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The Fog of War and Humanity | Ep. 674: Auschwitz, America’s Silence and Antisemitism (Part 3) | HMTC

Susanne Bleiberg Seperson once asked her mother why she never removed the number tattooed on her arm at Auschwitz. Her mother replied, “It doesn’t matter. I will always know where I was.” The physical mark was visible, but the deeper wounds of persecution, imprisonment, and loss remained within her.

In Episode 674 of The Fog of War and Humanity, host Richard Acritelli concludes his three-part conversation with Dr. Susanne Bleiberg Seperson about inherited trauma, refugee policy, Holocaust documentation, individual accountability, education, and the continuing fight against antisemitism.

Susanne recalls growing up in New York without understanding that her parents’ nightmares, security concerns, work ethic, and constant preparation were connected to their Holocaust experiences. To her, they were simply part of everyday family life. Only later did she recognize how trauma had shaped both her parents and her own childhood.

Although her parents carried physical and emotional reminders of persecution, they also passed down resilience, self-reliance, honesty, family loyalty, and a profound respect for education. Susanne’s father, who had been denied educational opportunities, urged her to complete her doctorate. One of his final requests was that she finish her dissertation.

The conversation explores Susanne’s first visit to Auschwitz with her mother and teenage daughter. Surrounded by rooms filled with eyeglasses, children’s toys, and other stolen possessions, she felt emotionally numb. She understood that she had to remain strong for three generations while confronting evidence of what her mother had endured.

Susanne also examines America’s failure to provide refuge to more European Jews. She discusses restrictive State Department policies, the Évian Conference, the rejection of the passengers aboard the MS St. Louis, and the decision not to bomb the railroad tracks leading to Auschwitz. Although reports of mass murder reached Allied governments, meaningful action came far too slowly.

Richard and Susanne discuss the Bergson Group’s pageant We Will Never Die, American antisemitism, and disagreements among Jewish leaders over how forcefully to respond. They also recognize General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s insistence that the liberated concentration camps be photographed and witnessed, understanding that future generations would attempt to deny or minimize the crimes.

During a return to Poland, Susanne saw the man who had betrayed her father’s sister for a small payment. She wanted to confront him, but one of the local rescuers stopped her, explaining that she would still have to live in the same town after Susanne left. The encounter reinforced Susanne’s belief that responsibility belongs to the individuals who commit crimes, not to their children, relatives, or an entire population.

Susanne’s commitment to education eventually led to work with nongovernmental organizations at the United Nations. She helped establish a recognized committee within CoNGO focused on eliminating antisemitism and promoting peace. The committee is now pursuing international recognition and condemnation of antisemitism while building educational partnerships with other NGOs.

The episode concludes with a warning and a challenge. Nazi ideology took hold in one of Europe’s most educated and technologically advanced societies. Education alone is therefore not enough. Young people must receive quality education that encourages independent thought, challenges dehumanization, and teaches them to recognize the humanity of others.

For Susanne, the essential lesson can be found in every major religion: treat others as you wish to be treated. Without that foundation, knowledge can inform people, but it cannot make them humane.

The Fog of War and Humanity on hmTv | Host: Richard Acritelli | Guest: Dr. Susanne Bleiberg Seperson

Executive Producer and Director: Bernie Furshpan

A production of the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County

🌐 hmtcli.org
🎙 buzzsprout.com/2449781
▶️ youtube.com/@hmTv-hmtc

─── CHAPTERS ───

0:00 Opening
0:19 Welcome and Part 3 introduction
1:12 Trust, survival, and a person’s word
2:17 The different ways her parents carried trauma
2:38 Growing up without the language of PTSD
3:41 Security, self-reliance, and family values
4:53 Physical reminders of extreme cold
5:39 A mysterious gold tooth and an Auschwitz tattoo
6:31 European traditions and American life
7:21 Creating a beautiful home in the Bronx
8:59 Her parents’ meaningful journey to Israel
10:00 A father’s final request to finish her doctorate
11:15 Education as the path out of poverty
12:07 The only wartime object preserved by the family
13:23 Choosing comfort after years of survival
14:14 Visiting Auschwitz with three generations
15:03 Confronting the evidence of mass murder
16:00 America’s failure to admit more Jewish refugees
16:41 The Évian Conference and international rejection
17:25 The tragedy of the MS St. Louis
17:58 The debate over bombing Auschwitz
19:34 The Bergson Group and We Will Never Die
20:28 Eisenhower preserves evidence of the camps
21:20 Confronting the man who betrayed her aunt
22:22 Individual responsibility and the Nuremberg principle
22:34 Building an intergenerational mission at the United Nations
23:25 Seeking international condemnation of antisemitism
24:15 Why education alone cannot prevent hatred
25:10 Teaching independent thought and human dignity
26:22 Returning to the Golden Rule
26:40 Closing reflections
27:17 hmTv outro

──────────────────

#FogOfWarAndHumanity #SusanneSeperson #HolocaustSurvivors #Auschwitz #HolocaustEducation #Antisemitism #MSStLouis #Eisenhower #UnitedNations #InheritedTrauma #SurvivorTestimony #HMTC

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The Fog of War and Humanity | Ep. 672: Escape from a Nazi Death Train (Part 1) | HMTC

Susanne Bleiberg Seperson’s mother escaped a Nazi deportation train by climbing through loosened boards and jumping into deep snow. Her final memory of her own mother was feeling the hands that pushed her through the opening and saved her life.

