Holocaust survivor promised to kill his tormentor - what happened when they came face to face?

November 17, 2014

Writer

Martin Greenfield was only fifteen years old when he and his family were sent to Auschwitz and later Buchenwald. He endured brutal and horrific conditions, coming face with some of the worst Nazis of all time including Dr. Mengele. The Nazis beat him, starved him, and tortured him. To survive, he nearly lost his humanity.

At one point, while working for the local mayor, Greenfield stole the rotten food being fed to to the rabbits. When the mayor's wife found out, she had him beaten. He swore revenge, but something changed when they next came face to face. He shared the story with Glenn on his TV show Monday night.

"I worked in ammunition factory in Buchenwald, and then they took 15 people [to the mayor's house]. I was strong enough, so I was one of them, because the mayor’s house was bombed, that we should clean it up. So I went to work hard," he said.

Among the wreckage of the house, Greenfield came across live rabbits in cages that had survived the bombing.

"Carrying to the lady there with a baby, the mayor’s wife, I guess she was, to see, this is your white rabbit with the cage. A piece of crumb fell. We didn’t eat nothing. I survived maybe because I grew up on a farm. I knew what I could eat when I found grass or something that is edible. And I took the piece of thing to bite from the floor."

"She’s a Nazi. She tells the Gestapo I ate up the food from the rabbits instead of saying thank you for the rabbits," he said. Greenfield was subsequently beaten by the Gestapo.

Greenfield swore that he would kill the woman after what she did to him.

After the liberation, Greenfield and some other boys got a gun and went after her. But something happened when he saw her standing with her baby.

"When I came with a machine gun with my friend, and when I saw the kid and I saw her, all of a sudden that was when I became human again," Greenfield said.

"That was the day after the liberation where I became the kid that was brought up by my parents to believe in God, never to kill anybody, only to teach them and show them passion that was taught to me by God that I should never kill anybody. I never used a gun in my life."

"That day I was human again because of that woman."

Correction: This story originally referred to Martin Greenfield as Martin Green. It has been corrected.

Read the transcript of the full interview below:

Glenn: Now, I want to introduce you to a man who chose hope in a completely hopeless situation and won. We were just sitting here in the break, and he was talking about how he is a servant at heart. He just wants to serve and make things better. His name is Martin Greenfield. He was 15 years old when his family was sent to Auschwitz, and he has a brand-new book out called The Measure of a Man. What a pleasure to meet you.

Martin: The pleasure is mine.

Glenn: Just a pleasure. The audience is going to be so excited to hear the rest of the story on your life, but let’s start at the beginning. You’re 15 years old. You met Mengele. You saw Mengele, and your family was separated. Can you tell me just a little bit?

Martin: I could tell you exactly what happened. When we arrived in Auschwitz from the ghetto at night on Saturday night locked in the cable car, you know, that we were with no bathrooms, nothing until we got there, the whole family together holding hands. My younger brother was four years old, and they sent me to put up as before I got there, so he held his older brother’s hand all night.

We got out, and I came in front of the man, and I looked at his boots, and I saw my picture, because you always as a kid look at the boots. Then I look up at the man, and the man moves me to the right. And then my mother and my brother she’s holding, he wants my mother to go to the right. My mother wouldn’t put down my brother. I let go of my brother’s hand. My mother took him to carry. My father to the right and everybody to the left, and I didn’t know nothing about Mengele or about ghettos. I was just barely 15 years old, not even 15, because it was March. August is when I would’ve been 15.

And I was a boy. I didn’t know about Gestapo or Mengele or the concentration camp, nothing. That was my feeling that minute. And then I was pushed to the right, and then my younger sister, she was blonde with blue eyes, and all of a sudden he put her to the right too. So three of us went to the right, and everybody, my grandfather, my grandmother, everybody on the left. I was on the right. Then we go to the right, and they take us to dress naked. And the guy comes over to shave my father and everybody when I was a kid.

