BOSTON (AP) – It was a simple act of kindness by a complete stranger, but it left a lasting impression on a young Polish boy escaping the horrors of Nazi death camps.
Steve Ross searched for decades for the U.S. soldier that had comforted and fed him as Dachau concentration camp was being liberated by Allied forces in 1945. As Ross carved out a new life in America, he retold the story countless times, carrying with him the American flag handkerchief the soldier left him.
“My father was absolutely transformed by that small act,” said Michael Ross, a former Boston City Council president and onetime mayoral candidate. “It helped him regain his faith in humanity. It shows that these things we do in life have profound consequences. That how we treat each other matters.”
Ross’ search for the benevolent soldier and his life after the war is recounted in a new documentary screened in the Boston suburb of West Newton on Wednesday evening.
“Etched in Glass: The Legacy of Steve Ross” focuses on the five years Ross spent in concentration camps to his life as a war orphan in America, his career helping at-risk youths in Boston and his successful efforts to erect the striking glass New England Holocaust Memorial in downtown Boston.