Emotional Reunion: 98-Year-Old Holocaust Survivor Meets 100-Year-Old Liberating Soldier 80 Years After Buchenwald
Emotional Reunion: 98-Year-Old Holocaust Survivor Meets 100-Year-Old Liberating Soldier 80 Years After Buchenwald
In a deeply moving encounter earlier this month in Los Angeles, 98-year-old Holocaust survivor Andrew Roth met 100-year-old American soldier Jack Moran, the man who helped liberate him from the Buchenwald concentration camp 80 years ago. The two men, both nearing a century of life, shared an emotional embrace, bridging decades of history and trauma.
Roth, who endured the horrors of Auschwitz and Buchenwald as a teenager, and Moran, a U.S. Army veteran who fought in the brutal Battle of the Bulge before arriving at Buchenwald in April 1945, recounted their devastating experiences. “How wonderful that you survived,” Moran said to Roth, reflecting on the unimaginable suffering he witnessed.
This historic meeting, facilitated by the USC Shoah Foundation, underscores the urgent need to preserve firsthand accounts of the Holocaust. With fewer than 220,000 survivors remaining worldwide and memories fading, organizations like the USC Shoah Foundation are in a race against time to gather testimonies, uncover unexplored history, and combat declining knowledge of the genocide.
Rob Williams, CEO of the USC Shoah Foundation, emphasized the critical importance of these stories, especially as skepticism towards democracy and human rights grows, paralleled by a decline in Holocaust understanding. The meeting between Roth and Moran serves as a powerful reminder of the atrocities of the past and the enduring human spirit, reinforcing the vital lessons of history against rising antisemitism and denial.
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