Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A concentration camp survivor and Olympic weightlifter who represented Great Britain after liberation from Theresienstadt.
On the island
Eight records
Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1
I've chosen El Gab because to me this represents the glory and majesty of what Britain was and I still feel. I'm steeped in English history. I am an Anglophile through and through and I love Britain.
I compare myself today when I see my grandchildren and I look at them. I simply can't believe that I was the same age that they are. Because they are children, they behave like children. I did not behave like a child. I already was very responsible of what was going on around me. I understood the meaning of life in a way that a child does not understand. And then the war came and of course that immediately accelerated it.
It is almost a sacred event for Jews once a year. And I look back over the years, the pre war years, And it was a nice life, but it was also a life. Where everybody was worried about what the future was going to be, and this Ko Nider, in a way, The song itself is simplified.
Every time I hear that song, a shudder goes down my back and I can't help thinking not just about my mother, about the mother of all those who survived. And this song, I'm pleased that I don't hear it often, but when I do hear it, in a sense, I'm pleased to hear that. I think of my mother often, but this evokes other memories, beautiful memories, the way she was.
The United Nations Voting Celebration
And after such a great catastrophe, where six million Jews were killed, and then suddenly we heard at last there's going to be a state, And so we celebrated, and we celebrated and we claiming songs, and half a nagila really gives the the meaning of it all.
Opening Ceremony of the 1956 Olympic Games
The opening of the 1956 Olympic Games, Melbourne. That was a very special opening because it coincided with my birthday. And so it was very emotional. And as I marched and thought of my parents, I thought how proud they would have been of me 11 years ago I was at the point of death and here I was not only live and kicking, but I was representing my adopted country. There was sadness, at the same time exhilaration.
Nessun dormaFavourite
I could have picked any of the opera pieces because they're so lovely, they're so inspiring, and I love listening to them. And when I think about serenity, like I think about my family, what better song can it be than that? Exemplifying what my family is all about.
Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 'Choral'
It's the last part of 8005. Uh it is a call for freedom. call for to the future, to be optimistic, to look forward, to work together and to live in harmony. And to me, whenever I listen to it, I can see the beautiful world that can be.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:14Can you start by explaining how it was that you found yourself on board a plane flying into Britain in the months after the war had ended?
Well, what happened was I stopped in Tredenstadt where I was liberated, and I was told by my friends with whom I was liberated that they will be going to England. Well, when I heard that they'll be going to England, I mean that was something that was music to my ears, because England, as far as I was concerned, was the country that I loved and from my early childhood.
Presenter asks
2:17What were your first impressions when you got [to Windermere]?
Heavenly. It is something so special. The place itself, mountains around us. The first night when I slept under sheets after at least three years when I didn't sleep under sheets and slept under terrible conditions, it was something so special.
Presenter asks
6:07You have said in the past, Ben, that you made a decision not to hate the Germans. How did that come about? Where did that impulse come from?
Well, I have never hated anybody. I just don't know what hatred means. And I'm easy to forgive. My father was an extremely liberal minded person. My mother was very strict, but very devoted to us.
The keepsakes
The book
A History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Well, it's a very big that's a very hard choice because I'm a great book lover and I thought and thought about it and came to the conclusion that I would pick The History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell.
The luxury
I think he'll have a good laugh at that. See, I believe in fitness. Okay. And I've always kept myself fit. No, I would need in order to do my training, I would need a power With a bit of weight.
Presenter asks
14:02Can you tell me what happened to your mother and one of your sisters?
Well, my mother and my sisters were in hiding. That meant that they were illegal, because only those who were working were legalized. Anybody else had no right to live. And the Germans knew all about this because they had their collaborators. And they announced that everyone who has returned to the small ghetto, who wasn't illegal, should register, and they will be legalized because they need people to work, and of course they'll get rations. So they did. No sooner had they registered, they were rounded up. And amongst them was my mother and my younger sister Lucia, who was nine years old. And so they were all taking about five hundred and twenty, five hundred and fifty. People, most of them women and children. And they were taken to the synagogue… and the Germans were deliberating what to do with them. My father managed to get a permit for my mother to be freed, but he couldn't get a permit for my sister to get freed. And I remember the correspondence between my mother And my father, my father begged her to come out, and my mother said, You got to look after the children, and I look after Lucia. And then the decision was made but and this was on the twentieth of december nineteen forty two. They were taken out to the nearby wood on a Sunday morning and they were all shot.
Presenter asks
28:43Do you understand the phenomenon of survivor guilt?
Of course I understand the survivor guilt because one always feels that m that that that one one survives because somebody else close to him or her did not survive. And they say, Why me? Why not you? And that that of course but the fact remains that that is how it is. Those survivors who survived by lucky chance They have a duty. to to to go out into the world and to talk about it.
Presenter asks
30:10Given the fact that you are haunted and as you get older you say that that gets worse, is it impossible for you to find peace?
Always found peace in myself. I I have learnt to live with the part of my life right from the very beginning. And the reason why I've been able to carry it out was because I never pushed it away. I lived with it. I want to live with it. So I am at peace. Oh, if I would not be at peace myself, I could never be the person that I am.
“Anybody who observed that would never have believed what we went through. There was another story. When we went to sleep, different things happened because most of us were still living with the trauma.”
“I compare myself today when I see my grandchildren and I look at them. I simply can't believe that I was the same age that they are. Because they are children, they behave like children. I did not behave like a child. I already was very responsible of what was going on around me. I understood the meaning of life in a way that a child does not understand.”
“I love people. and I cherish my friendships. and I cherish love to humanity. I think this is what it's all about, and that is why.”