Surviving the Holocaust - Freddie Knoller's War

This programme contains some scenes which some viewers may find upsetting

The Holocaust is one of the defining events of the 20th century.

There are many testimonies, many stories about those who survived

and those that died.

And every one is remarkable,

moving and unique.

Merci beaucoup, merci.

Freddie Knoller is one of the survivors.

At the age of 17 he was sent away from home to escape the Nazis

and for most of the war he remained one step ahead of them...

..but he was finally caught.

Just sit yourself down.

Now 93, Freddie lives in north London.

Excuse me, where's the camera?

Ah, yeah, I can see your face now, yeah, yeah,

because this is quite strong, that light.

What follows is his story -

his memories of what happened over 70 years ago.

Everyone happy?

Then we shall begin.

-NEWSREEL:

-Vienna, even now, gayest city of central Europe

with an architectural beauty from the historic buildings

on the Ring Platz to the great modern flats.

My name is Freddie Knoller.

I was born in Vienna in 1921.

Our district was the second district of Vienna, the Leopoldstadt.

A lot of Jews lived in the second district,

but it was a mixed district.

We had neighbours, Christian neighbours.

In fact, in the school we were mixed with Christian children.

Near us there was a big funfair, the Prater.

And I remember our big dream was to go on the Riesenrad,

the wheel, the big wheel.

My father was an accountant,

or Buchhalter they called it in German,

and he was very strict with us.

My mother was terrific.

She gave us so much love and support.

Music was very important.

In the evening, the three of the brother Knollers, we'd play together.

We played for our own pleasure Viennese music,

The Blue Danube and, you know, all the popular music of that time.

The atmosphere was, in our house, was really wonderful

because of that music.

I was a happy-go-lucky boy.

I tried to stay away from serious things.

I enjoyed life.

Um...

life was quite fantastic for me during my childhood.

11th March was my brother Erich's birthday...

..and on that day we had festivities at home.

And we heard on the radio that German troops went into Austria.

-NEWSREEL:

-All peoples around the globe were electrified

with Germany's lightning-like invasion of Austria.

From Innsbruck to Brenner Pass, Austrian independence was crushed

beneath the heels of goose-stepping Nazi legions.

CHEERING

Millions jammed country lanes and city streets

to gain a glimpse of the man who proclaimed himself a leader

of the peaceful country of seven million.

We were quite amazed

because we didn't think that Austria

would welcome Germany to come into Austria, but they did.

Austrians were very happy to have the Germans in their country.

We were told not to go to our school any more.

The Jews were only allowed to learn a trade.

My oldest brother Otto could not continue his medical studies.

And then we heard about the harassment of Jews in our district.

This is when I heard for the first time this shouting,

"Jude verrecke!" - Jews perish,

and it affected me terribly because somehow I said,

"How do they want me to perish? Why do they want me to perish?"

There was one event, actually, which I feel I should talk about.

Erm, I had a Christian friend.

After the Anschluss, I suddenly saw him in the Untere Augartenstrasse

in a Hitlerjugend's uniform.

And I saw him walking on the other side of the street

and I shouted,

"Kurtl, Kurtl, where are you going? Wo gehst du?"

He looked at me and he continued walking.

And this was the beginning of our life under the Nazis.

HITLER SPEECH IN GERMAN

-TRANSLATION:

-Let our vow tonight be that every hour on every day

to think only of the people of the Reich and of the German nation.

-ALL:

-Sieg heil.

Sieg heil. Sieg heil.

CROWD CHEERS

One day, I suddenly saw smoke coming out in the next street

where our synagogue was, the polnische Tempel.

Right away, I saw fire engines coming

but the Nazis in brown uniform wouldn't allow them to spray water

onto the synagogue, but they were only allowed to spray water

on the buildings adjoining the synagogue.

And when I came home and I told my parents what I've seen,

my father said, "You children, you cannot possibly live in a country

"where these things are happening. This is not for you.

"You have to live in different countries."

Then my oldest brother Otto was able to get himself a boat

to take him to England

and my brother Erich left for Florida.

I really felt, "Well, he's a lucky guy to go to America."

SHIP'S HORN BLARES

I was the youngest and my father said to me,

"Look, we have some friends in Belgium,"

and he phoned these friends

and ask them, "Can I send our youngest boy, Freddie, over to you?"

And naturally they said,

"By all means, send Freddie over. We'll take care of him."

Before I left, I cuddled and kissed my mother

and I was crying.