In Episode 672 of The Fog of War and Humanity, host Richard Acritelli welcomes Dr. Susanne Bleiberg Seperson for Part 1 of her family’s remarkable story of Holocaust survival, immigration, adaptation, and rebuilding in America.

Born in Bayreuth, Germany, after World War II, Susanne arrived in New York with her parents in September 1950, when she was two years old. Her parents were Polish Jews who had survived persecution, ghettos, imprisonment, betrayal, and the murder of family members.

After the war, Susanne’s mother refused to enter a displaced persons camp. Having already been imprisoned in Auschwitz, she declared that she had spent enough of her life in camps. The family initially planned to settle in Israel, but the War of Independence convinced her mother that they had endured enough conflict. With relatives in the United States, they instead chose America and the possibility of a normal life.

Susanne recalls growing up in the Bronx, visiting the New York Botanical Garden, and watching her parents pursue the American dream. Her father worked in dry cleaning, tailoring, the supermarket business, and real estate. Her mother, who had worked in a Polish bank before the war, used her education and language skills to become a bookkeeper.

The conversation then returns to Oleszyce and Jarosław in southeastern Poland, where Susanne’s parents were raised. The region’s borders changed repeatedly, placing generations of the same family under different countries without anyone moving. Jewish families were prohibited from owning land directly, forcing Susanne’s relatives to rely on trusted Christian neighbors to hold property in their names.

Her family’s history reveals the moral complexity of the Holocaust. Christian neighbors helped Susanne’s parents survive, while another man betrayed her father’s blond-haired, blue-eyed sister to local collaborators for a small reward. She was murdered. Some family members were killed by Germans, while others were victimized by Polish and Ukrainian collaborators.

Following the Soviet occupation of eastern Poland, Nazi Germany invaded the region in 1941. Susanne’s relatives were ultimately confined in the Lubaczów Ghetto. Her father and his brother escaped before its liquidation, but her mother, grandparents, and younger aunt were forced aboard a deportation train believed to be traveling toward Bełżec or Sobibór.

Susanne’s maternal grandfather anticipated the danger and concealed hammers and crowbars among the few belongings the family was permitted to carry. Prisoners secretly loosened the cattle-car boards and held them in place until the train began moving.

Following her father’s instructions, Susanne’s mother curled herself like a cat and jumped in the direction opposite the moving train. Deep snow cushioned her fall. Her mother and younger sister remained behind and were murdered.

Part 1 demonstrates that survival often depended on preparation, adaptability, trusted relationships, sudden decisions, and extraordinary courage. It also preserves the final act of a mother who, facing almost certain death, used her last moment with her daughter to push her toward life.

The Fog of War and Humanity on hmTv | Host: Richard Acritelli | Guest: Dr. Susanne Bleiberg Seperson

Executive Producer and Director: Bernie Furshpan

A production of the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County

🌐 hmtcli.org
🎙 buzzsprout.com/2449781
▶️ youtube.com/@hmTv-hmtc

─── CHAPTERS ───

0:00 Opening
0:21 Welcome and guest introduction
1:04 Born in postwar Germany and immigrating to America
1:39 Stateless survivors leave Europe
2:08 Refusing to enter another camp
2:43 Choosing America instead of Israel
3:17 Arriving in New York and honoring an immigrant legacy
4:04 Growing up in the Bronx
5:28 Discovering her Polish identity
6:37 Her parents pursue the American dream
8:16 Different immigrant paths to success
9:37 Family roots in Oleszyce and Jarosław
10:12 Adaptability as a tool for survival
11:10 Susanne’s grandparents before and after the war
12:17 Jewish land restrictions and trusted Christian neighbors
13:16 Witold Maczak and warnings of approaching danger
14:52 Soviet occupation before the German invasion
15:26 Betrayal, collaboration, and the murder of an aunt
16:58 A decision to avoid deportation to Siberia
18:07 Bringing tools aboard the deportation train
18:35 Operation Barbarossa and German occupation
19:48 The Lubaczów Ghetto and her father’s escape
20:45 A deportation train bound for a death camp
21:36 Nazi deception and the hidden tools
22:05 Loosening the boards and jumping into the snow
23:08 A mother and younger sister left behind
23:19 Remembering Holocaust survivor Werner Reich
24:57 Part 2 preview and closing
25:12 hmTv outro

──────────────────

#FogOfWarAndHumanity #SusanneSeperson #HolocaustSurvivors #HolocaustTestimony #DeathTrainEscape #LubaczowGhetto #AuschwitzSurvivor #PolishJewishHistory #SecondGeneration #ImmigrantStories #InheritedMemory #HMTC

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Legacy Chronicles | Ep. 671: The Holocaust Did Not Begin with Gas Chambers | HMTC

“The Holocaust did not begin with gas chambers.”

