[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 17989-17990]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              WORLD WAR II HEROES AND HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, on Tuesday, November 11, Americans across 
the country will gather to honor those who have fought for our freedom 
and thank them for a debt we can never fully repay.
  This year marks the 97th anniversary of the end of World War I. Our 
victory in that ``war to end all wars'' showed us that we could not 
ignore the rest of the world. And as President Clinton said, ``while 
that war proved our strength, it did not prove our wisdom. . . . We 
turned our backs on the rest of the world. We ignored the signs of 
danger. Soon we had a Great Depression, and soon that depression led to 
aggression and then to another world war--one that would claim a half 
million American lives.''
  Whenever freedom is threatened, our brave men and women have answered 
the call to serve. Today, I would like to highlight our debt to the 
heroes and survivors of World War II. Earlier this year, we 
commemorated International Holocaust Remembrance Day and paid tribute 
to the nearly 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazi regime. This year 
marks the 70th anniversary that Allied Forces entered concentration 
camps--like Auschwitz-Birkenau--and liberated thousands of prisoners.
  On the eve of this Veterans Day, nine American heroes and Holocaust 
survivors are being honored in my home State of Illinois. Today, I want 
to share their remarkable stories. As the memory of the Holocaust 
passes from those who were there to the generations that weren't we 
can't forget the importance of remembrance.
  GEN Dwight D. Eisenhower, the supreme commander of Allied Forces in 
Europe, understood this and documented what he saw. After visiting a 
liberated Nazi camp, he urged Washington to send congressional 
delegations to witness Nazi crimes firsthand so that in the future 
there could be no attempt to dismiss these allegations as 
``propaganda.''
  With the remaining eyewitnesses in their twilight years, the 
responsibility to ensure that future generations never forget these 
atrocities falls to us. I want to commend these men and women for their 
brave actions and quiet courage. Today, we honor their sacrifice by 
remembering the horrors they witnessed and proclaiming in one unified 
voice: ``Never again.'' I am privileged to honor them and remember 
their stories. They are true heroes.
  I would like to acknowledge Dr. George Brent, Edith Stern, Margie 
Oppenheimer, Hannah Messinger, Walter Reed, Joseph Dobryman, Lewis 
Pazoles, Harry Nichols, and Anthony Gargano. But behind every name is a 
story. I ask unanimous consent to have their stories printed in the 
Record.
  Our hearts break for these men and women who mourn their families. 
But while their stories agonize, they also inspire. Their lives are not 
just stories of survival; they are stories of triumph and grace in the 
face of unspeakable evil. I want to thank each of them for the courage 
to share their stories.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:


                            Dr. George Brent

       When George was 14 years old, he and his entire family were 
     transported by cattle car to Auschwitz-Birkenau with 
     thousands of other Hungarian Jews. When they arrived at the 
     camp, those who were still alive were dragged off the cars 
     and forced into one of two lines. An SS soldier decided 
     whether they would go left or right. George and his father 
     were sent one direction--to live; his mother and ten year-old 
     brother were sent the other direction--to die.
       As the Allied Forces advanced, George was sent on a death 
     march from Auschwitz and then on a coal train to Mauthausen-
     Ebensee Concentration Camp in Austria. On May 6, 1945, 
     General Patton's 3rd Army Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron 
     liberated the camp. Here's how one of General Patton's tank 
     commanders described what he saw: ``thousands of skeleton-
     like figures who were skin and bones. The living laying side 
     by side, often times indistinguishable, from the dead.'' 
     George was one of the prisoners that survived. He was moved 
     to a displaced persons camp and learned how to be a dental 
     technician. In 1949, George came to America. He learned a new 
     language and started a new life.
       In 1950, he joined the United States Air Force and served 
     as a dental assistant during the Korean War. Following his 
     service, he attended dental school at the University of 
     Illinois--and has practiced dentistry until 2011--when he 
     retired at the age of 81. Dr. Brent not only survived these 
     horrors, he thrived. George Brent may not have been born in 
     America, but he is an American hero.


                              Edith Stern

       In February 1942, when Edith, 21 years old, and her parents 
     were deported to the Theresienstadt Ghetto. She met and 
     married her husband, Otto Rebenwurzel, at Theresienstadt. In 
     1944, not long after the

[[Page 17990]]

     wedding, Edith and her mother were sent to Auschwitz where a 
     sign mockingly read, ``Work makes you free.'' At Auschwitz, 
     Josef Mengele stood before them to decide their fate. Left 
     meant survival, for a few weeks at least. Right meant death 
     in the gas chamber. Edith's mother was sent to her right. She 
     was 55 years old when she died. Edith was sent to a forced 
     labor camp.
       In 1944, while Edith was in the Theresienstadt Ghetto with 
     her husband, she became pregnant. By early 1945, her 
     pregnancy began to show and she was transferred to the 
     Grossschoenau labor camp. Edith was liberated from 
     Grossschoenau when she was nine months pregnant. Still 
     dressed in her striped blue prison uniform, she immediately 
     went into labor. Three days after giving birth, the baby she 
     named Peter, died.
       Edith moved to the United States in 1964 and became an 
     administrator at the Self Help Home on the South Side of 
     Chicago. After living through the horrors of war, Edith's 
     belief in the goodness of mankind was unshakable. She devoted 
     her life to helping others rebuild their lives. What an 
     inspiration.


