International Holocaust Remembrance Day: Local Survivor Recounts His Liberation
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- International Holocaust Remembrance Day marks the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp, and one local survivor spoke about how important it is to never forget.
Dave Tuck of Levittown was just a boy when American troops liberated the camp he where he was imprisoned, but says he remembers that day clearly.
"There was a roll call, he said. "I'll never forget it. They were still counting how many people were still around, there were more dead people in this camp than living ones."
Tuck says the Nazis ran away and the Americans rolled in on tanks.
"This was the day I was liberated," he said. "I weighed 78 pounds at that time."
When I was liberated, I said to myself, where can I go? I don't know who's alive? Who's still around," he said.
Tuck had been separated from his father and his other family members had been killed by the Nazis.
"As a little boy in Poland, I remember people were talking, America, America," he said.
Due to immigration policies Tuck wasn't able to come to America until 1950.
Tuck speaks about his Holocaust experiences to groups throughout the year through the Holocaust Awareness Museum and Education Center and says that the story of the Holocaust is the story of bullying to the extreme.
"If somebody bullies you, just walk away," he said. "Don't even bother to answer. If somebody has a problem, it's their problem, not yours."
