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MAN: I'm terrified of Auschwitz.

MAN EXHALES

Okay.

No.

I'm not ready to walk in yet.
Sorry.

MAN EXHALES

Why do I not have the guts
to do it?

DIRECTOR: You live
in a very unique world,

because the world knows
about your mother and father.

WOMAN: Mr. Sokolov...

Call me Lali.

You're looking for someone
to write your life story?

My parents were almost like,
that got put away in a box.

His story was kept hidden
for decades,

until he revealed it
to author Heather Morris.

It is a Holocaust story.

It's not the story
of the Holocaust.

GARY: There are still
unanswered questions.

Why was my dad so hardened?

Why was my mom so depressed?

The people
that have read the book

actually knew more
than I did growing up.

The thought of having to walk
through those gates

terrifies me.

And I have tried four times
and I couldn't even cross,

which made me feel
like a coward.

This is my parents' history.

My dad would be
so proud of that.

It's amazing.

I felt the presence of your mom.

She let me tell this story.

He's just this one man
and he's so small

in this enormous camp,

and he's learning about
the horror that's unfolding.

GARY: And that's what
beats me up,

is that there's this gap

of their experience
that I haven't experienced yet.

I have to do this now.

GARY: Smile for the camera.

You beautiful bird.

When she's not trying
to tell me off.

There you go.

BIRD CHEEPS

GARY: Yeah, oh!

Okay, so,
my name's Gary Sokolov.

I am the only child of Lali
and Gita Sokolov.

My parents were happy people.

They had managed to almost
wipe out that whole experience,

and for them, it was always
about moving forward.

I mean, how beautiful is my mom?

And look at my dad.
And there was that smile.

How proud they were
to have had a child.

You know, 16 years of trying,

and they finally had a son.

And you can just see the glow.

I'm 63.

It's time.

It's time for me
to know my parents.

And they deserve for me

to understand
what they went through.

I want now to walk
in their footsteps.

You know, try and understand

what was going
through their heads,

because the impact
it had on them was lifelong.

INTERVIEWER: When did you
arrive in Australia?

1949, September.

You want to see the picture?

In that photo
is when we arrived,

the first day, to Australia.

It is Sydney.

INTERVIEWER 2: Have you
had any children?

I have one son. Thanks, God.

Who is a very big and good boy.

He is big all the time,
but good occasionally.

INTERVIEWER 2: What's his name?

Gary, and we love him very much.

GARY: Do you want some help?

GIRL: Can you grab
the mayonnaise?

GARY: Yeah.

And salt.

-Yeah.
-What's that?

GARY: Being a dad was really,
really important to me.

I suppose,
if there was any enormous guilt,

it would have been
if my parents had survived

and there was no continuity.

-Hello. Good Shabbos.
-GARY: Good Shabbos.

-Hello, Mommy.
-Mali, you look beautiful!

How are you? Good Shabbos.

GARY: I cherish every single
happy or sad moment with them,

because I'm a dad.

And that's, like, amazing.

-Good Shabbos, everyone!
-Good Shabbos, everyone!

-L'chaim.
-MOM: L'chaim.

Dig in and eat.

Right, who stole the gravy?

GIRL: Me.

-HEATHER: Are you ready?
-Yes.

HEATHER: When I had spent
that first day with him,

he said to me,

"Did you know I was
the Tattoowierer in Auschwitz?"

I was spending time with
this man who had lived through

one of the most horrific
episodes of recent history.

Not only lived, he'd survived.
He'd been a fighter.

He always would do that
to his arm,

and made the numbers...

GARY: I would sometimes
come home from work

and he would be standing,
staring at that window.

He wouldn't even hear me
come in.

And it would be like, "Hi, Dad."

And he wouldn't react
for a minute or two.

LALI INHALES

I'm right here.

You know it.

HEATHER: Your dad said to me
so many times

about he was constantly
surrounded by ghosts.

Mm. Yeah.

They had been part of his life
since the day he left there.

I could see every now and then
when he left me,

and I knew,
"Now he's back in 1942."

I was 11 or 12 years old,
and there was a documentary.

Um... World at War.

And my parents said to me
that I have to watch this.

And I had to sit there
by myself,

watching this.

NARRATOR: What we went through
will be difficult to understand,

even for our contemporaries,

and much more difficult
for the generations

that have already no personal
experience from those days.

EXHALES

I saw the bulldozers

doing piles of dead bodies,

and people just lying there,

just skin and bone.

That has stuck with me,
and that was my first exposure.

And even after that...

have something to eat,
go to bed.

DIRECTOR: Would you say
you've been traumatized

by their trauma?

That's a really
interesting question.

My parents were almost like,

that got put away in a box.

"That was where we were.

