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Don Lemon Tonight

New Details of the Shooting of Michael Brown Released; "The New York Times" Posted a Powerful Video Showing Ambulance Workers in Monrovia

Aired October 20, 2014 - 23:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: It is 11:00 p.m. on the east coast. This is CNN TONIGHT. I'm Don Lemon.

Tonight, does this change everything in Ferguson? Michael Brown's blood on a police officer's uniform and in his car. His blood also on the officer's gun. At least one of the teenager's wounds consistent with a struggle.

We've got a live report from Ferguson coming up.

Plus, on the front lines of the battle against Ebola. Stunning video from Liberia to show you.

But let's get right to the latest in Ferguson. CNN's Sara Sidner is there for us.

And Sara, many people might be surprised to hear the answer to this, but there are still, right, protests taking place in Ferguson.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guilty as hell. In indict, convict.

LEMON: Sara Sidner, can you hear me? There were protesters where she is. And she's having trouble hearing me.

Sara, can you hear me?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The fake media are the fake journalists. Get your camera off --

LEMON: So Sara Sidner is in Ferguson tonight. As you can hear, there are protesters behind her. And I think you can hear me now.

Sara, so for the third time, there are protesters around you now. What's going on?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Leave. You can get your little short when she gets out. Other than that you've got to go. Fake media got to go.

SARA SIDNER, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There are people here -- they also -- LEMON: All right. Sara, we're going to work out the technical

problems with your shot and we'll get back to you. But I want to bring in NOW "New York Times" reporter Michael Schmidt.

Michael, you wrote this latest article. It's giving the public a first account of what officer Wilson said happened on August 9th. What does he say happened?

MICHAEL SCHMIDT, REPORTER, NEW YORK TIMES: What he says happened was that there was a struggle inside the car between him and Michael Brown. What he says happened was that Brown was going for his gun and as part of that struggle he -- the officer fired his weapon once, striking Brown. The struggle continued. He fired again, and then missed Brown. And it's after that that we really don't have a ton of details how we get from there to the scene in the street where Brown is eventually gunned down.

But what the officer does tell the story of is the struggle in the car. And how he feared for his life and he was pinned in the vehicle and in the process of doing that he fired the weapon twice.

LEMON: Yes. There's always been -- everyone has reported that there was a struggle in the car. These are just more details. And also the information about what evidence, what physical evidence they had. That's the new thing here, correct?

SCHMIDT: Well, yes. There's a fair amount of blood that was found in the car and on the officer and on his weapon. There was -- there was blood on his clothes, on the officer's clothes that was indicative of this struggle that could have come after -- that obviously came after Brown was hit the first time, and that the blood wasn't splattered. It was blood that got onto him as Brown came at him. There was blood on the gun. It's unclear whether that was splatter or how that got there. But there was also an enormous amount throughout the rest of the car that they found.

LEMON: OK. So listen, because there's been some question about whether the blood found on him, whether it was splatter or not. You said the blood found on him was not splatter?

SCHMIDT: What I've been told about the blood that was on the officer's clothes is that it was from the struggle, it was from the struggle after the first time that he was shot.

LEMON: What do you want to know from the authorities?

SCHMIDT: Well, there's an enormous that I want to know. I guess the thing about this information here is that it doesn't answer all the questions. There's so much that we still don't know. And I guess I'd really like to know is after that what happened? What happens after you get into the street? Because there are those differing accounts about what Brown did. Did Brown lunge back toward him, or move back toward him? Or was Brown just standing there with his hands in the air?

And that's still something that we don't have an answer to and may be something that forensics won't be able to answer either. So you have forensics that back up this struggle in the car and is on the rah dictate Brown's friend. But it doesn't answer the question of how it ends in the street.

LEMON: That's just going to ask you, how -- there are major differences between Dorian Johnson's account and this account that you report on officer Darren Wilson. Because Dorian Johnson said that they tried to run away immediately. And the account that you have says not so, correct?

SCHMIDT: Yes, the forensics go against what the friend says and it back up what the officer says because they speak -- there's all this blood in the car. And how did the blood get in the car if they had run away? So it hurts the testimony of the friend, of Johnson.

LEMON: A lot of criticism of authorities there and the lack of transparency. Why not release this information sooner?