                           Margie Oppenheimer

       Seventy-seven years ago, Margie awoke to a Nazi soldier 
     pointing a rifle at her face--she was 14 years old. It was 
     November 9, 1938, Kristallnacht--the night of broken glass--
     when Nazi soldiers coordinated attacks all over Jewish 
     communities in Germany and Austria. Windows were smashed. 
     Synagogues burned. Homes and Jewish-owned stores ransacked 
     and looted. Margie's family apartment and small department 
     store were destroyed. This night began seven years of terror 
     for Margie and her family. She was sent to five concentration 
     camps: Sloka, Riga-Kaiserwald, Bruss-Sophienwalde, Stutthof 
     and Goddentow. As a prisoner of these camps, she hauled 
     backbreaking cement bags, was beaten with clubs, broke 
     concrete, laid bricks, fought hunger . . . fear . . . and 
     typhus. Through it all, she repeated the words: ``I WILL be 
     strong. I want to live.''
       One day at the Stutthof concentration camp, Margie was 
     emaciated and unable to work. She was placed into new 
     barracks and had the Roman numeral II scrawled on her 
     forearm--it was a death sentence. That night, two of her 
     friends did the unimaginable. Without saying a word, they 
     pulled a helpless Margie under an electric fence to another 
     side of the camp and they scrubbed off the number on her arm. 
     She was no longer marked for death.
       On March 10, 1945, Margie was liberated. She was 21 years 
     old. In 1953, Margie and her husband came to the United 
     States. She became a nurse. And just as her friends helped 
     her at the Stuffhof camp on that fateful night, she devoted 
     her life to helping those who couldn't help themselves.


                            Hannah Messinger

       In 1938, Hannah and her family were forced to abandon their 
     home and business. A few months before her twentieth 
     birthday, Hannah married Karl Kohorn. In 1941, Carl was 
     deported to the Theresienstadt Ghetto. Two weeks later, so 
     was Hannah. Hannah worked as a hairdresser--an occupation in 
     high demand--because the Germans wouldn't allow women to have 
     long hair. In 1942, Hannah's parents and sister arrived at 
     Theresienstadt, but stayed only three days before being 
     deported to Auschwitz.
       Hannah is one of the last living witnesses to the 
     International Red Cross visit to Theresienstadt on June 23, 
     1944. The Nazis created an elaborate hoax to show how well 
     Jews were being treated under the ``benevolent'' Third Reich. 
     It was lie. More than 33,000 inmates died as a result of 
     malnutrition, disease, or the sadistic treatment by the Nazis 
     at Theresienstadt.
       On May 8, 1945, Allied Forces liberated the Merzdorf labor 
     camp--where Hannah was moved to. But when she returned to 
     Prague she learned that all her family members were murdered.
       After the war, Hannah began corresponding with an Aunt in 
     Budapest--her last surviving relative in Europe. In the 
     letters, Hannah poured her heart out sharing Holocaust 
     experiences and losses and recounting the suffering she and 
     her loved ones endured. When her aunt read the letters out 
     loud, a friend of the family, Imre, was listening and fell in 
     love with her writings. Imre began to correspond with Hannah 
     directly. Through those letters, they fell in love. Hannah 
     moved to the United States in 1946. Eventually, Imre joined 
     her. They married the following year and moved to Chicago. 
     Hannah has created pencil drawings based on her experiences 
     as a prisoner in several concentration and labor camps from 
     1941-1945. A number of her pieces can be seen at the United 
     States Holocaust Museum in 2010 and in the Smithsonian. 
     Hannah's work allows future generations to better understand 
     her experience and see it through her own eyes.


                              Walter Reed

       On Kristallnacht, Walter was jailed by Nazi soldiers for 3 
     days--he was 14 years old. In 1939, his parents put him on a 
     Kindertransport (children's transport) to Belgium. This 
     decision saved his life. Walter lived in a boys home near 
     Brussels until the Germans invaded in 1940. Walter and more 
     than 90 other children escaped to southern France, where they 
     lived in a barn and later in an abandoned chateau--they 
     became known as the ``Children of La Hille.''
       In 1941, Walter was able to leave France for New York. He 
     became a U.S. citizen in 1943 and returned to Europe in 1944 
     as a soldier in the United States Army. Walter served in the 
     95th Infantry Division under General George Patton. His team 
     was charged with interrogating German prisoners and civilians 
     near the front lines. Walter first arrived in the United 
     States as a survivor of the war and he returned as an 
     American hero.


