Howard County’s annual Yom HaShoah commemoration ceremony on April 23 will feature a new element this year: Two local men will come together to share the stories of their fathers, a survival story that connected them after almost 80 years.
Steve DiBiagio, president of The John Carroll School, and Dr. Steve Salzberg, a member of the Baltimore Jewish Council’s Speakers Bureau, met at the 2024 John Carroll Holocaust Remembrance Day event when Salzberg realized his father had been liberated by DiBiagio’s from the Hannover-Ahlem concentration camp.
Salzberg had been going to the annual event at John Carroll for around 20 years to tell the story of his father and uncle in the camp, but he would always have to leave for work right after he was done with his piece.
“I’m now semi-retired, so I had more time [this year], and the person who was giving me a ride that day said, ‘Do you mind if we stick around and hear [DiBiagio] give his talk, because we never have stuck around for that before,’” Salzberg said.
And Salzberg said as he listened, he noticed that DiBiagio mentioned that, in his father’s army division, one of the troops was former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, a man whom Salzberg knew was one of the liberators at Hannover-Ahlem.
DiBiagio went on to say that his father was one of the liberators at Hannover-Ahlem, and Salzberg audibly gasped and said, “That’s where my dad was.”
After DiBiagio finished speaking and was taking questions from the audience, Salzberg spoke up and told DiBiagio, “Your father liberated my father.”
“At that point, he put down his mic, came off the stage and we just embraced for about five minutes. Both of us wept, and it was just such a fulfilling moment for both of us,” Salzberg said. “A recognition of this person, this connection to people that didn’t know each other, never met each other before, probably didn’t really meet each other during the event, but it was a pivotal moment for both of us.”
DiBiagio said the emotions he was feeling are hard to put into words because the revelation took him by surprise and touched a deep part of his family history.
“It was one of the most moving moments of my life. I’m proud of my dad; I’m proud of what he did. I’m proud to share that, and I’m also proud that I let my emotions be seen and witnessed by an auditorium of high school kids, because it was genuine, and I think they will remember that,” DiBiagio said.
The two men later met for lunch to discuss the newfound bond and quickly discovered that both their fathers had never spoken much about their experiences.
DiBiagio said they uncovered a deep part of their fathers that they may never understand but now share.
The men reflected on how the additional knowledge and personalization with their fathers’ stories they gained from meeting has shaped the way they look at the history and their connection to it.
“By hearing Steve [DiBiagio] tell his dad’s story, it made it a person rather than just a uniform on the other side. And it’s sparked me into making sure I keep telling the story, because you just don’t know who’s going to connect to it,” Salzberg said.
“I’m no longer fascinated by my father’s experience in combat, but I’m immensely proud of what he did in April 1945. He’s a hero. And my dad, he’s buried in Arlington, and he has left a legacy — a legacy to his family that this is what you do. You do the right things. You help people. You try to give life, not take it, and you’re humble about it,” DiBiagio said.
And now they will share the stories on Apr. 23 at Temple Isaiah for the 80th anniversary of Yom HaShoah in a conversation with Merle Silberstrom Ross, who was born in a Displaced Persons Camp, with WBAL’s Rob Lang as the moderator.
Both men feel the need to carry on their tradition of sharing the stories of Holocaust survival and liberation at events like this to both inform the next generations about the horrors of the past to prevent them from repeating the same mistakes.
“Our kids are forming their view of the world, and they need truth, and they need reliable information to make and form their opinions. But they also need human contact. Getting it off the internet, you don’t internalize [the stories], you don’t embrace them, you don’t absorb them,” DiBiagio said. “Real experience going to the Holocaust Museum, hearing from survivors, sitting next to your classmate and sharing in that. That’s what makes it real. That’s what makes it memorable.”
