enough, you know.
All this time while I was in the ghetto my only wish was one time have enough to eat. I don’t care what happen afterwards, just one more time. Afterwards I don’t care. So anyway it was very important to get a job. So if you worked in the ghetto, you have an extra bowl of soup in the place of employment plus the ration cards, okay? So my father was set. My mother got herself a job in the orphanage, okay? So she got the bowl of soup there, okay? And so it was-- I was left. At that time I was already reaching 15, 16 and I see youngsters-- you see the youngsters going around working the post office. I talked to my father, “Why can’t I have a job like this, too?” So he told me, “Well, let’s see what we can see.”
So he talked to the head nurse from the hospital and at that time the head of the Jewish ghetto, Rumkowski, he was a bachelor. She provided his needs, make sure that he has clean clothes and things. So we talked to him-- to her and she said, “Why don’t you write a petition?” So he wrote a petition and after several days I got a summons to the personnel office. He asked me how old I am, I said, “I’m 16.” “You have strong feet?” “Yeah, strong feet.” So they hired me. I got the bowl of soup and I was set and the-- at that time. But in the mean time hunger was going constantly in the ghetto. Everybody was hungry. When we went to pick up our food rations it was not safe to leave the place because somebody knock you in the head and grab a piece of bread-- the bread which is supposed to last you for 10 days and he was running and eating. And what do you do? He’s eating-- he’s eating your bread and chasing them so and then—
BILL BENSON:
Leon, you- you had the job. Your dad had a job. Your mom had a job but your brother did not. So he did not get the same rations.
LEON MERRICK:
No, he got by but we have a little bit left from-- we had rations so we could share with him, okay? So he- he didn’t get the rations, okay?
BILL BENSON:
And Leon, a question that might be on people’s minds, I know it was on mine. It was somewhat surprising the first time I heard that there was a post office in the ghetto during the war. Why would there be a post office?
LEON MERRICK:
Well, okay. I mentioned it from beginning of the program that said that Poland was divided. The Germans took one part of Poland-- the Soviet-- the Soviet Union took the eastern part of Poland. A lot of Jews that didn’t like to be on the German side, they crossed the River Bug, they went to the other side and they went to the Russian occupied side of Poland, okay. And they in turn when they established themselves, they went out further to deep Russia the relations in German and Soviet Union after the Molotov Pact, you know, of August 1920 uh.. 1939, August 24, a non-aggression pact I should say. So people were allowed to send mail to the ghetto, okay? And then also the eastern-- all Europe is not occupied at that time but I’m talking about beginning from 1940 Germans invaded France in June or July 1940 and then the Benelux countries, Holland, Luxembourg, and Lichtenstein, so people had relatives and they sent packages from there, letters, packages. Also, when they from the ghetto, a lot of-- there was a lot of mixed intermarriage and sometimes both spouses decide to come into the ghetto and sometimes one spouse decide to be on the outside. And they—
BILL BENSON:
So this was a Jew married to a Christian.
LEON MERRICK:
Yeah, yeah, okay. Then they in turn send letters and packages, so we had so we had regular mail going on.
BILL BENSON:
So it was a regular post office.
LEON MERRICK:
A regular post office, you know, and everything and—
BILL BENSON:
One- one other thing I want to just mention that you mentioned to me as you said it was hermetically sealed and those homes that bordered the fence area, the Germans and others-- Polish thugs and others would take potshots into your windows and so people-- you- you actually made entrances on the backside of the building so you wouldn’t be exposed.
LEON MERRICK:
So people who were- people who were facing this ghetto fence or whatever and the main thing they put some burlaps on the window or they put very low light because they had to guard them, some took potshots at night. So it was very…it was very dangerous to go close- close to the fence, too so some people knocked some walls down to make entrances from the other side so they wouldn’t be close-- come close to the Germans, okay? And so food was very bad and then the transport started, okay? And then when the- then the Germans invade the Soviet Union no mail was coming from the other side anymore and also when the Germans invaded the- the western Europe, France, occupied Paris, I had an aunt in Paris, no mail was coming from them and so on. So only-- at that time we only were delivering notices to report for resettlement and tthey started the resettlement very early, whole families, okay. Obviously, Germans built the camp near the city of Lodz. We didn’t know-- now we know it. At that time we didn’t know. It was called Chelmno C-H-E-L-M-N-O about35 kilometers from Lodz. Everybody wanted to have a job in the ghetto. This kept you from the resettlement, okay. Then the transfers started coming in from--
BILL BENSON:
Resettlement was the German euphemism for—
LEON MERRICK:
Yeah, for gassing or for killing, okay. So- so nobody want to go. Everybody want to get a job. My mother’s sister, the one we moved in from the ghetto the whole family they- they had- they had to report for resettlement and they reporting a transport. Also, in 1942 the Germans surrounded all the hospitals. They took out all the patients. They drove up with trucks. They went up to them-- the guards went up to the maternity ward, they took the children, opened the windows, they threw them down in the trucks. The trucks were waiting downstairs, okay? They also went to my mother’s orphanage and took out all the children and the rumor was going around they were taking to them sanatorium. The children would be going to school and the sick people, they going to send them to the hospital. They’re going bring them back to health but look, people, we didn’t believe that.
