Daniel Szafran was born in February 1927 in Stryków, Poland. He came from a large family having five brothers, two sisters, and parents. His father had his own business, he was a sheet metal professional and builder. They had a cow and land even though Jews in Poland were not allowed to own land. In the summer, his father would be a roofer. Szafran learned the profession well and did that kind of work with his brother. His older brother, Barish, was the only citizen of Stryków who went to high school. His father wanted him to be more educated. One sister was a seamstress. His oldest brother was in the Polish Army and when the war broke out, he was taken to Germany as a prisoner. He eventually was returned to the ghetto in Stryków. Another brother, Nate, was a member of the US Army and was stationed in Germany from 1953 to 1958. His family shared a large house with a Christian neighbor.

Daniel Szafran was living in his home town of Stryków, Poland when war broke out December 1939. Prior to the war, they did not experience much anti-Semitism due mostly to the relationships, primarily business, his father and mother had with the other people living in the area. Szafran only attended school for two grades when he lived with this grandfather in Głowno, Poland. He then went back to Stryków and attended third grade when the war broke out and they could no longer go to school. His father took the whole family to a German family's farm to be safe when the war started. They stayed there around ten days and then moved back into their own house. It was very peaceful until about seven or eight months later when the regular German army was replaced by the SS [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel, German paramilitary organization; likely the Waffen-SS or Armed SS] and the German civilians were induced to become a yellow shirt, dark shirt, or SS. Still, relationships were good with their German neighbors until 1941.

Daniel Szafran and his family were living in Stryków, Poland when the war with Germany broke out. His brother was a soldier in Polish Army was taken prisoner in Germany. He was eventually released and came back to Stryków. Szafran's German friends had told them that most of the Jews were to be evacuated to Głowno, Poland. His family was told they would be staying in Stryków though, and not sent to Głowno. They did have to go with everyone else and the family stayed intact. They only had two hours to prepare to leave and this shocked them. When they arrived in Głowno, they did not mind because their larger family lived there as well. Their relatives were all shocked to see them arrive. Szafran was 12 at the time. They stayed for a few days and then they got word that they should go back to Stryków. It was winter and it was snowing. His parents asked if he wanted to go with them to illegally sneak across the border of the town. Szafran came up with a plan to tell the guard they were traveling in the opposite direction, to trick them into letting them go home. They didn't have papers, but the trick worked, and the guard ordered them to Stryków. They went to their German friend's house who gave them legitimate papers to bring the rest of their family back to Stryków from Głowno. Once they were all back, his sisters worked for the German Army units. They were relatively free to do their work and spent a year in that state before being sent to a ghetto that had been created in the same town. They were assigned to live in a house that had belonged to Jews who had moved already. This is where their brother who had been a prisoner in Germany joined them. Szafran, his father, and his brother were allowed to leave the ghetto to work and were given bicycles by the Germans. The Polish German in charge of the ghetto was an anti-Semite and was angry about their being able to leave. Szafran says the Polish anti-Semites were worse than the Germans. This man once beat his brother.

Daniel Szafran and his family had been living in a ghetto in Stryków, Poland for close to a year. They had planted a garden, but in August or September 1942, but they were moved to Bodzentyn, Poland. Their whole family was still intact. When they traveled by farmer's wagon to Bodzentyn the police put them in a room. People aged 19 to 20 had to sign up to go to a work camp. His older brother did so. The younger brothers were to be sent to school, so his parents gave them up. He was heartbroken when he had to say goodbye to them. The remaining family stayed in Bodzentyn for a week. They were told they were going to the Lodz Ghetto in Lodz, Poland. Lodz was a big city that had been divided in two. They were placed in one room with no bathroom. They were all assigned jobs and received coupons for food. Szafran worked six hour shifts as a metal smith and would make about 600 nails for mountain shoes per day. His father was once taken away for two days but returned. At the end of 1943, a German officer made a selection of people and picked him, his father, and his brother. Szafran and his brother jumped from the truck and made their way back to their part of the ghetto. They never heard from their father again. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer adjusts camera.] After the war, Szafran found out his oldest brother had died in Auschwitz. [Annotator's Note: He repeats this story.] He does not know where his father was taken or if he was executed. At the time, Szafran did not think his family members had died and just thought they were someplace else. They did not believe what the Germans were doing until the end of the war. Nobody had told them what was happening, so they did not resist their situations. He regrets not running to the forest and becoming a fighter. He says they went like sheep to the slaughter. He also blames the Allies for not dropping pamphlets and feels they could have done much more than they did. Even America and Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt] did not let refugees in. A lot of American and Jewish leadership, as well as British and international agencies knew what was going on in Europe. He feels their inaction is unforgivable.

