HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR RELIVES NAZI INFAMY

Tyler Morning Telegraph ^ | April 07, 2002 | JIM BROWN

[rw4site]

HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR RELIVES NAZI INFAMY

By: JIM BROWN, Staff Writer

April 07, 2002

THE MEMORIES REMAIN, BUT THE STRONG SURVIVE: Coen Rood, a Longview resident, speaks to those gathered at the Ahavath Achim Synagogue on Sunday night. Rood recounted his days in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. (Staff Photos By Tom Worner)

Congregation Ahavath Achim invited Longview resident Coen Rood, 84, a native of The Netherlands, to share his experience as a holocaust survivor of Auschwitz and several other camps. (April 8, 2002)

About 125 people filled Congregation Ahavath Achim on Sunday night to remember the six million Jews who were slaughtered during World War II, mostly in concentration camps.

And to help them remember, the congregation invited Longview resident Coen Rood, 84, a native of The Netherlands, to share his experience as a holocaust survivor of Auschwitz and several other camps.

"I left the camp, but it never left me," Rood said, weeping, speaking of May 2, 1945, when after more than three years, an American soldier opened a door and told him he was free.

Rood's story drew gasps from the audience as he shared the terrible conditions he faced, from April 25, 1942 - the day he was taken into captivity - to the day of his liberation.

He told how he was first compelled to join a work detail, then volunteered to board a crowded railroad car travelling to Auschwitz.

"If I did not go, anyone else could have gone in my place," Rood said. "Someone sick, or an older person who could hardly walk. So I went."

Upon arriving at the death camp, he said "250 able-bodied men (including Rood) were thrown off the train."

The rest, he said, went "straight to the gas chambers."

As a tailor, Rood said he became valuable to keep around for the Nazis, though the average life span of any Jewish prisoner at Auschwitz was three months.

But many, he said, who were not killed in the gas chambers, died from malnutrition, exhaustion, typhus, diarrhea "and from beatings."

Rood said if he was fortunate enough to receive something to eat - in between up to 10-day mandated fasts - it was never better than "raw bread that was 50 percent sawdust." Many times, there was nothing but snow or grass to eat, which the Nazis mockingly called "rabbit salad."

"We were beasts," Rood said. "We were worse than dogs."

In 1945, as allies from the East and West crept closer to Berlin, Rood and other survivors were herded onto open railroad boxcars and transferred camp to camp to rebuild air fields and paint buildings.

"We barely could lift shovels," Rood said. "I wanted to die. I didn't want to go home anymore."

Rood said at the height of his despair, his best friend died.

There was no food - not even a kitchen for the Germans.

"We ate potato peels we dug up in the road," he said.

Early on the morning of May 2, 1945, Rood said the prisoners were lined up for roll call. All the "western-Europeans were ordered to stay, while 11 eastern-Europeans were marched into the woods to be killed."

Reduced to skin and bones, covered in soot, he moved into a camp hut and heard the cries, "Amerikanski. Amerikanski."

"I didn't believe it," Rood said. "I knew I was dying."

But then a crack in the door revealed light. An American soldier, came in and "took me by the neck, held me by my arm, and said, 'You are free.'

"And he kissed me," Rood said. "I'm nothing but a skeleton, and he gave me a kiss. Then he gave me a sip of liquor from his pocket that shot me to my feet. And I'm still standing."

Before Rood spoke, members of the congregation, including students Max Pell of Congregation Ahavath Achim and Aaron Frank of Congregation Beth El, led those in attendance in various readings of remembrance.

Six candles were lit to remember the six million Jews - roughly a third of the race's population, Perets said - who were killed during the conflict.

"As we light these candles, we commit ourselves to responsibility for one another, to build on this earth a world that has no room for hatred, no place for violence," Perets said.

In conclusion, the congregation recited the words found in a Cologne, Germany, cellar where Jews had been hiding from the Nazis during the war:

"I believe, I believe in the sun even when it is not shining. I believe in love, even when feeling it not. I believe in God, even when God is silent."

Joanne Frank said the annual memorial service had become particularly meaningful for her mother-in-law, Senta Frank, 83, a native of the Bavarian region of Germany.