SCHMIDT: I think that's a great question. I think that if we knew this information some time ago what would that have changed? Well, it doesn't answer the question of how it ends. So maybe it wouldn't have changed a lot. But maybe there's information that they have about how it ends and about what the officer says about how, you know, he saw things happening and why he acted the way that he did. And that's something that we don't know a lot about.

I think that police departments that are confronted with these really end up in a more, you know, communicating much more effectively certainly when they do and when they're as transparent as possible about what's going on. And here we are several months later getting a few details, not that many but a few in the "New York Times" and that's not the way that it probably should be.

LEMON: Michael, I want to ask you about this. Again, this is not "The New York Times" reporting. This is reporting from the St. Louis paper. I think it's the "Post Dispatch." And you know, if you can comment on this it would be great. If not just let me know. But there was an account very similar to officer Darren Wilson reported last week in that paper from a witness who was supposedly black who testified in front of the grand jury and who backs up the officer's account and he says that Mike Brown's hands weren't up in the air, they were to his side, and the police officer said, you know, don't go any further, stop, stop, stop, and as soon as Michael Brown stepped back onto the pavement that the officer then shot him again, shot at him.

SCHMIDT: Yes. I'd heard -- we'd written a story back when this had happened a few months ago about the differing accounts of witnesses at the scene and how some people had backed up like what this gentleman said, what the officer said. And I know that for federal authorities here in Washington who were looking at this situation, they sent the FBI agents out on the ground there to find out what was going on, to really give the folks here in Washington at the justice department sort of a better feeling of what was really happening, that when they heard that, that that which initially came from an interview, that they thought that that was a pretty powerful piece of information because it was someone at the scene who didn't seem to have an ax to grind really backing up the officer. And sort of speaking to why the officer may have been motivated to do that, you know, if he was in that instance. So I found that at the time to be very important, but it certainly contradicts what other people at the scene are saying.

LEMON: I just have one quick question for you because I have to go. But I don't know if your sources are commenting on this. I have sources telling me that they believe at this point with the evidence that they have and the testimony in front of the grand jury now that it will be very difficult to convict if not indict this officer. Are your sources commenting on that?

SCHMIDT: Look, I don't know what the grand jury is going to do in Missouri. I mean, that's very -- I don't think anyone knows that but the grand jury. I think a lot of people think that the officer's decision to testify was a very powerful one. If he really thought that he had done something wrong, then he wouldn't have gone as far to do that. But in Washington the justice department officials here have found no evidence so far or very little evidence to support bringing a civil rights case against the officer.

LEMON: Michael Schmidt of the "New York Times," thank you very much.

SCHMIDT: Thank you.

LEMON: Sorry about the difficulty with Sara Sidner's shot there. The technical difficulties. But as mentioned, Sara Sidner is in Ferguson, and right now she has a story of reaction there to these new details about the shooting of Michael Brown and what all this will mean for the case.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER (voice-over): This is the new normal in Ferguson. Protests night and day for the past 73 days. Their number one demand -- justice. And to them that means the indictment and arrest of officer Darren Wilson, who shot and killed unarmed teenager Michael Brown August 9th.

CROWD: Don't shoot.

CROWD: Hands up.

SIDNER: Tensions are high again after new details of the investigation were leaked by a federal source to the "New York Times," indicating forensic evidence may mean potential civil rights charges are unlikely. U.S. law enforcement sources told CNN Brown's blood was found on Wilson's gun, inside Wilson's patrol car, and on his uniform.

DANNY CEVALLOS, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: What that does is that tends to support any testimony that there was some kind of scuffle in the police car. And if so, that tends to support officer Wilson's testimony and his justification for using deadly force.

SIDNER: Early on Brown's friend said there was a scuffle but that Wilson was the aggressor. DORIAN JOHNSON, MICHAEL BROWN'S FRIEND: He pulled up beside us. He

tried to brush his door open but we were so close to it that it ricocheted off of us and bounced back to him. And I guess that, you know, that got him upset. As he was trying to choke my friend. And he was trying to get away. And the officer then reached out and he grabbed his arm to pull him into the car.

SIDNER: CNN legal analyst Danny Cevallos says the newly revealed forensic evidence only goes so far.