TRAIN BELL RINGS

WHISTLE BLOWS

I had that fear to go into a different country

not knowing what is going to happen...

..going into a place where I have to make my own decisions all the time

rather than being told by my father what to do.

What actually happened, because so many refugees went into Belgium,

the Belgium government created refugee camps and I was put into

a refugee camp for children my own age,

Jewish children.

I must say it felt a little bit like a holiday for me.

In that camp, we had an orchestra.

My father sent me my cello

and for me to have my cello again

was something so wonderful

because this was part of my home

with my parents, with my brothers.

It brought back my memories from a wonderful time which I had at home.

RADIO PIPS

-NEWSREEL:

-This is the national programme from London.

Please stand by for a very important announcement.

Germany has invaded Poland and has bombed many towns.

-WINSTON CHURCHILL:

-I have to tell you now that no such undertaking

has been received and that, consequently,

this country is at war with Germany.

-AMERICAN NEWSREEL:

-The leaders of Nazi Germany shifted

their war machine into high gear.

On May 10th, 1940, they blitzed

into Holland and Belgium.

There we were again under the Nazis.

What are we going to do now?

I, who spoke a bit of French,

I decided I wanted to go to France...

..because I read in these naughty books all about Paris,

about Montmartre,

about the Moulin Rouge with the half-naked dancers on the stage

and this is where I wanted to go.

So I made my way together with two other boys,

who also spoke a bit of French, towards the French border.

But I couldn't go with much luggage and I left the cello in the camp.

-NEWSREEL:

-The Nazis are marching ahead at the fastest speed

a conquering army has moved in all history.

All roads in France are choked with slow-moving masses of refugees.

The roads were full with people just walking,

some with cars and some with bicycles.

And, while we were walking, actually, suddenly planes came,

German planes came, and started to shoot at us.

Some people jumped into the ditches to get away from it.

Lied down on the ground, shivering,

you know, erm, afraid,

hoping that nothing will happen to me.

Everybody just screaming

and mothers shouting to their children and children screaming.

It was a terrible situation. It was a...

Together with the gunshots from the aeroplanes, it was terrible.

I was there together with two other friends of mine.

We both, all three of us, we approached the French border

and in French I said, "Moi, je veux rentrer en France

"parce'que je ne pas rester avec Monsieur Hitler."

"I want to go into France

"because I don't want to stay with Mr Hitler in Germany."

So they asked me for my passport.

The Germans put on the front page of each passport,

they put a big red 'J' on it

to indicate that the owner of the passport is a Jew.

But as soon as they saw the German passport with stamps

with the swastika on it, right away they couldn't care less

whether I was a Jew or not, it was a German passport.

They arrested me and my two friends as an enemy alien.

-NEWSREEL:

-The first block now on June 5th.

The French Resistance was determined but by June 8th, the left flank army

had been shattered and on June 9th the German main attack came.

Within two days, the German armoured and motorised divisions

roared out into the open terrain.

With this breakthrough, the issue of the Battle of France was decided.

Immediately, the real German Nazis were released from the camp

and only Jewish people stayed there.

The problem was, because of the little food that we had

and no washing facilities there,

people became ill and started to die of cholera.

And when the two friends who came with me to the camp

also contracted cholera,

I said to myself, "I don't want to die. I've got to get out of there."

And I went at night-time to the barbed wire

and I dug myself underneath the barbed wire

and escaped from that camp.

I made my way to meet my cousins in Gaillac.

It was actually a big farming community and as it was harvest-time,

the farmers needed help to take the harvest in.

They paid us very well and we worked very hard,

but I wasn't very happy really.

My plan was to go and find my own cello,

which I missed very much,

because the cello was part of my former life

with my family in Vienna.

Being the way I am, I did what I wanted to do.

When I saved up 100 francs,

I got myself some false identification papers.

So I became a Frenchman.

With 100 francs, I became Robert Metzner from Alsace-Lorraine.

My cousins were absolutely against it.

"Why do you want to go to Belgium again,

"which is occupied by the Germans?

"You are absolutely meshuga. You're mad."

Yeah, that was the Jewish word for being mad.

With these false papers, I made my way through the demarcation line

back to Belgium.

I went to our refugee camp

but the place was completely empty, um...

and nobody was there.

I went through the barracks where we lived

and I couldn't find any cello.

I didn't know what I should do.

But I think within myself,

I became quite cocky

and self-assured with these false documents,

which I can do whatever I want.