This is where we are now.
We're in Australia."

INTERVIEWER 2: Why did you come
to Australia?

Why we came to Australia?

As far away from "ism"
as possible.

Nazism, communism,
I didn't want to hear about it,

so as far away.

SHIP HORN BLOWS

NARRATOR: Australia opened its
doors to Europe

after World War II.

A million-odd migrants brought
a new flavor and a new look,

learning English,
finding jobs, raising families,

and, by and large,
having few regrets.

Yes, young Australia
is a bright light,

a fair dinkum land,

in our changing world.

GARY: I've never met
a Holocaust survivor

that's actually willing
to talk about his experiences.

So, we're now
on our way to visit

a gentleman called
Abram Goldberg.

He was one of the founders

of the Holocaust Museum
here in Melbourne.

It's actually his birthday
in ten days' time.

He's going to be 100.

When they opened the doors,

do you remember
what your first thought was?

I only thought about, "What will
I do? How will I save my mom?"

Right. Okay.

And when my mother had to go
down to the high cattle train,

we didn't know
what those flames are.

-GARY: Right.
-ABRAM: Nobody knew anything.

You only realize it's hell.

And outside,
the way people were treated,

she realized
she is not going to survive.

No. Okay.

So she turned to me and said,

"Abram, you should do everything
humanly possible to survive."

I knew that
I was going to dedicate my life.

It's what I'm doing.

You've done an amazing job.

Not let the world
forget what happened.

GARY: I'm so honored
that I got to talk to you,

because my whole life,
no one spoke to me.

No one wanted to.

ABRAM: I made sure
that my children knows.

NARRATOR: The young Jew in
Australia

has often been brought
up in the shadow

of his parents' direct
experience of persecution.

SINGING IN HEBREW

My name is George Halasz,
and for the last 25 years,

I've been researching
intergenerational trauma

based on the lived experiences
of my mother, Alice,

who's a Holocaust survivor.

You're a second generation
like I'm a second generation.

So, were you curious
about their stories?

I think I was already at the
point where I stopped asking,

because my parents
never answered.

So, that, to me, speaks about
the desire to be secretive.

Yes.

Do you think there was any
quality of numbness in either,

or both, of your parents?

Definitely not Mom.
Very possible with Dad.

Just because I never saw
any emotion from him.

Right.

So something must have happened
to him in the camps

that numbed him,

where he became a person
that only ever looked forward.

-GEORGE: Yes.
-Never looked back.

Look, I witnessed things.

Killings. Right?

Torture. Beatings. Right?

Unbelievable,
where boys killed boys,

inmates killed inmates.

What I'm hearing,
your father,

despite the experiences
of Auschwitz-Birkenau,

went on regardless.

If you survived when everyone
around you is dying,

you just think, "All right,
I've survived today."

That survival instinct.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Right.

Holocaust trauma
is the lived experiences

that were so overwhelming

as to actually have changed
their minds and their bodies.

And it is this
persistent survival mode

that is labelled
"traumatic experience".

GARY: Why was my dad
so hardened?

Why was my mom so depressed?

How they must have felt every
single day when they woke up.

The concept of,

"Am I still going to be alive
in ten minutes' time,

or will someone just walk
past me and shoot me?"

I want to understand
and feel that.

I think I'd like
to go back there.

Yes, to Birkenau, to the camp.

I... I thought you'd never go
back to Europe.

GARY: One of my biggest regrets
with my father

is I should have just hopped
on a plane and taken him.

I'm terrified of Auschwitz.

You know, you hear the stories,

you read the book,
you see the miniseries,

but to actually stand
where they stood...

Yeah, I don't know.
I've been avoiding doing it.

I'm 63 now, yeah?

Um...

I wake up at night and sweat.

Why do I not have
the guts to do it?

This is my parents' history.

I have to do this now.

Keys, phone, wallet, passport.

I'm ready to go.

Look at that. It's real.
It's actually happening.

Ooh!

FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Passengers and
cabin crew should now be seated

with their seatbelts
securely fastened...

INTERVIEWER: Where were you
born in Czechoslovakia?

In a small town named Krompachy.

It is Slovakia.

GARY: See, this view,
it's just phenomenal.

Overlooking the hills
and the valley.

Imagine waking up
to that every morning.

What a peaceful way to grow up.

What would it have looked like
back then?

So, I know absolutely nothing
about Krompachy.

All I know is that my dad lived
in Krompachy with his parents.

I mean, what a shock.

There was a war about to happen.

INTERVIEWER: 1942,
the Germans came into Slovakia.

LALI: Yeah.

INTERVIEWER: Did you have
any indication before that,

that they were coming your way?

Not...

What... If I want to tell you...

I never believed it, right?

