BURBANK : Three Tell Stories of Death and Life

The soldier recalled his guilt, the saboteur took pride in his deception, and the survivor expressed her gratitude.

The three, at times somber, at times spirited, showed up at the Calvary Bible Church in Burbank on Tuesday night to tell a story of death and life--the Holocaust.

“I survived for one reason,” said former Auschwitz prisoner Rena Drexler, as she gazed at the audience, “to speak to all of you.”

Her speech was part of a program put on by the Burbank Human Relations Council to commemorate the Holocaust, and the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps. The audience included representatives from churches and synagogues, as well as survivors and their families.

For Drexler, family means everything. While she spoke, her husband, children and grandchildren sat together in the second row, proud, as always, of the woman who came to America with nothing but hope.

Speaking for other survivors, Drexler said: “We’re grateful to the United States to give us a chance to raise our children.”

Vernon Rusheen was grateful for anything he could do to thwart the Germans. He worked in an armament factory in Auschwitz, repeatedly engaging in sabotage by intentionally giving the Nazis grenades that didn’t quite meet their specifications. He said he was told he’d receive lashes with a leather whip--almost certain death--but “my number was never called.”

Abe Cheslow, an American soldier who was part of the force that liberated the Dachau concentration camp, spoke of the “tremendous guilt” he carried for 40 years. After he arrived at the camp, he and other soldiers gave food to survivors. But their systems could not digest the food, and quite a few of them died.

For years, Cheslow didn’t talk about it. Finally, about seven years ago, he broke his silence, and realized it wasn’t his fault that some of those who remained at the camp died. He and the other soldiers were only trying to help.

Tuesday night was about memories, but, as Rusheen pointed out, the memories are never far away.

When he heard the news of the bombing in Oklahoma City, he said, “it affected me very, very much. I felt a kinship with those people.”