And then they took us someplace, and they put the tattoos on my hand that I brought to show you anyway because I never let go of them. My number was 84406, no more name. My father was 84405, and my sister and they were so…but then I found out what Mengele did with the young blonde kids, that they practiced on them.

Glenn: So you go, you are in a horrific situation. Later…I hate to do this to your entire life. Please read this book, but let me just condense it down. There’s two things that I want to hit. One, you were at one point eating rotten food out of a rabbit cage, and the concentration or the mayor, his wife, caught you eating the food, correct?

Martin: Oh, you mean that was later the next in Buchenwald?

Glenn: Yes.

Martin: That was the worst thing that happened to me.

Glenn: And so you’re eating this, and she comes out.

Martin: Can you imagine? I work in ammunition factory in Buchenwald, and then they took 15 people. You know, I was strong enough, so I was one of them, because the mayor’s house was bombed, that we should clean it up. So I went to work hard. Me, they put in the basement to clean up the basement. It was bombed. The Americans bombed it because Roosevelt, whatever, because he made that deal with Stalin.

Glenn: Right. Right.

Martin: So I was there, and I cleaned up, and I find live rabbits. Can you imagine a boy saving, find something, like all of us know, saving any kind of life? Carrying to the lady there with a baby, the mayor’s wife, I guess she was, to see, this is your white rabbit with the cage. A piece of crumb fell. You know, we didn’t eat nothing. I survived maybe because I grew up on a farm. I knew which I could eat when I found grass or something that is edible. And I took the piece of thing to bite from the floor. She’s a Nazi. She tells the Gestapo I ate up the food from the rabbits instead of saying thank you for the rabbits. Can you imagine this, a woman, instead of saying you got my rabbits, so he should beat the crap out of me?

Glenn: Now here’s the turning point. There’s so much to this story that I really want you to please read this.

Martin: I’m going to tell you this whole story exactly what happened to me.

Glenn: We have to take a quick break, and I want you to tell me, because his life is truly amazing, and I want you to tell me the story, because you passed on an opportunity to hurt back, and then you’ve taken your life, and you have been with how many presidents now?

Martin: So you see this is what upset me a little bit.

Glenn: Hang on. Wait, don’t go into it yet. Just how many presidents have you been with?

Martin: I started Eisenhower liberated.

Glenn: Eisenhower.

Martin: Eisenhower liberated me in concentration camp. He came with his other general, and they saw the piles of bodies that they couldn’t burn. The Jews were on the bottom, and I was the only guy because the Czechs, they didn’t march me to death because of my Czech friends. They said you are a Czech. You’re not a Jew. Stay with us. So I was the only Jew the rabbi found. He was looking for a Jew. He said, “I’m a rabbi. Are you Jewish? I’m looking for a Jew.” I said I’m a Jew. I’m a Jew. Come over here, talk to me. So he came over and talked to me.

I said you’re not a rabbi. You’re Jewish. You’re a soldier. He says no, I’m a soldier rabbi. So I’m asking you one question. Can you do me a favor, not for me, for my 4-year-old brother that I know now that he was burned? Where was God? Not for me, because I might have sinned. Maybe I deserved to be here, but my four-year-old boy had no sins whatsoever. He didn’t live long enough. He could have been a rabbi like you. Why didn’t God help him?

He says I can’t answer you because I’m not prepared to answer your questions, so I started crying. I started crying because I said to him who am I going to ask? You’re the rabbi. You’ve got to help me, thinking because I believe in God, save me. So I’m not asking for myself. My brother could have been a rabbi like you. You don’t know what he would have become. God didn’t know yet because he didn’t sin yet. All of us maybe have a little sin. Whatever happened, God is a busy man. I understand that.

[break]

Glenn: We are having the greatest conversation. We’re going to have to continue this online because we have three and a half minutes, and you have to know what this man has done since, because he dresses the presidents. He dresses stars. He has made the suits for…I mean, this guy has gone on to do amazing things, but the best thing, let’s go back to the lady that when she had you beaten for stealing the food.

