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Ohio Deputy Killed in the Line of Duty; Navy Showed Raunchy Videos; Secret Jew; President Obama Signs 9/11 Health Bill

Aired January 02, 2011 - 16:00   ET

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

SUSAN HENDRICKS, CNN ANCHOR: A reprieve for 9/11 first responders after years of delay. A health care bill specifically for them gets the president's signature.

An embarrassing movie night so to speak on the "USS Enterprise." The crew is shown videos filled with sexual innuendos and anti-gay remarks featuring a top commander as well.

Also, a skinhead couple committed to hating Jews finds out they are Jewish. Find out what they did next, and why the truth about who they were was hidden for so long. The compelling documentary "Secret Jew" later this hour.

I'm Susan Hendricks, in today for Fredricka Whitfield.

We begin today with an Ohio sheriff's department making plans to honor one of its own. Deputy Suzanne Hopper, a mother of two was gunned down yesterday answering a call at a trailer park outside of Springfield. Investigators say she was taking photos of footprints when a man came out of his trailer and shot her. A gun battle followed, a police officer wounded in this gun battle. You're about to see it as it occurred, images that are graphic and disturbing. Here is the sheriff describing what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF GENE A. KELLY, CLARK COUNTY, OHIO: The suspect inside opened fire and struck a German township police officer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get over here. Get over here! Get out of the way.

KELLY: He's currently in Miami Valley and he's in serious condition but they tell me that he's believed to be OK. It appears that the door of the trailer opened, and the person inside fired one shotgun blast striking the deputy and fatally wounding a deputy.

When we did enter the trailer, the suspect was deceased apparently from the exchange of gunfire with deputies. Our deputy never had the opportunity to return fire or take cover. The deputy was an outstanding deputy and is married and a parent of two children. This is the worst day in my 24 years as a sheriff of Clark County.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENDRICKS: Heart-breaking for that community. No word yet on funeral arrangements for Deputy Suzanne Hopper. She had been with the Clark County Sheriff's Department 12 years. Jeremy Bloom is the officer in that video that you see wounded in the shoot-out. He is now in fair condition in the hospital. The name of the suspect has not been released.

Sadly this happens and last year a number of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty was way up. Our Josh Levs is here to break it down for us. Shocking numbers. And when you see that video, Josh, you understand the risk involved. New respect for all the people that put their lives at risk every day.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, absolutely. It's the last thing you ever want to see, and sadly in 2010 we saw a big jump in the number of officers of the law, law enforcement officers who were killed.

Just recently in Georgia there was this man, and I think we have a picture of the funeral and we also have picture of who it was. It was a Georgia state trooper and whose name is Chadwick LaCroy who was killed, gunned down, actually just a matter of days ago. There was a funeral procession, and it actually capped of a very difficult year for law enforcement nationwide.

Let's do this. Let's come back to my screen here. I want you all to see these grim numbers and get a sense of what's going on nationally. Among law enforcement officer in 2010, 162 fatalities. That's way up from 117 the year before. Now, when you hear fatalities, it's not all being killed, sometimes it's accidents, but take look at this, law enforcement officer fatalities by gunfire alone last year, 2010, 61, and 2009, 49. That's a big jump in fatalities, killings of officers through gunfire.

Now this is what happened with traffic incidents. In 2010 it's 73, back in 2009, there were 51. Sometimes it's officers who are stepping out of their cars, who are giving people tickets, ran the side of the road. Often accidents involving officers.

But these are the numbers of people who are officers of the law in this country who are being killed. Now, let's take a look at this because the opposite is happening in crime in America. This is part of what's so interesting here. We just got this from the FBI recently, showing violent crime in this country is down.

In the first half of 2010, it's down 6.2 percent from the first half of 2009, so is property crime. So basically what we are seeing here is that violent crime in America is going down but killings of officers is going up, and this is something experts are studying right now and officers are studying. What is behind this trend? And Suzanne, obviously, a lot of people working to make that trend stop.

HENDRICKS: Yes, you think of all the families connected to those fatalities. Pretty heartbreaking. Josh, thank you.