"I am not a Jew.

"I am Robert Metzner from Alsace-Lorraine

"and I want to go to Paris!" - that simple.

MUSIC: Paris Sera Toujours Paris by Maurice Chevalier

# Paris sera toujours Paris

# La plus belle ville du monde

# Malgre l'obscurite profonde

# Son eclat ne peut etre assombri. #

-AMERICAN NEWSREEL:

-Paris, two short syllables but what a word it is.

Capital of France and the centre of French national life,

it is regarded by many as the most beautiful city in all the world.

So let's open wide the gates that we too may see the sights

and thrill to their fascination.

Arriving at the Gare du Nord,

it was just incredible.

The place was full of German soldiers.

Then I saw a big sign there - Metro -

and I went towards that sign

and I saw the map of Paris there

and I saw Place Pigalle.

I took the underground, got out at Place Pigalle.

I was fascinated.

This was the naughty district of Paris which I read so much about.

# Menilmontant

# Mais oui, madame

# C'est la que j'ai laisse mon coeur... #

I was standing in front of the Folies Bergere,

which was in Montmartre,

and I saw these photos with the half-naked dancers on the stage there

and I enjoyed myself.

# ..petite eglises

# Ou les mariages allaient gaiement

# Quand je revois ma vieille maison grise

# Meme la grise parle d'antan. #

One day, I saw a Mediterranean-looking fellow

talking to a group of German soldiers and I heard him say he was Cristos.

In German, he was telling him,

"Come with me, I will show you beautiful sights of Paris

"and to a beautiful place where lots of girls are there.

"You will have lots of fun and I saw them entering into a nightclub."

When I approached Cristos, I said to him, "Look here, I also speak German.

"I heard you talking to the German soldiers.

"Between you and me, I'm a little bit broke.

"Is there any possibility for me to join you

"and can we make a living?"

He said to me, "If you want to join me, I will introduce you to these

"nightclubs and whenever you take German soldiers into these places,

"they will pay commission for taking you there."

I said, "Oh, I would love to do that,"

and we made an appointment for the next day to meet at Place Pigalle.

-BRITISH NEWSREEL:

-Up with the curtain,

when Paris dances she lets herself go.

Ring-a-Ring-o-Roses is grand fun.

Would any of you boys like to join in?

# La musique negre et le jazz hot

# Sont deja de vieilles machines

# Maintenant pour etre dans la note

# Il faut du swing... #

Cristos introduced me to the music,

the dancers, jazz, which he loved.

I enjoyed doing the work that I was doing with the Germans.

It was an adventure for me to take them to the cabarets

and the brothels.

I met a lot of lovely people,

interesting people, actually.

I don't mean the German soldiers but the girls in the cabarets

and the people that I met with them,

the owners of the brothels, which I became very friendly with.

You know, half-naked dancers, all the girls, and I enjoyed

looking at it and enjoyed the music and it was very pleasant.

I must say we did earn quite a lot of money, actually, from these places.

In reality, I was really a pimp, but I didn't consider myself, er...

that this is a situation which I should be ashamed of

because, somehow, it saved my life what I did.

One day, I was standing on Place Pigalle

and I saw two civilians coming towards me.

Each one had a hat on and long black leather coat on

and I recognised them immediately.

These must be two people from the Gestapo.

And they asked me in French,

"Qu'est-ce que vous faites ici

"de parler avec les soldats allemands?"

"What are you doing here to talk to German soldiers all the time?"

So I answered them in German.

I said, "Oh, but I'm a guide. I'm a guide.

"I show these soldiers, who maybe come from the Russian front, I show

"them the beautiful sights of Paris, because they do not know Paris."

Immediately they took me in their car to Gestapo headquarters

and they started interrogating me.

Their office was a large room.

There was a big picture on the wall behind them which was Adolf Hitler.

The first question was, "Show me your papers."

I showed them my papers and, while he was talking,

I saw on his desk a plaster head of a human being...

..and he saw me looking at it.

He said, "Oh, this plaster head, that's a head of a Jew

"because we were taught how to recognise Jews

"by the structure of the head."

With that, he got up from his desk, went behind me

and he took my head between his two hands, tracing it.

He said, "Oh, yes."

I must say that I'm not ashamed to say, I wet my pants

because I was so sure that I will now be recognised as a Jew.

He said, "Oh, yes, oh, yes, I can see, I can see.

"Yes, I can see you come from good German background

"and I think you should be joining our organisation as an interpreter.