Martin: I am telling you that that lady that hurt me that I was going to shoot, I was going to kill, I was going to do everything—

Glenn: You threatened her.

Martin: But when I came with a machine gun with my friend, whatever, and when I saw the kid and I saw her, all of a sudden that was when I became human again. That was the day after the liberation where I became the kid that was brought up by my parents to believe in God, never to kill anybody, only to teach them and show them passion that was taught to me by God that I should never kill anybody. I never used a gun in my life.

I want to just deal with people and instill in them something that was taught to me to be a person that respects somebody else, not kill them, teach them how to become a person, believe in God like I do. And that day I was human again because of that woman.

Glenn: You went to her house. She was holding her baby.

Martin: I went to her, and I didn’t kill her. And I went a second time. The only thing I wanted to take her husband’s car, and I took the car. Who’s going to drive? I do everything. I found the car, and I drive it to the camp. It doesn’t matter. It’s just that I thank God that my parents brought me up the right way, and from then on, I educated myself, and I worked hard.

America, when I got that green card, I became an American like you and later a citizen. When I got my citizen papers, the guy questioned me with stupid questions, and I said can I ask you a few questions? He didn’t know about the Constitution. He didn’t know everything what I knew. I read every book about America. I says you’re supposed to work for me. I pay you. You should know more than me. I should have your job. You should have mine.

But this is what I became. This country, I thank the soldiers. I saw there that you read the letters, what I wrote in the post. I thank the soldiers. I wrote those letters. I wrote this letter about a woman. I wish other people would read the same thing and behave what I had the experience to go through.

Glenn: What happened to her? She died.

Martin: So thank you for having me.

Glenn: Oh my gosh, thank you. It is such an honor. It is really truly an honor.

Martin: The honor is mine.

Glenn: I want you to read this book, The Measure of a Man. You have to know this man’s story. We’ve only touched the surface. Thank you. God bless you.

'Rage against the dying of the light': Charlie Kirk lived that mandate

PHILL MAGAKOE / Contributor | Getty Images

Kirk’s tragic death challenges us to rise above fear and anger, to rebuild bridges where others build walls, and to fight for the America he believed in.

I’ve only felt this weight once before. It was 2001, just as my radio show was about to begin. The World Trade Center fell, and I was called to speak immediately. I spent the day and night by my bedside, praying for words that could meet the moment.

Yesterday, I found myself in the same position. September 11, 2025. The assassination of Charlie Kirk. A friend. A warrior for truth.

Out of this tragedy, the tyrant dies, but the martyr’s influence begins.

Moments like this make words feel inadequate. Yet sometimes, words from another time speak directly to our own. In 1947, Dylan Thomas, watching his father slip toward death, penned lines that now resonate far beyond his own grief:

Do not go gentle into that good night. / Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Thomas was pleading for his father to resist the impending darkness of death. But those words have become a mandate for all of us: Do not surrender. Do not bow to shadows. Even when the battle feels unwinnable.

Charlie Kirk lived that mandate. He knew the cost of speaking unpopular truths. He knew the fury of those who sought to silence him. And yet he pressed on. In his life, he embodied a defiance rooted not in anger, but in principle.

Picking up his torch

Washington, Jefferson, Adams — our history was started by men who raged against an empire, knowing the gallows might await. Lincoln raged against slavery. Martin Luther King Jr. raged against segregation. Every generation faces a call to resist surrender.

It is our turn. Charlie’s violent death feels like a knockout punch. Yet if his life meant anything, it means this: Silence in the face of darkness is not an option.

He did not go gently. He spoke. He challenged. He stood. And now, the mantle falls to us. To me. To you. To every American.

We cannot drift into the shadows. We cannot sit quietly while freedom fades. This is our moment to rage — not with hatred, not with vengeance, but with courage. Rage against lies, against apathy, against the despair that tells us to do nothing. Because there is always something you can do.

Even small acts — defiance, faith, kindness — are light in the darkness. Reaching out to those who mourn. Speaking truth in a world drowning in deceit. These are the flames that hold back the night. Charlie carried that torch. He laid it down yesterday. It is ours to pick up.