For Dr. Ettie Zilber, that statement is more than a history lesson. It is a warning about how persecution develops gradually through false narratives, propaganda, separation, discriminatory laws, collaboration, and the silence of people who choose not to intervene.

In Episode 671 of Legacy Chronicles, host Zachary Graulich welcomes Dr. Zilber, a second-generation Holocaust survivor, author, educator, and international speaker, for a powerful conversation about inherited memory, historical evidence, visual literacy, and the responsibility to preserve survivors’ stories.

Born in the Landsberg displaced persons camp in Germany, Ettie grew up in a Yiddish-speaking home surrounded by photographs of relatives murdered during the Holocaust. Her Lithuanian parents had survived the Kovno Ghetto, but like many children of survivors, she initially knew only fragments of what they had endured.

That changed in the late 1990s when Ettie recorded her mother’s testimony. As she transcribed the interviews, she organized the memories chronologically and corroborated them through extensive historical research. After retiring from a career directing international schools in Barcelona, China, and Guatemala, she traveled to the places her mother had described.

Her research, family history, and personal journey became A Holocaust Memoir of Love & Resilience: Mama’s Survival from Lithuania to America. Ettie now brings her parents’ microhistory into classrooms while connecting their experiences to the broader history unfolding across Europe.

Rare photographs play an essential role in her presentations. Ettie possesses images of family members who were murdered, as well as two photographs of her grandfather inside the Kovno Ghetto. She also uses images secretly taken by Jewish photographer Zvi Kadushin, later known as George Kadish, and artwork created by Esther Lurie.

By comparing those records with Nazi-created documentation, Ettie teaches students to ask two crucial questions: Who created this image, and why was it created? In an age of artificial intelligence, altered images, and rapidly spreading misinformation, those visual-literacy skills have become more important than ever.

Ettie also challenges the misconception that the Holocaust occurred only inside concentration and extermination camps. She discusses the Holocaust by Bullets, the participation of local collaborators, and the systematic theft of Jewish homes, property, clothing, artwork, and possessions.

The conversation ultimately examines how a society’s moral order can be overturned. When those in power give people legal permission to persecute their neighbors, right can be presented as wrong and wrongdoing can become normalized.

Holocaust education matters because the genocide did not happen overnight. Understanding its progression can help develop more responsible, empathetic, and ethical citizens who recognize dangerous warning signs before history reaches its darkest destination.

Legacy Chronicles on hmTv | Host: Zachary Graulich | Guest: Dr. Ettie Zilber

Executive Producer and Director: Bernie Furshpan

A production of the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County

🌐 hmtcli.org
🎙 buzzsprout.com/2449781
▶️ youtube.com/@hmTv-hmtc
📚 A Holocaust Memoir of Love & Resilience is available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble

─── CHAPTERS ───

0:00 Opening and guest introduction
0:47 Growing up as the child of Holocaust survivors
1:52 Yiddish, family photographs, and early memories
3:54 Accepting the responsibility of a second-generation survivor
4:28 Recording her mother’s testimony before it was too late
5:18 Researching and reconstructing the complete story
8:15 Creating A Holocaust Memoir of Love & Resilience
9:05 Connecting family testimony with broader history
11:17 The challenge facing legacy speakers
12:23 Teaching through photographs and visual evidence
13:36 Examining Nazi propaganda and artificial intelligence
15:19 Understanding perpetrator-created documentation
16:44 Photographs and artwork from the Kovno Ghetto
18:51 Measuring the emotional and educational impact
20:49 Reaching students, veterans, and children of liberators
22:59 Teaching history without overwhelming an audience
24:24 Why Ettie continues her educational mission
25:13 The Holocaust was more than camps and gas chambers
25:58 The Holocaust by Bullets and an inverted moral order
28:28 Understanding Nazi Germany as a criminal state
29:48 Collaborators, coercion, and material gain
31:02 The Holocaust as a massive act of robbery
33:58 The Holocaust did not begin with gas chambers
35:28 Building responsible and empathetic citizens
36:26 Where to find Ettie’s memoir
37:18 Closing reflections
37:26 hmTv outro

──────────────────

#LegacyChronicles #EttieZilber #HolocaustEducation #SecondGeneration #KovnoGhetto #HolocaustByBullets #SurvivorTestimony #VisualLiteracy #InheritedMemory #JewishHistory #HolocaustMemoir #HMTC

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The Fog of War and Humanity | Ep. 670: The Hidden Medals of a WWII POW (Part 2) | HMTC

Jerome L. Frankel was only 19 when he was wounded, captured during the Battle of the Bulge, forced to march through freezing conditions, transported in a cattle car, and imprisoned at Stalag IV-B. He survived, returned home, raised a family, and rarely spoke about what he had endured.

