What drove me, gave me the strength to walk,
was the thought of home, of my family, my parents,
so when I came and saw that no one was there
I literally collapsed.
My aunt called the doctor, dressed me, fed me,
and then I traveled to my home town,
and there the locals said: "What, you're still alive?
"They told us that all the Jews... that they had killed all the Jews.
"How is it that you are still alive?"
Where I worked, in the rehabilitation center,
my boss said right away,
"You are not going to stay here",
because every pebble under my feet
burned my feet.
I couldn't stay in Germany
for nothing in the world, even if you gave me millions,
and I mean that sincerely,
so he said, "You register for immigration to Israel,
"you register for immigration to America.
"Whatever comes first, you go."
America came through first.
Bernard's parents
were really very wonderful.
When I came into this family,
they just put another chair to the table
and I was another child, so I was lucky.
They never asked me anything about my past
and I don't think I could have said anything.
They always were very good to me
and... I love them.
I love them very much.
He was a father to me longer than my own father.
The man from the television asked me:
"Tell me please,
"how do you feel
"50 years after liberation?"
I said: "Sir,
"I feel nothing.
"I feel the same way I felt 50 years ago.
"Nothing can heal the wound. Nothing. It's impossible.
"They took everything from us, and we are scarred for life."
It's very hard to talk about it.
You just can't imagine how much
beating and starving we had,
how much...
how people can hate that much.
What I did with my sons, I told them, and my grandchildren,
that the ugliest word in the English language
is the word Hate. Never use it.
You can dislike.
Hate will destroy you and the one who you're talking to
and who you're talking about,
but you can dislike yourself or dislike spinach, or the person,
but don't hate it, and they all listened to me.