I never believed it,

because we lived in
a different environment, right?

HEATHER: I don't think Gary
has any idea

what he's about to see,
feel, and learn

over the next few days here.

He's now learning it
for the first time

as a man in his early sixties.

I suspect this is going to be
a very, very emotional time.

I'll be there for him.

Heather.

-HEATHER: Oh!
-GARY EXHALES

HEATHER: We have no more special
place in Krompachy

than where we are standing
right now.

This is my gift to your dad and
your mom, to you and your girls.

-GARY: And my girls.
-HEATHER: Yeah. This is it.

Lenka, please come and join us.

GARY: Hi, Lenka.

-LENKA: Pleasure meeting you.
-GARY: And you, too.

HEATHER: Lenka,
can you translate?

LENKA: It would be my honor.

So, "This is to the memory
of Mr. Ludwig Eisenberg Sokolov

who has lived here.

And this memorial
has been dedicated

to all the people
deprived of their freedom,

dignity, home,

and their own name.

For the memory of all victims
of Holocaust."

My dad would be
so proud of that.

It's amazing.

LENKA: And we are very proud
to have it here.

GARY: This image,

you know,
is embedded in my brain.

My whole life,
my parents held hands.

They were just so in love.

INTERVIEWER: Did you go to
school in Krompachy?

Yeah. Yeah, I went.

I went for eight years
in the normal school,

like every child should have.

-Hi.
-Hi. Gary?

-Gary. I'm Gary, yes.
-Anna.

Nice to meet you, Anna.

-ANNA: Dobry den.
-Dobry den.

Wow, wow.

Am I allowed to sit in a chair?

HEATHER: I don't think
it's an original one.

GARY: That doesn't matter.
It's the room.

Sit down. In the back row.

Yeah, because Dad would never
have been in the front row.

HEATHER: Yes.

It was just something he
said to me about, at school,

how he used to sit and look out
the window and daydream.

Look at this, Dad.

I'm probably sitting
in your chair,

looking outside the window
at your hometown. How cool!

SPEAKS SLOVAK

"When the book came out

about The Tattooist
of Auschwitz...

SPEAKS SLOVAK

...I realized that Lali
was born in 1916."

SPEAKS SLOVAK

"My father was born
in 1916, too.

We are hoping for you
to pick your dad, Lali."

It will be one of those two.

More than likely this one.
Definitely him.

Right there,
looking really smart.

GARY LAUGHS

SPEAKS SLOVAK

Really?

LENKA: "And keep it
as a memory."

Thank you so much.

I've never seen a photo
of my dad before the war.

Nothing.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

GARY: Today was
the most amazing day.

LENKA: I have found something

that I believe
you would love to see.

I can confirm
that we have found a house

where your dad lived
in the year 1930.

-This is my friend, Miro.
-GARY: Hi, Miro.

-Very nice to meet you.
-MIRO: Nice to meet you, too.

This is a very good find.

-Thank you.
-Well done, you.

LENKA: The houses here
are beyond repair

and they have to be demolished.

MIRO: This part of the building
was for the animals.

-GARY: The stables.
-MIRO: Yeah.

And you can imagine
where there are some rabbits,

maybe some chickens.

There would have been
a horse as well.

LALI: We had horses,

with two people carrying stuff

over from the station

to the places
where they had to go.

INTERVIEWER: Did you help out
in your family business?

LALI [LAUGHING]: No, not much.

So, finally, we are approaching
your grandfather's house,

where your father lived.

So, we've got the steps
leading into the house,

for sure, the family members
would have walked.

Lucky they were short.

MIRO LAUGHS

Yeah, as you can see,
it's in a very bad situation,

so this is probably
the last chance

to visit the property as it is.

Wow.

I was really hoping,
when I walked in,

just to get, I don't know,

a feeling, something spiritual.

I'm just looking for some stones
to put on my dad's grave

from his home.

Look at this.

I've got enough for both graves.
Huh.

Wow!

This is just superb.

Every time you go and visit
someone's grave,

you're supposed
to leave a stone,

just to let them know
you've come to visit.

You know how you were talking
about living history?

This is the history
of where they were living.

CHUCKLES

That is just unbelievable.

Hello, Lali from Krompachy.

I have to go.

Wait! Wait!

I don't know your name.

It's Gita.

INTERVIEWER 2:
Where were you born?

Vranov nad Topl'ou, Slovakia.

About 200 families
were in that little town.

It was a very close-knit town.

INTERVIEWER 2: Was it 200 Jewish
families, or...?

GITA: Jewish families, yes.

INTERVIEWER 2: How many people
were in your immediate family?

Six children,
my late father and mother.

We wanted to show you
the birth records of your mom...