In Episode 670 of The Fog of War and Humanity, host Richard Acritelli continues his conversation with Jerome’s daughter, Leah Freeberg, about the medals, military records, physical injuries, and memories her father kept hidden for decades.

Jerome served as a radio operator with the 423rd Infantry Regiment of the 106th Infantry Division, known as the Golden Lions. Positioned directly in the path of the German advance, the young and inexperienced division suffered catastrophic losses during the Battle of the Bulge.

Leah shares the Purple Heart her father received for a shrapnel wound to his wrist and severe trench foot. The damage to his feet remained visible throughout his life, and cold, wet weather frequently brought the pain back. Although the physical wounds never disappeared, Jerome rarely complained or explained their origin to his daughters.

In 2019, Leah and her husband traveled through Belgium and Germany to retrace part of Jerome’s wartime journey. They visited Schönberg, where his regiment was captured, the Bulge Relics Museum, the 106th Infantry Division memorial at St. Vith, and the concrete “dragon’s teeth” of the Siegfried Line.

Leah also reflects on the forced march from Schönberg to the railway station at Gerolstein. Thousands of American prisoners walked more than 20 miles through bitter cold before being packed into cattle cars and transported to Stalag IV-B. Jerome endured the journey while suffering from frozen feet, a shrapnel wound, hunger, and exhaustion.

After her father’s death, Leah discovered a green metal container filled with original military documents. Because many government Army records had been destroyed in a fire, Jerome’s personal collection provided the evidence needed for Leah to obtain his Prisoner of War Medal posthumously.

Among the records was a letter Jerome had written to his congressman requesting the Purple Heart, a commendation, and other recognition that had not been properly entered into his military record. His appeal reveals that veterans sometimes had to fight long after returning home to receive the honors they had earned.

Jerome Frankel was more than a soldier or prisoner of war. He was a survivor who endured combat, captivity, starvation, injury, and silence. He returned home, built a career, raised a family, embraced his faith, and created a life that the war had nearly taken from him.

The Fog of War and Humanity on hmTv | Host: Richard Acritelli | Guest: Leah Freeberg

Executive Producer and Director: Bernie Furshpan

A production of the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County

🌐 hmtcli.org
🎙 buzzsprout.com/2449781
▶️ youtube.com/@hmTv-hmtc

─── CHAPTERS ───

0:00 Opening
0:19 Welcome and Part 1 recap
1:55 The Golden Lions of the 106th Infantry Division
2:09 An inexperienced division faces catastrophe
3:00 The Purple Heart Jerome’s family never knew about
3:30 Shrapnel wounds and severe trench foot
4:13 The lifelong physical effects of war
5:09 Veterans waiting decades for recognition
6:06 A 19-year-old soldier enters combat
7:14 Seeing her father as a young man
7:34 A Jewish prayer book and a dangerous identity
8:25 Retracing Jerome’s journey in 2019
9:06 Visiting the Bulge Relics Museum
10:15 Traveling through Belgium with a private guide
11:15 The 106th Infantry Division memorial at St. Vith
12:27 The forced march from Schönberg to Gerolstein
13:44 The Malmedy massacre and a church along the route
14:12 Discovering Jerome’s meticulous military records
14:50 The dragon’s teeth of the Siegfried Line
15:34 Experiencing the bitter cold of the Ardennes
16:06 Why Leah did not visit Stalag IV-B
16:45 Starvation and intercepted Red Cross parcels
17:40 Understanding the burden of a field radio
18:37 A radio operator’s front-line responsibility
19:20 Original records and the posthumous POW Medal
20:09 Veterans and Holocaust survivors on Long Island
21:32 Liberation and the advancing Soviet Army
22:04 Jerome’s letter requesting recognition
23:07 Finally receiving the Purple Heart
23:47 A complete timeline of his military journey
24:14 Surviving combat, captivity, and starvation
25:02 Rebuilding a life after war
25:40 hmTv outro

──────────────────

#FogOfWarAndHumanity #LeahFreeberg #JeromeFrankel #BattleOfTheBulge #WorldWarII #PrisonerOfWar #PurpleHeart #POWMedal #106thInfantryDivision #JewishAmericanVeteran #VeteranStories #HMTC

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The Fog of War and Humanity | Ep. 669: Leah Freeberg: Battle of the Bulge POW (Part 1) | HMTC

For most of her life, Leah Freeberg knew only fragments of her father’s World War II service. He sometimes spoke about surviving on potato peels and lived with damaged feet and severe back pain, but he never told his daughters that he had been captured during the Battle of the Bulge, imprisoned by the Nazis, or awarded the Purple Heart.

