Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C. -- Members of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina, gathered at Heritage Hall for Holocaust Remembrance Day, as well as a two-mile remembrance walk, May 4.
During the luncheon more than 50 Airmen heard from Holocaust survivor Morris Glass, who recounted his story from oppression to freedom.
“I had a very loving and caring family and I had a very happy childhood. But all that came to end on Sept. 1, 1941, when the Second World War broke out – I was 11 years old,” said Glass. “Within about 10 days the German Army occupied our city and we were forced to live together within a few square blocks that became known as the ghettos.”
Glass continued to describe how the Nazis forced him, his parents and siblings into working for them in factories until May 15, 1942, when the Nazis closed down the ghettos.
“We were ordered to march to this huge complex outside the city,” Glass described. “SS [German] Stormtroopers began making selections, the elderly and the sick were taken away and then the children were put into separate groups, and then the infants. I stood in absolute horror when one of the Stormtroopers grabbed a child out of a mother’s arms and threw it against the concrete wall and the baby just fell dead to the ground.”
Glass said he was eventually separated from his mother and sisters, never to see them again. He also witnessed his father being tortured and killed in front of him just for the gold fillings in his teeth. Over the course of the war, Glass spent time in more than five concentration camps before being liberated by the American Army.
“On April 28, 1945, [while I was hiding in a basement] I grabbed an apple crate and I looked through a little window and I saw the first American tank coming up the hill,” said Glass. “How can I possibly describe the jubilation in my heart, knowing that this nightmare was over? And now, 71 years later and four generations strong, I stand before you a very proud and grateful man.”
Glass proceeded to give thanks to the Americans who liberated him and his people from their nightmare and made it possible for him to be here today.
“It’s very difficult for American children, who are so privilege to be born free and to live in the greatest country in the whole world, to comprehend what took place in the Holocaust,” said Glass. “I think that hearing it from the ‘horse’s mouth’ so to speak, from a survivor, is essential. It’s my duty, my obligation to tell the stories so that [the Holocaust] can never happen again, not just to the Jewish people but to no other people in the world.”
After giving Glass’ speech, Col. Andrew Bernard, 4th Fighter Wing vice commander, gave his thanks and appreciation to Glass for speaking with the Airmen.
“Thank you for your courage, not just as a Holocaust survivor, but to relive it over and over again by coming to events like this. That takes a lot of will power and I can only imagine you do that because you want to tell [the Holocaust] story to other generations,” said Bernard. “That generation is us, we have responsibility to understand and to not forget. We as protectors of liberty need to take these stories and move forward.”
As a sign of remembrance, members of Team Seymour completed a two-mile walk that showed statistics of the Holocaust and the atrocities the survivors endured.