But then in 1942 the Germans made a curfew. Not for eight days nobody could go in, nobody could go out, okay? They just went from block to block. Especially, in Europe they had they blocked off the-- from both sides, the streets, everybody had to come down from the buildings to line them up in the streets and they did spot checks on the-- looked, you know, on the face you look 60, 65 years old, you had not much to eat, you looked like 75, 80 years old, you know, hunger. Put them to one side, they put them outside, the wagons were waiting. All the children-- 10-year-old children, 11-year-old children, put them aside. At that time they took 16,000 children. They had an assembly point inside the ghetto and after a day or so they took them out from the ghetto, put them on the train and we still didn’t know exactly where they’re taking them. But a few months afterwards, there was a Polish Catholic church in the ghetto and Jews don’t go to Catholic church, so the church was closed.
All of a sudden they decide to open the church and they brought back all the clothing from the people who just went into transport, okay? And they took Jewish men and women to sort out the clothes, okay? The bad clothes they discarded and the better clothes they sent to Germany but sometimes a yellow star fell out from a pocket or an ID card or scrip money which we used in the ghetto for Lodz and we know that they’re killing the people or sometimes even the clothing is bloody. So we know they were killing them but we didn’t know exactly where, you know. And so…when I-- especially when I was delivering mail, you know, in the ghetto and noticed this especially winter time, it was a cold winter and people were constantly cold, so they tore out their wooden doors, burned them for firewood and the tore out the window frames for firewood and where the door used to be they put just a burlap or a heavy blanket.
And when I had something-- a mail to delivering I see the burlap hanging there or a blanket and saw icicles on it, I call up a name and I hear a fine-- a faint voice from behind the curtain to answer me and I went to make my way through and the blanket almost breaks in half. It’s stiff from the ice up there. Finally when I got through, I come inside and what do you think, they’re all laying in the bed. No work, nothing for get up in the morning, got no food and whatever I had to bring them at that time was nothing either. Just a notice to report to transport. It’s a-- well, anyway finally my turn came.
I got a notice to report for the transport, just me in 1944, beginning of March, okay. So at that time the war was already winding down, you know, it was going bad for the German. Not-- it wasn’t the Normandy Invasion yet but it was going bad. Stalingrad already-- the soviets left, so my parents says, “Why don’t you hide for a few days and we see what’s going to happen.” But they took my ration cards away, you know, and I had to share then-- my father didn’t have a job anymore and they took everybody to the hospital, took the patients out and my mother didn’t have a- a job in the orphanage, so we had all this-- we had meager rations, you know.
So I guess people were talking to my parents, he said, “Listen, he’s a young boy. They’re not going to kill him. They’ll probably take him to work. It’s supposed to take for work.” So finally, I reported at an assembly point and while I was in at the assembly point, people were hurting themselves because if you-- because you had to go to the medical commission and if you’re not healthy they cannot take you to work and nobody want to leave the ghetto. So what they did, they punctured the ears cut off fingers or anyway after a few they took to me an assembly point and then before I reported my mother picked up clothes for me, an extra pair of pants. Was in March already, cool-- in Europe it’s cool-- a sweater, a few extra pairs shirts, socks, you know, underwear and I had like a rucksack-- a packs.
I went to the assembly point, they took us to the train station. After they put us in the open cattle cars and after riding several hours, the train stopped and the guards-- German guards waiting up there with trucks and said, “You guys in get in the truck.” We ask them, “Well, how about our packages,” you know. “Don’t worry, your packages going to go with the next truck.” I never seen a package. Whatever I had on me that’s what I had, okay. Just like it is. So they took us to a place still in Poland and it was there it was already an established camp. There were Jews there already from the surrounding vicinities and they worked in the factory. In other words, they worked under guard to the factory and when the shift was finished under guard we walked back to the camp, okay.
We came in contact with non-Jews. We were working the same machines, so we knew-- we know the-- knew what’s going on, okay. A lot of people could trade their, in other words they could bring a loaf of bread from home but they didn’t give anything back. I had nothing to trade. That was it but in that camp, I had enough food, so it was better than the ghetto. We went in this camp maybe for a couple of months or so and while I was in this camp I heard about the Normandy Invasions. June 6, 1944. I knew the hour of the Normandy Invasions. The Allies came on the continent of Europe and we knew that for the Russians goes-- go, too.