We want to go to Jacqui Jeras with details of a major earthquake now in Chile. Jacqui. JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, this just happened. Preliminary earthquake about 10.1 magnitude and that is considered a major earthquake. This is in Chile, and this is the location that we're talking about right here. This is about 106 miles to the south of Conception. And if you remember, there was a very powerful 8.8 earthquake that was just north of there, about 150 miles away, that February quake that happened that caused so much destruction. No widespread tsunami threat is expected, but a localized tsunami is possible in this area.

We do know that this was felt in Santiago, which is up to the north. This map from Google Earth puts it in that perspective. This where the earthquake just occurred right here and this is where Concepcion is and this is where the big quake happened back in February. There were reports of feeling this up in Santiago. No immediate reports of damage. We'll follow the situation very closely. Many aftershocks are going to be expected with this as well.

HENDRICKS: Jacqui, thank you. We'll check back in a few.

Meanwhile, we're also following this. The 9/11 health bill is the first piece of legislation signed into law this year, day two into the year. President Obama put his John Hancock on the document today during his Hawaiian vacation. A hard copy of the bill was flown from Washington to Hawaii. Now the legislation provides health coverage to the first responders of the terrorist attacks. They've been fighting for almost 10 years for federal help with health issues resulting from 9/11. Congress finally approved it last month.

And Congress rolls back into town this week. Insiders say it's time for the political battles of 2011 to begin. Many of the Sunday TV talk shows focused on what we can expect as the 112th congress gets down to business. Check it out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AUSTAN GOOLSBEE, CHMN, COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS: It pains me that we would even be talking about this. This is not a game. If we hit the debt ceiling, that's the essentially defaulting on our obligations, which is totally unprecedented in American history. The impact on the economy would be catastrophic. I mean, that would be a worse financial economic crisis than anything we saw in 2008.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: This is an opportunity to make sure the government is changing its spending ways. I will not vote for the debt ceiling increase until I see a plan in place that will deal with our long-term debt obligations starting with social security, a real bipartisan effort to make sure social security stays solvent.

REP. DARRELL ISSA (R), CALIFORNIA: The health care bill clearly whether it became law was about expanding Medicaid mandates that have been at least tentatively ruled unconstitutional and a big growth in government, and the reform was extremely light or nonexistent.

So, you know, as Republicans our goal is to repeal what was done on a partisan basis, come back and do on a bipartisan basis real reform.

TIM KAINE, DNC CHAIRMAN: Now I think health care reform will be one of the great achievements of this president, and it's not unrelated to the economy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you say that attorney general holder is guilty of all of those failures, should he step down?

ISSA: Well, I think he needs to realize that for example WikiLeaks, if the president says I can't deal with this guy as a terrorist, then he has to be able to deal with him as a criminal, otherwise, the world is laughing at that paper tiger we've become. So he's hurting this administration.

If you're hurting the administration, you stop hurting the administration or leave.

In saying that this is one of the most corrupt administrations, which is what I meant to say there, when you hand out a trillion dollars in T.A.R.P. just before this president came in, most of it unspent, a trillion dollars nearly in stimulus that this president asked for plus this huge expansion in health care and government, it has a corrupting effect. When I look at waste, fraud, and abuse in the bureaucracy and the government, this is like steroids to pump up the muscles of waste.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENDRICKS: Well, several new governors are also getting ready to take office. Here's CNN deputy political director Paul Steinhauser with a look at what's coming up in the week ahead. Paul.

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Hey, Suzanne. The first week of the new year is jam-packed with political events.

New York's new governor didn't waste a minute getting sworn in right at the start of 2011 as did the governors in Michigan and New Mexico where Susanna Martinez became the nation's first Hispanic female governor.

Tomorrow Jerry Brown is inaugurated as California's governor. It's back to the future for the golden state as Brown served two terms in California in the 1970s and '80s. Minnesota, Wisconsin and Nevada also swear in their new governors the same day.

Also Monday a showdown for Michael Steele as he tries to keep his job as the head of the Republican National Committee. The often outspoken RNC chief is up for re-election later this month, and tomorrow he faces off in a debate against the five candidates challenging him for his job.

