# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Picture when he when was young compared to 2018

# data[].attributes.body
Lifespan:(1922-2018)

# data[].attributes.body
Robert(Bob) Behr was born on March 1, 1922 in Berlin, Germany to Alfred and Lilly Behr. Robert's parents divorced when he was a child, and his mother remarried a local physician, Dr. Alfred Hamburger. The family lived a normal middle-class life as Alfred served Germany during World War l, and his mother stayed home to raise Behr, who was their only child. He grew up a normal kid who went on vacation and went to the sea in the summer time. Behr said he first realized something was wrong when he was eight years old. His father was politically savvy and concerned about Germany's political future, thus the radio was always on in their home.  The radio commentator would constantly talk about how terrible Jewish people are and once Hitler came to power the Berlin and Germany Behr once knew ceased to exist.

# data[].attributes.body
The Nazi party immediately instituted and enforced laws that persecuted Jews. Some examples that affected the Behr family were Robert's father wasn't allowed to call himself a doctor and was considered under the title "medical expert" as the word doctor was prohibited. Jewish children were no longer allowed to attend public school. In 1937, Robert was lucky enough to be able to attend a German-Jewish boarding school in Sweden until the Nazi government prohibited German currency into Swedish Kroners. The German families could no longer pay tuition forcing the school to close. When Robert returned, the Germans had established forced labor, which meant you had to report to an office in Berlin every morning to get a job assignment. Some of the jobs he was assigned included consist hard manual labor like carry coal to buildings and carry bricks on construction sites.

# data[].attributes.body
Behr's father was among more than 30,000 Jews arrested between November 9 and 10, 1938, during a wave of anti-Jewish violence called Kristallnacht, the "Night of Broken Glass. " On November 29, 1938, Robert and his parents were evicted from their apartment. But, luckily with the help from the Jewish Community Service,they were able to get two rooms in an elderly Jewish woman's apartment. They only stayed in that apartment til 1942 when the Gestapo retrieved a postcard that Lilly and Alfred Hamburger tried to help a friend escape to neutral Switzerland in which they arrested Robert and his family.
Because Alfred was a WWI veteran, they agreed not to send them to a concentration camp or killing center rather to Theresienstadt which was a camp ghetto in Czechoslovakia. Lilly worked in the laundry and Dr.Hamburger worked in the hospital at Theresienstadt.  Robert on the other hand, his job was to bury the dead.  In the 2017 "First Person Interview", he says " People died like flies from diseases, sanitation and when they died there was no viewing, or something appropriate. After you do this for a while instead of honoring the dead, respecting them, all you care are about how heavy they are and how high you have to throw them,” Behr continued during the same interview. “You know what that does to your soul, your equilibrium, what that does to you, your mental ability, when you become so raw, so disinterested from reality that you don't even think about things like honoring a dead person?” During his time at the camp, he later placed on a road crew laying railroads tracks to and from the camp until a Czech friend found him work in the camp's kitchen.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Theresienstadt Ghetto during World War ll

# data[].attributes.body
But, Theresienstadt quickly got overcrowded and the Gestapo began deporting the prisoners to Auschwitz. There were plans to build an SS headquarters at a satellite camp in Wulkow, Germany, and 200 volunteers would be asked to help built it. The Germans said "If you volunteer to go and build their headquarters we will not kill your folks." Since Behr wanted to keep his stepfather and mother alive, he was one of the 200 volunteers to join.  In January 1945, Robert renunited with his parents and worked in the camp kichen til the camp was liberated by the Soviet Army on May 5, 1945.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Bob Behr poses in his office in his army uniform.

# data[].attributes.body
After his liberation, Behr served in a U.S Army kitchen. In 1947, he came to the United States and  to join the U.S Army,so he could take care of his mother. His flunency in German secured him a transfer to Berlin.He was sent back to Berlin to deal with German youth activities(GYA). He was a big chief of GYA and the GPA was suppose to educate the future of German people about freedom and democracy. He left the Army in 1952, and srarted working as a regular citizen for the Air Force's 7050th Air Intelliegence Aervice Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. However, he did try to travel back and forth between Ohio and Germany.
During the 1950s, he spent time in Germany interrogating Germans who had been caught by the Soviets and detained in Siberian prisoner of war camps before being liberated. Since Behr spoke German fluently, he aided in the interrogation, attempting to attempt to put together what life was like for the POWs(prisoners of war) and provide insight into what was going on in Siberia. The Air Force called the mission "Project Wringers." Besides working with POWs, he  also helped in operations in East Germany. Behr claims "In those days, lour enemy was not Russia  it was but it wasn’t – our immediate enemy was East Germany,” he said. “They wanted people to deal with these East Germans who are fluent in German and that how I got (roped in).”
Behr up til 2017, lived in Washington D.C with his wife who have been together for more than 60 years. He volunteers at the Holocaust Memorial Musemum weekly, reminding visitors the terrible occurances during his time, and hopes for something like it to never happen again in the future.

