Horrors of Holocaust recounted

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

•	'Hawai'i and the Holocaust' 10:30 p.m. Sunday, 9:30 p.m. Monday K5 The Home Team

It blends recent interviews with archival footage of the genocide during World War II, when millions of innocent Jews were persecuted and slaughtered by the Nazis. The images are intense.

Survivor Seymour Kazimirski calls the horrific event "one of the worst periods of history that mankind has ever known." He works with Temple Emmanu-El on education to prevent its recurrence.

Bernard Offen, another survivor, was 11 when "I lost my mother, sister and childhood," he said of Gittel and Miriam Offer, who were murdered in Belzec, Poland, at an execution camp. His father also perished.

S. Don Shimazu, who was with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, recalls how the death camp survivors looked: "skeletons with skin over them." Shimazu also reflects on the irony of being a Japanese soldier from Hawai'i, fighting in a war in Europe, while Japanese Americans at home were being sent to internment camps.

Edward H. Ichiyama, also with the 442nd, still is haunted by "the stench ... and the acrid smoke of burning flesh."

Reach Wayne Harada at wharada@honoluluadvertiser.com, 525-8067 or fax 525-8055.