"You will be earning a lot of money

"and finally you will be working with your own people."

Well, I felt so amazed, laughing,

not... more or less laughing of myself,

said, "Wow, what an adventure did... to be able to get away

"from the Gestapo and they want me to work with them!"

Merci beaucoup.

'It never entered my mind to accept the offer because to be

'working with the Gestapo would have been so dangerous for me.

'I went back to my friend Cristos on Place Pigalle

and I said to him, "Look, I cannot work here any more

"because if they see me... they will just arrest me

"and deport me to a concentration camp."

He said, "Leave it with me, I have some ideas."

I went home and two days later Cristos introduced me

to a leader of the French Resistance.

The Resistance leader took me from Paris to a place called Figeac.

It is a town, a beautiful town, actually,

surrounded by very high mountains,

and in the mountains the Resistance groups were hiding.

We were really taught how to use guns.

We were taught how to put explosives together

and to do the things that I've never done in my life before.

It was...a great joy for me

to fight my enemies, instead of earning money from them.

RADIO: 'Ici Londres.

'Veuillez ecouter tout d'abord quelques messages personelles.

'L'etoile filante repassera...'

One day, we were told early in the morning to go together

to derail this troops train.

Our leader told us that the train should be arriving

somewhere around eleven, eleven-thirty in the morning.

And he made sure that

whenever we put explosives onto the railway line,

we hide it with leaves, grass coming out

so that it shouldn't be noticed immediately.

Then he told us that we should go and observe,

but quite far away, what is going to happen up in the hills.

The train came.

We heard the explosion.

We saw the first engine topple over on the side

and the whole thing just collapsed itself.

But we run away immediately back to our Resistance group.

I must say, it was wonderful.

I enjoyed this day...wonderfully.

I went to a certain bistro in Figeac.

I was beautifully received there by the owner of the bistro

and I became quite friends with them.

He actually introduced me to a lovely, beautiful girl,

a French girl called Jacqueline.

I fell in love with her because she was a very, very pretty girl

and, you know, I always love pretty girls.

Full hair, very buxomy, they say, yeah?

Erm, and, erm, she was always smiling

and laughing and making jokes.

It was a very, very close relationship and especially

when we started to make love to each other,

it became even stronger, our relationship.

I really trusted Jacqueline

and on a weak moment I said to her,

"I trust you to know that

"I'm really working for the Resistance group up in the hills."

And, um, she was quite happy to hear about it.

She told me she doesn't like the Nazis being in France

but I was a fool

because I should never have given away what I was doing.

In spite of the good relationship that we had,

sometimes...we had arguments

because I became jealous

that she was having another affair with other man.

I wanted to know more really what she was doing, so I said,

"Come on, tell me about it."

"No, this is my own business and I'm not going to talk about it."

I...was fed up with her. I was...

It was a moment when I shouted to her,

"Jacqueline, just go your own way.

"I don't want to have anything to do with you,"

and she went and smacked my face and run away.

I should not have really broken off with her

because the risk of exposure was so great.

So I decided to go the next day

back to that bistro where we usually meet

and, um, hoping to find her,

or maybe apologise to her what has happened the day before.

Jacqueline wasn't there but the French gendarmes,

two gendarmes were waiting for me, arrested me,

took me to their office and they started interrogating me.

They wanted to know all about my Resistance group

and I knew immediately Jacqueline must have told them that.

Naturally, I would not say anything against my friends

in the Resistance.

These were people who were fighting the enemies, like I was fighting

the enemies, and when they saw I wouldn't talk about it, they started

to hitting me, smashing in my face, blood all over me to make me talk.

They even burned my body with the cigarettes,

torturing me to make me talk.

It was so painful. When I couldn't stand it any more, I said,

"Stop, I will tell you the truth."

"The truth is I've nothing to do with any Resistance group

"but the truth is that my name is not Robert Metzner

"from Alsace-Lorraine.

"This is a false papers.

"But in reality I'm Freddie Knoller,

"a Jew from Vienna hiding up there in the hills."

I remember a big empty courtyard...

..surrounded by block of flats.

This is quite amazing because it... they haven't changed at all,

the buildings, but it was a square without trees

and we were hundreds and thousands of people around here.

We slept in these abandoned blocks.

We knew that we were going in the east somewhere.

Nobody knew exactly where we are going

so the children invented a name - Pitchipoi.

"Oh, we're all going to Pitchipoi."