Daniel Szafran was very young and was not aware of what was going on in Auschwitz [Annotator's Note: Auschwitz II-Birkenau; Brzesinka, Poland]. He did not know what the crematoriums were despite the smoke. He was put into Maurerschule [Annotator's Note: Mauererschule or Bricklayer School] to be trained to be a builder. He was in Block 8 with about 25 to 30 other young people. They were told they would be the new builders of the new Germany. He was still working in the camp with his brother in August 1944. On 18 November 1944, the school group was sent by train to the Sachsenhausen camp [Annotator's Note: Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg, Oranienburg, Germany; primarily political prisoner camp]. The train stopped due to Ronneburg, Germany being bombed. Szafran was happy to hear the explosions. There were a lot of people in Sachsenhausen, including some Russian prisoners of war. After two months, they were asked if anyone knew how to work on airplanes. He and his brother volunteered and went to Heinkel Werke [Annotator's Note: Heinkel Flugzeugwerke was a German aircraft manufacturer that used camp labor to build the Heinkel He 177 Greif] for three months where they worked building aircraft wings. There were only three or four Jews, the rest being Ukrainians and Belarusians. [Annotator's Note: Szafran repeats a lot of the story here.] After three months they went back to Sachsenhausen. He thinks he was the only Jew in his group. They would get up and wash themselves with cold water in November and December, but received better food than other prisoners. In March 1945, the Germans ordered all of the prisoners to the entrance of the camp to begin a march. He was given food which he gave to his brother to hold. He would then go back in line and get more food for them. They marched for three weeks and would spend the nights at farms. He was lucky and had a regular jacket and pants and not prison wear. They stopped in a forest; the Red Cross was there and gave them some packages. He met others from the other camps who were marching to the same place.

Daniel Szafran was in Auschwitz [Annotator's Note: Auschwitz II-Birkenau in Brzesinka, Poland]. The food situation was not bad for him because he was at the Maurerschule [Annotator's Note: Mauererschule or Bricklayer School]. Once volunteers were asked to go do some special work at a meat factory and he went. He went in to repair a stove and make another one and his eyes popped when he saw all of the meat. He did such a great job at the work that he was given a large roll of bologna. He was told to hide it when returning to camp. He threw a party for his 12 block mates with the bologna. When he was marching out of the camp later before being liberated, he and his brother carried a man who now credits him for saving his life. He says he always thought things were going to get better and he never thought of trying to escape. He had civilian clothes so it would have been easy to blend in. At the end of the march, they stopped at a forest and killed the horses for food. Szafran noticed that the soldiers were going into the trailer and changing into civilian clothes and leaving. He and the other prisoners continued walking in the forest and came upon a Polish women's camp. There, they showered and were fed. They then moved on to a small city where his brother became ill. The Germans were still carrying weapons but there were no Allied troops present. His brother was ill for about two and a half days. They learned the American troops were about seven miles away. Once his brother was well, they went to Schwerin, Germany and the Americans. German prisoners of war were laying down their bikes and their weapons. Szafran and his brother both took a bike from the wall. When they returned to the forest some Ukrainian war prisoners tried to take their bikes. Szafran had a rocket flare and told the Ukrainian he would kill him if he took his bike, so the man ran off. Szafran and his brother went back to Schwerin and they were asked where they wanted to go. Szafran wanted to go to Palestine despite owning land in Poland.