And Wednesday new faces on Capitol Hill as the 112th Congress gets sworn in. Thanks to big GOP victories in the midterm elections, Republicans take over control of the House of Representatives and will have a larger and stronger minority in the Senate. Susan.

HENDRICKS: All right. Paul, thank you.

You know, the Navy is investigating raunchy videos produced and shown to the crew of the "USS Enterprise." The videos first published yesterday by the "Virginian Pilot" newspaper are filled with sexual innuendo and anti-gay references. They were shown to the aircraft carriers crew in 2006 and 2007. Now the tapes feature a man identified by the paper and two Navy officials as Capt. Owen Honors, this man. Honors was the "Enterprise's" second in command at the time. In the tapes, he's shown cursing along with other staff members in an attempt to be funny. Navy officials call the videos "unacceptable." We'll be talking with the military editor of the "Virginian Pilot" in our 5:00 hour. Don't miss that.

Getting home from the holidays, easier said than done on this New Year's eve weekend. We'll check out some travel delays in parts of the country and fill you in. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HENDRICKS: In parts of the Midwest and south hundreds of people are adding up their losses after a tornado outbreak. Look at the damage here. The powerful storm tore through communities in Arkansas, Mississippi and Missouri, killing seven people. They struck on New Year's eve. Among the hardest hit community Cincinnati, Arkansas where even the volunteer fire department saw severe damage. Luckily no one was in there at the time.

Now, of course, people are assessing the damage, also deciding how they're getting home, facing a lot of delays. Jacqui Jeras has more details on this. Hi, Jacqui.

JERAS: That storm system still out there. It's not severe any longer, but it's certainly causing headaches for people trying to travel across parts of the northeastern corridor. The best thing is can tell you is that it's a very warm system. Your temperatures aren't terrible here in the northeast. We're looking at mid-40s right now, so you can see that rain coming down along i-95 Washington, D.C. on up towards Philly across New Jersey and even some light rain starting to move into New York City as well.

So what is that doing to your travel? Take a look at this. This isn't pretty, unfortunately. Delays over an hour now, ground delays as if you're trying to get into JFK in New York City. San Francisco, we've got a storm system out west as well. Two-hour delays. We got delays in Las Vegas. That's if you're trying to get out of Vegas. 30 minutes there. 20 minutes in Newark. Teterboro, we got some problems and then we've got ground stop in White Plains and volume delays coming out of Ft. Myers. So a lot of people still, you know, trying to get home and trying to get caught up from the holidays as a lot of people have to head back to work and back reality for tomorrow.

Here's our storm system out west. A strong area of low pressure which is offshore right now, but that is bringing in ample moisture from the coast. And so the rainfall is very heavy at times, and we are expecting to see some significant snow coming down to maybe around 3,000 feet. So I-5 along the grapevine, we got some snow that you're going to be dealing with. Rough travel can expected here. The winds are going to be very gusty. Gusts between 30 and 50 miles per hour. The snowfall may be eight to 12 inches, we think a little lesser than that into the Antelope Valley and also high up into the Sierra.

And if you're going back to work tomorrow and you want to know what to expect, the good news is things improve across parts of the east, but we're still going to be stuck with a storm across parts of the west. The nation's midsection for the more part though is looking pretty good.

HENDRICKS: Yes, back to reality, like you said, Jacqui.

JERAS: I know. You got to do it sometime.

HENDRICKS: I know.

We've been talking about this Jacqui, a skinhead couple discovers a hidden truth that shocks them to their core. They find out they are Jewish. Hear what they do to turn their lives around in a riveting documentary, it's called "Secret Jew," up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HENDRICKS: Welcome back. Every new year people around the world vow to make big changes to get healthier and to reach personal and professional goals. But a couple in Poland didn't wait for new year's to dramatically change their lives. They changed the very core of who they were after discovering a hidden truth about their past.

CNN's Fionnuala Sweeney brings us this compelling documentary called "Secret Jew."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL SHUDRICH, CHIEF RABBI OF POLAND (voice-over): This is a story about peeling away the layers of our past. Who we think we are today is not necessarily who we'll be tomorrow. The human experience is unpredictable, so too is our capacity to change.

This is the story about hidden identity.