CEVALLOS: Ultimately, that officer will have to come up with justification not for firing his gun the first time but for each and every bullet that came out of his firearm, whether at the car or away from the car.

SIDNER: Whatever happens, police tell CNN they are preparing, especially after hearing this time and again from protesters in the streets.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If there's not an indictment, excuse my French, all hell's going to break loose.

SIDNER: Are you worried that there's going to be serious violence?

SGT. BRIAN SCHELLMAN, ST. LOUIS COUNTY POLICE: Yes. I mean, again, we're absolutely looking at those things. I believe it was five shootings in August. That came during the protests that came out of that. And then also to protect businesses and the property and the citizens who live in the area.

SIDNER: Protesters also have plans.

AMY HUNTER, RACIAL JUSTICE DIRECTOR, VWCA: Everybody is planning for whatever the grand jury decides. I think certainly there are lots of us that are planning peaceful protests for -- should it not be indicted. Certainly there are other people that have other ideas at hand.

SIDNER: Sara Sidner, CNN, Ferguson, Missouri.

LEMON: Sara, thank you so much for that. When we come right back, Smashing Pump Pumpkins. A ride at a New Hampshire pumpkin festival. But what makes this different from the unrest in Ferguson? Does it have anything to do with race?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Welcome back, everyone.

Questions being raised in Ferguson tonight over new details of the shooting of Michael Brown. We've learned that Brown's blood was found on the uniform and in the car of officer Darren Wilson. But what will that mean for the case?

Joining me now, CNN legal analyst Mark O'Mara, political commentator Marc Lamont Hill, and political commentator Ben Ferguson. And I should say reportedly because this is a "New York Times" report. This isn't CNN reporting.

So we're going on the "New York Times" here. Marc, are you surprised, though, that officer Darren Wilson testified before the grand jury?

MARK O'MARA, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Mark O'Mara?

LEMON: Yes.

O'MARA: OK. It's quite a move. And normally you avoid that like the plague because the one thing a criminal defense has is the right not to testify anywhere and not to be compelled to. So I think the fact that he did testify is pretty compelling and he has to be quite confident in his position and his lawyers have to be pretty confident to allow him to do so.

LEMON: So in your experience, Mark O'Mara, how does a grand jury interpret the differences between what officer Wilson says happened in the car and what eyewitnesses in particular Dorian Johnson say happened on the street?

O'MARA: Well, they're going to rely more on the forensic evidence than any eyewitness identification. And we've talked about eyewitness identification not being all that credible. It helps and if it fits in context with the forensic evidence, it's great. But when you look at someone like Dorian Johnson, I think even what has just come out recently and some of the other information, I think that he was probably giving an interpretation of the facts that best supported Mike Brown, but maybe doesn't really support the facts that have come out.

It needs to be in context. I'm just frustrated that once again here we are letting out a snippet, a completely incomplete snippet, and now everyone's got to talk about it and try to fit it into a puzzle we don't know the picture of yet.

LEMON: Marc Lamont Hill, many have said there's a rush to judgment in this case. Maybe it just turns out that officer Wilson was innocent.

MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean, that's certainly a possibility. Anything is a possibility. But based on what we know so far, based on the witnesses who have come forward, based on the evidence that we know, I don't see anything that would suggest that. Even the idea that there was blood in the car doesn't necessarily suggest that Darren Wilson wasn't the instigator and initiator of the violence.

But then this other piece of this is regardless of what happened in the car, regardless of what their tussle was about or the nature of their tussle, the fact of the matter is if once he gets out of the car his hands are in the air and he is surrendering, which is what some witnesses are saying, he can't be shot six times. That question is going to have to be answered. Why was he shot six times with his hands up if that is in fact what happened?

LEMON: OK, Ben, hold your fervor because I see it's coming. I just want to get the attorney to respond. Is that true, what he said, Mark?

O'MARA: We know that they are two separate events, but they're only separated by a few seconds and what happened to Wilson in the car is going to inform how he reacts to Brown outside. If in fact a gun was shot in the car and Brown had any other aggressive maneuvers, then Wilson's got to believe this guy's not afraid of me even with a gun. So you have to look at it from Wilson's perspective when you're looking at it. Certainly if he had his hands up in what was truly a surrender then he shouldn't have shot him. But we have to take it in context.