In Episode 669 of The Fog of War and Humanity, host Richard Acritelli welcomes Leah for Part 1 of her father’s extraordinary story of combat, captivity, survival, faith, and silence.

Leah’s father entered the Army in 1943 and trained as a radio operator. After crossing the Atlantic aboard the Queen Elizabeth, he was sent toward the Belgian-German border with the 423rd Infantry Regiment. At only 19 years old, he carried a radio weighing approximately 40 pounds and remained close to his commanders on the front line.

His unit arrived ahead of its supplies and lacked adequate winter clothing and footwear. During one of Europe’s coldest winters, he developed trench foot, which permanently damaged the circulation in his feet. On December 19, 1944, German forces surrounded his inexperienced regiment near Schönberg, forcing thousands of American soldiers to surrender.

After his capture, Leah’s father tore off his identification tags and threw them into the snow because they identified him as Jewish. He was forced to march through the bitter cold, packed into a cattle car, and transported to Stalag IV-B in Mühlberg, one of Nazi Germany’s largest prisoner-of-war camps.

Leah did not learn the full story until after her father’s death, when she opened a large green metal case containing his original military records, personal documents, and Purple Heart. The paperwork revealed the journey he had kept buried throughout his life.

In 2019, Leah and her husband traveled to Germany and Belgium, where they followed part of his wartime route, visited the Siegfried Line, and stood near the location where he had been captured. The experience transformed family fragments into a clearer understanding of the trauma he carried home.

Although Leah’s father rarely discussed the war, its wounds never disappeared. He lived with damaged feet, debilitating back pain from being struck with a rifle butt, and what Leah now recognizes as PTSD. Yet he rebuilt his life, raised a family, embraced his Jewish faith, and regained enough strength to lift and open the Torah before his congregation.

Part 1 reveals how many veterans returned home carrying experiences they could not speak about. Their silence protected their families from the details, but it also left future generations with the responsibility of recovering and preserving their stories.

The Fog of War and Humanity on hmTv | Host: Richard Acritelli | Guest: Leah Freeberg

Executive Producer and Director: Bernie Furshpan

A production of the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County

🌐 hmtcli.org
🎙 buzzsprout.com/2449781
▶️ youtube.com/@hmTv-hmtc

─── CHAPTERS ───

0:00 Opening
0:19 Welcome and guest introduction
1:18 Leah’s Long Island upbringing
2:27 From L’Oréal executive to mathematics teacher
3:55 Her father’s career and international travels
5:06 Growing up in Jewish Flatbush
6:11 Entering the Army at age 18
7:40 A family receives notice that he is missing
8:28 Discovering his original military records
9:29 Training and crossing the Atlantic
11:14 Arriving without adequate winter supplies
11:30 Trench foot and lifelong physical damage
12:41 Moving toward the Siegfried Line
13:11 Serving as a front-line radio operator
13:36 Captured near Schönberg
14:40 Retracing his journey in 2019
16:06 Surrounded during the Battle of the Bulge
17:24 Hiding his Jewish identity from the Nazis
19:31 Imprisonment at Stalag IV-B
19:48 The green metal case and hidden Purple Heart
20:42 Trauma, silence, and undiagnosed PTSD
21:57 Why his daughters never knew the full story
22:41 Returning home emaciated and unrecognizable
24:14 Regaining the strength to lift the Torah
25:14 Faith after captivity
26:37 POWs who carried their stories in silence
29:04 A rifle-butt injury and lifelong back pain
29:32 Part 2 preview and closing
29:59 hmTv outro
30:15 Humanity matters

──────────────────

#FogOfWarAndHumanity #LeahFreeberg #BattleOfTheBulge #WorldWarII #PrisonerOfWar #JewishAmericanVeteran #StalagIVB #PurpleHeart #VeteranStories #PTSD #MilitaryHistory #HMTC

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The Fog of War and Humanity | Ep. 668: Bill Byrne: Helping Veterans Heal and Come Home (Part 2) | HMTC

Veterans are trained to be strong, disciplined, and self-sufficient. Those same qualities can make it difficult for them to admit when they need help. Bill Byrne’s message is direct: veterans have earned their benefits, and asking for support is not a sign of weakness.

In Episode 668 of The Fog of War and Humanity, host Richard Acritelli continues his conversation with Bill, president of Rolling Thunder New York Chapter 6, about PTSD, veterans’ benefits, repeated combat deployments, September 11, and the practical work of helping veterans rebuild their lives.

Bill urges every veteran to register with the Department of Veterans Affairs, even if assistance is not immediately needed. He explains that unused benefits are not transferred to another veteran. Establishing a record today may make it easier to receive medical care, disability support, or other services in the future.