My name is Michael Shudrich. I've been chief rabbi of Poland since 2004. One of the most important elements of what I do here is being available for those people to discover their Jewish roots.

Where to start? I remember them coming soon after I began here as rabbi of Warsaw. Exactly when, I can't tell you right now. A young couple, as many other young couples, looking a little lost. At some point - again, I don't remember exactly when, I heard about their story.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We met at school when we were 12 or 13, and it was the most when most girls start to be interested in boys. It was love at first sight, and it's amazing as I still have the same feeling for him to this day. We were very rebellious youths. I wasn't directly involved in the skinhead movement, but I had friends. It's hard for me to talk about it. Hard because of certain decisions that one takes as a young person one would not like to remember. I can't be embarrassed because it's my life, but it's not something that I'm proud of.

FIONNUALA SWEENEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Like many a girl who likes a young man, Ola joined (INAUDIBLE) )'s world. Skinheads, neo Nazis, people who embraced hatred of anyone different. Married when they were just 18, a few years later Ola allowed her mind to return to something she ignored when she was a young girl.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I was around 13, and there was some sort of conversation between me and my mother. I can't remember the reason, and it was mentioned that I had Jewish roots. I wasn't interested in it at that time, and I let it go straight over my head.

SWEENEY: She decided to seek definitive proof, and in the documents and papers of the Jewish Historical Institute she hoped to find answers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): The journey which I started was not planned. There were a lot of emotions involved.

SWEENEY: The document search revealed that Ola was indeed Jewish. Ola's shock was intensified by the fact that she had to return home and tell her neo-Nazi husband that she was a Jew, one of them, one of the ones he so hated.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): What was difficult was when I was coming home with the documents. I didn't know how to tell him. I loved him even if he was a punk or skinhead, if he beat people up or not. It was a time in Poland when this movement was very intense.

SWEENEY: As impossible as that conversation was to imagine, the biggest challenge, the most unwelcome surprise for the couple was still to come.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Why didn't anyone practiced Jewish traditions in your home? Well, who practice that in Poland? No one in Poland practiced after what happened. I don't know anyone who practiced. I don't know anyone, and I know a lot of Jews. I think they cut themselves off after what happened here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Before the war, the Jews of Poland were other Jews, period. This was their world center of Jewish life, of Jewish thought. This is where Jewish theater started, this is where Jewish movies start, Jewish journalism, Jewish literature, Jewish politics. You name it.

September 1st, 1939, World War II begins. At that point there are 3.5 million Jews in Poland. By the end of 1944, 90 percent of those Jews are dead. Quite a few poles have realized they probably are Jewish because they're grandma or grandpa was the only living relative from that side of the family.

You can't understand the holocaust, but to have some sense of how horrible that destruction was, it's really in that simple fact. There were 350,000 Jews in Poland after World War II. 10 percent of what - of the Jewish population from before the war. The overwhelming majority left in the 25 years after World War II, between '45 and '69.

Polish communism was nasty to Jews. It was perceived that under Polish communism that if you said out loud "I am a Jew," that you weren't going to get advanced in your job, you may not get into a better university. It was a limiting factor. Events like (INAUDIBLE) in 1946 in Kelsa, a terrible thing. 42 Jews willed for being Jews.

KONSTANY GEBERT, JOURNALIST: If you want to live a Jewish life, you almost would certainly have left Poland. Those few who remain with experience that it's simply not safe to be Jewish. If you're Jewish, you're wrong. If you're born wrong, at least make sure nobody else knows.

Parents made double-sure, triple-sure that their children will not know in the hope that their children won't know, nobody else will. The fear inside is probably the one last element that remains of the Jewish identity that was passed down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) I'm 23 years old and I live in (INAUDIBLE) Poland. Ten years ago I was told that there were Jewish roots in my family, and it took me like about 10 years to build a Jewish identity that I'm comfortable with. This is my grandfather's grave. We wanted to bury him in the Jewish cemetery, because it means a lot for my family and for me personally it means a great deal. It was difficult because my father wanted it, and my father's sister didn't want it.

Then my granddad here would be clearly showing he was Jewish, and she wanted to keep it maybe not a secret but a low profile. Because she didn't want people to know. Burying in the Jewish cemeteries is like declaring it straight in the face.