LEMON: Ben Ferguson, go ahead.

BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. And we don't know. I mean, we should ultimately want the truth here. I think there's a lot of people that want their side and what they believe is to be true when in fact many people were not there to come out in the end because they don't want to admit that maybe, just maybe we have a police officer that is not guilty of committing a crime here.

Most importantly, people lie. When you have friends, their friend got shot, they just robbed a store, they have a narrative to say that they were the victim here and not -- and they didn't do anything wrong at all. But ultimately, what we should be wanting is the truth to come out and not push an agenda or a side. If the officer shot a guy with his hands up, I want him to be charged with a crime.

But I also don't want to just push for a crime to be committed because it fits a narrative that we want here. And that's my big problem with this, is we shouldn't be pushing a narrative here. And many people want him to be indicted --

HILL: But I haven't heard anybody doing that.

LEMON: Marc, I see you're having trouble with your eyes there. So I don't know what's going on with you. But listen. That is almost the motivation for the officer as well. The officer wants to protect his own interest as well, just as Dorian Johnson wants to protect --

FERGUSON: Or his life.

HILL: Well, that's exactly right. And people somehow -- people somehow act shocked that this news came out. I fully expected, and we always fully expected Darren Wilson to say that, you know, that Michael Brown was being aggressive, that he reached for my gun. When most people are shot by police officers, the police say he was aggressive, he reached for my gun, I felt threatened for my life.

FERGUSON: In the car, though.

HILL: Irrespective --

FERGUSON: You've got to look at that.

HILL: Yes. But Ben, just -- LEMON: I want to get -- Marc Lamont Hill, hold on. There is always

from the very begin, they have said there was an altercation in the car. What is coming out now is the evidence from the altercation in the car. Go ahead.

HILL: And again --

Ben is somehow suggesting -- but Ben, you keep speaking as it if people are suggesting we shouldn't look at the evidence in the car, that we shouldn't look at the evidence of what's happening. That we shouldn't want to get at the truth. Every single person I've spoken to wants the truth. They're not looking for a preset answer, a prefigured answer.

FERGUSON: I disagree.

HILL: The problem is it's not transparent. We don't know what's going on with the grand jury. Stuff leaks out. It's not clear.

LEMON: I'm sorry, we have to move on because this is very important to get to. I want to get to the riots that happened in Keene, New Hampshire at West Virginia University. It was this weekend. Largely white crowd, violence and mayhem in the street. It was not largely portrayed in the media as, you know, thugs who were defying police officers. It was portrayed as hey, these are college kids and it just got out of control and they, you know, they got out of control at this thing. Do you agree with that narrative?

Marc, first. Quickly, all of you. Marc Lamont Hill.

HILL: This is a troublesome narrative. And yes, that's what happens. When white people do it, it's different. We saw it in Katrina. We saw it in Ferguson. We see it everywhere. White people are looking for food, black people are looting. White people are being rowdy. Black people are being violent. It's a constant media angle we have to push back against.

LEMON: Ben Ferguson?

FERGUSON: Yes, I disagree. Look, what did you want to do here? Did we want to shoot some of these kids and therefore it would be equal? Is that what you're implying? I mean, we should be glad that ultimately no one died and that a bunch of people didn't get shot. That's a good thing. Maybe the police looked at Ferguson and decided dial it back a little bit. A lot of police departments have looked at what happened in Ferguson and realized we probably should dial it back. So to me, I don't think it has anything to do with race as much as they didn't want to be the next Ferguson 2.0.

LEMON: Mark, I can't get -- Mark O'Mara and Marc Lamont Hill, I'm sorry. I am out of time. But again, I don't think anyone would want to be compared to this. I think the people in Ferguson had more of an incentive to protest than these people. There was no incentive to protest. This just got out of control for no reason. So thanks to all of my guests. Up next, powerful video takes us to the front lines of the Ebola

battle in Liberia. One of the west African nations devastated by the outbreak of the virus. Coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: The World Health Organization says Ebola has killed nearly 2,500 people in Liberia. On its Web site "The New York Times" has posted a powerful video that shows ambulance workers in Monrovia who not only pick up the sick and dying but must also deal with others who are terrified of Ebola spread. Here's part of that video.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bring it on the road and block the road.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please stay away from the dead body. Please stay away from the dead body.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are an ambulance team. It's very hard. They said the body had been there for a long time. So that's why they got angry. The entire city is covered with bodies. There's nothing we can do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: It's just devastating to watch. Ben C. Solomon, "The New York Times" video journalist who produced that video, joins me now via Skype from Monrovia.

