How the magic of kindness helped me survive the Holocaust
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0:01 - 0:08In the rather delightful book
"The Little Prince," -
0:08 - 0:13there is a quotation, which says
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0:16 - 0:21"It's only with the heart
that one can see rightly. -
0:22 - 0:25What is essential is invisible."
-
0:26 - 0:32And while the author wrote these words
sitting in a comfortable chair, -
0:32 - 0:36somewhere in the United States,
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0:36 - 0:38I learned this very same lesson
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0:38 - 0:42miles away in a filthy, dirty barrack
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0:42 - 0:45in an extermination camp in Poland.
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0:46 - 0:53It isn't the value or the size of a gift
that truly matters, -
0:53 - 0:56it is how you hold it in your heart.
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0:57 - 0:59When I was six years old,
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0:59 - 1:04my mother, my father, my sister and myself
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1:04 - 1:08left Jew-hating Germany,
and we went to Yugoslavia. -
1:09 - 1:13And we were in Yugoslavia
for seven happy years, -
1:13 - 1:17and then Germany invaded Yugoslavia
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1:17 - 1:20and we suddenly were persecuted again,
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1:20 - 1:22and I had to go into hiding.
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1:22 - 1:25And I was hiding for roughly two years
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1:25 - 1:29with a couple who had worked
for the resistance movement. -
1:30 - 1:33And I developed films,
and I made enlargements. -
1:35 - 1:39One day, when I was 15 years old,
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1:39 - 1:42I was arrested by the gestapo
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1:42 - 1:45and beaten up,
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1:45 - 1:48and, for two months,
dragged through various prisons, -
1:48 - 1:52and eventually, I ended up
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1:52 - 1:58in a 150-year-old fortress
in Czechoslovakia, -
1:58 - 2:02which the Nazis had converted
into a concentration camp. -
2:04 - 2:05I was there for 10 months.
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2:06 - 2:08I laid railroad tracks,
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2:08 - 2:10I exterminated vermin,
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2:11 - 2:12I made baskets,
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2:12 - 2:13and after 10 months,
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2:13 - 2:19about 2,000 of us
were loaded into cattle cars, -
2:19 - 2:22the doors were closed,
and we were shipped east. -
2:24 - 2:26For three days, we traveled like that,
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2:26 - 2:28and when we were unloaded,
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2:28 - 2:32we were smelling of urine and of feces,
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2:32 - 2:37and we found ourselves
in the Auschwitz extermination camp. -
2:37 - 2:39A camp that, by that time,
-
2:39 - 2:42had murdered already
over one million people -
2:42 - 2:47and sent them through
the chimney into the sky. -
2:48 - 2:52We arrived, we were stripped
of all of our properties, -
2:52 - 2:54whatever we had,
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2:54 - 2:58and were given striped uniforms,
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2:58 - 3:01were given a tattoo on our arms,
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3:01 - 3:05and we also were given the message
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3:05 - 3:09that we would be there
for exactly six months. -
3:10 - 3:13And after that, we would leave the camp.
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3:13 - 3:15Through the chimney.
-
3:17 - 3:20We were assigned to different barracks.
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3:20 - 3:25And the barracks were filled
with wooden bunks, -
3:25 - 3:28six people on each level,
-
3:28 - 3:33three people sleeping in one direction
and three in the other direction, -
3:33 - 3:36so whichever way you slept,
-
3:36 - 3:39you always had
a pair of feet in your face. -
3:40 - 3:45The man next to me
was an extremely nice gentleman, -
3:45 - 3:50and he introduced himself
as Mr. Herbert Levine. -
3:52 - 3:55Mr. Levine was kind and polite to me.
-
3:56 - 4:00One day, when I came back
from a work assignment, -
4:00 - 4:02I climbed up,
-
4:02 - 4:06I was at the top level
of the three-tier bunk, -
4:06 - 4:09and there was Mr. Levine
with a deck of cards. -
4:11 - 4:13And he was shuffling these cards.
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4:13 - 4:15And I couldn't understand it, you know,
-
4:15 - 4:18having a deck of cards in Auschwitz
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4:18 - 4:21was like finding a gorilla
in your bathroom. -
4:21 - 4:22(Laughter)
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4:22 - 4:24You know, "What is he doing there?"
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4:24 - 4:28And then Mr. Levine turned to me
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4:28 - 4:33and offered me the deck,
and said, "Pick a card." -
4:33 - 4:35So I picked a card,
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4:35 - 4:37and he performed a card trick for me.
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4:38 - 4:39He performed a miracle.
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4:40 - 4:43And I'd never seen a card trick before,
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4:43 - 4:47and the man who performed it
was sitting right there. -
4:48 - 4:52And then Mr. Levine did the unthinkable.
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4:53 - 4:56He actually explained the trick to me.
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4:57 - 5:01And the words got burned into my brain.
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5:01 - 5:03And I remembered every single word,
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5:04 - 5:06and from that day on,
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5:06 - 5:10I practiced that trick every day.
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5:11 - 5:14Although I didn't have any cards.
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5:16 - 5:18I just kept on practicing.
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5:20 - 5:23About three weeks later,
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5:25 - 5:30the entire camp, with the exception
of a couple hundred of us, -
5:30 - 5:33were sent to the gas chambers.
-
5:34 - 5:38I was sent to another camp
where I worked in the stables, -
5:38 - 5:42and then, in January 1945,
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5:42 - 5:47when the Russians advanced,
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5:47 - 5:5160,000 of us were sent on a death march.
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5:53 - 5:57And we walked for three days, on and off,
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5:57 - 6:00and in the middle of the winter,
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6:00 - 6:04and by the time we arrived
at a railroad siding, -
6:04 - 6:06out of the 60,000 people,
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6:06 - 6:0815,000 had died.
