1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,466 IV: Being working, being starving, losing your brothers. 2 00:00:03,467 --> 00:00:12,666 What do you think, what was the most terrible, the hardest thing to bear in this year, for you as a young, 13-year-old boy? 3 00:00:12,667 --> 00:00:15,032 MH: Lost my family. I lost my childhood. 4 00:00:15,033 --> 00:00:19,399 Didn't have no childhood, lost my family. 5 00:00:19,400 --> 00:00:23,966 It is still in my mind how my parents looked. 6 00:00:23,967 --> 00:00:27,332 Can you imagine as a child of 12, 13 lost my family.. 7 00:00:27,333 --> 00:00:33,999 And the worst thing, lost my two brothers, on the way. Shot, virtually, in front of my eyes. 8 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:39,199 This is.. something I can never forget. I cannot get it out of my mind. 9 00:00:39,200 --> 00:00:43,566 Knowing that my parents were gassed. 10 00:00:43,567 --> 00:00:49,866 You know, it's in my mind how my mother looked and my father, you know.. 11 00:00:49,867 --> 00:00:52,099 And being taken to the gas chamber. 12 00:00:52,100 --> 00:01:00,166 This is something, until I have breath in my lungs, I will never forget it. 13 00:01:00,167 --> 00:01:04,499 And my.. I lost half of my family. 14 00:01:04,500 --> 00:01:08,732 And to this day, I don't want to go into.. 15 00:01:08,733 --> 00:01:15,832 Politically, what is happening in Germany.. And I can't forgive this and I cannot forget. 16 00:01:15,833 --> 00:01:18,766 And it's wrong how the Germans behaved. 17 00:01:18,767 --> 00:01:25,566 I'm not taking anybody individually as an example, like you or somebody else. 18 00:01:25,567 --> 00:01:29,832 As a whole, the German government, the German people. 19 00:01:29,833 --> 00:01:32,699 Here I am, I'm giving you just a little example. 20 00:01:32,700 --> 00:01:37,332 I'm getting from the German government "Gutmachung". You've heard of "Gutmachung?" 21 00:01:37,333 --> 00:01:40,899 In English, you say "peanuts". Nothing. 22 00:01:40,900 --> 00:01:47,999 Yeah, the very people who murdered us, who killed us, SS, are getting high pensions here. 23 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:53,099 They getting ten times more than I am getting and they're the ones who were killing the people. 24 00:01:53,100 --> 00:01:55,999 How can one explain that? 25 00:01:56,000 --> 00:02:00,332 I'm asking ordinary German people, how do you explain anything like this? 26 00:02:00,333 --> 00:02:05,066 SS, who were serving, murdering here, are getting high pensions. 27 00:02:05,067 --> 00:02:10,732 I'm the one who was persecuted, who were killing me and my family. 28 00:02:10,733 --> 00:02:13,466 I'm getting nothing, they say "Gutmachung". 29 00:02:13,467 --> 00:02:20,566 Yes, sort of "We are going to give you something, saying sorry for what we did." 30 00:02:20,567 --> 00:02:26,032 How does the German explain that to me? I asked questions. 31 00:02:26,033 --> 00:02:30,399 And look, everybody says when you speak to German people: 32 00:02:30,400 --> 00:02:37,999 "We couldn't do nothing because if you opened your mouth, you did something, you finished up in a camp like here." 33 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:42,332 So, in other words, the whole of Germany would have finished up in a camp. 34 00:02:42,333 --> 00:02:46,599 Nobody supported the Nazis. 35 00:02:46,600 --> 00:02:50,299 To go into the SS, you had to volunteer. 36 00:02:50,300 --> 00:02:54,666 When you were called up, you didn't - they didn't put you in the SS. 37 00:02:54,667 --> 00:03:00,266 You had volunteered, you could go to Wehrmacht. You were called, you were volunteered to service. 38 00:03:00,267 --> 00:03:06,099 So in other words, everybody says: "We are not the ones, we could do nothing." 