Remembering the past to shape the future

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Evelyn Chavez
  • 31st Fighter Wing Public Affairs
AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy --  Eliseo, a 17-year-old man, resides in his Pordenone, Italy, home in 1945. He could have never known what would happen next or imagine what inhumanities his young eyes would witness. Through the next four torturous months, he learned the depths of human depravity.

He learned these horrors in the Dachau concentration camp.

Eliseo Moro, a holocaust survivor, was captured 70 years ago. As a young partisan opposing German military movement, Moro fought in the Fruilian Dolomites defending his town from being taken by the Germans in World War II. For this, he was condemned.

"I was arrested in my home," said Moro. "I was interrogated, tormented and sent away by train. We were shoved in train with about 40 other prisoners. We traveled for four days and only stopped once to use the restroom."

After arriving at their final location, Moro entered the gates where yelling soldiers awaited to instruct his every move. Passing through stock piles of clothing, hair, shoes and suitcases, he entered a designated area where he was stripped of his belongings and jam-packed into a shower with 300 other people.

"I was given a red number indicating I was political prisoner," said Moro. "The barracks were full of prisoners where three people were assigned to a bed. Every day we were awakened at 5:30 in the morning for roll-call. We had to answer to our prisoner numbers that were read in German, if we didn't respond we were beaten. I learned my numbers very quickly; it was the fastest thing I had ever learned in my life."

This torture occurred every day; prisoners were beaten, little or no food was provided, and awoken in the middle of the night to stand in formation in winter. However, the monotonous and tormenting routine didn't inhibit Moro from remaining resilient to realize his dream of returning home.

"Maybe, it was because I was very young when I was captured that helped me get through this situation," said Moro. "The people I met from my town, talked about what it was like to be home, this also helped me dream about my return.

In my reoccurring dream I walked on the pathway to my front door to greet and hug my mother, only to be awoken in the morning and realize I wasn't home," described Moro.

After months of agony, Moron's dream was soon to become a reality. On a particular day, sirens, warning the Germans of American movement, were heard throughout the camp. Moron along with other prisoners clapped their hands at sound of the approaching American tanks.

"The Nazi's left when they knew the American's were close," added Moro. "They [Americans] took our camp and carried the sick into ambulances. We were also taken to a field to be cleaned and disinfected, all the lice and bugs we carried died, but we survived."

Upon his return to Italy, the 70-pound young man only had one thing on his mind, his mother. Hitching his way home, Moro arrived at his driveway where his mother, just as eager to see him, opened the car door and embraced her emaciated son.

Moron spent a month in bed, recuperating from tuberculosis and after a year was physically healed. However, his emotional pain remained.

"I would become very angry when I heard the word German," said Moron.  "It took me a while to forgive, but I later realized that I needed to learn to forgive and that one person's fault was not everyone else's fault.

Forgiveness, is what I want people to learn about my story," said Moro. "It is important to forgive your enemy and be good to people."