After having been liberated from Auschwitz, [Annotator’s Note: Auschwitz II-Birkenau; Brzesinka, Poland] Daniel Szafran assumed he might find his two sisters eventually. He and his brother ended up in Hamburg, Germany at the Warburg estate [Annotator's Note: the Warburg family was a prominent German and American banking family of German Jewish and Venetian Jewish descent] in Blankenese, Germany. Hamburg had not been as severe to the Jews as the other German cities as it was somewhat its own state. Some Jews survived there. He had his bike to get around on. Szafran and his brother had joined another family on the trip to Hamburg and they all stayed in an elementary school. After a couple of days, they moved to a converted cigarette factory. The Americans took an interest in this group of around 100 Jews. The group studied Hebrew and were fed by soldiers from the Palestine Brigade [Annotator's Note: The Jewish Infantry Brigade Group] of the British Army who were also gathering the young Holocaust survivors. [Annotator's Note: He pauses and gets emotional here.] He says he recalls a lot of singing and dancing. About 60 of them received certificates enabling them to go to Palestine and they took a train from Hamburg through Hanover to Marseilles, France, March 1946. They stayed for three weeks and then boarded the SS Champollion to Palestine which lasted a week. His brother gave him things to take to Palestine because he was with the older group who were not going yet. [Annotator's Note: He repeats a lot of the story.] Szafran was already separated from his brother due to their different ages. He had also become very independent due all of his experiences in the camps. In Hamburg, Szafran told his brother that he was going to visit some friends in Lübeck, Germany which was about 150 miles away. He had learned that friends who had also survived were there. He hitchhiked a ride in a truck with recently released German prisoners of war. There was a beautiful bike on top and nobody claimed it. He wanted it so he stopped the truck short of its destination, essentially stealing the bike when the Germans gave it to him. His brother eventually sold that bike for about 400 packs of cigarettes. While in Lübeck he did not discuss the Holocaust with his friends. They knew they were refugees from Auschwitz or Bergen-Belsen [Annotator's Note: Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Bergen, Germany] and did not want to remember anything.

After being liberated from the concentration camps, Daniel Szafran took a train from Hamburg, Germany to Marseilles, France and then took a ship to Palestine. The ship was wonderful. There was good food and he thinks he had a puppy for a time but does not recall what happened to it. They arrived Atlit, Israel where the British quarantined them for a week, then into the Port of Haifa, Israel. He recalls having a fever when he arrived. They were asked if they wanted to separate or go as a group which they chose to do. They took buses to a Jerusalem area kibbutz, Kiryat Anavim [Annotator's Note: first kibbutz established in the Judean hills west of Jerusalem; formerly part of Abu Gosh, Israel]. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Szafran to explain what a kibbutz is.] Szafran says that Russian Jewish pioneers had earlier come to the area and built a commune. His group was taken there for two years of half-day study and half-day work. Since Szafran was already a mechanic of sorts and could read, that's what he became. They also took trips to other communes, cities, and more. Szafran excelled in sports and dancing so he was sent to learn communal dances. He was asked if he knew how to fire weapons. He said he did not but was a fast learner. After the weapons training, he was asked to join a group to protect the settlements. He wanted to join the Palmach. [Annotator's Note: The Palmach, or "storm troops," were the elite force of the Haganah, the underground army of the Yishuv during British Mandate for Palestine]. He was told that he would have to join the British forces there and his job would be to secretly let the Palmach know that the British were coming to the kibbutz to search for arms. He felt it was his duty to help and that what he could not do in the concentration camps he could now do in return for being brought to Palestine. He attended a basic training of sorts and joined the Palmach. He also joined the British as a volunteer. He was put in charge of the male group at the kibbutz. Half of his original Hamburg group went to the Dorot kibbutz in the Negev region of southern Israel. Szafran's kibbutz had horses, donkeys, and mules which he got to ride.