Ben, thank you for joining us. Can you take us back to that moment? Anyone seeing this video can sense the hysteria and the fear here. Is that what a typical day is like for the ambulance team?

BEN C. SOLOMON, VIDEO JOURNALIST, THE NEW YORK TIMES: No. Definitely not. That was a pretty particular day, pretty extreme circumstance. That was shot about a month ago. It was at a time when the situation here was pretty -- at its worst. Ebola was at its strongest and the response was at its weakest. And that man had died a couple hours earlier, and ambulance teams were so overloaded, the burial teams were too, so no one could come to pick him up. The community was outraged and kind of dragged him out to the road to kind of protest. Caused a bit of a stir. So it was a difficult day and it was a pretty intense moment to film.

LEMON: I'm wondering, Ben, if this is a reality check for people here in the United States because as concerned as people are here about Ebola it is really nothing compared to what you have seen in west Africa. And how things changed there during the course of this epidemic.

SOLOMON: Well, if you look at the numbers and you look at just the WHO reports on people that are getting infected, the numbers are steadily going up. It's almost 10,000 people across West Africa that are infected now and almost about 4,500 that have died. So those numbers alone kind of aren't lowering. They aren't getting any easier. And the situation, there is a response building and there are different assets being put in place to help slow the spread. You can still feel the problems kind of around and you can definitely see the consequences of Ebola within the communities and within the families that have lost some of their own.

LEMON: I think in your report, your report says that there are 15 ambulances for 1.5 million people and those ambulances just sort of rove the street every day. Another scene you witnessed is gut- wrenching. I want people to watch as a young Ebola patient is taken to a treatment center. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't take the people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE). She is vomiting. She is weak. More blood (INAUDIBLE).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Not enough ambulances. Not enough beds at a treatment center. What was it like to cover that moment, seeing a young girl in pain and being turned away from treatment?

SOLOMON: It was difficult. It was difficult to watch. But more importantly, it was difficult for the ambulance workers, who had to do this. I mean, their goal and their mission is to help these people. So when they have to come into situations where they're not able to help -- not only are not able to help but are actively being stopped from helping, turned away from helping, it's a devastating -- it's a devastating moment for them.

I was very lucky to be around them and to be able to see their courage. And in a situation like that I was really happy because I got to see this really telling moment, this really sad human moment. The family was really accepting of me being there. I talked to them before they took her out of the ambulance. And they were very willing to be shot. They were happy to kind of have their story told and make sure that their sorrows, their problems were something that could be learned from. So as sad a moment as it was, it was almost beautiful to be so included and so -- a part of such an important moment, to be able to share that with some other people in the world.

LEMON: That the family allowed you in for that very private and personal and solemn moment. You know, I wonder because Ashoka Mukpo is, you know, the freelance NBC cameraman who came down with Ebola. I wonder if you are worried about your own safety there.

SOLOMON: f course. I mean, I'm just as human as any other Liberians here, any other people that have gotten sick. The virus can affect me just as it can affect anyone here. What I have that most others don't here is education about it, the know-how to understand how to prevent it, vigilance. I've seen its consequences. I've seen how badly it's kind of devastated these communities. I've been out here for a little over two months now. So I've seen a lot of how it's affected the people. And you know, I'm supported by a western media organization. So in a way it's just a matter of kind of taking care of yourself. But at the same time you respect the disease every day you go outside. You have to respect what it can do and not feel any sort of comfort or complacency with working in these places where it's present.

LEMON: Ben Solomon, video journalist for the "New York times," thank you.

SOLOMON: Yes.

LEMON: And when we come right back, our Wolf Blitzer traces his roots.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: In "Roots: Our Journeys Home" CNN's anchors tell the stories of our lives. Wolf Blitzer's journey took him to Poland to look for any trace of his ancestors.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM (voice-over): It's Saturday in Buffalo, New York, my hometown.