                            Joseph Dobryman

       In 1941, Joseph was 18 years old and forced into the 
     Bialystock Ghetto with his parents and two brothers. The 
     Ghetto was liquidated in 1943 and everyone was sent to camps. 
     Joseph and his brother Henry were separated from the rest of 
     their family. In 1943, they sent to the Lomza Ghetto and then 
     to the Danzig, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen Belsen 
     concentration camps for the rest of the war. Joseph and Henry 
     were liberated from Bergen Belsen by Allied Forces in 1945. 
     They were the only members of their family that survived.
       In 1949, Joseph married Nettie Goldberg and they made their 
     way to the United States. They had no family waiting for 
     them, but Joseph found work as a plumber and went to school 
     at night to learn English. Joseph and Nettie settled and 
     raised their family in Skokie, Illinois, where he still lives 
     today.


                             Lewis Pazoles

       Lewis was born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, the son of Greek 
     immigrants. Immediately after graduating high school, Lewis 
     was drafted into the U.S. Army. On April 6, 1944, Lewis 
     joined a medical battalion attached to the 83rd infantry and 
     shipped out in a convoy to England to prepare for the 
     Normandy invasion. Corporal Lewis Pazoles and his unit, 
     followed General Patton's Army to Omaha Beach on June 11, 
     1944--five days after D-day. His unit proceeded to fight in 
     the Battle of the Bulge--and moved through the Ardennes, 
     Rhineland and Central Europe toward Germany.
       On April 11, 2045, the 83rd liberated Langenstein--a sub 
     camp of Buchenwald--where they found about 1,100 malnourished 
     and emaciated prisoners. The prisoners were forced to work 16 
     hour days in nearby mines and were shot if they were too weak 
     to work. Corporal Pazoles' unit reported that the death rate 
     at the camp was about 500 a month. The 83rd Infantry also 
     recovered Nazi documents later used by war crime 
     investigators.
       In 1946, Corporal Pazoles was honorably discharged--he was 
     20 years old. He returned to the United States and became a 
     partner in his family's grocery store business in Chicago. 
     Today, Lewis and his wife reside in Palos Hills, Illinois.
       Here are some of the honors that Corporal Pazoles received 
     during his service: The Victory Medal, The European African 
     Middle Eastern Theater Ribbon with 1 Silver Battle Star, 3 
     Overseas Service Bars, the Good Conduct Medal, the Purple 
     Heart, and a Bronze Star. Lewis Pazoles is an American hero.


                             Harry Nichols

       Harry was born in Alliance, Ohio, and was drafted in the 
     U.S. Army in 1942. On June 6, 1944, Harry was in the third 
     wave of U.S. forces who stormed Omaha Beach in Normandy, 
     France. Known as Operation Neptune, it was the largest 
     amphibious operation ever attempted. More than 160,000 Allied 
     troops landed along the 50-mile stretch of heavily fortified 
     French coastline to fight the Nazis. Afterward, Harry fought 
     in the battle of St.-Lo and the Battle of the Bulge. He 
     helped liberate the French cities of Laval, LeMans, Orleans 
     and Nance. Harry also fought through Luxemburg and Holland, 
     crossed the Rhine River into Germany and up the Elbe River 
     before May 7, 1945--V-E Day.
       In 1945, while training with his unit to fight in the 
     invasion of Japan--the Japanese surrendered. Harry returned 
     home to Ohio and began working in a bakery. In the late 
     1940s, he made his way to Chicago where he worked as a 
     waiter, a grocer and florist. Harry Nichols is an American 
     hero.


                            Anthony Gargano

       On December 7, 1941, Tony's 22nd birthday, the Japanese 
     attacked Pearl Harbor. Less than six weeks later, Tony 
     enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was assigned to one of three 
     ships masquerading as merchant vessels. In 1942, he and his 
     shipmates were captured by the Japanese and taken to Hakodate 
     prison camp on an island just north of mainland Japan. Tony 
     remained a POW for three years and was set free the day the 
     Japanese surrendered and abandoned the camp. He returned to 
     America, married the love of his life--Julia--and worked six 
     days a week as a maitre'd at Elliot's Pine Log Restaurant.
       For nearly 70 years, Tony has kept the details of war and 
     the horrors of his imprisonment to himself, but has recently 
     began to share his story. Tony will tell you, he is not a 
     hero; his brothers lost in battle are the heroes. What an 
     inspiration.

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