Daniel Szafran was already a member of the Palmach [Annotator's Note: "storm troops," the elite force of the Haganah, underground army of the Yishuv during British Mandate for Palestine] when war with the Arabs broke out in 1947. The rest of his group of Holocaust survivors were placed under his command when they all joined the Palmach. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks him to back up and talk about his arrival in Palestine]. Upon arriving in Palestine, those emigrating were given a choice to go to a religious setting or to join the kibbutz. All of Szafran's group joined the kibbutz. Once there, he was asked by the Notrim [Annotator's Note: Jewish Police Force formed by the British in 1936] if he wanted to join them, which he did. Once the British left, the Palmach became the right arm of the Haganah. Stern [Annotator's Note: the Stern Gang, pejorative term for the Lehi, was a Zionist paramilitary organization] and Betar [Annotator's Note: the Betar Movement was a Revisionist Zionist youth movement founded in 1923 and was closely associated with the Irgun, a Zionist paramilitary organization in Mandate Palestine between 1931 and 1948] were in the Lehi and were different groups. Betar was more to right, the Lehi to the left, the Palmach was in the center and were even stronger than the Haganah. Once war broke out the Palmach resisted first the Egyptians, then the Syrians and the Lebanese. They also took over the British posts. The kibbutzim had heavy Mizar, or gates which these groups would protect. Szafran had never heard of the Palmach before being asked to join them. [Annotator's Note: The phone rings so the interview halts for a moment. The interviewer adjusts Szafran's microphone then the interview begins again.] Etzel [Annotator's Note: another name for the Irgun] was another group on the right. The British wanted to give arms to the Arabs more than to the Jews. He says that they were not very neutral when they withdrew from Palestine. The United Nations decided upon the two-state situation, but the Arabs did not want to agree to it. Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Jordan all attacked and were defeated by Israel, who went on the offensive and pushed them back to their borders. Jordanians were still in Jerusalem and the West Bank and closed the road to Jerusalem. The Palmach took the high ground to protect the road from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem so the food convoys could safely get through. During the counter offensive, Israel took land that was supposed to be Arab to bring them to the negotiating table. The Arab armies then told the Arab populations to flee. The war lasted into 1949.

The last war for Holocaust Survivor Daniel Szafran was the 1956 war. [Annotator's Note: The Suez Crisis, or Second Arab-Israeli War, was the invasion of Egypt by Israel, United Kingdom and France in 1956 to regain control of the Suez Canal.] Szafran had moved from the Palmach [Annotator's Note: the "storm troops" of the Haganah, underground army of the Yishuv – Jewish community – during British Mandate for Palestine] into the Israeli Air Force. He was asked to train Israeli soldiers how to shoot and guard the camps. Szafran was assigned to Tel Nof Airbase [Annotator's Note: or Air Force Base 8 in Rehovot, Israel] and then Ramat David [Annotator's Note: Ramat David Israeli Air Force Base in Jezreel Valley, Israel]. He was asked to join a competition with some friends and they took first place in a sharpshooter contest. Szafran was married in 1953. In the beginning, he was not given permission to leave Israel because he was too important to their military buildup. After marriage he wanted to go to America. His only surviving brother was an American soldier stationed in Germany. He took his wife to Paris, France to see his cousins who were also survivors. He had met his wife when she was visiting a friend of his and he was invited to come too. It was Yom Ha’atzmaut, or Independence Day, in Israel and he asked her to join him in Tel Hanan, Israel for the celebration. The next day he took her to a picnic in the mountains of the Carmel [Annotator's Note: Mount Carmel]. He then took her to a movie the same night starring Virginia Mayo and Danny Kaye. She left for Tel Aviv the next day. A month later he had to take something to them. She was surprised to see him, and he stayed the weekend.

Daniel Szafran had only one friend killed in an offensive. [Annotator's Note: There is a break in the tape then starts over.] In 1948, Szafran and his kibbutz group of Palmach [Annotator's Note: "storm troops" of the Haganah, underground army of the Yishuv – Jewish community – during British Mandate for Palestine] fighters went on the offensive and attacked Egyptian forces near the Gaza Strip. One of his friends who had survived the Holocaust with him was killed. Their mission was to take a base there and the friend was hit by a stray bullet. The Palmach always operated at night and they took the base. Szafran led the charge after they had crawled to the point of attack after cutting the perimeter wires. The enemy saw them and attacked but the fight only lasted 20 minutes. The Palmach group captured large arms caches and weapons. Szafran felt bad about his friend, but says war is war. Ben-Gurion [Annotator's Note: first Prime Minister of Israel David Ben-Gurion] asked the Palmach to join the regular forces after the end of the war. These units were proud to have them join. Szafran's unit was at the time similar to the US Navy SEALS. He said he did not want to die on a ship or in the water, so he chose to join the Israeli Air Force. He wanted to be a pilot but another friend from the kibbutz crashed and that changed his mind about it. [Annotator's Note: He pauses here.] He said that his group of soldiers were the only Holocaust survivors. He only knew of two others. Most of the Palmach were Sabras, or cactus, Jews born in Israel or Palestine. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks him if he knows someone named Kolowitz from the Auschwitz concentration camp. She describes a person, but he does not recall.] In 2005 the Germans in Blankenese, Hamburg, Germany invited the survivors back for a reunion. Szafran stayed with a family of a man who was in charge of the Hamburg Museum.