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6:09 - 6:13And the rest of us were loaded
into open railroad cars, -
6:13 - 6:19and for four days, shipped all the way
from Poland down to Austria. -
6:20 - 6:23And we found ourselves in a death camp,
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6:23 - 6:26in a concentration camp called Mauthausen,
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6:26 - 6:29which again was built like a fortress.
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6:30 - 6:35And at that point, the SS abandoned us,
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6:35 - 6:37and there was no food there,
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6:37 - 6:41and there were thousands
and thousands of bodies there. -
6:41 - 6:45I slept for three days next to a dead man,
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6:45 - 6:49just to get his ration
of a tablespoon of moldy bread. -
6:49 - 6:55And two days before
the end of the war, May 5, -
6:55 - 6:58we were liberated by American forces.
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6:59 - 7:02At that time, I was 17 years old,
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7:02 - 7:05and I weighed 64 pounds.
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7:06 - 7:09And I hitchhiked back to Yugoslavia.
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7:09 - 7:11And when I came back to Yugoslavia,
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7:11 - 7:13there was communism there,
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7:13 - 7:15there was no family there
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7:15 - 7:17and there were no friends there.
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7:17 - 7:19I stayed there for two years,
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7:19 - 7:23and after two years,
I managed to escape to England. -
7:23 - 7:25And when I came to England,
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7:25 - 7:27I couldn't speak English,
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7:27 - 7:30I had no education, I had no skills.
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7:31 - 7:33I started working,
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7:33 - 7:37and about a year
after I arrived in England, -
7:37 - 7:39I bought myself a deck of cards.
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7:39 - 7:42And for the very first time,
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7:43 - 7:46I actually performed the trick
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7:46 - 7:52that was shown to me in Auschwitz
on top of a bunk bed. -
7:53 - 7:54And it worked.
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7:54 - 7:56It worked beautifully.
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7:56 - 7:57And I showed it to some friends of mine,
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7:57 - 7:59and they loved it.
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8:00 - 8:04And I went to a magic store,
and I bought some magic tricks, -
8:04 - 8:06and I showed them to my friends,
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8:06 - 8:08and I bought some more magic tricks
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8:08 - 8:10and I showed it to them.
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8:10 - 8:14And then I bought some magic books,
and I bought some more magic books. -
8:15 - 8:18There's a very, very thin line
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8:18 - 8:22between a hobby and insanity.
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8:22 - 8:24(Laughter)
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8:24 - 8:27Anyway, I got married,
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8:27 - 8:30and I came to the United States,
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8:30 - 8:35and one of the first jobs that I had
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8:35 - 8:40demanded from me to speak
to small groups of people. -
8:40 - 8:43And I managed it, I was very good at it.
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8:43 - 8:47And then, 25 years ago, I retired.
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8:47 - 8:50And I started speaking in schools.
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8:51 - 8:56And the only reason
why I could speak in schools -
8:56 - 9:01is because a very friendly man
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9:01 - 9:06showed a rather scared kid a card trick
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9:06 - 9:09in a concentration camp.
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9:09 - 9:13This man who showed it to me, Mr. Levine,
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9:13 - 9:16had been a professional magician.
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9:16 - 9:18He worked in Germany,
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9:18 - 9:23and when he came to Auschwitz,
the SS knew who he was, -
9:23 - 9:26so they gave him some cards,
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9:26 - 9:28they gave him a piece of string,
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9:28 - 9:29they gave him some dice,
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9:29 - 9:31and he performed for them.
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9:32 - 9:35And then he also taught some of them.
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9:35 - 9:36He survived the war,
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9:36 - 9:39but his wife and his son died.
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9:40 - 9:45He came to the United States
and performed in various venues, -
9:45 - 9:48but I never met him again.
-
9:49 - 9:53But the trick that he showed me
stayed with me -
9:53 - 9:57and enabled me to go around schools
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9:57 - 10:02and try to make this world
just a little bit better. -
10:02 - 10:09So if you ever know somebody
who needs help, -
10:10 - 10:13if you know somebody who is scared,
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10:13 - 10:15be kind to them.
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10:16 - 10:19Give them advice,
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10:19 - 10:21give them a hug,
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10:22 - 10:23teach them a card trick.
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10:26 - 10:28Whatever you are going to do,
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10:28 - 10:31it's going to be hope for them.
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10:32 - 10:35And if you do it at the right time,
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10:36 - 10:38it will enter their heart,
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10:38 - 10:43and it will be with them
wherever they go, forever. -
10:43 - 10:44Thank you.
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10:44 - 10:48(Applause)
- Title:
- How the magic of kindness helped me survive the Holocaust
- Speaker:
- Werner Reich
- Description:
-
Holocaust survivor Werner Reich recounts his harrowing adolescence as a prisoner transported between concentration camps — and shares how a small, kind act can inspire a lifetime of compassion. "If you ever know somebody who needs help, if you know somebody who is scared, be kind to them," he says. "If you do it at the right time, it will enter their heart, and it will be with them wherever they go, forever."
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 11:01
Erin Gregory edited English subtitles for How the magic of kindness helped me survive the Holocaust | ||
Erin Gregory edited English subtitles for How the magic of kindness helped me survive the Holocaust | ||
Erin Gregory approved English subtitles for How the magic of kindness helped me survive the Holocaust | ||
Erin Gregory edited English subtitles for How the magic of kindness helped me survive the Holocaust | ||
Krystian Aparta accepted English subtitles for How the magic of kindness helped me survive the Holocaust | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for How the magic of kindness helped me survive the Holocaust | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for How the magic of kindness helped me survive the Holocaust | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for How the magic of kindness helped me survive the Holocaust |