IamA Max Glauben, the Holocaust survivor that was on the front page on Monday. AMA!

I hope this is not disrespectful but do you still have flashbacks if any at all?

Yes, I still have flashbacks. My wife tells me that I even get tremors and cry out in my sleep from time to time.

My question : How are you today ?

I'm great! Thank you for asking. I just returned from Germany and saw some of the places where I worked and was able to get some copies of my records. They had 5 records with my name in it in Flossenburg.All throughout that time I was a nobody but this gave me validations that I was actually someone.

Thanks for doing this AMA. It takes real courage to talk openly about such a terrible experience, and it brings a sense of realism back to it for a new generation.

I was wondering if you had any guards (or other Germans) that were sympathetic to your situation or treated you with kindness in the camps? I'd imagine they would be risking their own lives by doing so.

Edit: Spelling

Yes, there were some secretly sympathetic soldiers (Vermacht). If there were not any good people among the bad ones, none of us survivors would be here.

Where did you go right after you were liberated? Also, how was the transition back to a life where you were free and what did you do/where did you work?

Thanks for doing the AMA!

After being liberated we were not allowed into homes of German residents because they feared of what we might do to them so we were looking for shelter in displaced person camps. While on the road looking for a DP camp, I was picked up by a Lieutenant with the 179 Signal Repair Corp of the US Army, given American clothing, and I was made a mess Sargent for German POWs and the Polish guards that were assigned to guard them. We settled at the Nuemayer Cable Works factory in Nuremberg, Germany.

I received American uniforms, I learned how to drive, I received food when they picked me up....it was a shock but it was actually easy for me. As a result, when I came to the states in 1947 I was drafted during the Korean conflict and I was again a mess Sargent with the 702 Armored Infantry Battalion of the first armored division. Life was definitely much better than before.

Were you taken to the camps by train? If so, what were the train rides like? Did you all know what was really going on? Thank you for your time

Yes, after being discovered in the basements when the Warsaw ghetto was burned, we were taken to a designated place and put on a boxcar that took quite a few trips. When we got on, there were human remains on the floors, smells impregnated the boxcar from previous trips. They packed it to over full capacity (100+) people each car. A trip that should've taken 2 hours took 5 days. There was no food and no water. No bathroom facilities. The low roof of the boxcar with 100+ human beings resembles a lid on a boiling pot of water. People would reach up to get a drop of condensation to wet their lips because it's easier to die of dehydration than starvation. They were packed so tightly that people would die standing up. If you saw someone with their eyes closed, you didn't know if they were sleeping or dead.

What went through your head when you saw that your father's boots were there but he wasn't?

It was the worst day of my life. He was the only one that was alive after our trip to Majdanek (where I lost my mother and brother and many other members of my family). Being 13 years old and not knowing whether I would survive alone is a horrific experience. BUT life must go on.

what do you think of the people, who to this day, deny that the holocaust took place?

I am glad that I live in this country that allows each citizen freedom of speech, assembly, religion, etc. And I'm glad that there are deniers that live in the same country that express their opinions so the citizens of this country can see how smart, or rather, how STUPID they are.

Thanks for doing this AMA! I just would like to ask how you kept yourself going? I'm sure there were many times where you felt like you were hopeless. I would also like to ask if you have forgiven the Nazis for what they did and if so, how?

The mere fact that I was denied my life turned my defense system into overdrive and I always found away to survive. My strong religious beliefs also played a huge factor. Being the only person in my family that can carry on my name I used everything in my power to make sure that it survived with me. Also, music played a role in keeping me sane. I'm a "hummer" and I would hum while working and living in such savage conditions.

Hate is within the hater. It distorts who he is and also stays within him. The person that he hates sometimes doesn't even know about it. Hating someone is the equivalent of drinking poison and hoping that the person who he hates will die. I choose not to hate so that I don't become the person that applied hate to me.

When did you come to America and why did you choose to do so (as opposed to another place)? My family came before the Holocaust through Ellis Island and all that we know of their brothers/sisters/parents are that they went to Auschwitz and we know a brother (my great great uncle) that survived chose to go to France instead of the US. Thank you for doing this AMA!

Because I was picked up by the by a corps in the US Army. I was grateful for the opportunity to come to the US as an orphan and they gave me a life and I was willing to follow the trail.

I'm sorry if this is a silly question, but what one key aspect of your perspective that has changed since World War II? In other words, how do you see life differently?

I see life differently now because the Holocaust didn't have to happen. People CHOSE to commit these crimes. Because of that I strive to help people make better choices and live to a higher standard of acceptance. I devote most of my time now to lecturing and making my presentations in a way that they would not create hate, the same hate that was applied toward us. And emphasizing that only through education, we can eradicate hate and become "Upstanders" instead of being bystanders like many of the people were during the period of WWII.

After witnessing such atrocities, what advice would you give to the youth of today?

Get all of the education that you possibly can. Try to treat others the way you would like to be treated. Respect their right to exist and also their beliefs. In life, always do the best you can with what you've got and in some cases, never never NEVER give up. If it is not a matter of life and death, all problems can be solved!

Have you ever read "If this is a man" by Primo Levi, the Italian jewish survivor of the concentration camps?

Sorry, no. Honestly, I don't read books of other people's stories because I do not want to distort my memory of my story.

Thanks for doing this AMA. There's a lot of bad and good in this world. What's the happiest moment of your life?

Life is like the Texas weather. There are Ups...there are Downs...we sometimes are down deep in the valley but sometimes we're up on top of the hill. I am happy to say that the great moments outweigh the bad ones. Among the highlights are my marriage in 1953, my kids being born, my 7 grandchildren being born, one of my grandchildren getting married. But the list goes on and on and more continue to develop!

Have you actually learned something ( about people/relations) during your time in the concentration camps? Thank you for doing this AMA!

Because of the conditions that we were subjected to, each person becomes an island of his own. Unless it's family you really can't trust anyone so there was not much communication between people in the camps. We were also not allowed to roam so there was not a lot of opportunity to have social interactions.

You have my deepest respect, are the memories still clear after all these years?

Thankfully, yes. Thank G-d that my memory is still clear and has been reinforced through my 9 trips on the March of the Living. It reassures me that all of the things that I speak about are still clearly preserved in my brain!

How did it feel knowing that everything was over, and none of this will ever happen again?

It felt wonderful to be liberated, but unfortunately my liberation wasn't the end of it. There are still genocides in Uganda, Syria, and other places around the world. The liberation of some of the Holocaust survivors was merely a quick fix to help relieve our problems.

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There were a lot of the things that I saw that were bad enough to put in this post. I would rather not describe them because it has the opportunity to create hate.