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Emotional meeting for Holocaust survivor

Published  June 21, 2018 9:16pm EDT
Long Island
FOX 5 New York

NEW YORK (FOX5NY.COM) - Holocaust survivor Bernard Igielski was emotional as he fulfilled a seven-decades-long dream. Igielski said his biggest regret is never searching for Dr. Berthold Epstein, the Jewish doctor who saved him time and time again from the gas chambers in Auschwitz.

Nazi officers quarantined Igielski at Auschwitz because of a rash.

Dr. Epstein passed in 1962. But on Thursday, Igielski got to thank a relative of his—Joseph Kohn of Princeton, New Jersey, who didn't know what a miraculous man Dr. Epstein was until earlier this year.

Igielski lost his mother, father and many of his siblings. He said he didn't say a word about his experiences for 50 years.

He finally opened up about the Holocaust in the 2004 documentary Paper Clips. When Katharine Gorsuch with the Foundation for Holocaust Education Projects heard Igielski's request to meet the doctor who saved his life, she was compelled to help.