Daniel Szafran emigrated to Palestine in 1946 after surviving the Holocaust. The King David Hotel was bombed by the Lehi. [Annotator's Note: The Lehi was a Zionist paramilitary organization. Szafran disagrees with the interviewer about the event.] Szafran was in a kibbutz and the bombing meant nothing to him. A few days before this, the British hanged some Irgun [Annotator's Note: Zionist paramilitary organization in Mandate Palestine between 1931 and 1948] soldiers. This was before he had joined the Palmach [Annotator's Note: "storm troops" of the Haganah, underground army of the Yishuv – Jewish community – during British Mandate for Palestine] and before the actual war [Annotator's Note: 1947 Israeli War for Independence] started. He was involved in some of the smaller skirmishes with Arabs that preceded the war. He was in Juara, Israel for six weeks training for fighting. He then became an instructor upon his return to the kibbutz and trained Moroccan and Algerian Jews who came to Israel. All training was done in Hebrew. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks about Begin's "an eye for an eye" policy. Menachem Begin was the leader of the Irgun paramilitary group and the sixth Prime Minister of Israel.] Szafran felt this was the right thing to do. He describes how the Irish and British fought each other and compares that to Begin's policy. The Palmach was more restrained than the Irgun and Begin as they felt they had to be more restrained. The Palmach were more interested in taking over enemy positions and taking their weapons, but letting them stay if they wanted to. They took more from the British than anyone else. They were skilled night fighters. His transition to the Israeli Air Force from the Palmach was easy. He volunteered to give the Air Force members extra training in sharpshooting, grenade use, and heavy machinegun operation. He made obstacle courses for them to train on. He used live ammunition in the training which he made very safe. [Annotator's Note: He demonstrates the machine gun fire and moves his chair. The interviewer then asks him to sit up.] He would also use live grenades in training. He would do this so they would learn if they could throw back a grenade that had landed near them.

Daniel Szafran survived the Holocaust and wars as a soldier in Israel. When he came to the United States, he had an attitude of no longer waiting to be attacked first. He taught his children not to be afraid. He has since tempered that feeling. He does not like when the FBI [Annotator's Note: Federal Bureau of Investigation] does not intervene and stop people who they have had on their radar. He feels they do not do enough early investigation. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks to go back and discuss going to Israel.] After Szafran was married on 9 August 1953, and left the Israeli Air Force, he got a visa to go to Paris, France to see his cousin. His brother was now in the US Army and he came to Paris as well. They went to his American Army Base in Karlsruhe, Germany [Annotator's Note: the Karlsruhe Army Base was closed in 1995]. His brother went with him to Hamburg, Germany, where he attempted to emigrate to the United States and was told that he might not get to leave for America for four years. A friend had seen an opening for a heavy equipment operator in Germany, that would go back and forth to Israel. The job could not be occupied by a German because Israel would not let Germans into the country. He was hired then, and his wife became pregnant. In 1955, Szafran was the person in charge of the machinery going to Israel. He went to Altona, Hamburg, Germany to learn all about the equipment. He received a contract for four year's work. After those four years, he received permission from the Israeli Air Force to leave and go to America. He had two children by then. His son was having a birthday party when Szafran was called back to Israel from Germany to take part in the 1956 war. [Annotator's Note: The Suez Crisis, or Second Arab-Israeli war, was the invasion of Egypt by Israel, the United Kingdom and France in 1956 to regain control of the Suez Canal]. [Annotator's Note: It is very difficult to follow Szafran's story line at this point.]

