Surviving Dachau, Liberating Mauthausen

In October of 2005, Dachau Concentration Camp survivor, Eva Hance, and Mauthausen Concentration Camp Liberator, Mark Geeslin, shared a 90 minute presentation with students in Lubbock, Texas, as well as other parts of the United States connected via videoconference to the International Cultural Center of Texas Tech University. That videoconference was recorded, but until yesterday the video of that presentation was not available (to my knowledge) in an embeddable form on the open web. I am delighted to be able to share this video on Vimeo today, over five years later. Eva and Mark are witnesses and digital witnesses who tell tales we all should listen to and learn from.

Surviving Dachau, Liberating Mauthausen from Wesley Fryer on Vimeo.

I have cross-posted this video to the Celebrate Texas Voices learning community, as both Mark and Eva were Texans at the time this presentation was shared six years ago.

I helped facilitate this videoconference in 2005 when I was still working as the director of distance learning for the College of Education at Texas Tech. At the time, I published the audio recording of this presentation to our college podcast channel. I had forgotten this video version existed, however, until I stumbled across it yesterday in an old box of computer CDs, DVDs, floppy disks and DV tapes. I was able to extract the video from the DVD using RipIt and compress it for web upload using Handbrake.

In my March 2006 post, “Value of life, forgiveness, the Holocaust,” I reflected on the experience of hearing Eva and Mark share about their experiences and the lessons which they want to pass on to a new generation of people. This was the final presentation they shared of this powerful program, and that makes it all-the-more special to be able to digitally preserve it online. It’s amazing to think in 2005, when Eva and Mark shared these memories, YouTube did not exist. (Nor did Vimeo.)

Take some time and listen to the messages Eva and Mark share in this video, and share it with your students. At times there was some pixelation in the videoconference recording, but it eventually clears up. There are some sync issues with the audio and video as well at times, but the message from the audio recording is still clear. Eva reminds us all: WE MUST REJECT HATE IN ALL ITS FORMS. The grace to love and forgive in the face of such evil is incredible to imagine.

My life is richer because I was influenced and touched by Eva and Mark six years ago during this presentation about their experiences in Europe in the mid 1940s. I hope you are touched by their message as well. They are both heroes.

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