Rolling Thunder’s assistance extends far beyond paperwork. Its members install wheelchair ramps, renovate bathrooms, add safety railings, replace broken heating systems, and respond quickly when a veteran’s home becomes unsafe or inaccessible. With support from skilled union tradespeople and veteran-friendly companies, the organization transforms concern into immediate action.

The conversation also examines the psychological impact of repeated deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. Military training prepares people for combat, but Bill argues that no comparable process prepares them to return to civilian life. After years of remaining alert to hidden explosives, incoming fire, and sudden danger, many veterans struggle to adjust to everyday environments that others take for granted.

Bill explains why no two experiences of PTSD are identical and why some combat veterans will speak only with people they deeply trust. He earned that trust by sharing his own experiences growing up amid the Troubles in Ireland and working inside the wreckage at Ground Zero during the first two months following September 11.

Bill and Richard also recognize the work of General Needs, Paws of War, Tunnel to Towers, the FealGood Foundation, and the union workers, businesses, and volunteers who support veterans and September 11 responders throughout Long Island.

The episode concludes with Rolling Thunder’s central mission. Bill cites approximately 82,000 American service members who remain missing from modern conflicts. For him, POW/MIA remembrance is not ceremonial. It is a continuing promise that no American who served will ever be abandoned or forgotten.

The Fog of War and Humanity on hmTv | Host: Richard Acritelli | Guest: Bill Byrne

Executive Producer and Director: Bernie Furshpan

A production of the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County

🌐 hmtcli.org
🎙 buzzsprout.com/2449781
▶️ youtube.com/@hmTv-hmtc
🏍 rollingthunderny6.org

─── CHAPTERS ───

0:00 Introduction
0:19 Welcome and Part 2 introduction
1:12 Why veterans rarely ask for help
2:25 Richie Kitson and serving through the VA
3:18 Veterans have earned their benefits
4:00 Forgotten benefits and delayed recognition
4:47 Why veterans remain silent
5:12 Wheelchair ramps and immediate assistance
6:03 Renovating homes for disabled veterans
6:40 Union tradespeople answer the call
7:49 Iraq, Afghanistan, and growing demand
8:28 Repeated deployments and difficult transitions
9:34 September 11 and the lasting trauma of war
10:05 Returning home without decommissioning
11:10 Chad Lennon’s experience with PTSD
12:37 Walking across Long Island for veterans
13:00 Veterans bringing experience into public service
13:31 Why these stories need to be told
13:48 Understanding post-traumatic stress
15:11 Current conflicts reactivate painful memories
15:44 Why every experience of PTSD is different
16:42 Acceptance by the Marine Corps League
17:44 Earning the trust of combat veterans
18:27 Bill’s work inside Ground Zero
19:28 Building September 11 memorials
21:00 A shared commitment to remembrance
22:01 General Needs, Paws of War, and Tunnel to Towers
23:40 Companies supporting Long Island veterans
24:14 Twenty-five years since September 11
25:44 Preventing remembrance from becoming commercialized
26:03 Approximately 82,000 Americans remain missing
27:06 Closing reflections
27:33 hmTv outro

──────────────────

#FogOfWarAndHumanity #BillByrne #RollingThunder #VeteransSupport #VeteransBenefits #PTSD #POWMIA #September11 #GroundZero #GeneralNeeds #PawsOfWar #HMTC

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The Fog of War and Humanity | Ep. 667: Bill Byrne: No Veteran Left Behind (Part 1) | HMTC

As a boy watching the Vietnam War end, Bill Byrne saw how returning veterans were treated and made himself a promise: if he could help it, that would never happen again.

In Episode 667 of The Fog of War and Humanity, host Richard Acritelli welcomes Bill, a veterans advocate and president of Rolling Thunder, New York Chapter 6, for Part 1 of a conversation about military service, remembrance, and helping veterans in crisis.

Bill traces his journey from Queens Village and an Irish immigrant family to the building trades and a lifetime of veterans advocacy. He recalls the 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut and learning that his cousin’s reconnaissance unit had been transferred only days before the attack. That narrow escape became what Bill calls “the match that lit my fuse.”

The conversation explores the Patriot Guard Riders, whose members shielded grieving military families from protesters, and the origins of Rolling Thunder’s Ride for Freedom. Bill emphasizes that Rolling Thunder is not a motorcycle club. Its primary mission is to keep the POW/MIA issue before the public and remind the government that no American service member should be left behind.

On Long Island, Bill and his chapter also focus on PTSD, veteran suicide prevention, and helping former service members navigate available resources. When a veteran calls in crisis, Bill does more than provide a telephone number. He answers at all hours, offers to meet in person, and sits down to listen.

Bill’s work demonstrates that honoring veterans requires more than gratitude on Memorial Day. It requires presence, persistence, and a commitment to ensuring that no veteran faces the battle alone.