BILL BENSON:
How did you get that information because I know that the Nazi’s tried to keep you from learning anything about the war.
LEON MERRICK:
We came in contact with the non-Jews. We were working the machines with Poles. They come from the homes and we came from the camp. When the shift was finished they walked back to their homes and we walked back under guard to the camp, okay? So we knew the news, okay? So after a month or so the guards came one morning says, “Pack up. We have to leave this camp.” Okay, so we packed up. They took us in a- took us in open cattle cars. After riding a few hours the train stopped, still in Poland, we boarded the trucks, we came to a market place and the place was full of Germans in all kind of uniforms, green, police, field police, black uniforms, yellow, all kind of uniforms. They came to the trucks, the Germans, of course, and they ask us, “Who are you people?” And we told them “We are Jews.” “You’re Jews? You came here to help us win the war?” What are we going to tell them? Tell them nothing.
So the next day when we got up, they gave us picks and shovels and they took us in the fields and we had to dig anti-tank ditches against the advancing Soviet Army, tanks or whatever it is. So we knew it’s only a temporary job. We ask them, “What’s going to happen when the job is finished.” They guards, they- they shrugged their shoulders. They didn’t know. So we said, “Well, why can’t you take back to the Lodz ghetto we just come there two, three months ago. We have left our families there.” And they told us the ghetto’s being liquidated now. That means-- liquidated means doing apart, okay? So after this job was finished they took us yet to another factory still in Poland. They had the same type of machines and we did the same type of work and then like I mentioned before, the war was going bad for the Germans. The guards came one morning, "Pack up, on the double." So they took us on the double to the train station. And at that time-- we're still in Poland-- while we were going to the train station on the double, the Polish population was running. They said, "The Soviets are coming, the Soviets are coming." Okay? And we understand the language; you know, we speak-- so anyways, what- what I'm trying to tell you is the Germans managed to push us out from one town- from one end of the city, on the cattle car.
BILL BENSON:
Just to stay ahead of the Russians.
LEON MERRICK:
To stay ahead of the Russians, on a train, yeah. Anyway, so they put us in cattle cars. They were closed cattle cars. They just had a small window there, and they had barbed wire on the top. And I think they gave us-- they put this bucket in the middle of the train. You know? And then-- for your needs. And then the train started chugging along. We didn't know where we're going. And then one guy lifts up the other one, and then we looked out through the window. We were reading German names. So we know we're going to Germany, but we didn't know exactly where we're going in Germany. You know? In the meantime we hear a whistle blowing. We look up and people are going with lunch basket from work. People, children going to school, and here we're locked up in the car. I'm- I'm 16, 17, I'm just locked up, just because I'm a Jew; nothing else. I'm not a criminal. You know? I didn't kill anybody; this was the only reason.
So anyway, after riding several days, the train stopped. The doors, they opened the doors, and I took a look, and you see the the swastika flying from a flagpole and a big sign “Concentration Camp Buchenwald”, and the familiar sign “Work Makes You Free.” Okay? So after waiting maybe five or ten minutes-- who knows, I don't know how long-- guards came out. They says, "Column of five line up." We walked in the main gate. They led us into a big hallway, maybe just like from one end to the other one. They had a big long table. "Everybody undress, everybody undress." So at that time I still had photographed pictures from my family, before I left. I had in my pocket. I had addresses from my relatives, after the war, we're gonna need. And, you know, we didn't have an address book like we have here. Eastern Europe, a letter came, you saved the envelope. When it was time to write a letter, you looked for the envelope, and that's what it says. Anyway, but once I took everything off, "Put it on the table." But then I walked away, everything I could remember.
I told you, I worked in the cockpit and the machines were running on oil. And I had no change of clothing and my- my pants got dirty from the dirty oil. I managed to wash a couple of times, but I guess the oil didn't go all the- out from the-- I couldn't clean 'em up. I developed blisters underneath my on my feet. And here I was all naked. And then they had a medical officer, a German, a tall fellow, black uniform. He looked- he looked at me
BILL BENSON:
So he could've sent you to your death.
LEON MERRICK:
He could've sent me, yeah.
BILL BENSON:
Yes.