And every transport from Drancy were exactly 1,000 people -

men, women, children, all together taken in cattle wagons.

Whenever the list of deportation to the east was displayed...

we all tried to run towards the building where the list was displayed

and trying to see who is actually going.

The 6th October, the list came up and...

my name came up.

I became a friend in Drancy with a French doctor,

Dr Robert Waitz

and he went with me into that wagon.

We were squeezed in like sardines.

It was impossible to be comfortable there

or even sit down.

My friend, Dr Robert Waitz, said,

"Look here, we don't know how long we are going to be in the train.

"Let's organise making sure that we survive it properly,"

and he said, "Why don't we give the women and the old people a seat

"so they can lean against the wall of the wagon?"

And then he says,

"We young people, half of us will sit on the floor

"and half...half of us will stand and every four hours we change,"

and this is how we survived a journey

which I will never, never forget.

People, women, had to empty themselves

in front of everybody.

The crying of the children,

the...the hunger that we felt of not being able to get any food

whatsoever, this was the situation on our transport to the east.

Finally the train stopped...

..the doors opened up and we saw SS in uniform.

They all had dogs on their lead and whips in their hands

and the loudspeaker was coming out,

telling us, "You are here in Auschwitz concentration camp

"and we want the young men

"who are able to walk to the camp

"to line up in rows of five."

When we arrived, we saw prisoners in pyjama-like striped uniforms.

And we even heard music coming from an orchestra

and we had to march with the rhythm of that music to a building.

We had to undress completely

and we were given our uniform to put on.

Some people were saying, asking the old prisoners,

and said, "Tell me, we only see men here.

"What happened to our families?"

Apparently, the old prisoners were telling the...the...the people,

said, "You don't ever ask that question

"because you will never, ever see the women again.

"Quite soon you will smell the sweet smell in the air

"when the bodies are being burned."

We actually didn't believe what they were saying because Germany was...

in fact, was a cultured country, to a certain extent, in our minds.

But, um, quite soon afterwards, we smelt that sweet smell

coming from Birkenau, all right,

to show that it was really true what they were saying,

that they were cremating the bodies of their relatives.

Then we went for registration.

I gave them the name of my parents.

I gave them the address where we lived in Vienna.

Each one of us was given...

..a number.

They put down a number and they said to us,

"You will be now tattooed on your forearm with a number."

And my number was 157108.

And they said, "You will never be called by your name any more,

"but when they call your number, you will have to answer."

And I realised at that moment that we are not any more human beings

but we are really a number.

The first job that I was given was to carry 25-kilo cement bags

on my shoulder -

which we had to take out from a wagon, a railway wagon -

cement bags on our shoulder

and we had to take it to a building and then emptying it.

But we were not allowed just to walk with these 25 kilos -

they forced us to run with these 25 kilos

and if we didn't run fast enough, we were whipped.

From time to time,

we told to line up in front of the SS...

..and told to walk

and there the SS either said to us,

"Go left," or, "Go right."

I put my chest out and I smiled at him

and more or less to say,

"I'm OK, I'm OK for continue working,"

and this is what I did, er, when I walked in front.

I wasn't meek at all about it

because I knew if we were ever taken on the left-hand side,

they would gas us.

-NEWSREEL:

-'Little by little, the Nazis were reaching

'what they called "the Final Solution" -

'the total extermination of the Jews of Europe.

'It took from three to 15 minutes to kill the people in the death chamber

'depending on climatic conditions.

'We knew when the people were dead because their screaming stopped.'

Sometimes when I knew that somebody was hiding a piece of bread

underneath their mattress, maybe to eat it later on,

and I saw that he was hiding that piece of bread,

um, I...

ashamed to say that I did go to the mattress,

I took out the bread when he wasn't there and I took it away from him.

You only think of yourself, not of others - don't look around

and feel what others are suffering.

You have to become selfish and you

become a completely different person as you were maybe in the past.

It was a selfishness which today I am ashamed of,

but by the time when I did it there was no shame.

It was only...my only thought - "I've got to survive."

One day, in the evening, I saw my friend Dr Robert Waitz

in the camp and he said,

"Oh, Freddie, how are you? What you doing?"

So I told him what I'm... what I was doing and I said,

"Look here, you will not see me in two weeks' time,

because I'll be dead."

He said, "Because I'm a doctor,

"they put me in charge of the hospital of Auschwitz.

"I will try to find extra food for you."

