Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on February 15, 2015

LIBERATION STORY Students of the University of Santo Tomas listen to 82-year-old American Sascha Weinzhimer Jansen tell her story of prison life in the UST internment camp during World War II. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

MANILA, PhilippinesWhile the Western world focused its attention last week on the end of World War II and the liberation of Jewish prisoners in Europe, it is now time for Asia, specifically the Philippines, to remember its own suffering.

Seventy years ago, fierce fighting to liberate Manila killed 100,000 people, ending years of Japanese occupation and leaving the city, once nicknamed the Pearl of the Orient, the second most destroyed allied city in the world.

This month, efforts are being made not only to remember but to teach the importance of remembering.

On Feb. 3, former prisoners of the Japanese internment camp at University of Santo Tomas (UST) came together from the United States and the United Kingdom for the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Liberation of Manila.

They came to remember that unforgettable day in 1945 when they were given their freedom by American troops racing to save their lives.

This was Sascha Weinzhimer Jansens sixth and last visit from California to the site of the prison camp she shared with 4,000 others for three years.

Jansen, now 82, was 12 and had polio when her family, along with citizens of other allied nations, was forced into the camps. But she remembers liberation as if it were yesterday.

Christmas coming soon

It was an amazing thingthey came crashing through the front gate. We didnt know who it was, whether they were Russian or from the USAthey changed the American insignias on the tanks. But then someone yelled out the window, I smell American gasoline!

Read more from the original source:
Battle of Manila: That unforgettable day in 1945

Category: Jewish American Heritage Month
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