LEON MERRICK:
And he just walked away. A tall fellow. He had this black- a red armband and a red swastika; black uniform too. But a death man's head on the cap. A tough guy. And he shook his head-- I was lucky-- and walked away. And so then whenever, when this was finished, I remember they says, "Everybody walk downstairs." So we walked downstairs, and they must've had about maybe 10 or 20 guys. But see, they were inmates just like I was, but they already have a job in the camp. I said, "Buchenwald--" The camp had 58,000 people, just you know, they were there. There were Jews and non-Jews and German and Communists and Jehovah Witnesses, and who knows what. anybody who the Germans thought is no good, they put 'em in this concentration camp; 58,000 people. They marched us downstairs, and then they clipped us. They shaved our heads, and under the arm, everyplace. And then- and then when this was finished, next room. They had a big drum set up. I could see the water is green, and we had to submerge. Don't forget, we were just shaved and all-- and me and all these blisters I had, oh it was burning; whew. Anyhow but this- anyhow but this would only take seconds, because there's a line there. Everybody had to jump in, out.
BILL BENSON
So this was a disinfectant.
LEON MERRICK:
Disinfecting water, to get the lice off. We had lice on us. We didn't clean ourselves. So if you cleaned, it wasn't good enough. You had no change of clothing. No, we were all pretty loused up. And this was for that. And then the next door. The door was ajar; underneath we seen the showerheads. You know, at that time the showerheads-- the first time I, when I was still in the ghetto, in 1942, I heard the rumor that the people they take- take 'em to the transport, but really to gas 'em. They give 'em- they give 'em a piece of soap, they give 'em a towel. But when they go to the showers, instead of water gas is coming out. But we couldn't believe it, a nation like Germany. You know? We just didn't believe it. Okay? But here we go, we see all these showerheads. But there's no way-- but you cannot return. You're inside the camp. You're naked too.
Anyway, finally I go into the nearest shower. And I remember three guys-- two more; I was there and two more guys-- and the- the water doesn't run yet, but we all were looking for a good spot, if the water starts running. You know? Because everybody was burning.
After he's written it down, we go to the next- the next room, and they give me clothing. They gave me a jacket, a jacket. Not- not the striped jacket, what you see, just a plain jacket. They gave me a pair pants. No underwear, no shirt, just they gave me a jacket, they gave me a pair pants. And I go to the next guy and he has these wooden clogs. I don't know if you guys know what clogs are. They were like wooden shoes. And he had them in his hands, and they looked like- nah, they're not the same size. And I said, "Sir, they're not the same size." "I said it's the same size. Next." So I'm just going to the next guy.
Anyway so they let us outside, then to go outside. And Buchenwald is on top of a hill. And it's already-- it was either late December or early January; a few snowflakes falling down, and we're all shivering. You know? And we stand there. We're- we're just waiting until they accumulate enough people to take us to the barracks where we're supposed to be. After we waited for awhile, a orderly came in, "Forward, march." We marched forward. We marched in-- they led us into a big barracks, a stable. We see these shelves, you know the wooden shelves like you've seen it before. You just slide in and you slide out. And then they- they're looking for two volunteers to go to the main kitchen and bring some food, soup and a piece of bread, for the new transports who just came; it's us. So they bring the soup. They gave me a new bowl, and they gave me a bowl of soup and they gave me a piece of bread. I take a piece of bread, I put in my pocket. I ate up the soup. But in the evening I reached down, I wanted the piece of bread, and somebody swiped it. Had no bread; no bread.
So, you know, I tried to remember, to this day, I got a hold of a needle and thread-- because you're in a concentration camp, but somebody must've had it. I sewed my side pocket up, and I opened my jacket and I punched a hole in the lining. I said, "From now on anything I get goes through the lining." And that's what I did. That's the first day. But in the evening I laid down over there, and I'm on these bunks. But it was at night, I wanted to go into the bathroom. I'm going to the bathroom. They called it the latrine; latrines are the bathrooms. And it's outside. It's just a house, a shack, and they had a- a piece of wood there with holes cut up, and you do your business there. But when I come back, nobody wants to let me in where I lay there. They says, "You didn't lay there" or "You didn't sleep there." And at that stage in 1945-- because I left home in '44-- and at the beginning of 1945 the Germans, they're bringing 'em all over from Europe. They're emptying the camps. And they speak different languages. They speak Italian and Greek. There's all kinds of nationalities. The whole of Europe was occupied by Germans, and they took the people and they put 'em into the camps. But they knew exactly what I want. I want to lay there. And
Anyway, I was there maybe for a few weeks, and then they- they say, "All Jews assemble in the main square. We'll go back to Buchenwald too." Mind you, Buchenwald, I didn't want to go with the Jewish transports. I hid for a few days. And then they says, "Everybody, regardless Jew or no Jew, everyone assemble; we're evacuating the camp." So I reported, and they led us into a big hall. They kept us all there. But it was the evening; it was getting already darkish. They opened the door, and there must've been about a few hundred people there. They led us all out said, "Assemble in five." And while we were going out from this hallway, they had guards with whips, and they were whipping us while we were running through.