Hi. How are you? The Blitzers.

And these guys, well, they're fans of FC buffalo Blitzers. That's a soccer team that somehow was named after me.

Thank you. Hey, thanks.

Something I find both flattering and a little embarrassing.

"THE SITUATION ROOM."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There you go.

BLITZER: CNN has asked me to come here to trace my roots.

This is downtown Buffalo.

A task I found daunting. I grew up here in the 1950s and '60s with my sister and parents. A lot has changed since then. My dad passed away in 2002. And my mom, she's 92 years old, and she now lives in Florida. But some things here never changed, like the anchor bar, the birthplace of the buffalo chicken wing.

Brings back my memories from my youth. Two weeks ago I was on the Israel-Gaza border.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now you're in buffalo eating --

BLITZER: Now I'm in buffalo eating chicken wings.

All right. So we're in Jerusalem --

My journey to learn about my family's history has been months in the making. Delayed in part because of this.

The smoke that has just --

The war between Israel and Hamas. I'm in Jerusalem reporting for nearly a month.

But a friend suggest I would take some time to visit Israel's national holocaust Got another siren --

Reporter: But a friend suggests I take some time to visit Israel's national holocaust museum, yad Vashem.

Let's go to my father's side first. Last name is Blitzer.

I, of course, knew my grandparents died during the holocaust. But I wanted to learn more.

Circumstances of death, it says that the concentration camp. And lager, which means camp. Auschwitz.

My dad, David Blitzer, wrote a testimony for the museum detailing what he knew about the fate of his family in Poland during World War II.

You know, I didn't know till I came here to Israel this week that on my father's side my grandparents died at -- were killed at Auschwitz. I just see it now. I feel like I've been robbed of an experience of having grandparents.

Six million Jews were killed during the holocaust. And I saw the documentation there. Place of extermination, whatever it was called, Auschwitz. It really hit me, and I knew that's where I wanted to go.

Arbeit Macht Frei (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Work will set you free. Meaning was that that was a place for working, which was not true.

BLITZER: It was for slave laborers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. It was this kind of camp. But work was the instrument of extermination prisoners here.

BLITZER: It's one thing to learn about the holocaust in school or from books. But to see these places firsthand, some untouched since the war, can be overwhelming.

Most of the Jews who were brought here came by cattle car.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And then began selection.

BLITZER: Who lives and who dies.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Exactly.

BLITZER: In my particular case my grandparents died here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Probably they were taken right away to the gas chamber. People walked in, they really believed they were in --

So they thought maybe they were going to get a shower, but instead --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That was the gas chamber.

BLITZER: While many Jews from brought to Auschwitz from far away, my dad's family was unique. He grew up in a neighborhood in the town of Auschwitz, which is also called Oswiecim in polish and (INAUDIBLE) in Yiddish. Arthur Schindler, a local historian, agreed to help me find my dad's childhood home.

ARTHUR SCHINDLER, HISTORIAN: We have some school records. You see? This is information about the Rachel Blitzer, born --

BLITZER: Yes. That's my aunt.

SCHINDLER: And this is address. Lugianov 26.

BLITZER: Now, we've looked over here. There's no Lugianov 26 anymore.

SCHINDLER: No. Many houses in this whole area were taken down by the Nazis.

BLITZER: They were destroyed.

Like much of my journey so far I'm struggling to find remnants of my father's life.

Did this house exist before World War II? Do you remember by any chance a family named Blitzer?

None of the neighbors remembered the Blitzers or the house in which they once lived. But I did find a place where my family once stood. The town square.

In the testimony that my father provided, he had three sisters. Only one sister survived, Rachel. Survived the war. But two of his other sisters, Freia and Hinda, when the Nazis came in they were brought to this area. Two sisters, they were killed. They were young girls.

It's pretty much the same story on my mother's side. She survived, but her parents died during the holocaust.

I'm named after my grandfather, Wolf Zilber. People always ask, it's the most frequently asked question I get, is Wolf really your name? And I say yes, it's my real name. I was named after my maternal grandfather.

That's my cousin Cathy Dotan (ph). We grew up together in buffalo. She's here to help me find my mother's roots.

Where the Zilber residence was. What number was it?

