Time ‘Too Painful’ to Remember

by Ari L. Goldman

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Lined Up Before Machine Guns

Morris Hubert, an 82-year-old retired butcher, was also arrested on Kristallnacht [1938] as he drove a car near his home in Frankfurt. “The Nazis lined up 50 of us before the machine guns,” he said. “The commandant was called away to take a phone call. We waited. When he returned he sent us away. I still do not know why.”

Later, Mr. Hubert was sent to Buchenwald. “In the camp there was a cage with a bear and an eagle,” he said. “Every day, they would throw a Jew in there. The bear would tear him apart and the eagle would pick at his bones.”

“But that’s unbelievable,” whispered a visitor.

“It is unbelievable,” said Mr. Hubert, “but it happened.”