The old man stepped to the podium with a story to tell. But this wasn’t just any story. Daniel Goldsmith, 83, had survived the Holocaust.
Goldsmith was joined by World War II veteran Bernie Lens onstage at the Zlock Performing Arts Center on Nov. 17. The event, sponsored by Bucks’ Social and Behavioral Sciences Department, was meant to retell the harrowing and tragic stories from that time, so that they may never be forgotten.
The group of men assembled are a part of the Holocaust Remembrance Education program of the Jewish War Veterans’ Fegelson Young Feinberg Post 697 of Bucks County. The chairmen of the program and Vietnam-era veteran Allan Silverberg was also present at the event.
Lens, 94, is one of the few remaining World War II veterans. He was a liberator at Dachau concentration camp. He was exempt from enlistment but decided to join the war effort anyway. Lens worked in a shipyard, where accidents were common. He decided if he had to die he’d rather have it be in the war than a shipyard.
Lens then spoke about his experiences as a soldier. He showed pictures of himself in uniform posing with military equipment, calling himself handsome. The tone changed when he began to talk about Dachau. “Sickening,” said Lens after telling the audience that the average weight of prisoners upon liberation was 80 to 90 lbs.
Goldsmith an actual Holocaust survivor was 8 years old in 1940. His parents were originally from Poland. His family lived in a Jewish section of Belgium, and he had a normal early childhood and attended an all-day Hebrew school.
But trouble started in 1941 with a series of decrees, restrictions and laws aimed at Jews. “Jewish people were no longer allowed entering public places. We couldn’t go to the park, the movies, we couldn’t go anywhere. Even school. They then forced all Jewish people to register as a German/Jewish citizen so they could keep track of us,” Goldsmith recalled.
In 1942 things took a turn for the worse when his father received a letter ordering him into to a concentration camp.
Group chairmen, Silverberg showed a BBC video of the expansive ruins of Auschwitz, over 40 different sub camps which many are still left intact and can be taken tours of.
“Even from an aerial view it’s hard to comprehend how large Auschwitz was,” said Silverberg as he showed the audience pictures of the camp. He mentioned moats and electric fences at the ruins.

The letter B on the entrance sign was put on upside down as a form of prisoner resistance.
Goldsmith went onto share his story saying, “My father was in good health, so he thought he could handle it. People didn’t know about the total destruction of the Jews or concentration camps then.”
“I’ll never forget the parting scene at the train station. I remember what my father told me. You’re the man of the house now. You’ll have to help take care of your mother and sister until I come back. I told him I would. This was the day I lost my childhood,” Goldsmith said.
Then the street the Goldsmiths lived on was raided in the middle of the night; the Nazi’s sealed off both ends of the street, pulling all Jewish people out of their homes.
“Since they made us register as German/Jewish they could track where we all lived.”
Lucky the Goldsmiths lived in the middle of the street. So his mother wrapped him and his infant sister in a blanket, went to the roof of the house, climbed through the skylight, and placed them in the corners of the ceiling while their house was raided.
“I’m not an extremely religious man but I believe a little miracle happened that night. My sister slept through the whole scene. And if she woke and cried out I wouldn’t be here to tell you this story,” Goldsmith recalled.
His mother had non-Jewish friends who were members of the Belgium underground, which had secretly united to fight the Germans.
His mother made arrangements to hide him in a Catholic convent.
“My sister went to go live with a Catholic family temporarily. I had to go live in a Catholic orphanage. And adapt to Catholic lifestyle,” Goldsmith continued.
His mother joined the Belgium underground and promised to later return to get them.
Goldsmith told the crowd, “If you were caught hiding Jews you were shot immediately. Even if you were a priest.”
The orphanage was later raided and Goldsmith and five other boys were caught, identified as Jewish because they had been circumcised.
They were taken to prison. In the middle of the night they were put on a freight train that was meant for animals, one that held about 40 other prisoners.
“There was a man on the train named Joseph. He was older then most of us. He snuck a metal pipe on with him and started breaking away at the paneling of the train. He told us once the train slowed down at a turn we need to tuck and roll.”
Everyone made it out safely. But after days of walking it became hard with no food or water.
Joseph, the man who saved them, decided to take the very big risk of approaching a Catholic Church and asking for help.
The Church took them in and secretly placed them with families spread across the country.
“I didn’t know that my mother was keeping track of me since I had been caught. She went to visit Catholic priests to find out where I was. Unfortunately her timing was terrible. She was caught in an air raid in France and lost her left leg in a bombing.”
Goldsmith’s mother sat in a hospital for several months until Allies soldiers began liberating Europe.
When America liberated France, they were able to reunite Daniel and his mother.
The war was over for France when Goldsmith turned 13. As the concentration camps were liberated, word spread about the atrocities that had been committed there.
“My father wasn’t coming back because he died in Auschwitz by gas chamber,” Goldsmith said. “My mother, years later, finally feeling better, wanted her daughter back.”
But he added, “The family that took in my sister fell in love with her and didn’t want to give her back.”
Goldsmith’s uncle was an American solider and when his uncle returned to see his family he used his authority to get Goldsmith’s sister back. The family was so upset they cut off all communication from the Goldsmiths; still to this day they have no contact.
On April 17, 1948, after a two-year immigration process, the Goldsmiths finally came to America, safely.
“Not until 1995 did I speak about my experience. It wasn’t until Spielberg started the SHOAH foundation,” Goldsmith said, referring to the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education, a nonprofit organization established to record video testimonies of Holocaust survivors.
When the organization came to interview him they encouraged him to speak. These days, Goldsmith is happy to share his story.
Goldsmith concluded with a final piece of advice: “I’m here to speak to younger generations because you are the last generation to see a Holocaust survivor. It’s important to never forget and never repeat. I’m urging you to please not hate. You’re doing yourself a disservice by hating anyone. The lesson here is to be decent to all people. I’m asking you to be righteous human beings that speak up when you see something that is wrong.”