CATHY DOTAN (ph), WOLF BLITZER'S COUSIN: Number 12.

BLITZER: Whatever house they had is gone.

DOTAN (ph): Yes. It's closed.

BLITZER: Together we found what's left of my grandfather's old factory that produced clay pipes. Not far from that factory was the slave labor camp where my mother, her sister Paula, and two brothers, Mike and Yurik, worked.

But this was the land where the Skarzisko (ph) labor camp, camp a, was.

DOTAN (ph): In this camp 24,000 Jews came in for labor. Almost 18,000 died here. There was no crematorium here, but they simply burned the bodies, and they were told that they buried the ashes here in this place. So, it's conceivable that our grandparents are -- their ashes --

BLITZER: We have no idea.

DOTAN (ph): We have no idea, no.

BLITZER: When you look at my mom now, she's 92 years old, you wouldn't realize how courageous she was when she was liberated in 1945 from the slave labor camp. They told all the Jewish workers you're going to be marching on this death march. My mother knew that if they were on this forced death march they would die.

DOTAN (ph): This remarkable woman took her siblings and hid in the basement of the factory. And they stayed there for a few days until they were finally liberated by the Russians.

BLITZER: Yes. Pretty amazing story.

DOTAN (ph): Pretty amazing. Amazing woman.

BLITZER: To this day I'm very aware of the really courageous moves that my mom made. She's obviously a very wonderful woman.

Before we leave Poland, we visit the only Jewish cemetery still left in the town of Auschwitz. And I see a tombstone that says "Blitzer." I don't know if this woman was related to me. But I do what my father would have wanted. I say the special prayer for the dead, the Kadish.

(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

So after the war, after my parents were liberated, my mother by the Russians, by the Russian troops, my dad by the French troops, they did what most holocaust survivors immediately did once they were strong enough. They went and started looking for family members who may have survived. So they were on a train, and all of a sudden they saw each other. Their eyes met. They fell in love.

Within a few months they were married by an American military chaplain, a rabbi. My dad found work in Augsburg, Germany, where my sister and I were born. My dad always said, you know, in those days you didn't know what was

going to be happening a week from now, two weeks. And after the years, what they went through during the war, they said you know, you had to grab life when you could.

When my dad was visiting nearby Munich one day, he saw a long line. So he got in it. It turned out it was a line for visas to America. The result of a law signed by President Truman to bring holocaust survivors and displaced persons to the United States. A few months later we were moving to upstate New York.

When he came to Buffalo, these people helped him get that job. They said, you'll have a job at Bethlehem steel, you'll make some money. And they thought it was pretty cool. But it was awful.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's ungodly hot, it's going constantly, and it will not stop if you're injured.

BLITZER: My dad hated the steel mill and left after a year or so. He and my uncle Sam freedman decided to open a small deli.

1434 hurtle avenue. It used to be Blitzer's delicatessen. And now it's Buffalo airbrush tan.

I'm Wolf. Jessica, nice to meet you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nice to meet you.

BLITZER: This was the deli. I used to pack eggs here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

BLITZER: And I would come in on Sunday mornings and pack eggs. So I would walk in over here. All right, guys, keep going. Work. We're working. Yes. So this was where we used to pack the eggs. A lot of memories. Blitzer's deli. Hard to believe.

My dad didn't like the deli business much either. Then one day he was talking to friends he knew from the concentration camp. They were buying land.

Developed all these homes.

And building homes for G.I.s returning from the war. My dad decided to give it a try.

My dad actually built this house. This is one of the first houses he built when he became a builder. That's my house. Somebody's living there.

It turns out my father had a knack for home building. And with a lot of hard work became a successful developer.

I went to school here. This is where they taught me to be a journalist.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Awesome. Really? Your roots.

BLITZER: That's exactly what it is.

That's me. Wolf Blitzer. Wolf I. Blitzer. Student council, secondary representative. Concert band, dance band, debate club, German club, Humanities club, Cantorial, Advertising staff, Marching band, National honor society, Football JV. That was me.

So after months of following my family tree, I'm right back where I started, my hometown.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We watch you every day.

BLITZER: It's a place where I grew up, where I went to college, where I met my wife Lynn and where, well, I also learned a lot about eating good food.