The Fog of War and Humanity on hmTv | Host: Richard Acritelli | Guest: Bill Byrne

Executive Producer and Director: Bernie Furshpan

A production of the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County

🌐 hmtcli.org
🎙 buzzsprout.com/2449781
▶️ youtube.com/@hmTv-hmtc

─── CHAPTERS ───

0:00 Introduction
0:19 Welcome and guest introduction
1:19 Richard’s Army and Air National Guard service
2:04 Growing up in Queens Village
3:03 Irish immigrant parents and family roots
4:22 Returning to Ireland during the Troubles
5:11 Choosing a career in construction
6:02 Entering the plumbers union
7:18 Moving to Nassau County
8:03 Witnessing the treatment of Vietnam veterans
9:19 The 1983 Beirut barracks bombing
10:05 America’s complicated military history
11:32 Iran, Operation Eagle Claw, and military readiness
12:30 The Patriot Guard Riders protect military families
14:38 Becoming president of Rolling Thunder Chapter 6
15:11 A mission that never stops
16:01 The origins of Rolling Thunder
16:44 The Ride for Freedom and the POW/MIA mission
17:19 Confronting veteran suicide on Long Island
18:47 Answering veterans in crisis
20:02 Navigating the VA and finding additional help
21:27 Turning a career-ending injury into purpose
22:13 Discovering Rolling Thunder
23:30 Riding through Washington for veterans
24:46 Part 2 preview and closing
25:15 hmTv outro

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#FogOfWarAndHumanity #BillByrne #RollingThunder #VeteransAdvocacy #POWMIA #VeteranSuicidePrevention #PTSD #PatriotGuardRiders #RideForFreedom #LongIslandVeterans #MilitaryFamilies #HMTC

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Raised by Survivors | Ep. 666: Fern Schumer Chapman: Holocaust Trauma Across Generations | HMTC

At age 12, Edith Westerfeld was sent alone from Nazi Germany to the United States. Although her parents made the agonizing decision to save her life, Edith experienced the separation as betrayal. For decades, she remained trapped inside a child’s broken heart, believing she had been sent away because she was unlovable.

In Episode 666 of Raised by Survivors, host Bernie Furshpan welcomes award-winning author, journalist, and educator Fern Schumer Chapman for a powerful conversation about child refugees, intergenerational trauma, family silence, moral courage, and the responsibility to carry Holocaust memory forward.

Fern explains how her mother’s trauma transformed their relationship. Beginning at age five, Fern often found herself caring for the mother who was supposed to care for her. This reversal, known as parentification, profoundly shaped Fern’s childhood, her writing, and her determination to create a healthier relationship with her own children.

The conversation explores the little-known One Thousand Children rescue effort. Between 1934 and 1945, religious and humanitarian organizations quietly brought approximately 1,400 Jewish children to safety in the United States. Edith was among them. Fern recounts her mother’s experience in the widely taught young adult novel Is It Night or Day?

Fern also discusses returning with Edith to Stockstadt am Rhein, where they encountered comforting family legends, community denial, and the consequences of what Bernie calls “twistory.” Newly accessible Nazi Party membership records are now forcing some German families to confront documented truths about relatives whose wartime actions had long been denied or minimized.

One extraordinary figure in Fern’s family story is Mina, a Christian girl who lived with the Westerfeld family and considered them her own. Beginning in the early 1930s, Mina collected evidence of Nazi crimes in a suitcase. After the war, she fought unsuccessfully for restitution and accountability while her community chose silence. Ostracized for refusing to forget, Mina remained a moral compass whose own trauma followed her for the rest of her life.

Bernie and Fern examine ordinary complicity, failed denazification, rising antisemitism, the cancellation of Jewish authors and speakers, and the urgent need for Holocaust and civics education. They also discuss why students often connect more deeply with the experience of one frightened child than with statistics alone.

As the survivor generation disappears, Fern believes young people can become “derivative witnesses” who preserve these stories and recognize the warning signs of hatred. Holocaust memory must never become an empty ritual. It must remain a living responsibility that inspires education, empathy, courage, and action.

Raised by Survivors on hmTv | Host: Bernie Furshpan | Guest: Fern Schumer Chapman

Executive Producer and Director: Bernie Furshpan

A production of the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County

🌐 hmtcli.org
🎙 buzzsprout.com/2449781
▶️ youtube.com/@hmTv-hmtc
📚 fernschumerchapman.com

─── CHAPTERS ───

0:00 Opening and guest introduction
1:57 Welcome, Fern Schumer Chapman
1:59 Edith is sent alone from Nazi Germany
2:17 When rescue felt like betrayal
3:27 Trauma transmitted across generations
4:35 Becoming a mother to her own mother
6:01 Parentification within survivor families
6:59 America and the One Thousand Children
9:42 “Twistory” and comforting family legends
10:03 Nazi records challenge decades of denial
11:43 Coercion, conformity, and failed denazification
14:52 Mina’s secret archive of Nazi crimes
16:39 Rescuers, upstanders, and moral responsibility
17:28 Mina’s fight for restitution and justice
18:56 The lasting trauma carried by an upstander
20:00 Ordinary complicity and today’s warning signs
20:41 The urgent need for Holocaust and civics education
22:19 Jewish authors and speakers being canceled
22:31 Teaching history through one child’s experience
23:21 The responsibility of descendants and educators
25:04 Young people as derivative witnesses
26:04 One humanity and closing reflections
26:55 hmTv outro