Holocaust survivor Daniel Szafran emigrated to Israel and joined the Israeli Air Force. When Israel decided to go to war with Egypt in 1956, Szafran was up for 48 hours straight making sure all the aircraft were ready to go. [Annotator's Note: Szafran describes calibrating an aircraft's guns in great detail]. He also installed the arming mechanisms in the bombs after they were loaded. [Annotator's Note: He describes how bombs are ignited in detail]. Szafran felt the war was justified due to the actions of Egypt. The Israeli forces took the Gaza Strip, the Negev, and went to the Suez Canal. The British and French invaded Egypt after Abdel Nassar [Annotator’s Note: second President of Egypt Gamal Abdel Nasser] had impounded [Annotator's Note: nationalized] the Suez Canal. Egypt would not allow Israeli ships to go through the canal. The Negev was supposed to be a demilitarized zone, but Egypt moved troops in. He feels Israel had no choice but to fight. He left Israel in 1959 and came to America. His friends were angry with him for doing so but he wanted to be with his only surviving sibling. His brother did not want to come to Israel because he did not want to get killed after going through all that he had during the war. [Annotator's Note: Szafran asks to pause for a break.]

Daniel Szafran survived Auschwitz [Annotator's Note: Auschwitz II-Birkenau in Brzesinka, Poland] and then was involved in wars in Israel. He said he did have dreams where he could fly and had special powers but that has not occurred in 30 to 40 years, only in the first ten years. [Annotator's Note: He goes into some matter-of-fact detail regarding male nocturnal emissions and sex with his wife.] His most memorable experience of World War 2 was around 1941 when he saw French soldiers doing some work in the streets. They were prisoners of the Germans. He wondered how they must be feeling. He felt that if he had the power, he would have destroyed the Germans. He does not understand how later, when he had some German friends, this level of hate disappeared. He asked his German friends why they did not rise up against Hitler and they would reply that they knew nothing of what was happening to the Jews. Once their cities started to be destroyed, then they started to not like it. He was invited in 2005 to go visit Germany and talk at some schools. He would ask the people in the schools how they could not have known what Hitler and the Nazis were doing to the Jews. He does not believe they did not know especially since one third of the population was active in the war. On the other hand, he was always well-liked and well-treated. The family he stayed with was half-Jewish and was in charge of the Hamburg Museum.

Daniel Szafran survived the Holocaust and combat in Israel after the war. He felt good being in Palestine after liberation from the concentration camps. He served in the military for a long time, only leaving the service when he married and had children. He never cared what kind of work he did. He ultimately went to work as a mechanic for Saunders Cement in New York around 1959. He made good money doing that and bought a house and put his wife through school. She taught Hebrew and French and retired in 2001. They lived next door to his brother who was his only sibling to survive the war and the camps. His brother moved to Las Vegas, Nevada and would summer in Poland. Szafran moved to Las Vegas too when his wife retired. He remembers that his was a middle-income family when they lived in Poland before the war. He never understood why his oldest brother went to the work camps nor why his parents gave up their youngest children to the camps. [Annotator's Note: Szafran gets emotional.] He found out later that the children were put in a truck and taken away. He never asked his brother how things were when he was a prisoner of war in Germany. In 1940, when he was 13 years old, he remembers the German soldiers coming into their home city and they were friendly. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks him how it felt to have a number tattooed on his wrist.] He and his brother were tattooed together. He was called by his number B8106, he no longer had a name. He was glad he could send his kids to college in America. His son is a president of a university. [Annotator's Note: Zvi Szafran, fourth president of State University New York Canton.] He is not ashamed of his tattoo. He is a hero under all circumstances. He went through the Holocaust, he became a fighter, he became a person who could get things done. He wishes he had known what was happening at Auschwitz [Annotator's Note: Auschwitz II-Birkenau in Brzesinka, Poland] and that his youngest siblings were gassed in the truck they were put in to supposedly go to school. [Annotator's Note: Szafran rambles at this point and doesn't finish thoughts.] The land ultimately got divided and the kibbutzim got smaller after Israel became established. He is proud that he always worked and never relied on government assistance for anything. He feels that it is very important that The National WWII Museum exists, and he would like to be invited to tell his story. He does not like the deniers saying it all never happened. He wants to tell about the whole process of the camps and Israel and how he came to America and had a good life. He visited Israel in 2013 and visited the Jerusalem Museum of the Holocaust [Annotator's Note: Yad Vashem]. He met a group of people from a Dayton, Ohio Church of God who asked him to visit and speak to their church. He did so and took his wife who had Alzheimer's at the time. He spoke for two hours. The son of the family who they stayed with asked him to stay with them all the time and be his brother.