George Bercy is 101 years old, a prominent surgeon in Los Angeles, and despite his age goes to work every day at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
Frank Satch, 96, is a writer and columnist, writing a regular column in the Virginia Gazette.
Born in Hungary, they were rescued from Nazi concentration camps before immigrating to the U.S.
Their meeting was organized by the American Jewish Congress on Wednesday.
The two men were smiling broadly when they met, at the nursing home where Mr. Bercy resides. Mr. Satch walked briskly toward him, despite his cane, and they embraced.
"We were rescued from the slavery of forced labor almost the same day, found ourselves in Budapest and both joined the resistance against the Nazis," Mr. Satch recounted. "We were in the same places, doing the same things, so it is very likely that our paths crossed several times."
Mr. Bercy was a Nazi prisoner in the summer of 1944 when he escaped, at 23, taking advantage of an Allied attack near the camp that distracted his jailers. He joined the resistance in Budapest.
Mr. Satch, as he recounted in a recent column, was doing forced labor in the Carpathian Mountains on a Nazi army railroad project when he was able to escape during an Allied aerial bombardment. He joined the resistance also in Budapest.
Mr. Satch learned Mr. Bercy's story when he read a profile of the surgeon recently published in the Los Angeles Times. The publication was the impetus for the meeting.
[BR]
"We are lucky that we still remember these historical events," Mr. Bercy joked.
The number of Holocaust survivors is difficult to estimate accurately.
The US registry of survivors has 195,000 entries, survivors and their relatives.
Source.gr
Contents of this article including associated images are belongs Cyprus Times
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or Cyprus Times
Source[/P]