"She remembers 1929 when she was moved from the front of the classroom to the back, and the teachers were told to fail all the Jews," Ms. Frank said, adding Senta's family moved to America in 1934.

Jim Brown covers Anderson, Gregg, and Upshur counties. He can be reached at 903.596.6303. e-mail: news@tylerpaper.com

©Tyler Morning Telegraph 2002

[SamAdams76]

There is no doubt the Arabs would treat the Jews the same way if they had the opportunity. I just saw a documentary on History Channel last night about the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia. He was even worse than Hitler if that can be imagined. Then you got the purges in Stalin's Russia during the 1930s (which killed millions).

Imagine what the world would be like today if the United States never existed.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Congregation Ahavath Achim invited Longview resident Coen Rood, 84, a native of The Netherlands, to share his experience as a holocaust survivor of Auschwitz and several other camps.

The Muslims want to do the same thing to Israel. Most of the world would sit back and rationalize doing nothing. It's disgusting that Europe and a lot of Americans would happily throw the Israelis to the wolves thinking that it would prevent them from getting it next. They're stupid. Tyranny has a voracious appetite. Stalin killed tens of millions of his own people, and he was just getting started.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Gee, I can't imagine why Stalin would come to mind here. /sarcasm

You're correct, history shows the evil that is possible. There are people around here and now that would happily do the same thing, or allow it to happen.

[VOA]

There is no doubt the Arabs would treat the Jews the same way if they had the opportunity.

Dennis Prager, conservative Jewish commentator has summed it up pretty well
for me, when he said something like this:

The hate Muslims hold for Jews is much more dangerous than what the Nazis felt.
The Nazis wouldn't commit suicide in order to kill Jews.

[rw4site]

I didn't post a reply because of my imagination. I just can't find the words to describe the horrible things I imagine. Horrible things in the past and the present.

[VOA]

Rood said if he was fortunate enough to receive something to eat - in between up
to 10-day mandated fasts - it was never better
than "raw bread that was 50 percent sawdust."

Even though devised for emotional response, I will never forget one of
radio commentator Paul Harvey's "Rest of the Story" segments.

IIRC, Harvey had noticed that a man who cut his hair had a number tattooed on his arm.
Eventually the barber told Harvey that, yes, he had survived life in a
Nazi concentration camp.
But that he'd also had trouble after liberation because the American soldiers suspected he
was actually a German soldier/Nazi hiding as a Jewish camp victim...because he looked relatively
healthy.

An astute interrogator finally solved the puzzle after the fellow told him that
many times his fellow camp-mates had begged him to trade them his cup of
thin, yet warm soup for their crust of bread. Most of these friends eventually died before
liberation.

It turned out that, while he was "sacrificing" by letting his friends have
the warm soup, he also saved his life by getting just enough calories and vitamins
from those hard, cold bits of bread to stay in passable health.

[SamAdams76]

The hate Muslims hold for Jews is much more dangerous than what the Nazis felt.
The Nazis wouldn't commit suicide in order to kill Jews.

I never thought of it that way. That is indeed a chilling statement. And so very true.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

You're right to be horrified. Anybody who isn't has a real problem.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

The hate Muslims hold for Jews is much more dangerous than what the Nazis felt. The Nazis wouldn't commit suicide in order to kill Jews.

I never looked at it like that before, but I'm totally inclined to agree. Let's see if I can argue the point...nope, can't do it.

[mickie]

Last night I watched a show on Cable about the Holocaust.........and learned many things that I did not know before.
FDR and our State Dept. knew all about the murders of millions of innocent people. Immigration was stopped just when hundreds & thousands tried to get out of Europe. Big difference now with our 'open borders'.
Sixty years have passed but they Jews are still getting slaughtered. And when they fight back all hell breaks loose!
Whatever is Bush thinking about........how can they even consider talking to that butcher arafat?

[my trusty sig]

And imagine what the U.S. would look like with no 2nd amendment.

Never, ever give up your guns!

[RamsNo1]

Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Arafat, Milosevic, Arafat, Saddam, Arafat....

[MoJoWork_n]

Arafat three times I have no problem with but I don't think Milosevic belongs in the group. Time and further court proceedings will tell.