I remember that I was told by my dad that our family has Jewish roots, but I was told not to tell anyone because he was afraid it might affect me. I wouldn't say that I suspected it, but I would say that now when I come and think of it, there were all sorts of hints that there is like something unusual about my family.

First of all, we never went to church, and there was a whole bookshelf full of Jewish books. Like I didn't know that there were Jewish books with a strange alphabet.

Sweeney: For (INAUDIBLE) the decision to expose his secret and live a Jewish life came after high school on a trip to a synagogue.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I went there, and I realized that the only thing I knew about being in a Jewish synagogue is I had to cover my head. It really shocked me how little I know. My dad said that he's proud that me and my brother, who is also involved, are the first people in three generations that have some fun out of it. That only, you know, pain and identity issues that we have like the feeling of belonging, Jewish friends. I think it's like really this post-modern culture thing when the children are teaching the parents the same like using internet. We're teaching our moms how to use e-mail and not our moms teaching us.

I guess it's the same thing with Jewishness.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAEL SCHUDRICH, CHIEF RABBI IN POLAND: In terms of the way that people discover, it's almost any way that you can imagine it happened. Everything from which is one of the most common is grandma on her deathbed saying before I die, I want you to know that I'm really Jewish.

But I've also heard stories that were less clear, someone's father going into a coma or kind of like a semi-coma, but no longer contacting, but was singing and started to sing in Yiddish. The child never knew that the father knew Yiddish, and the only thing the child could figure out is the father must have been Jewish and then the father died.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In 1989 democracy swept Poland, ending 44 years of Soviet communist rule. As much as the change affected all poles, Polish Jews in particular experienced something profound, the freedom to reveal their true identities.

KONSTANTY GEBERT, JOURNALIST: Although the fear is still there, 20 years is a very short period of time. These were very lucky 20 years. In this part of the world, nobody really can be sure that our luck will not run out.

SCHUDRICH: The children of the holocaust are people who were children during the war, almost all of them given away by their biological Jewish parents to Polish non-Jewish families who were willing to take them in even though it meant putting their own families at risk, the risk of death by the hands of German Nazis.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was not possible for a Jew to hide on his own his or her own in occupied Poland. Those that survived, survived with Polish help.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I remember your mother would hold your hand as you two were walking down the street. She'd hold your hand tightly and never let you go anywhere.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They have known each other for more than 60 years. Next door neighbors as children, they reminisce about the neighborhood secrets that saved his life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): My name is (inaudible), but that's not my real name. I was adopted by a Polish mother who was very good to me, but she never told me my real name or surname. Until the end of her life she never told me.

When she was ill, very ill, when she wasn't responding anymore, and I had to really force her to eat or take her to the bathroom, she would say, why are you screaming at me? If not for me, the Germans would have taken you away long ago?

Then when she calmed down, I asked her, mother, why did you say that? What are you talking about? And then she would say, I'm old, I don't know what I'm talking about. I lived here with my mother and the people that saved me from ghetto.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Neighbors tell him he was brought in the middle of the nature wrapped in a blanket from the Nazi-contained Jewish ghetto. They tell him knew he was a Jewish child, but no one wanted to talk about it. No one wanted to know too much. An SS officer lived on the same street.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His name was Villi and he used to play with me and carry me in his arms. If someone would have told him, he would have to do his duty, but I suspect that he knew who I was.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The old deserted train station (inaudible). It was here that Jews were transported to concentration camps.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that my parents faced the same fate as other Jews. They were transported away to a concentration camp and were murdered there, and they must have given me up to save me, to save my life.

There was an incident on the street past the train tracks where I was supposedly dropped off as a child. I met a man. This was about 10 to 15 years ago. He told me, what are you looking for? Are you looking for your family inheritance money?

You won't find anything. He must have known something. This was at the bus stop, and then he got into the bus and left. I said I'm not looking for inheritance. I just want to know who I am. It hasn't left me alone, and I've wondered about it for many years. I think about it day and night.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was 1980s communist Poland. The neo-Nazi police were born here in the concrete tower projects where he lived as a teenager.

