<Begin Segment 23>

TI: Now, you formed, actually, an acquaintance or friendship with one of the men, one of the Jewish survivors that you got to, later on, you formed a relationship with this person? A reunion with Larry?

NA: Oh, with Larry Lubetsky, yes.

TI: Can you, can you talk about Larry a little bit and who he was?

NA: Okay. During the process of advancing day after day, chasing the Germans back, we came upon -- well, when I say "we," our unit came -- I don't know where I was. I might have been in that convoy but fast asleep. Because in the service, you fight twenty-four hours a day. In the daytime you're fighting, in the evening you're on guard, and we're all tired. And so I was tired, too, and soon as we get in the, our vehicle to move from one position to another, we're dead tired and fall asleep that quick, and nothing could wake us up. And so, so I might have been asleep or I might not even been with that group when we came, came across these POWs that were down in the ravine, according to what I heard. And then our captain said, "Can any of you speak English?" and this one Lithuanian Jew said, "I can." And he knew many languages, not only the German and English language, he knew his own Jewish language, probably knew a little Russian 'cause Lithuania is next to Russia. And anyway, the captain picked him up, but I don't remember that. And the others that were awake or with that convoy, I might have been a forward echelon group that went ahead, and wasn't even in on that convoy. But the others been telling that they saw, they saw thousands of POWs. I didn't see not a one. But, except for, you know, after we got into position then they came milling around our outfit, and then when we liberated them from the camp and ate lunch or supper there, yes, I saw them. But when we rescued Larry Lubetsky, I didn't see not a one, I don't remember seeing not a one, I did not see the captain picking him up, so I must have been up on the forward echelon or bringing up the rear, one of the two. And if I was with the captain of the scout, always was near the captain, I had to be near the captain. And so I might have been just dead to the world asleep when all that happened.

TI: But much later, you met him, fifty years later. Why don't you talk about that?

NA: And somehow, after Larry, after we came back to the States, Larry joined up with other American outfits, and they, and from there, he went to Jerusalem to fight that Four-Day War, he had something to do with that, too. And then from there, he tried to locate his family, and he found out later that his mother was only a few miles from him at one time. And also, he found out his family was in Mexico. So after fighting the Four-Day War in Jerusalem, he went to Canada, and we knew when he was in Canada because he was corresponding with our captain. But after that, we lost contact. And so from there, he went to Mexico City, which we didn't know, so at, so I said to myself, "Gee, I wonder what happened to Larry?" because I got to be pretty good friend with him when he was with us. And so I said, "I'll just go to Washington, D.C., because they have that Holocaust Center," so I went there that one time when they said it would be open. So I went there, but it wasn't open, so I came home disappointed. And a few months later, I went back because there was a 442nd reunion, or I went back for some reason. And that time, the Holocaust Center was open, and with a picture that he gave me of himself with his POW number on the back, it said, "Don't remember me as Larry, remember me as being POW number 82123," I remembered that. And so with that photo and his POW number, I went over to the Holocaust Center in Washington, D.C., and this time I was able to go in. And the way I got in, you had to get a card to enter, but instead, I just went up there and I said, "I'm looking for a POW, can you help me?" And they know, at the Holocaust Center, that Niseis had some doings with the liberating the Jews. He said, "Oh, you don't have to wait. Come on in, come on in." And boy, he just pulled me right in without having to get in line, and I had the liberty of going through the whole center.

And lo and behold, after that meeting, about six months later, the, I get a phone call from Mexico City. And I was in church, so I came back and I got on the recording machine and found out that Larry called. And boy, right away, I called him. The Holocaust Center wouldn't give me Larry's position or where he lived, but they gave Larry where I lived. And so I called, and lo and behold, to this day, I don't know if we cried more or talked, but anyway, it was a real joyful reunion. And then the fiftieth year reunion was to happen in Los Angeles, so two, three of us got together and bought his plane ticket from Mexico City to be with us at the reunion, and boy, he gave us a mighty good talk. He was one of the main speakers at our reunion, 522 reunion, and then after that, it came out in the newspaper that Larry Lubetsky, after fifty years, got to reunite with his old buddies in the 522 Field Artillery Battalion. And Tom Snyder got a hold of that news, and he called me in Salt Lake City, and he called Larry in Mexico City to be on his program. So we both were on the program, once in a lifetime experience. And so, and since then we've been corresponding back and forth until about two years ago, he quit corresponding, and we don't know if he passed away. So we've been trying to find out if he passed away, but we haven't had any luck.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Topaz Museum. All Rights Reserved.