How can we not have -- we've got to have Anderson's frozen custard. We're here, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wolf, where are we going right now?

BLITZER: Ted's. Enough said.

What do you want on it? Mustard, relish, ketchup, pickles. The cool people say everything you've got.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you like French fries?

BLITZER: Yes, we would. We'd like all of the above.

You know, it's amazing my parents, after all they went through, the losses that they went through, I never sensed the vindictiveness. You know, they wanted to move on. My dad when he died in 2009, he was 82 years old, he was always upbeat. Whenever he would see me on television and my mother would see me on television, they would always say the same thing. You know, this is the revenge. This is the revenge to Hitler and the Nazis.

I'm very proud of the new roots my parents planted here in America. Those roots have grown. And during this visit back to Buffalo and indeed throughout my life I realized a lesson I learned from my parents. Like them, I try to grab life wherever I can.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: So joining me now is CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

Wolf, you know, it's very painful to experience some of this, but it was also very empowering, at least for me. What about you?

BLITZER: You know, like you, I was reluctant to do it originally because we're professional journalists, we like to report about other people, we don't necessarily want to report about ourselves. But they wanted us to do it, and I got into the project. It took us several months. And eventually I really felt it became a labor of love, if you will. I really learned a lot. I learned a lot about myself in the process but learned a lot about my family, and I was really happy that I did it.

It was empowering. And I recommend people do it who are watching if they have that opportunity to go back and see what happened not only to their parents, their grandparents, their great-grandparents. I think it is empowering.

LEMON: Why so important -- by the way, your mom is a beautiful, beautiful lady. Why is it so important do you think for people to learn about, you know, where they came from?

BLITZER: I just think that it helps us better appreciate where we are right now. I watched your piece, and it was really moving, very emotional. And I've spoken to your mother. You know, mothers are mothers. And you know, they love their sons and they love their daughters. And it's just -- it's so important to just appreciate everything that your mom, for example, did for you. My mom and my dad, you know, did for me. It was just something that as a kid growing up you don't necessarily appreciate it, but once you're an adult and you see what's going on, especially as you've studied it, you really, really can understand the struggles and everything they did to try to get you to where you are today. Not just you but me and everybody.

LEMON: Yes. Wolf, thank you for taking us along the journey with you. I really enjoyed it. Wolf Blitzer, thanks.

BLITZER: Thank you.

LEMON: All right. And you can see all of our stories in the two-hour special "Roots: Our Journeys Home." It's tomorrow night at 9:00 eastern. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Each week we are spotlighting the top ten CNN Heroes of 2014 as you vote for the one who inspire you the most at CNNheroes.com. This week's honoree has made it his mission to turn the ferber of soccer fans into philanthropy, countries like Brazil. Meet Jon Burns.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JON BURNS, TOP TEN CNN HERO (voice-over): The atmosphere of World Cup is like nothing else. It's electric.

CROWD: Ole, ole, ole, ole

BURNS: You get that rainbow, kaleidoscope from all the different nations that come together. Football is the only worldwide sport really. In 2004, I was in a full stadium. I suddenly saw all the fans around me like it was a little cat army. Some of the children (INAUDIBLE). And I started asking myself, what could I do if we could mobilize some of these people to do some good? So at Lionsraw, we bring people to the World Cup, they get to watch

games, but for a huge chunk of our town (ph). We find local charities that are working with children and ask how can we help you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Over there is going to be three classrooms. To come and to do this for us, for the children, this is a World Cup spirit.

BURNS: In Brazil, we've got about 300 volunteers here from about 12 countries. We did a couple of days, just part of the team, full of fun and working really hard.

When we invest in a place, it's for the long-term. Lots of guys come and kind of get it in their blood. That's what we're about.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is my second goal (ph). This time my son has come with me. I have been funding and just doing things together. I know you are not here every morning. You tried it out. Look how far we've come in a week. It's fantastic. Football has always had the ability to break down barriers. We're taking it a step further, trying to harness the passion in football fans to make a different.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Go to CNNheroes.com to vote for the CNN Hero of the year. All right, ten will be honored at CNN Heroes, an all-star tribute hosted by Anderson Cooper on December 7th. But only one will be named CNN Hero of the year.