SEBASTIAN LOWKIS, CHILDHOOD ACQUAINTANCE (through translator): People were definitely scared of Pavel because he was a walking legend, Pavel and his brother. They were known as there were stories around them that went around the neighborhood. For example, at a party Powell beat someone up so badly that he could barely walk away with his life.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Married to Pavel and mother to his two young children, Ola combed through documents at the Jewish Historical Institute arriving at her chilling discovery. Married to a skinhead, Ola was Jewish, but her curiosity wouldn't ease its grip. It instead propelled her to continue digging for answers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I was always interested in my mother-in-law's maiden name, a very interesting name. It was unbelievable. It was a shock. I didn't expect to find out I had a Jewish husband.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's right. She learned her neo-Nazi husband was Jewish too. As for Pavel, 10 years after that discovery the former skinhead neo-Nazi is now an orthodox Jew.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I thought, this must be the Jews who set this up, that they invented it to make me into a Jew. I said, OK, give me the papers. I took them to my parents and I asked them -- shall I tell you what I said.

I showed them the papers and said what the -- is this? Mom and dad looked at them and said it was true, and I thanked them and left. I was very angry they hadn't told me. I left. I took three days off work and drank for three days.

SCHUDRICH: I can't imagine what it's like to go from someone who hates Jews to someone actively Jewish, involved in Jewish life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was a nationalist 100 percent. Back then when we were skinheads, it was all about white power and I believed Poland was only for Poles. Before I found out? We all knew about the holocaust. They were the biggest plague and worst evil in this world.

At least in Poland, it was thought this time at the time anything that was bad was the fault of the Jews. Emotions, it's difficult to describe how I felt when I found out I was Jewish. My first thought was, what I going to tell people? What am I going to tell the boys? Should I admit it or not?

I was angry, sad, scared, unsure. The mirror was a big problem. I couldn't look at myself. I saw a Jew. I hated the person in the mirror. Then I grew accustomed to it, came to terms with it somehow, came here to the rabbi and said, listen, they're telling me I'm a Jew.

I have this document in my hand. My mom and dad have said something. Who is this Jew, and what is it? Help me because I'm going to lose my mind otherwise. I'm not saying that I don't have regrets, but it's not something that I walk around and lash myself over.

I feel sorry for those that I beat up, but I don't hold a grudge against myself. The people who I hurt can hold a grudge against me. It's not easy to leave everything behind and change. There are things that remain. When someone looks at me, they can't imagine that I could be a football fan. I need to check the results straightaway. It's not that I cut everything out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In fact, something rather unexpected remains from Pavel's old life, this picture on the mantel piece. Among all the other family pictures, there is Pavel gives the Nazi salute.

SCHUDRICH: Where you are today doesn't have to be where you are tomorrow. I discussed that with Pavel. Sometimes he kind of even says in moments he surprises himself at his changes. Sometimes he looks in the mirror in the morning and he says he can't believe that's him, because he remembers the old Pavel.

On the one hand it shows that the human being is capable always of changing, but you also have to remember after that person changes, what he did in the past still remains with him. That can sometimes be a struggle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not everyone can understand this. People ask me why have you changed? Because not everyone can understand. Not everyone can accept it. I'm not interested in conflict. I've had enough many my life. I want to live a peaceful life.

SCHUDRICH: While it took time, today they're very active members of the Jewish Community of Warsaw. Pavel was studying to be a ritual slaughterer, the one who slaughters the cows and the chickens so they're done according to the Jewish kosher requirement. And now he's working in our kosher kitchen as a kosher supervisor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And why did we decide to be orthodox? I think if you decide to change your life, then you have to do it seriously and not lightly.

SCHUDRICH: The fact that they were skinheads increased the amount of respect I have for them. That they could have been where they were, understood that that was not the right way, and then embraced and rather than ran away from the fact that they were part of the people they used to hate.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The knowledge that the Nazis sat on it from this plate and the thought of how awful that time was, and I want them to turn in their graves knowing it's in a religious Jewish household where my husband walks around in religious cloths and where my children run around in a happy Jewish household.

