In 1945, Daniel Gillespie and his fellow soldiers liberated a Nazi concentration camp in Germany. Ever since that day, one of the men whom they rescued has wanted to thank Gillespie.
Now, seven decades later the Holocaust survivor has his opportunity.
When he was just fifteen, Joshua Kaufman was forced into Germany’s first concentration camp. Time passed. Every day he feared for his life. Finally, on a day he truly believed that he only had a few more days left to live, something that previously could only have been dreamed of happened: American soldiers came to librate the camp.
That fateful day Kaufman vowed that when he would arrive in the United States, he would get down on his knees and hug and kiss every American soldier he would see. Well, things didn’t play out exactly that way, but the Holocaust survivor’s daughter says that while he has saluted and kissed the hands of many American soldiers, to her knowledge he has never quite gotten down on his knees and kissed feet.
Seventy years later he was finally able to fulfill his dream.
Almost immediately after Kaufman and Gillespie saw each other, Kaufman dropped to his knees and kissed the feet of the man who liberated him.
The two saluted each other and Kaufman expressed his extreme gratitude to Gillespie saying, “I’ll never forget you. Your picture is in my mind.” Although many decades years have gone by Kaufman never forgot what those soldiers did for him in 1945—they gave him back his life.
Watch their emotional reunion in the video above!
