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Liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp; Lockdown of a Chinese City; Construction of Super Bowl Footballs
Aired January 24, 2020 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: From the CNN Center, this is CNN 10 and I`m Carl Azuz. Thank you for watching. A major event of World War II occurred 75
years ago this month. January of 1945 was when Nazi Germany`s largest concentration camp was liberated. Auschwitz is located in southern Poland.
A country that Germany invaded and occupied starting in 1939. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Auschwitz was actually three camps. One was a
prison. One was for slave labor and one was a death camp. More than 1 million 100 thousand people were killed at Auschwitz. Ninety percent of
them were Jews. The advancing Soviet army found and liberated the camp on January 27th. The Nazi`s had mostly abandoned by that time though
thousands of prisoners were left behind.
Today Auschwitz-Birkenau is a memorial and museum. A ceremony to commemorate the camp`s liberation was held Thursday in Israel. A nation
who`s population is more than 74 percent Jewish. Dozens of world leaders and holocaust survivors gathered in Jerusalem this week for the World
Holocaust Forum. In his opening remarks, Israeli President Rueuven Rivlin asked them to make sure the holocaust and the destruction of World War II
would never be repeated. That`s a major theme at Yad Veshem, Israel`s National Holocaust Remembrance Site where Sara Sidner filed this report.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Yad Veshem comes from the book of Isaiah and it`s really a idiom and the idiom means permanent memorial. This museum cuts
into the mountain and if you look at it, it looks something like a scar in the Mountain of Remembrance and I think that`s what the holocaust really is
in our world. It`s this thing and it`s for many years afterwards but we remain with sort of a scar.
SARA SIDNER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It`s a bit shocking when you walk in and you see these massive swastikas.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
SIDNER: I think of Nazi flags.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But again this is showing you something about what this period is, I mean, you have to - - you can`t just enter it like you enter a
swimming pool slowly. You kind of dive into the period.
SIDNER: Where are these bricks from?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well this is a recreation of a street called Lezchno (ph) Street which was the main artery in the ghetto wharfs, the biggest of
the ghettos and these are actual bricks that were used in the streets of Warsaw along with the tramline that was there.
SIDNER: What do you want people to feel when they come - - start walking into the ghetto?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want them to have a small feeling maybe of what crowdedness is and when they see the photos around they`ll understand
something about the suffering. Because if you see the photos around you, you see tremendous suffering especially of children. We`re talking about
people, knowing their names is important. When you see their faces you understand even more that we`re talking about not 6 million somethings.
We`re talking about 6 million human beings. Each with a family, with a background, with something about them that`s very human. The suitcases are
left with names and addresses and information.
Again, it`s a personal thing. Who doesn`t understand traveling with a suitcase? So they`re heart rendering these things when you look at the
items and you tie them to the story. You don`t need to show photographs of atrocities to understand an atrocity. Things were taken from them again
and shoes and shoes, OK, shoes look innocuous. What are shoes? But understand who`s shoes these were and what happened to the owners of these
shoes and you begin to get something about a feeling of a - - of a mount of - - of quantity, of - - of everything that`s going on here.
SIDNER: You can touch things here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
SIDNER: You can experience things in a different way. What is this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, look in the photograph. This is a camp called Flossenburg where people were working in hard labor digging out stones and
they were filling carts. Right? And this is one of the carts.
SIDNER: There are 1,000 points of proof, 1,000 things that you can experience here to show you a little bit, just a tad of what life was - -
was like.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ultimately we want people to understand that the holocaust was caused by people. It wasn`t a cosmic event and it wasn`t
monsters. It was human beings who were motivated by ideas more than anything else and they brought about this holocaust. Which means we need
to understand what those ideas were, what was motivating them, what brought them into this. Because ultimately we want to learn from the holocaust,
from other genocides. How do we go about preventing anything like this from happening to anyone anywhere else?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: Our next story this Friday, the World Health Organization, part of the United Nations, says the Wuhan coronavirus is not yet a public health
emergency of international concern. That`s an official term the agency uses for extraordinary outbreaks like those of the Ebola or Zika viruses.
The WHO says it`s continuing to keep a close eye on the Wuhan virus outbreak. Meantime the U.S. Centers for Disease Control is recommending
that Americans who don`t need to go to Wuhan should avoid the city and it recommends that anyone who`s traveled to China within the past two weeks
and has a fever, cough or trouble breathing should immediately get medical care and avoid other people.
The disease is named for the city in China where it was first identified. Wuhan has a population of 11 million and it`s now on partial lockdown with
a lot of its transportation shutdown. As Chinese officials rush to try and contain the outbreak, the travel plans of millions have been impacted
because the Chinese New Year begins on Saturday the most important festival in the world`s most populated country. Major celebrations in Beijing, 650
miles north of Wuhan, have been cancelled and with suspected cases of the virus popping up in several other countries large airports are increasing
health screenings and quarantine plans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A rush check out sparked by a 3 a.m. phone call. We headed to the train station as soon as we got word. The city of Wuhan,
China essentially going on lockdown. Officials set a deadline for 10 o`clock Thursday morning. All public transportation including airports,
highways and train stations to halt service out of the city. A drastic effort to contain the spreading and deadly coronavirus. As we arrived,
crowds already lined up for tickets stretching out the door.
This gives you an idea of how serious that people are taking this idea to leave Wuhan and get out before public transportation is strictly limited.
We`ve noticed a good number of people rushing to this train station. Interesting to note, this railway station is located just a few blocks away
from the seafood market, the epicenter according to health officials of this virus. That market`s been shut down for weeks guarded by security and
police. Without special permission, no one in so as to prevent any potential exposure from getting out.
Passing through rail security, thermal detectors monitor for possible fevers. Inside some passengers feeling panicked.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE TRANSLATED: In such a short time, the number of cases has doubled several times.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Others feeling it`s all been a bit over hyped.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE TRANSLATED: For me in Wuhan, I haven`t felt that kind of tension or panic at all. I think people are OK. People are getting on
with eating, drinking and living.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But she`s leaving nonetheless and during the Spring Festival in which families are supposed to be together. Some are making
the difficult choice to be apart sending their young children outside the city limits while they stay to face the unknowns back home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: Two hundred-sixteen footballs for one game, that`s how many are being made by Wilson. The company that`s provided Super Bowl footballs
since 1941. In its factory in Ohio, Wilson picks the leather, cuts the leather, stamps the leather, stitches up the balls and then they`re laced
like shoes and sent to Super Bowl LIV also known as Super Bowl 54 with 108 going to the Chiefs and 108 going to the 49ers. So that`s the "pigskinny"
on how they`re made. Before the athletes have a "ball" with how they`re played.
Now some will get frayed and some will fade or get kicked, dropped or sprayed with Gatorade but that`s the life of a Super Bowl. They lose or
win some. The rest is elementary my "dear Wilson". OK. Enough of that. We hope to see you subscribe and comment at You Tube.com/CNN10 because
that`s what L.P.S. Oakland High School did from Oakland, California where Friday`s are awesome. I`m Carl Azuz.
END