It's a bit twisted, but it gives me satisfaction. I would never said my husband would wear a yarmulke. If someone told me that years ago, I would have laughed in their face. It is such a change that if anyone told me these would happen, I would never have believed them. It would have been out of the question.

SCHUDRICH: Something unusual is happening here. It is unique in Jewish history that a community that was as vibrant, creative, central to Jewish life devastated, the genocide, Nazi genocide followed by soviet communist suppression and then after 50 years of this horror now having a chance to come back to life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HENDRICKS, CNN ANCHOR: Pretty amazing story, isn't it? You've been watching the documentary called "Secret Jew." We will talk to the rabbi featured in that program who helped transformed two Jew hating skinheads into peace keeping orthodox Jews as you just saw. That live interview is coming up next. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HENDRICKS: In the documentary that just aired "Secret Jew," we heard from Michael Schudrich is the chief rabbi of Poland and the person who have guided the couple from their lives as skinheads to orthodox Jews. Rabbi Schudrich joins us now from Jerusalem.

Rabbi, great to talk to you. What a powerful piece about the human condition and change, really. I heard you say our capacity to change is unpredictable.

SCHUDRICH: Well, that really is who Ola and Pavel are. Two human beings who were in a very different place 10, 15 years ago and when discovering the truth about themselves were able to say, wait, not only to embrace the truth, but also to really take that and try to make themselves into better human beings. They're just wonderful models of what human beings can really be.

HENDRICKS: How long did it take for them, that couple to change their thought process? You guided them through it from hate to forgiveness to acceptance. You heard them say, you know what? I didn't like the image in the mirror. It was hard for me to look at myself.

SCHUDRICH: It was a process over several years. It's hard for me to say exactly how long it took, but it took several years and it was patience and when they wanted to come, they would come. If they didn't want to come, they didn't have to come. It really is through patience and openness and encouragement that eventually they decided they really wanted to make this full commitment to being Jewish.

HENDRICKS: What about people at home that want a different view of this and say, you know what? They're not such a great people. The only reason they're forgiving and accepting is because of a change of events here. What do you say to that?

SCHUDRICH: Well, the change of events is she discovered something they didn't know before. I mean, nothing changed in history except they discovered something new about themselves. But I have to believe that there was something always there that wasn't really -- they weren't quite happy with who they were previously and this encouraged them.

There were other things that encouraged them. The fact that it's not only Pavel, but there are hundreds and thousands of other people going through not as dramatic, but also unbelievable discovery. Also very important here is that we know how the community and we have the communal structures and very important, we're supported by Jewish organizations from abroad. People that are encouraging us, organizations like the foundations that are so important.

When you first discover you're Jewish, you're not sure what it means. Do you belong? Do you not belong? When you have a place to go in Poland, whether in Warsaw, Krakow, and you know that other people outside of Poland care about you, what these different organizations are doing is so pivotal in enabling and empowering people to make the journey back to their Jewish identity.

HENDRICKS: Did you find that their hatred was connected to fear, as I believe it is in most cases? SCHUDRICH: You know, I never really discussed this with them, but certainly it was connected with needing to take your hatred out on somebody else, somebody you didn't know. The Jews in the 1990s, '80s and '90s less so wasn't something known in Poland.

HENDRICKS: What was the reaction from their skinhead friends when they found out that their friends were Jewish?

SCHUDRICH: OK. This is something else that Pavel and I really have not talked about a lot, but he did tell me that some of them accepted it. Some of them were willing to understand that what they were doing at 17 and 16 was not the right way, and there are people that, you know, he -- has nothing at all to do with anymore.

HENDRICKS: Right. Rabbi Michael Schudrich, a powerful documentary, and you're doing such great things. I love that statement you said, our capacity to change is unpredictable. A great way to start the New Year. Happy New Year to you.

SCHUDRICH: Thank you. Happy New Year to you.

HENDRICKS: Thank you.

All right, coming up next hour, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand joins us. We'll be talking about the president's signing of the 9/11 health bill.

And CNN's Susan Candiotti looks at the injury-plagued Broadway spectacular "Spiderman." She tries out some of the tricks herself. Also political puppets and their humorous take on the events of 2010, jib jab jokes and our viral video rewind. Stay with us.

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