Oh, wow!

...which we have found
at this registry office.

GARY: I'm tingling.

Wow, wow, wow!

-Baby steps, please.
-Baby steps, yes.

Yeah, because otherwise,
I get so overwhelmed.

I've never seen that photo.

That...

How stylish is my mom?

And look.
You know, look at the smile.

And there's no trauma
in that photo.

There's a genuinely
happy person.

Happy to be alive.

It's a pretty cool photo, huh?
Bless my mom.

LENKA: Gary, this is a place
where you register the birth

of every child being born
in Vranov.

The first
and probably the most special.

-GARY: Mom.
-LENKA: It's your mom.

GARY: Mm.

So, this is the record
of her being born in Vranov

on the 11th of March, 1925.

Here you can see a record
of your mother's sisters.

We've got Rachel,
Golda and Franny.

HEATHER: Didn't come home.

Didn't come home.

Yeah. Okay.

Those bastards.

DIRECTOR: Why did your mom
not tell you about her sisters?

How do I answer that?

How closed
must my mom have been,

and shut down,

to not even mention
that she had three sisters?

I love my dad dearly,

but all my heart came from Mom.

And this just has
that little bit more meaning.

She just buried it.

She buried it.

And maybe that's why
she was so depressed,

because she buried it
all so deep,

but it was still
in the back of her head.

And, you know, that would
explain the nightmares.

GARY: Where we're standing,

in what was the heart
of the Jewish community,

is symbolic of what happened
all over Europe.

And I'll phrase it like this.

So, here
there was a synagogue...

until there wasn't.

Over here was the spiritual bath

called the Mikvah,
until there wasn't.

The Jewish people were there,
until they weren't anymore.

What's left is a plaque.

That's it.
That's all that's left.

This was the wall of the
synagogue, here,

that my mom attended.

It's a bit of stone
from my mom's synagogue

that is no more.

We're reading excerpts

from something called
my mom's Shoah tape.

And this is a phenomenal project

to videotape every single living

Holocaust survivor's story.

If you don't mind, I just want
to read to you what...

my mom remembered.

"So I went to school."

GITA: Then they kicked
me out of school.

"Like every young person...

I had hopes
that I had to study."

GITA: At 17,

you still haven't got a clear
mind what you want to do.

We knew that the times
aren't very healthy.

Knew something was going
wrong.

They didn't fully
understand what.

And then they asked her
the question.

INTERVIEWER 2: Was your father
able to continue working?

GITA: No.
They took away the bakery.

That's when
the troubles started.

"And after they had
closed everything down

a few weeks later,
they took us."

HE SOBS

And for her, that simple life,

overnight, gone.

Childhood, gone.

Family,

ripped apart.

Gone.

Everything was...

just...

gone.

LALI: The Slovaks were always
antisemites.

You talked to everybody.
They knew that you are a Jew.

But maybe, inside,
they hated you.

People ask whether

what is being done with the Jews
is Christian.

Is it human? Is it not robbery?

I ask, is it Christian when
the nation wants to free itself

from its eternal enemy, the Jew?

Slovak, cast off your parasite.

MADELINE: I have a letter here.

This letter is from
a six-year-old boy

who wrote to Jozef Tiso.

You know, I've got a
seven-year-old,

so this is like trying
to imagine her

writing a letter
to do this is...

Right. It's just mind-boggling.

He's the youngest letter writer
that I have found so far.

This little boy writes,

"Dear Mr. President, every night
I pray for your health.

Mommy always tells me
that if I'm a good boy,

Jesus will bring me
the most beautiful gift

from Mr. President,"
which is an exemption.

I would like to talk to you
a little bit

about this piece of propaganda
that is behind us.

It says, "It is he.
You know him by the star.

It is he who grabs everything
for himself.

It is he who acts against
the state and its friends."

The wearing
of the yellow Star of David

was mandated by
the Jewish Code.

The Slovak press touted it

as the most strict racial law
in all of Europe,

even stricter
than that of the Nazis.

You couldn't go
to sporting events,

parks, restaurants, movies.

You couldn't even
go to the market

at the same time
as everyone else.

What kind of people,
as human beings?

MADELINE: So, these are
the things that

your parents
would have seen.

And they suggested
that the Jews were responsible

for all of
the country's problems,

which is impossible,

because they were only 3.6%
of the population at the time.

Yeah, I know.
It's mind-boggling, isn't it?

To ask me to leave,
they didn't come to the home.

They just put out announcements

that the oldest kids
from every family

have to come to that place,
that evening.

Otherwise,
they will take the parents.

It was up to me to go.

So I went.

I was 17 in March,

and in April
they had already deported us.

INTERVIEWER:
The Slovakian government

came for your parents?