Anyway, we run through it. We assembled in a column of five, and then we waited for the guards. They came with these big German Shepherd dogs, and they said we're gonna walk for three, 11 kilometers, to the city of Weimer, where the train station was. And they- they put us-- we went to the train station. They put us in an open cattle car. And while we were there the sirens were going on, the planes were coming overhead. And you see we're in a train station, in open cattle cars. You know? And we could see the Germans, the searchlights, looking for planes in the sky. It's a weird feeling. And we just sit there, sitting ducks.
BILL BENSON:
In open cars, yeah.
LEON MERRICK:
Open cattle cars. There's nothing we can do. The- the guards, they'd just run to the side, you know, behind the door, and we're just sitting there; hope for the best. But anyway after a few minutes, clear sounding. The train starts moving. But the next day Allied planes came and they shot up the whole transports. But the Germans said, "But don't worry." A lot of people got wounded and a lot of people got killed. You know? But if you're just wounded, you know, a little bit, you're alright. But if you couldn't walk, like you're wounded in the feet, you're not walk, you're no good to them. You know what I mean? So they kill you. So anyway somehow they got another locomotive together and they start march- they start chugging along further down. And but that's the days-- I'm talking about it now-- but I'm talking about February or March, 1945.
BILL BENSON:
Which was an exceptionally brutal winter too.
LEON MERRICK:
Yeah, almost the end of the war. Allied planes were constantly overhead. And we had guards with us in the cattle cars. And the guards told us, "Those are your friends over there. Why don't you wave to them?" Well
BILL BENSON:
You actually were able to-- knew what nationality they were.
LEON MERRICK:
I could see it. I-- now I know. At that time I didn't know it. That fuselage, it had the round circle, it's the British planes.
BILL BENSON:
British planes.
LEON MERRICK:
British planes. They were so-- it was a round circle. I didn't know at that time, but now I know it. So then we stopped, one day we stopped in a train station, and then-- and the planes came, and I jumped off the cattle car, open cattle car, and I laid underneath there. And I could see when bullets, the gravel popping up, popping up. And I just lay there. And then it got- and then it got quiet. Then they flew away. There was no more locomotive. They shot it up. But the guards said, "Line up, everybody line up." I wanted to tell you, when I was in the camp, still in Poland, I befriended somebody, and we more or less-- he isn't from my home town, but I met him in one of the labor camps and we came close together. You know what I mean? He was hungry and I was hungry. He was all loused up and I was the same. Anyway, so the German says, "Who cannot walk we're gonna send transportation." I know what transportation means. I was right there in the middle. You know? But don't forget at this stage I was only.. less than a year away from home. I left in March of '44, and this was the beginning of April. So not quite-- maybe a year. So I was young, in reasonably good health. I was right me and my friend were right in the second. I mean, I remember the German guard, a big belly, red cheeks, he says-- so- so we start marching. Okay?
You start marching, but a lot of-- they- they didn’t feed us-- a lot of people didn't-- they were wobbling, they couldn't walk straight. So they had a young guard, he just went up, up and down the column. If you didn't walk straight, he grabbed you, threw you in the gutter and shot you. When you get killed, everybody run out from the column, went over his package. Maybe he's got a crumb of bread there. Pull his shoes off; maybe his shoes are better than your own. Pull his jacket off. Until the guard says, "Everybody back in." And so this was going on for several hours, until we came to the next camp. Okay? A few people got shot, people were killed. They just went over, took his clothes off and everything. Anyway, then we- we arrived in another camp yet called Flossenbürg, okay? The last camp. I was there maybe two weeks, and the same old story. We evacuated the camp, they took us to the train station. It was a beautiful day. Open cattle cars. And I was there, standing in the cattle cars, and the jet planes came from nowhere and they shot the whole cattle car out. Something hit me in my face. And I was there with my friend, and I says I turned to my friend and said, "Am I bleeding?" He looks at me, he says, "No, you're not bleeding." When I looked at the sign it- it says Cross Roads-- a sign, a wooden sign, it says Crossing or something like that. Maybe a splinter hit my eye.
BILL BENSON:
A splinter, yeah.