# data[].attributes.body
The Holocaust relates to my life as it represents an event punishment towards another religion or race. Religion-ism and racism still exists today as much as it did back during the Holocaust. A connection I can make with what Bob Behr's went through and my life experience is that we both experienced obstacles that we had to come over. My struggles obviously can't be compared to being Jewish surviving a work camp during World War ll ,but we both had to go through it and continued to live our lives.

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.ushmm.org/remember/holocaust-survivors/volunteers/bob-behr

https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/751292/surviving-the-holocaust-former-soldier-af-civilian-tells-his-story/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYKj9vCGBqs

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Robert (Bob) Behr was born on March 1, 1922 in Berlin, Germany to Alfred and Lilly Behr. Alfred was a commercial real estate agent and Lilly managed their household. Robert's parents divorced when he was young, and his mother remarried a local physician, Dr. Alfred Hamburger. Robert lived with his mother and step-father, seeing his father infrequently.

Following the Nazi assumption of power in January 1933, the family became subject to Hitler's Nuremburg Laws and other antisemitic legislation despite the fact that the Behrs were staunch German patriots; both Robert's father and stepfather were World War I veterans. In 1935, German Jews were stripped of their citizenship and made to carry identity papers with new Jewish middle names: Israel for men and Sarah for women. Jewish children were no longer allowed to attend public school. In 1937 Robert was fortunate to be able to attend a German-Jewish boarding school in Sweden until the Nazi government restricted the exchange of German currency into Swedish Kroners. The German families could no longer pay tuition, forcing the school to close. The Swedish Jewish community offered to keep the children in Stockholm until it was safe to return to Germany, but Robert's mother insisted that he return to Berlin.

During Kristallnacht on November 9-10, 1938, Robert's father was arrested and sent to Buchenwald concentration camp. He was released and left for Cuba before immigrating to the United States. Robert also hoped to leave for the United States but could not secure an affidavit. On November 29, 1938, Robert and his parents were evicted from their apartment. With help from the Jewish Community Service, they found two rooms in an elderly Jewish woman's apartment. The family lived there until 1942 when Lilly and Alfred Hamburger were arrested by the Gestapo after helping a friend escape to neutral Switzerland. Robert was arrested two days later, and the family was deported to Theresienstadt where Lilly worked in the laundry and Dr. Hamburger in the hospital. Robert transported bodies for burial. He was later placed on a road crew laying railroad tracks to and from the camp until a Czech friend found him work in the camp's kitchen.

Theresienstadt quickly became overcrowded, and the Gestapo began deporting the prisoners to Auschwitz. To protect his parents from deportation in early 1944, Robert volunteered to work on the new SS headquarters at Wulkow, a satellite camp of Theresienstadt. During one of the coldest winters of the century, supply problems stalled their work. In order to keep the prisoners busy, they were given buckets and brushes and told to wash the trees! They returned to Theresienstadt in January 1945, and Robert was reunited with his parents. He worked in the camp kitchen until the camp was liberated by the Soviet Army on May 5, 1945.

In 1947, Robert immigrated to the United States where he enlisted in the United States Army, hoping to be assigned to Berlin so he could care for his mother. His German language fluency secured him a transfer to Berlin where he interrogated former Nazi personnel. Robert left the Army in 1952 and joined the United States Air Force civil service in Dayton, Ohio working as an intelligence officer. He retired in 1988 after 39 years of government service. Robert earned both a Bachelors and a Masters degree in Modern European History and became an adjunct professor at Sinclair College. He has been a volunteer at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum since 2001.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Robert (Bob) Behr was born on March 1, 1922 in Berlin, Germany to Alfred and Lilly Behr. Alfred was a commercial real estate agent and Lilly managed their household. Robert's parents divorced when he was young, and his mother remarried a local physician, Dr. Alfred Hamburger.