In every generation, a Jew is commanded to envision himself as if he went out of his own exile. It could be exile of the spirit, or the more gruesome exile of the body. What does the instant of liberation feel like? Tenacious Holocaust survivors relive their moment of freedom.
Name of Survivor: Mr. Willie Stern / London UK
Went by the name of: Vilmos
Age at Liberation: 9
Location: Bergen-Belsen
My father managed to get us onto the famous Kastner transport out of Hungary yet for six months we were diverted and interned in a special section of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. My late brother came down with typhus there and was terribly sick. We were released in December 1944 but it wasn’t until we reached the reception center in St. Gallen Switzerland that my brother finally received medical care.
Once I saw my brother receiving medical attention I knew liberation was a reality. In Bergen-Belsen my brother had become close to the Satmar Rebbe who was also on the transport and even though the doctors told my brother he had to eat what was available he refused to eat the nonkosher food until the Satmar Rebbe told him he must.
On Taanis Esther 1945 we left the reception center for Geneva and that was when I finally tasted genuine freedom. We were no longer enclosed by wire of any sort and the sheer normalcy of life felt exhilarating. I could walk outside whenever I wanted. I could walk to school! I could go to shul! As a child watching my parents resume the mantle of responsibility was a huge thing. My mother began cooking for us as a family again and the communal dining hall became a thing of the past. Having survived the war with my nuclear family intact there was no one I would rather be with.
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