LEON MERRICK:
But I wasn't bleeding. Okay? So the planes left and we're jumping off the cattle cars; not everybody. The guards jumped off. So I jumped off too. And on the horizon they had cottages. So these guards go to the cottages. They go downstairs. I go to the house too. And then we waited a few minutes, and when everything's quiet, we're all walking back to the- to the cattle cars. But when the guards came back, and they took a look, they seen what happened. See, the guards had all the provisions, and not everybody run away. The guards helped themselves to the food, to the cigarettes
So and then after this, they shot up the train again. From then on we were marching. We were marching for two days, and it was raining. I had a jacket. And the last night, the last night the guards told us to-- we passed by the woods and it was-- uh.. I was all soaking wet, 'cause it had rained for the last two days, and the guard says, "We're gonna spend the night here." And so I took some leaves towards the tree, and I lay down. And in the morning I heard the- the whistle blow, wzzt. So I got up. And I just remembered. I found a piece of discarded toothpaste. A guard maybe brushed his teeth and threw it out, and I squeezed it and put-- oh the mint tasted so good.
I had no food but the mint tasted so good. And then a couple of guys nearby couldn't get up. The guard is supposed to wake 'em up. So they went over there, with the rifles, and they clubbed them to death. "Everybody move forward." And now at this last stage, I couldn't make it anymore. I said to my friend, "oh--" Because there was nothing on the road but I was tripping and I was-- my knees were weak. And when- when you- when you march, you heard a shot here and you heard a shot there. And I said to my friends, "I'm going on the side. I'm gonna- I'm gonna sit down." He said, "You're gonna get- on the side you're gonna get killed." He says, "Lean on me."
And I stayed in the middle leaning on him. And then in another half hour or so we came to a village, and the guards said, "We're gonna spend some time here." They opened the barn. They let us in the barn. And I sat there, on this straw, my friend near me. And all of a sudden an egg, a raw egg, falls between me and my friend; a raw egg. It must've been a chicken coop. Who knows? A raw egg feel between-- we hear shooting. And we hear shooting and we see the guards, who are with us in the barn, they tried to open the door. And they're looking for something white. They want to put it on their rifles. They want to open the door, a sign they're gonna give up. But we didn't realize that at the time. By now my mind is numb. Then it's, the shooting is louder and louder. And, you know, the barn is not tight. So some of the guys go close and they look out, and they say, "The Russians are here, the Russians are here." There's actual American tanks with white stars. But we come from Eastern Europe. We only know about the red star. You know? But that star
BILL BENSON:
So you thought they were Russian tanks.
LEON MERRICK:
Yeah. Well people were running. They said, "The Russians, the Reds, the Russians are here." You know? Well the people are hungry. Their minds-- they couldn't tell white or red stars. You know? So anyway, after awhile the door opens up, and I go out. It's hard to describe. If you ever saw the picture, you know, War and Peace, Napoleon goes to Moscow. The village, everything is burning. White flags from every building, white flags from every building. They have the German transport. Don't forget, there's a column of maybe 5000, people like me marching. We're all in rags. We go to the German transports and taking jackets off, pants. We all went to the German transports. I got ahold of lead boots. I put 'em on. No socks. Later on I couldn't take 'em off for several days. Had to cut 'em off. I go a bit further down. You look. A lady's there. She has a big loaf of bread. She starts slices. People stay in the line. I stay in the line. She gives me a slice of bread too.
Next to her is her daughter, and the daughter has a small baby, I guess for protection. She was afraid. Here, you have so many people who just from the concentration camp. The Germans all- always talking, we criminals. You know? And they're running wild, maybe they're gonna kills us. So she just stays outside. She slices a piece of bread, and she's with a lady and a baby for protection. Go a little bit further, come into a house. I said to my friend, "Let's go inside." And before we go inside
I'm liberated. I'm weighed down with raw potatoes. Again, we go inside and then we'll-- in the meantime we're going outside and see American tanks rumbling by. They're throwing us sea rations. You be-- everybody been in the Service here? The military gets a package when they're traveling. You know? On the frontlines they cannot cook. They had a sea rations package. There's a packet of cigarettes there, a candy bar, crackers, a piece of cheese. So they're throwing them down. We're picking up the sea rations. I opened the sea rations package. Oh I see candy, I see four Chesterfield cigarettes. I remember like today, four cigarettes in this package. Take out the cigarettes. I light it up. I get dizzy. I throw it out. I go further down. We're passing a churchyard.
And the same guys who guard the doors, they're already behind guards now, guarded by the Americans, in the churchyard. And some of the guys jumped over the fence. They want to beat them there, and the Americans don't let 'em. And then and so on. And I'm okay. So I'm liberated now. Finally I went to another house yet, and I stayed there for several days. I went into a house, a German house, in the country, and they had women there, and they served us-- it was for people running away from the Russians, and they were looking for sanctuary in the villages. Okay. And now they got up- got caught up with Americans. You know? And here they see we, all the people from the concentration camp. So they started-- so they cooked soup for us and eggs and milk. The first time milks. The next morning I got up, oh my stomach, whew
BILL BENSON:
Leon, now you're liberated.