Yeah. Not only for my parents.

For all the Jews.

Because they took
everybody they could.

The Slovak government
paid 500 reichsmarks

for every deported Jew.

-Were you aware of that?
-No.

And they had to pay
for "transportation."

That makes it very uncomfortable
to be in this country,

right here, right now.

A country
that my parents lived in,

their brothers
and sisters lived in.

And knowing that
the government was happy

to pay for them to be deported.

I would just bring up the point,
though,

that not everyone hated Jews.

Right.

But there was tremendous
social pressure not to...

not to associate with Jews,
and not to aid them in any way.

INTERVIEWER: What was the
response of the Jewish community

to these actions?

They had no response.

They couldn't do anything.

Nobody could do anything.

GARY: I feel privileged.

Every survivor needed some luck
in their life,

and I'm a reflection
of that luck.

GUARD: Keep in line!

Come on, keep moving!

Where are we going?

Poland.

GUARD: Keep moving forward!

I hear they'll train you
as a mechanic,

fixing cars, engines.

JONAH: It's funny
being back here.

This is where we filmed
getting onto the carriages.

And it was such a strange day
of filming.

Just me, as Jonah,

trying to imagine
what your dad went through,

stepping onto a carriage,

it's almost impossible
to imagine.

FILM DIRECTOR: And action!

GARY: But what did
you go through

when you walked
into the carriage?

JONAH: They slammed
the door shut,

and everyone just
goes completely quiet.

It was impossible
for it not to impact you

on quite a profound level.

LALI: Nobody knew
what was going to happen.

Nobody knew
where we were going.

He's just this one man,

and he's so small in this
enormous scale of this camp.

And he's learning about
the horror that's unfolding.

GARY: I can see my dad
in your eyes.

I saw my dad in the way
you looked at Anna.

That look of love.

GITA: Your eyes...

Are they blue?

LALI: Sometimes.

OFFICER: Is there a problem?

No. Um...

Just getting some more ink.

How difficult
would it have been for you

to play my mother

in a Holocaust environment?

ANNA: You know,
it was very scary.

I was terrified at first.

I just felt
this great responsibility.

I felt the presence of your mom
from then.

And, I mean, I still feel
that presence sometimes.

-Serious?
-ANNA: I do.

How was it for you,

to watch the story
on the screen?

So, I'll tell you what
my biggest impacts were.

You said,
"God isn't going to help."

And this is an ultra,
ultra-orthodox woman,

where everything
is because of God.

ANNA: Yeah.

That was all Mom.

Lali...

Where is God?

God can't help us, Lali,
but we can help God.

We can show him that
love still exists, even here.

I was brought up secular.

And I think my mom
let go of a lot of it,

maybe because of
a disappointment in God.

Because of the war.

How are you feeling generally
about going?

-Do you feel ready now?
-No.

Even more so not ready.

All of a sudden,
that's become...

Look, I'm shaking.

Just look at me.
And that's not the cold.

-That's thinking about...
-Yeah, yeah.

Walking into Birkenau
has a different sense of reality

than it ever did before,

because I know so much now.

If, for any reason,

my parents' souls
are not resting,

maybe this will help
both of them as well.

This is it?
We're getting on here?

Mom's describing her arrival...

in Auschwitz.

"And through the little window
in the wagon,

we could see people
in striped clothing

working in the field.

And so we talked to each other.

'Well, they must be
some criminals.

Definitely not for us.'

But when we arrived,

we had
a very, very bad surprise.

The SS came in,
and they started screaming,

'You are not going
to get out of here,

and you are going to die.'"

GUARD: Halt!

Women this way, men over here.
Thank you. Move along.

GARY: I want to know now.

I want to know
what it was like for them

as best as I possibly can,

to walk in their footsteps.

I didn't go four times before
this trip.

I don't want to make it
number five.

This time I'm going.

HE EXHALES

I'm actually surprised
at how I'm feeling.

I want to see
what happened there.

I want to be close
to my mom and dad in there.

I'm ready.

GARY: I can't stop shaking.

HE SOBS

Okay.

MAN: Come here.
I've got you. Give me your hand.

I'm okay, I'm okay.

HE SNIFFLES

-Hi, Pawel.
-Hi, Gary.

-I'm Gary. Nice to meet you.
-Pleasure to meet you here.

And I know it's going to be
a challenging time,

but thank you very much

for coming to the memorial.

I suppose we can start,
so please follow me.

[CHUCKLING] I can't stop
my knees from shaking.

-Okay.
-Okay.

From 1942, Auschwitz becomes
an extermination camp.

And what you can see here
in front of us

is this iconic entrance

with the "Arbeit Macht Frei"
inscription,

"work makes one free."

