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This photo was taken in 1993 at the Knesset (Israeli Parliament ) in Jerusalem. On the wall hangs a famous Chagal tapesty.
The four people in the photo have a common past history. Three are survivors of the infamous Dachau Death March, while the fourth is a Japanese American veteran who saved the lives of two of them.
From left to right Uri Chanoch, a survivor from Ghetto Kaunas in Lithuania and Dachau.
Next to him is Dov Shilanski, the 1993 spokesman of the Israeli Knesset and survivor of ghetto Shiauliai, Lithuania and Dachau.
Next is Clarence Matsomura, veteran of the famed 522th artillery battalion, US Army.
On the far right is Solly Ganor, survivor of ghetto Kaunas and Dachau.
On May 2, 1945, a four-man signal unit of the US 522th artillery battalion made its way in a command car through a wooded area west of the small German village of Waakirchen.
They proceeded cautiously after the retreating German army, tracking its movements. It had snowed the whole night and the wooded landscape was covered with a blanket of snow.
One of the four US solders, Corporal Clarence Matsomura, looked back and saw some unusual clumps in the snow. "Hold it fellows, something strange is lying there in the snow." Clarence said.
Driving the car back they discovered a whole group of people in striped uniforms lying in the snow.
Spokesman of the Knesset Dov Shilanski and myself were among those "clumps" in the snow.
This photo was taken in Los Angeles, probably in 1995. From left to right is Eric Saul, my wife Pola, Mrs. Yukiko Sugihara, and myself.
Eric is the person who arranged for my meeting with Clarence Matsomura in Jerusalem so many years after the war. He convinced me that it was important to come out of the shadows and tell my story.
He is also responsible for calling the world's attention to the heroism of the Sugihara family and other diplomats who saved Jews at great risk to themselves.
Slowly over the years I've grown comfortable again with Germans, particularly the younger generation. Here I am with Rica Haeussermann when she and her husband visited me at my home in Israel. It was April 2000.
Rica was born just after the war in Einbeck, Germany. Her father was a submarine commander, and later a nationally recognized chemist. Her mother worked in the German Embassy in occupied Paris during the war.
Rica is one of the most loving people I have ever met.
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