LEON MERRICK:
Yeah.
BILL BENSON:
And we are very close to the end of the program.
LEON MERRICK:
Yeah, that's what I figured, yeah.
BILL BENSON:
Tell us Leon, before we close the program-- and we won't have time for question and answers. As obvious, we could've have spent two or three, four hours with Leon. But afterwards he will be available for a few minutes, if anybody would like to come and ask him a question, talk to him. But before I-- in a minute I’m going to turn back to Leon to close our program. So we got a little bit more to go. Tell us, before we begin to wrap up, how you began to do some work for the Americans, which eventually would lead to you coming over to the United States.
LEON MERRICK:
Yeah. Well okay. So after I was liberated, and then-- at one time I wanted to go back to Poland. But that's the first few days. But then people would be coming back from there, from the Soviet Union, and they says, "Don't go back to Poland, there's nothing there left for you." You know? No Jews, they're killing Jews over there. I didn't go back. So I went to a community house. The survivors were there. All Jews, just like me. They had women who survived the camp. So one day a G.I. came in, chewing gum
So I volunteered, another couple of guys, and we went out to the fields. And they were in tents. And what do you think we had to do? We had to wash pots and pans in the kitchen. Oh, and the first time I got introduced to spaghetti, with meatballs. And peaches, you know, from a--
He looked like John Wayne. A tall guy, cuss words, smoking. He says, "Are you guys ready?" "Yes." So they took us to Nuremberg. Okay? And at Nuremberg I did the same work. They were- they were not in buildings, they were just outside living in tents, and we did the same kind of work. So after- after two weeks or three weeks, he says, "You know"-- he took us together-- he says, "You know, we got now orders to go back to the United States. We're going to Marseilles, France. We're gonna board the ship in France. And I know you guys, you don't want to go to Poland, you don't want to go back, you don't have anybody. We have two guy- we have two- two things for you. Either, we can find you a job here, with a North American outfit, or we can take you to France and just dump you off on the street and you'll be on your own." So we picked for the job. Okay? So we worked for the hospital in the job, and we got quarters in the hospital. When I was there I heard that survivors can register to go to the United States. Okay? So I was with my friend there too, and you had to go to Munich, Germany. So he went there first. He came back, he says, "I registered. I went the following week. I registered." And from there it went fast. Okay?
I got a summons from the Consult. I had a job. I didn't play the black market. I was in a concentration camp. I was-- you had to a certain date, you had to be in Germany, and I was there. So I met all the qualifications. Before we boarded ship, we had to go to Bremen to get-- it was a booklet, all about the United States. So I picked in Polish; all about the Statue of Liberty, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. What's written down? The Statue of Liberty and about it. You know? And okay, so we got on the ship. And then they came, it was night, and they told us in the morning the ship is gonna move to New York Harbor. But then the fog lifted in the morning. They showed us the Statue of Liberty. It was so close I could almost reach it. You know? And I know it was written down. And, you know, the-- so I got to New York.
And New York we went to-- well Immigration came on the ship, because we got- we got processed in Germany. But the Immigration came on the ship. And then we went to Customs; at that time we didn't have much Customs. And then they had the lady-- at that time they had-- a lot of nationalities after the war, a lot are sponsored by the Quakers, by the Catholics, by the-- and I was sponsored by the Jewish organizations. So they pinned a number on me and the two women coming to me and they says, "You follow me." She gave me two tickets and she go- she says, "You're going to Washington, D.C.
Somebody's gonna meet you there." So we went to Washington, DC. Come out at Union Station. And first I see is the Capitol. So I made a remark, "Is this the White House?"
And that's how I wind up in Washington, DC. It's the place I live in, with my wife right here. I met my wife in Washington, D.C. I've been married for 55 years.
BILL BENSON:
I marveled when Leon told me that when he got to New York and was told he had a ticket to take the train to Union Station, he was given three dollars.
LEON MERRICK:
Right.
BILL BENSON:
But, and said, "This is three dollars to have something to eat on the train." But it was his only three dollars, so he didn't spend it on the train. He arrived in Washington with three dollars, and some fellow gave him twenty dollars, just—
LEON MERRICK:
No, no. Like the following day-- I got three dollars on the- on the train. Being I was four years in Germany, I made some friends. And I got the three American dollars and I figured well I, maybe I wanted to send a postcard, 'I arrived safely in the United States'; where I'm living. So I didn't spend the money on the lunch. I put it in my pocket. Also I'm going to Washington, D.C. I saw the American Legionnaires, the caps, Washington, DC. I figured when they get off, I’m getting off. Okay?
