Sam Gejdenson: “Let me tell my colleagues a story about my father. My father will turn…”

On the recordMarch 11, 1999

Let me tell my colleagues a story about my father. My father will turn 87 in the next 5 days. Although he never spoke about World War II much, he told me this one story of a day that raised his hopes, and then of course there was a lot more calamity after that day. It was December 7, 1941. He was a prisoner in a work camp run by the Germans, the Nazis in World War II. He was one of thousands of Jews across Eastern Europe who had been rounded up. In his small village of Profonia, there was about 400 Jews and 400 non-Jews. The Jews were put into a labor camp. On that day or shortly after December 7, he heard that American ships had been bombed in Pearl Harbor. While in this country there was obviously great anxiety, my father saw great hope, because for the first time in the darkness of World War II, he had the vision and hope that America would be rapidly in this war and that it would soon be over. But he was wrong.…

Said by

Sam Gejdenson

Connecticut

Source

govinfo.gov

Editor's note · Context

Reflecting on his father's experiences as a Jewish prisoner during World War II.

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Sam Gejdenson: “Let me tell my colleagues a story about my father. My father will turn 87 in the next 5 days. Although he never spoke…”

Editor's note · Context