LALI: They took us to Auschwitz.

I looked up.

I saw "Arbeit Macht Frei"
in the German language.

And when we came in,
the hell started there.

I'm not ready to walk in yet.
Sorry. [EXHALES]

I can't stop
my legs from shaking.

Okay.

No. [CHUCKLES]

All right, let's do it.

LALI: When we came out
and we saw the SS

and we saw the dogs
and we saw the beating,

then we knew what time it is.

PAWEL: Most of these blocks

were places
where prisoners were sleeping.

The number of people
inside such a building

could exceed 1,000.

Do we have any idea which one
my mom might have been in?

No.

We don't have documents
related to your mother.

The SS, before the evacuation,

they ordered prisoners
to burn the documentation.

And our estimation is

that even up to 95% of the camp
documents were destroyed.

GARY: So, over here,

what we have is a collection
of children's shoes.

Some of these would have been
for kids

that were less
than one year old.

I'm trying to imagine
Aviva's feet.

Shocking, isn't it?

PAWEL: We have to remember

when we look
at every single object here,

it is one person.

Yes.

There's always one story,
one name, one person, object.

GARY: And this is a bit close
to home as well.

It's got my dad's first name
on it, Ludwig.

HE EXHALES

The scale of that just...

INTERVIEWER: Did they give you
a number?

LALI: Yes.

32407.

When people think about
Auschwitz survivors...

I'll think about tattoos.

The tattoo is something
essential.

Survivors' children
remember the tattoo,

sometimes without understanding
what it was.

Because they don't want to
explain to them.

In this bureaucratic world
of the SS,

they didn't know who...

-GARY: Who was who.
-PAWEL: Who was who.

Then they thought,

"It will be more useful if this
number will be permanent."

And therefore they needed
tattooists,

and your father
was one of them.

End of the wood
was two needles, right?

One was longer.

The other one
a little bit shorter, right?

And that's how we did
the numbers.

GARY: My mom,

I remember her coming home
one day

with a big bandage on her arm,

and she had just had her tattoo,
her number, removed,

because she just couldn't
look at it anymore.

LALI: The SS,
they took you there.

One day,
I came to the bunker number 11.

And they took me in.

And they tortured you, right?

They beat you.

PAWEL: We don't know exactly

how this investigation
that led to his incarceration...

It is likely
that he could have been here.

First,
you will see the standing cells,

which is a particularly
harsh punishment.

Up to four people standing in
basically one square-meter space

for the entire night.

Each standing cell
looks like this.

It was bricked up.

People crawled inside,

and they were standing
the entire night.

And that's the only entrance
of air.

You can see
there's a very small hole.

It could be covered
from the outside.

So this was one of these extreme
types of punishments

that we have here.

GARY: They had
different designations.

Standing cells,

starvation cells,

death by suffocation.

PAWEL: This is the execution
yard

of the prison building.

And they were shot
in the back of their heads.

So, this is a site
which is a commemorative site,

as you can see.

And there is always
this flag above,

with the stripe pattern.

-GARY: The uniform.
-PAWEL: The uniform pattern.

So it symbolizes the prisoners.

But there was sand

and sawdust that
they were throwing here

to drain the blood.

And the blood reached
meters into the ground.

LALI: The gassing was separate,

and the burning was separate.

HE EXHALES

LALI: They couldn't burn them
that quick.

There was a conveyor belt
from the gas chamber

which came into the crematorium.

And the conveyor belt was
working non-stop,

24 hours a day,

and bringing in
those gassed people, naked.

HE SOBS

GITA: In July,
we went to Birkenau.

That's where
the real trouble started,

the real killings
and disappearings.

Here we go.
There's the building.

There's the train tracks.

My heart's racing.

GARY BREATHES QUICKLY

So, this is the space
that you can see...

Just how vast.

...of basically...

maybe not the entire,

but the majority
of the Birkenau site.

But there's more?

PAWEL: There are some parts
in the forest

that are difficult to see
from here.

But, basically, we can look at
this around-500-acre space.

When the SS moved the killing
from Auschwitz-I,

which is some three kilometers
from here, to Birkenau,

they're building an industry
of murdering people.

We have around one million Jews
murdered in Auschwitz.

In fact, in Birkenau,

there were six homicidal
gas chambers

and four crematoria.

GARY: Just in time for my family
to come, yeah.

LALI: The headquarter
was Auschwitz.

The factory killing
was done in Birkenau.

In the whole world,
they mention Auschwitz,

but the real McCoy was Birkenau.

PAWEL: Here you can see
a historical freight train car.

And most of the Jews were
deported in freight train cars.

Sometimes people talk about
cattle train cars,

but cattle would get
a lot of air.