39 00:03:06,100 --> 00:03:08,232 But there were millions who did it. 40 00:03:08,233 --> 00:03:14,832 There were, where did these people come from, these SS.. 41 00:03:14,833 --> 00:03:19,099 Thousands of hundreds of thousands of them. You know. 42 00:03:19,100 --> 00:03:24,232 It's amazing, you know. So this is something, you know, it makes you suspicious. 43 00:03:24,233 --> 00:03:27,332 I know the younger generation, obviously not. 44 00:03:27,333 --> 00:03:35,099 But they should ask their parents or maybe their parents were not - the grandparents, who did all these things. You know. 45 00:03:35,100 --> 00:03:37,599 A lot of the people don't want to talk about it. 46 00:03:37,600 --> 00:03:44,999 The younger generation say: "Look, we have a different generation now. It is not our responsibility." 47 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:48,266 It is responsibility. It's the responsibility of the German people. 48 00:03:48,267 --> 00:03:53,932 Nevermind you didn't do it, but your parents and grandparents they did it. 49 00:03:53,933 --> 00:03:56,566 So, they've got to take responsibility. 50 00:03:56,567 --> 00:04:01,232 The German come and say: "Yes, we're taking responsibility and we're paying you compensation." 51 00:04:01,233 --> 00:04:03,766 You cannot pay compensation for anything like this. 52 00:04:03,767 --> 00:04:07,566 I'm going to murder you and I'm going to say your sister and brothers: 53 00:04:07,567 --> 00:04:13,332 "Here's ah, 1000 Ma- ah, Euros because I killed your brother." 54 00:04:13,333 --> 00:04:22,699 That's what this amounts to. I know, well, they can't bring somebody alive again. I understand that. 55 00:04:22,700 --> 00:04:29,132 But it is the way they behave. I cannot understand this. 56 00:04:29,133 --> 00:04:32,866 How they can pay pensions to these people. 57 00:04:32,867 --> 00:04:35,599 I want an answer. 58 00:04:35,600 --> 00:04:40,532 Tell me, why pay somebody like that. Ex-SS men. 59 00:04:40,533 --> 00:04:47,466 At the end of the war, you know, I remember, at the end - they were mostly elderly SS because the younger ones were sent to the front. 60 00:04:47,467 --> 00:04:49,032 You know, they were fighting. 61 00:04:49,033 --> 00:04:51,966 It was mostly sort of middle-aged SS men. 62 00:04:51,967 --> 00:04:57,066 And that, he must have had a heart, that I can still remember. 63 00:04:57,067 --> 00:05:04,232 In Dörnhau, where I was working, there was one SS man who took us out and was guarding us. 64 00:05:04,233 --> 00:05:12,999 In groups. Because they took, if they took 20 or 30 in a group, they only needed one or two SS man to do that. And.. 65 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:17,232 The work we were doing was only about half a kilometer from the camp. 66 00:05:17,233 --> 00:05:23,499 So lunch-time, they used to send two or three of us, to bring food for the SS. Took away, the food. 67 00:05:23,500 --> 00:05:27,366 So, I was waiting, he was eating and I was waiting. 68 00:05:27,367 --> 00:05:31,032 And this SS man, a few times he did it, while I worked there. 69 00:05:31,033 --> 00:05:34,466 And he was the same SS man who was coming to guard us. 70 00:05:34,467 --> 00:05:39,832 He always left a little bit, he says to wash up, I should go and wash up the dish. 71 00:05:39,833 --> 00:05:43,632 So he always left a little bit. And used to pick me and says, he knew me, you know. 72 00:05:43,633 --> 00:05:49,366 He felt sorry. He must have had a bit of a heart, he left a little bit of soup in the bottom of the dish. 73 00:05:49,367 --> 00:05:52,532 But they were mostly middle-aged, at the end of war. 74 00:05:52,533 --> 00:06:03,632 Because the youngers were sent to the front. It's like.. So what. 75 00:06:03,633 --> 00:06:06,832 IV: I can't answer your questions. 76 00:06:06,833 --> 00:06:09,466 MH: These questions I keep asking. I know.. 77 00:06:09,467 --> 00:06:14,766 Anyway, what do you think, how was my ah, testimony? 78 00:06:14,767 --> 00:06:18,033 IV: Great.