The light may dim, but it always does before dawn. Commit today: I will not sleep as freedom fades. I will not retreat as darkness encroaches. I will not be silent as evil forces claim dominion. I have no king but Christ. And I know whom I serve, as did Charlie.

Two turning points, decades apart

On Wednesday, the world changed again. Two tragedies, separated by decades, bound by the same question: Who are we? Is this worth saving? What kind of people will we choose to be?

Imagine a world where more of us choose to be peacemakers. Not passive, not silent, but builders of bridges where others erect walls. Respect and listening transform even the bitterest of foes. Charlie Kirk embodied this principle.

He did not strike the weak; he challenged the powerful. He reached across divides of politics, culture, and faith. He changed hearts. He sparked healing. And healing is what our nation needs.

At the center of all this is one truth: Every person is a child of God, deserving of dignity. Change will not happen in Washington or on social media. It begins at home, where loneliness and isolation threaten our souls. Family is the antidote. Imperfect, yes — but still the strongest source of stability and meaning.

Mark Wilson / Staff | Getty Images

Forgiveness, fidelity, faithfulness, and honor are not dusty words. They are the foundation of civilization. Strong families produce strong citizens. And today, Charlie’s family mourns. They must become our family too. We must stand as guardians of his legacy, shining examples of the courage he lived by.

A time for courage

I knew Charlie. I know how he would want us to respond: Multiply his courage. Out of this tragedy, the tyrant dies, but the martyr’s influence begins. Out of darkness, great and glorious things will sprout — but we must be worthy of them.

Charlie Kirk lived defiantly. He stood in truth. He changed the world. And now, his torch is in our hands. Rage, not in violence, but in unwavering pursuit of truth and goodness. Rage against the dying of the light.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Glenn Beck resurrects the 9-12 Project to support Charlie Kirk's family

Glenn Beck is once again calling on his loyal listeners and viewers to come together and channel the same unity and purpose that defined the historic 9-12 Project. That movement, born in the wake of national challenges, brought millions together to revive core values of faith, hope, and charity.

Glenn created the original 9-12 Project in early 2009 to bring Americans back to where they were in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. In those moments, we weren't Democrats and Republicans, conservative or liberal, Red States or Blue States, we were united as one, as America. The original 9-12 Project aimed to root America back in the founding principles of this country that united us during those darkest of days.

This new initiative draws directly from that legacy, focusing on supporting the family of Charlie Kirk in these dark days following his tragic murder.

The revival of the 9-12 Project aims to secure the long-term well-being of Charlie Kirk's wife and children. All donations will go straight to meeting their immediate and future needs. If the family deems the funds surplus to their requirements, Charlie's wife has the option to redirect them toward the vital work of Turning Point USA.

This campaign is more than just financial support—it's a profound gesture of appreciation for Kirk's tireless dedication to the cause of liberty. It embodies the unbreakable bond of our community, proving that when we stand united, we can make a real difference.
Glenn Beck invites you to join this effort. Show your solidarity by donating today and honoring Charlie Kirk and his family in this meaningful way.

You can learn more about the 9-12 Project and donate HERE

The critical difference: Rights from the Creator, not the state

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

When politicians claim that rights flow from the state, they pave the way for tyranny.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) recently delivered a lecture that should alarm every American. During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, he argued that believing rights come from a Creator rather than government is the same belief held by Iran’s theocratic regime.

Kaine claimed that the principles underpinning Iran’s dictatorship — the same regime that persecutes Sunnis, Jews, Christians, and other minorities — are also the principles enshrined in our Declaration of Independence.

In America, rights belong to the individual. In Iran, rights serve the state.

That claim exposes either a profound misunderstanding or a reckless indifference to America’s founding. Rights do not come from government. They never did. They come from the Creator, as the Declaration of Independence proclaims without qualification. Jefferson didn’t hedge. Rights are unalienable — built into every human being.