In many testimonies we have
people who have lack of air,

and it's overcrowded,
around 80 people in it.

GARY: Oh, God.

So that's all they had?

Yes. There's one for the air
on one side.

There was something on
the other side.

Many survivors talk that finding
a place near this little window

would be...

-Lifesaving.
-Because you would get air.

Right.

PAWEL: And this is the place
where the selection happened

when the transport
of Jews arrived,

because non-Jews do not go
to the selection.

And we estimate that around
75% of Jews

are murdered immediately.

Not everybody
came into the camp.

Only the stronger people came.

The rest went straight away
to be killed, to be gassed.

If you had a little pimple
on your hand,

you went to the left.

Most of the girls from my town
were taken

for nothing, nothing.

PAWEL: People have no idea

that they will never
see each other again.

And then,
some of them become prisoners.

They get to a place where
someone makes the tattoo,

and then they enter
into the camp.

And they learn in a moment

that the others were taken
to the gas chambers.

The prisoners do not have...

You know,
they don't sugarcoat it.

They tell them the blunt truth.

And for many of those people,

it is simply too much
to take in.

In the early days,
people couldn't take it.

They ran to the Postenkette,

and there were
3,000 or 4,000 volts in it.

They grabbed the wire,

and they would be killed
straight away.

The power killed them.

And that was on a daily basis.

Those were the early days
in Birkenau.

GARY: It's so massive.

When you look down this row,

and there's row
after row after row.

The effort they put in.

You know, all the logistics

that went into building
and killing

and transporting.

I have nothing else to say,
Stephen.

You can't get
blood out of a stone.

I'm kind of, like...

Yeah.

My dad, when he said,
"I want to apologize

to the people
whose lives I couldn't save,"

his only curiosity about all
the gas chambers was this one.

Crematorium III.

PAWEL: This is a place where
tens of thousands

would walk down.

And I know you wanted to
specifically say a prayer here.

PRAYS IN HEBREW

HE SOBS

GARY: So,
what are we entering now?

PAWEL: So, we are entering into
one of the smaller sections.

And this was called
the Zigeunerlager.

It was the camp for the Roma
and Sinti prisoners.

In the family camp,

your father stayed for some time
in one of the wooden barracks,

and it's over here.

Unique in the stories that Lali
said that he lived on his own.

GARY: Yes.

PAWEL: What we think

is that he lived
as part of the larger group

of this whole unit.

Maybe their conditions of life
were better.

So this is maybe,

kind of the reason for this
isolation, or the feeling...

But that makes no sense.

I can understand some of his
memories would be very vague

as an 89-year-old man,

but one thing
that is impossible to be vague

is not knowing if you are
in your own room or not.

That's...

And I can still
distinctly remember

my mom yelling at my dad

when he was describing the room.

Yelling at him
that it wasn't a six-star hotel.

But maybe they had enough space

that they would be able to have

their own kind
of sleeping places.

Maybe that's the explanation.

GARY: Or he just had his own
room.

-PAWEL: Maybe that also.
-GARY: Yes.

PAWEL: But there could be maybe
several of them.

This sector at the very back
of Birkenau

has a German name,
Effektenlager.

Your mother worked here,
and that was considered to be,

somehow, privileged work.

GARY: Yes, correct.

And then something
that is unique for this place

is that on the other side
of the fence,

you can see this red line.

This is the ruins
of Gas Chamber number 4.

So they were also
close witnesses

to the killing process.

GITA: We heard the screams
from where they went...

to the gas.

All my friends were taken.

GARY: When you look
across everything,

it's mind-boggling,
the vastness of this.

Walking in my parents' footsteps
is very special.

I don't think I could ever have
been closer talking to them

than I was here.

When you put it in perspective

of all my family members
that didn't survive,

I feel honored that,
for whatever reason,

my mom and dad
were lucky enough to survive.

I'm going back to Melbourne,

and I can talk to my children
in a whole different way

about their family.

I remember my mom and dad saying

that they wanted to get
as far away from Europe

as they possibly could.

And you can't really get much
further away than Australia.

-Welcome.
-Nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you.
-Thank you so much.

This is Mali,
my youngest daughter.

Yes.

MAN: Shall we go in?

MAN 2: Yes, let's move.

MAN: Puts on some
beautiful music,

and they do a dance of tango.

GARY SPEAKS IN HEBREW

Twinkle Toes.

THEY LAUGH

We dance a lot in here.

Fantastic.

Are we hungry?
Yes? Good.

Well, we've got lots of food.
Why don't you come in?

GARY: Shall we go in?

We forgot the pickles.
How can we forget the pickles?

GARY: You can sit down
with Mother.

Your parents never talked about
the Holocaust?

-A few stories, you know?
-Yeah.

