Liberator and Liberated, Both Veterans, Reunite

Image: Jewish Press

Rosenfeld & Moskin Image: Jewish Press

The Jewish Press recently reported on possibly the most serendipitous reunion I have ever heard of. Joseph Rosenfeld, a survivor of Mauthausen and later an Army veteran, recently had a chance to break bread with Alan Moskin, one of the soldiers who liberated his camp back in 1945. How did they find one another? Through a long and arduous search of records and photos in dusty archives? Nope. One saw the other in a JWV calendar.

After recently sending a donation to the Jewish War Veterans Association, the Rosenfelds received a copy of their annual calendar. Attached to the November listing was a profile on Mr. Alan Moskin, veteran of WWII, … [that] related the story of Mr. Moskin’s participation in the liberation of Gunskirchen as a soldier in the 71st Division of the American Army. Mr. Rosenfeld, as most of the inmates of Gunskirchen, was at death’s door on that fateful day. Typhus, lice, skin ulcers and devastating starvation had affected all of them.

After contacting the Jewish War Veterans, a chain of events was set into motion that led to their ultimate reunion. The two hit it off immediately and spoke of being at two different ends of the same event.

The two hit it off from the second they met. Aside from the amazing circumstance that brought them together, it was fascinating to hear them tell their two sides of the same event from such opposite perspectives. Even 68 years later they recall it like it was yesterday.

After they talked and traded stories of the war and their families, Mr. Moskin kept reiterating, “If someone had told me 68 years ago that I’d be sitting in a restaurant in New York across from one of those survivors, I would have said they were crazy.”

Head on over to the Jewish Press for the full article. It’s hard not to be moved by their story.