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#RaisedBySurvivors #FernSchumerChapman #HolocaustEducation #OneThousandChildren #ChildRefugees #IntergenerationalTrauma #Parentification #HolocaustMemory #Upstanders #SecondGeneration #DerivativeWitnesses #HMTC

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Putting the Brakes on Bullying | Ep. 665: Dan Grunfeld: Holocaust, Bullying and Basketball | HMTC

Ernie Grunfeld arrived in America at age nine without speaking English. Bullied because of his accent and immigrant background, he transformed adversity into determination, becoming an Olympic gold medalist, NBA star, and respected basketball executive. Just as importantly, he became a man who treated others with the kindness he had once been denied.

In Episode 665 of Putting the Brakes on Bullying, host Samantha Sosnik welcomes former professional basketball player and author Dan Grunfeld for a powerful conversation about Holocaust survival, inherited memory, antisemitism, bullying, resilience, and the unifying power of sports.

Dan shares the remarkable story of his grandparents, who survived the Holocaust in Hungary. His grandfather endured a forced labor camp, while his grandmother survived on the run, was saved twice by Raoul Wallenberg, and was imprisoned in the Budapest ghetto. Now 101 years old, she remains the heart of the Grunfeld family and a daily presence in Dan’s life.

The conversation explores Ernie Grunfeld’s journey from communist Romania to Queens and his extraordinary friendship with basketball legend Bernard King. Known together as the “Ernie and Bernie Show,” the Jewish immigrant from Queens and the Black athlete from Brooklyn became one of college basketball’s greatest duos, later playing together for the New York Knicks. Their friendship demonstrates how shared purpose can overcome cultural and social divisions.

Dan also reflects on playing basketball at Stanford, competing in the Maccabiah Games in Israel, acknowledging the privilege of growing up as an NBA player’s son, and learning that opportunity means little without discipline, effort, and performance.

One of the episode’s most moving moments comes when Dan recalls receiving an offer to play professionally in Germany. Before accepting, he asked his grandmother for permission. Her response, “Sons are not responsible for the sins of their fathers,” opened the door to a meaningful experience of friendship, understanding, and healing across generations.

Dan discusses his acclaimed book, By the Grace of the Game, which connects his family’s Holocaust history with basketball, immigration, mental health, identity, and the opportunities made possible by survival. He also confirms that a documentary adaptation is now in development.

This multigenerational story demonstrates how people can transform trauma and bullying into purpose. The Grunfeld family’s legacy is not defined only by what they survived, but by what they built through perseverance, honesty, compassion, and the grace of the game.

Putting the Brakes on Bullying on hmTv | Host: Samantha Sosnik | Guest: Dan Grunfeld

Executive Producer and Director: Bernie Furshpan

A production of the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau County

🌐 hmtcli.org
🎙 buzzsprout.com/2449781
▶️ youtube.com/@hmTv-hmtc

─── CHAPTERS ───

0:00 Opening
0:18 Welcome and guest introduction
1:19 Discovering the Grunfeld family story
2:45 Dan’s Holocaust-survivor grandparents
4:15 A special bond with his 101-year-old grandmother
5:42 Rising antisemitism and warnings from a survivor
6:53 “Never Again” and generational trauma
8:19 Israel as a refuge for the Jewish people
9:13 Ernie Grunfeld and Bernard King
9:52 The “Ernie and Bernie Show”
11:45 Privilege, hard work, and proving yourself
13:59 The significance of number 18
14:24 The Maccabiah Games and Dan’s first visit to Israel
16:40 Honoring opportunities denied to earlier generations
17:52 Carrying survivors’ stories forward
19:51 Basketball as an entry point to Holocaust history
20:57 Asking permission to play in Germany
21:13 “Sons are not responsible for the sins of their fathers”
22:17 Healing and responsibility across generations
23:53 Turning criticism into motivation
26:23 Ernie’s childhood experience with bullying
26:54 Transforming pain into achievement and kindness
29:32 Why surviving trauma can deepen compassion
31:03 Writing By the Grace of the Game with honesty
33:06 Celebrating a Knicks championship
35:11 A documentary adaptation in development
36:21 Bringing Dan’s story to students
37:42 A final call to kindness
37:54 hmTv outro

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#PuttingTheBrakesOnBullying #DanGrunfeld #ByTheGraceOfTheGame #ErnieGrunfeld #HolocaustSurvivors #BasketballHistory #JewishIdentity #Antisemitism #BullyingPrevention #InheritedMemory #Resilience #HMTC

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