We grew up with everything,
with Dad telling us

from when we were really young.

Yes, I did a lot to survive,

but I still consider
it was 99% of luck

because every moment of the day,
you could be shot, killed,

beaten to death
or sent to the gas chamber.

CHARLIE: But whatever question
we ever had

was always answered.

-Brilliant.
-CHARLIE: Always.

When I was ten,
I turned around to Dad one day

and I said to him,
"Dad, do you hate the Germans?"

And he said,
"Don't you ever use that word,

because once you give in
to that emotion,

what is it that you become?"

-As bad as that.
-CHARLIE: Yeah.

So, to me, that was a lesson
in not only survival,

but survival with your humanity
and your dignity intact, yeah.

GARY: That's the right message.

He's an amazing man, this one.

INDISTINCT

So, really, this trip
has been amazing for you.

Just phenomenal.

You're telling everything
to your children now.

I don't want them to have
that same emptiness that I had.

HELEN: It's quite profound on me

how you're telling the stories
that you never heard.

It's so important.

GEORGE: Now, having come back,
how are you feeling,

to have a lived experience
of Auschwitz?

GARY: Relieved.

I'm a different person.

-In what way?
-I'm not empty anymore.

Oh!

Maybe I don't know
the right terminology,

but it's almost like
peace of mind.

-Okay.
-If that makes sense?

-Yes.
-GARY: I am comforted

and fulfilled by the fact
that I now know so much more.

GEORGE: Yes.

How do you think you coped
with the emptiness

all the years before?

I think I knew it was there,
but I ignored it.

There's a way of looking at
trauma

that is not actually
a state of mind,

but a state of body.

Now, you're noticing this

and you're saying
it's peace of mind.

And many people might say,
"What a paradox.

You're going to Auschwitz,

and you come back
with peace of mind."

How do you...?

I don't know the answer to that.
I just know I have that feeling.

-GEORGE: It's very real.
-And I've noticed it.

-It's very real.
-GARY: Yeah.

I'm going to have such
a different relationship

with my children,
as a parent and as a friend.

I think I'm going to like myself
a lot more, too,

in the way I relate
because of that.

-GEORGE: Please do.
-Yeah.

It's an absolute honor
to be in your presence.

GARY: Thank you.
It's a very warm feeling.

Oh.

-I'm sorry.
-GEORGE: Please, please.

-It's a release.
-GARY: Okay.

This is not a negative.

MALI: Does it go in order,
like in the alphabet?

-No.
-No?

No, it's wherever
you buy the plots.

Here you go.
This is Mom and Dad.

Look at that.

I miss you guys very much.

First time I've brought your
grandchildren out to see you.

This is Mali, and this is Aviva.

So, I've got stones
from both your hometowns.

So let's all put one on,

just to let them know
we've been here.

Dad, look at that.
From outside your front door.

So you've got a bit of home
to have as well.

Oh!

GARY KISSES

I wish you could
have met them.

How my dad would have
fussed over you two,

and Mom would have had you
in the kitchen,

teaching you songs
and watching her bake.

She would have been in heaven.

How you going, choop?
Doing good?

Yeah.

INTERVIEWER: How did you find
Gita after you were liberated?

I couldn't go by train

because it was bombed.

The train couldn't go through
the bridges.

So I bought a horse.

You know?

And I took my horse,

and I was going
hundreds of kilometers

to look for her.

GITA: And, one day,
turns up a horse

on two wheels.
You know, that carriage?

I look back there,
and it's my husband.

GITA: Lali!

SHE SOBS

He chased me and found me,
and we are happy together.

-GARY: Do you know who that is?
-AVIVA: That's...

That's your dad.

-GARY: Who's that?
-AVIVA: Your mom.

-And who's that?
-You.

Yeah. This is from
their 50th wedding anniversary.

I threw a really big party
for them.

Pretty good-looking dude,
your dad, huh?

-AVIVA: No, he looks better.
-GARY: Really? [LAUGHS]

Thanks.

It's okay. I love you still.

MALI: Watch this!

GARY: My parents found
each other,

and they got married
in Krompachy.

And what I have here just shows
you how much they were in love.

So, this is a photo from
the Tatras mountain range,

and my parents went there
on their honeymoon.

Have a look.

This is post-war, with hair,

just so, so very happy
and in love.

So I'm the result of one of
the most amazing romances

in the most horrific place
that ever existed.

I mean, even the fact
that I'm around

is also seriously good luck.

Wahoo!

It's amazing!

I love it!

GARY: I have
two beautiful girls.

They will be able
to continue the story,

and that is
my greatest happiness.

MALI: Go run.

AVIVA: Go for a run.
Get some exercise in.

THEY LAUGH