Veterans commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day in Carol Stream
CHICAGO (CBS) -- International Holocaust Remembrance Day is this weekend, but a senior living center in Carol Stream is honoring it on Thursday.
It's where a holocaust survivor and his veteran friends are paying tribute to him.
"You suffered many hardships beyond anyone's imagination."
Vietnam veteran Richard Nelson is talking about Holocaust survivor, George Mueller.
"You witnessed many atrocities and lost family members and good friends during those horrible, horrible years," he said.
Mueller was born in Germany in 1930.
He recalls being in the Hitler youth.
Mueller said he was kicked out because he was Jewish.
"That's the first time I noticed that there was something wrong," Mueller said.
But things got worse.
His father was put in a concentration camp. His mother sent him and his sister to the Netherlands.
Not too long after they arrived, they were captured and sent back to Germany and put in concentration camps.
"They had a lot of beatings. They had piles of dead, as high as that TV set or higher, piled up. Just very thin, naked because we would take their clothes," Mueller said.
Mueller took all of his horrific experiences and put them in a book, which was on display at Belmont Village Senior Living in Carol Stream.
His friend, WWII veteran, 101-year-old Myron Petrakis orchestrated a ceremony to honor his fellow residents including a pin to remember the Holocaust.
"And then we're going to give him a pin as a member of the Veteran Ambassadors. You are now a Veteran Ambassador," Petrakis said.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day is on Saturday, January 27th, but on Thursday, they honored that day by not only commemorating the past but also protecting the lessons of the Holocaust for the future.