On Nov. 19, Pascack Valley students preparing for their trip to Germany in April had the pleasure of listening to guest speaker Alan Moskin.

Moskin served in General Patton’s Third Army during World War II. Moskin spoke about his experiences to the students starting with life as a young boy in Englewood and ending with his experiences as a liberating soldier of an Austrian Concentration Camp.

Moskin spoke vividly about life as a combat solider, citing specifically the horrors of war. As the war drew to an end his unit was ordered to “check on a POW camp 20 kilometers away,” he said. What Moskin and his comrades found was something other than a POW camp. As they drew upon the camp they smelled something horrific.

As listeners who had the benefit of hindsight, it was clear what Moskin was about to explain. This was not a POW camp; this was Mauthausen, a concentration camp which was abandoned by the Germans in the last days of the war. Dying prisoners awaited a grim fate.

Moskin’s attention to detail as he recounted his story left students and teachers quiet and curious to learn more about his experience as a liberator. The sights, smells, and emotions that he experienced have never left him. As a Jewish soldier he was able to communicate with the Jewish prisoners with his slight understanding of Hebrew. The words “I am a Jew” brought comfort to the people he was liberating.

In April, 15 students will be visiting various locations associated with the Nazi atrocities committed during WWII. The insight and first hand knowledge conveyed through Moskin’s story helped these students consider the process of liberation in this most horrific chapter of world history.