Holloman remembers Holocaust

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman DeAndre Curtiss
  • 49th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. --  Members of Team Holloman gathered at the base Chapel April 6 to remember the victims of the holocaust during World War II.

The Holocaust -- the state-sponsored systematic persecution and annihilation of European Jewish people by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945 -- was responsible for the deaths of more than 11 million people -- more than six million of them being Jewish which was one-third of their population at the time.

The ceremony was in honor of the established congressional Days of Remembrance to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust. This year, Holloman welcomed Holocaust survivor and U.S. Army veteran, Ted Lehman.

Mr. Lehman, a native of Sosnowiec, Poland, was the guest speaker and honored guest of the ceremony. He shared his experiences and memories of the Nazi regime and his time spent in Auschwitz -- a German concentration camp.

Mr. Lehman said very few escaped and very few survived, because death was the easiest option in Auschwitz.

Mr. Lehman was sent to Auschwitz with the rest of his family at the age of 16. After six weeks, he was transferred and spent the next two years moving through many different camps before escaping with a German national. He joined the Army soon after, and was eventually used as an interpreter. He said he was most effective in the interrogation of German artillery officers and locating the exact placement of their guns threatening the allies.

"To hear Mr. Lehman tell his story of what he went through during the Holocaust was a very humbling experience. The ceremony made me think about how many people worldwide were affected by the Holocaust, and how many more survivors there were out there that would be willing to tell their stories," said William Guthrie, Holocaust Remembrance planning committee.

Nazi Germany established a number of camps. From 1933 until 1938, most of the prisoners in the concentration camps were political prisoners but the number of Jewish prisoners increased exponentially. Prisoners were forced to do hard physical labor and given tiny rations. They slept three or more people per crowded wooden bunk. Torture and experimentation on prisoners within the concentration camps was common and deaths were very frequent.

The Nazi's built six extermination camps, Auschwitz being largest and most famous. Prisoners transported to these extermination camps were told to undress to take a shower. Rather than a shower, the prisoners were herded into gas chambers and killed.

"I don't understand, even after living through it and writing a book on my time and experiences there I still don't understand, how one people, so intelligent, can follow one man into committing such evil acts," said Mr. Lehman.

In the summer of 1947, Mr. Lehman came to the United States and settled in Wisconsin. Although he didn't finish grade school in Poland, because of the war, he decided to finish his education by attending the University of Wisconsin where he earned his bachelor's and master's degrees.

At the end of World War II and Hitler's reign, the U.S. Army began to liberate the camps that caused so much pain, suffering and death to millions of people.

Today, the heinous hate crimes committed are written in history, but the United States Congress established the Days of Remembrance as the nation's annual commemoration of the Holocaust and its victims.

"It's a sobering reminder of what can happen to a society when the moral compass becomes corrupted, so as we leave here today it's important that we remember not only what has been in the past but that we are also looking to the future to make sure that nothing like this happens again," said Col. Donald Van Patten, 49th Maintenance Group commander.

For more information about the Holocaust or the Days of Remembrance observance, visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website at www.ushmm.org.