And at the same time I see two women coming towards me. You know, they recognized me. But they were volunteers, five o'clock rush hour. They were just plain late. You know? But I'm in a strange country, the city. You know? So I said the first time, whatever I got in Washington, D.C-- I mean, got in New York-- three dollars for lunch, I didn't spend. The next day I had to report to the Jewish Social Service Agency. They gave me-- they- they showed where the buses- bus stop is. You get on the bus. I think they gave me a bus token; I don't remember. I went over there, and the man gave me twenty dollars and said, "Go see the city." And that's all I got to help coming to America, twenty-three dollars. The rest what I made myself.
BILL BENSON:
Leon--
BILL BENSON:
Before we close up, one last question for you Leon. When did you learn for sure what happened to the rest of your family, to your parents?
LEON MERRICK:
Well I'll tell you. I don't know. Okay, I left in-- I'll make it fast-- I left in March. Okay? And my parents were still there, and then my younger brother was there. At that stage my relatives, they took 'em already to the extermination camp. Of course I didn't know which one. But my parents were there. But when I worked on this the digging the anti-tank ditches, we asked the guards, "What's gonna happen to us?" And they says they don't know. "Why can't you take us back to the ghetto?" "The ghetto's being liquidated right now." So at that time they were taking the Jews from Lodz, from the ghetto, to Auschwitz. And also they had another camp, Chelmno. They closed the camp up in 1943. They were afraid they're gonna fall into Russian hands, so they closed it up. But being the Russian-- in the meantime the Poles in Warsaw made a rising. The Russians didn't come. So the Germans re-opened the extermination camp in Chelmno. They're either two places my- my parents could've gone, either to Auschwitz or to Chelmno. Okay? So, but I was in Chelmno; we were in Warsaw. And it was a beautiful day. We took a taxi. We went to my home town and we went to Chelmno.
I just wanted to-- Auschwitz, it was a- a few years back then-- but I wanted to see if maybe my parents perished there, and I wanted to go to Chelmno. But it was a beautiful day. But we came about maybe three, four miles before Chelmno, before the camp. The sky turned so bad. It started thundering and raining. And we still was sitting in the cab. But I-- and then went out of the cab. And- and the camp was in the woods. The Germans camouflaged it, all the camp. You know? And the trees, they were moving like, "Please, leave us alone, please leave us--"; I got the impression that the dead doesn't want to see us anymore. Just-- you know? And we couldn't walk in. We just got to see the monuments for people who came back after the war. They brought some German Jewish transports back to the ghetto, and they came back after the war to make plaques and all this stuff. So I got the eerie feelings. The wind was blowing and tanks. And they said that we couldn't go back. So.. but don't forget. So my father at that time-- he was born in 19- in 1900, and we're talking about 1944. He was 44-years-old when they liquidated the ghetto. The hunger and all this stuff; maybe he looked a man like 60 already. My mother the same thing. And the Germans made selections. And- and I don't have to tell you any further. And my brother was at that time 13, 14-years-old. You know? And, you know, those things happened. Maybe he wanted to go in the line where my father is. So he went to the gas. He went-- he ran after them. That's how it is. So I really don't know. I don't know if my parents were gassed even. I don't know.
BILL BENSON:
Leon, thank you for spending this time with us, and being willing to share your story.
BILL BENSON:
We obviously could only just get a glimpse into what you experienced, just a glimpse of it. Thank you all for being with us. I'd like to invite you to come back to a First Person program again. As I mentioned earlier, we'll have a First Person program each Wednesday through the end of August, and each Tuesday through the end of July. Our next program will be Tuesday, May the 5th, when our First Person will be Mr. Martin Weiss, who's from Czechoslovakia. Mr. Weiss survived the Munkacs Ghetto, the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, and the Mauthausen Concentration Camp. I'd like to remind you that you can listen to excerpts and full programs from First Person, including Leon's program, on the museum's website and also at iTunes. It's our tradition at First Person that our first person has the last word. And with that I'd like to ask Leon to offer us any concluding thoughts he has, to close today's program.
LEON MERRICK:
Oh, I jotted down a few words. And I figured well maybe it'll excite me and I wouldn't be able to remember. So I put it down. Okay. When I was in the camps I kept thinking how nice it would be on liberation day. Yet when this day finally arrived, after so many years- years of suffering, I felt all alone. I did not know if my family or those dear to me survived. I personally experienced a lot. There's just one profound regret, that so many people I loved did not live to see this glorious day. Our experiences are reminders to all people, in every place, in every corner on this earth, to become guardians of human rights, dignity and freedom forever.
BILL BENSON:
And remember, Leon will be over here if anybody would like to come and chat with him. Thank you.
LEON MERRICK:
Again, thank you Bill.
