Bronx, NY – Students at St. Raymond High School for Boys got a chance to meet with Bernhard Storch, a 96-year-old labor camp survivor and World War II veteran, on Wednesday.
Storch shared his story with the students.
Click here to watch Bronx News 12 Video of World War II veteran’s visit to St. Raymond
Storch was a teenager in Poland when the war started. He left home at his mother’s urging and never saw her again. In 1940, he was arrested by the KGB and transported to a labor camp in central Siberia.
He was released a year later after the Nazis declared war on the USSR. He joined the Polish army and helped liberate four Nazi extermination camps. When the war ended, he left Poland with his wife and came to New York.
Students told News 12 they were honored to have met Storch.
“It’s an honor to meet someone like that, someone has been through so much and, like, generations behind us, they’re not gonna be able to learn about someone like that,” said one student.