This foundation stands worlds apart from Iran. Its leaders invoke God but grant rights only through clerical interpretation. Freedom of speech, property, religion, and even life itself depend on obedience to the ruling clerics. Step outside their dictates, and those so-called rights vanish.

This is not a trivial difference. It is the essence of liberty versus tyranny. In America, rights belong to the individual. The government’s role is to secure them, not define them. In Iran, rights serve the state. They empower rulers, not the people.

From Muhammad to Marx

The same confusion applies to Marxist regimes. The Soviet Union’s constitutions promised citizens rights — work, health care, education, freedom of speech — but always with fine print. If you spoke out against the party, those rights evaporated. If you practiced religion openly, you were charged with treason. Property and voting were allowed as long as they were filtered and controlled by the state — and could be revoked at any moment. Rights were conditional, granted through obedience.

Kaine seems to be advocating a similar approach — whether consciously or not. By claiming that natural rights are somehow comparable to sharia law, he ignores the critical distinction between inherent rights and conditional privileges. He dismisses the very principle that made America a beacon of freedom.

Jefferson and the founders understood this clearly. “We are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights,” they wrote. No government, no cleric, no king can revoke them. They exist by virtue of humanity itself. The government exists to protect them, not ration them.

This is not a theological quibble. It is the entire basis of our government. Confuse the source of rights, and tyranny hides behind piety or ideology. The people are disempowered. Clerics, bureaucrats, or politicians become arbiters of what rights citizens may enjoy.

John Greim / Contributor | Getty Images

Gifts from God, not the state

Kaine’s statement reflects either a profound ignorance of this principle or an ideological bias that favors state power over individual liberty. Either way, Americans must recognize the danger. Understanding the origin of rights is not academic — it is the difference between freedom and submission, between the American experiment and theocratic or totalitarian rule.

Rights are not gifts from the state. They are gifts from God, secured by reason, protected by law, and defended by the people. Every American must understand this. Because when rights come from government instead of the Creator, freedom disappears.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

POLL: Is Gen Z’s anger over housing driving them toward socialism?

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A recent poll conducted by Justin Haskins, a long-time friend of the show, has uncovered alarming trends among young Americans aged 18-39, revealing a generation grappling with deep frustrations over economic hardships, housing affordability, and a perceived rigged system that favors the wealthy, corporations, and older generations. While nearly half of these likely voters approve of President Trump, seeing him as an anti-establishment figure, over 70% support nationalizing major industries, such as healthcare, energy, and big tech, to promote "equity." Shockingly, 53% want a democratic socialist to win the 2028 presidential election, including a third of Trump voters and conservatives in this age group. Many cite skyrocketing housing costs, unfair taxation on the middle class, and a sense of being "stuck" or in crisis as driving forces, with 62% believing the economy is tilted against them and 55% backing laws to confiscate "excess wealth" like second homes or luxury items to help first-time buyers.

This blend of Trump support and socialist leanings suggests a volatile mix: admiration for disruptors who challenge the status quo, coupled with a desire for radical redistribution to address personal struggles. Yet, it raises profound questions about the roots of this discontent—Is it a failure of education on history's lessons about socialism's failures? Media indoctrination? Or genuine systemic barriers? And what does it portend for the nation’s trajectory—greater division, a shift toward authoritarian policies, or an opportunity for renewal through timeless values like hard work and individual responsibility?

Glenn wants to know what YOU think: Where do Gen Z's socialist sympathies come from? What does it mean for the future of America? Make your voice heard in the poll below:

Do you believe the Gen Z support for socialism comes from perceived economic frustrations like unaffordable housing and a rigged system favoring the wealthy and corporations?

Do you believe the Gen Z support for socialism, including many Trump supporters, is due to a lack of education about the historical failures of socialist systems?

Do you think that these poll results indicate a growing generational divide that could lead to more political instability and authoritarian tendencies in America's future?

Do you think that this poll implies that America's long-term stability relies on older generations teaching Gen Z and younger to prioritize self-reliance, free-market ideals, and personal accountability?

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