But he also got me out of that cement Kommando

and into a easier Kommando

where my job was sweeping in a building,

an empty building, sweeping the floor

and I must say it was so easy to be in the walls

in a...in a building rather than carrying the cement bags

outside in the open air in winter

when it was minus 20-25 degrees temperature.

It was a life-saver.

'And I know that I'm alive today

'because of that wonderful, er, help I received from Dr Robert Waitz.'

-NEWSREEL:

-'This is the BBC Home Service.

'Here is a special bulletin read by John Snagge.

'D-Day has come.

'Early this morning, the Allies began the assault

'on the northwestern face of Hitler's European fortress.'

BOMBS WHISTLE

'During the fifth year of this war,

'the German invaders have been driven headlong from Russian soil.

'As her armies keep on westward, they know that the Germans

'fight now only to gain time to stave off inevitable defeat

'at the hands of the Allies.'

It was bitter, bitter cold.

We were told that we're going to march to a town called Gleiwitz,

50 kilometres away.

We walked on that big road on ice and snow and some people just

collapsed of the freezing cold in our thin clothes.

As soon as people could not walk any more,

the Germans, who surrounded us, shot them.

Some people run away into the woods -

the Germans kill them.

All who were able to walk still,

we walked as fast as we could in order to remain alive.

I walked and walked without caring what happened to anybody else.

We saw people being killed but it didn't affect me.

This was just one of the thing -

"I am still walking and I'm still alive" -

that's the only thought that I had.

After Gleiwitz, we were taken to a railway station

and we were put into these open carriages by the...by the Germans

and we were taken to the next camp.

Er, so many people actually died on the train

and we were quite happy actually to throw them out from the train

because we wanted to have more room to be able to move

because we were so squeezed together there.

We passed Vienna, we saw the Prater

and right away my thoughts were, "What happened to my parents?"

It was over six years that I didn't see my parents.

My feeling was, "Will...will I find them live...alive again?"

-NEWSREEL:

-'Tonight, we're attacking the retreating German army,

'streaming back into Cologne from the west

'and hoping to cross the Rhine.'

'We're circling round now, watching the inferno below us

'and silhouetted against it,

'the Lancasters and the Halifaxes making off

'in the all-revealing light of the moon.'

Bergen-Belsen - we arrived there

beginning March 1945.

We really didn't see any guards.

They were there but they didn't come into the camp.

No food was given to us at all,

I...I remember digging into the ground to get hold of some roots,

something to eat, because...

..I never, ever experienced

a hunger so strong.

It hurt my...my stomach and my body hurt me from the hunger that we had.

I saw some young people coming to these bodies

with sharp stones.

They went to the bodies to...

and cut up the flesh of these dead bodies

and they were able to try to find a fire

and to roast that flesh from these dead bodies.

I don't know whether...

I really don't know whether this was...immoral for me.

I...I don't think so, but this is something I just couldn't do.

'I am the officer commanding the regiment of Royal Artillery

'guarding this camp.

'Our most unpleasant task has been making the SS,

'of which there are about 50, bury the dead.

'Up to press, we've buried about 17,000 people...

'..and we expect to bury about half as much again.

'The officers and men regard this job...

'..as a duty that has to be performed

'and none of us are likely to forget

'what the German people have done here.'

'The British interviewed the prisoners,'

asking their background and everything and I was asked,

"Where would you like to go?"

and naturally I told them, "I want to go to Vienna."

Er, the officer said, "Vienna is occupied by the Russian troops

"and we know that no Jews are any more living in Vienna,

"so you better...

"don't go to Vienna because you will not find your parents there."

I only found out what happened

to my parents

until after 50 years

of liberation of Auschwitz.

In 1995, I was told that my parents

were deported from Vienna in 1942...

..and were gassed and cremated

on 22nd November, 1944...

..in Auschwitz.

And I was there in Auschwitz

but, naturally, I didn't know anything about it.

'What I went through in my lifetime made me...believe in myself.

I'm proud to have experienced what I've experienced and, er,

I'm proud to have been...

..er, to have fought for my life

and proud to be able to tell the world what has happened.

I'm...

I'm a fantastic guy, I must say!

I don't know! I shouldn't have said that.

I'm very proud of myself!

# Tombe du ciel

# Je suis tombe du ciel

# Destin providentiel

# Car sur la terre

# Tout est charmant

# Surtout quand vient l'printemps

# Et qu'on voit les etangs

# Pleins de lumiere... #