Bernard Storch: Holocaust Survivor, Soldier, and Camp Liberator Part II

. Soviet infantry crossing a river in Poland, 1944: WASHINGTON (VR)-- Andrew Hiller resumes his conversation with Bernard Storch, picking up the story when Storch goes into action on the Eastern Front in WWII. Bernard's first combat mission was a qualifed success, 2,000 soldiers were wounded, but the hill was taken. Shortly thereafter, the Germans forced a retreat. Storch says it is the only time his unit ever retreated.  Bad water, did however, remove him from the field. Dysentery nearly cost him his life. When he recovered, he re-enlisted and was assigned to an infantry unit where he served for the rest of the war. In 1944, he began the push into Poland before reaching Germany. He helped liberate a number of termination camps, wading through ash that he didn't realize was human remains. He says duty kept him going, but what he saw prevented sleep in those days. "They kept a people overnight in a church believe it or not. They got undressed in that church and we found out later after the fact that they had buses there from the christians that they had German buses,...

Read More........ → December 11, 2015

UK failing children on poverty, education

British children are faring worse than those in many other rich countries in terms of child poverty and alcohol abuse, despite the UK rising to the 16th best country for a child to grow up in, according to a new report from UNICEF. VoR's Nima Green reports on the findings. Sixteenth place is a considerable improvement on UNICEF’s previous report in 2007 when Britain limped in last, but there are several areas in which Britain is still lagging behind. Study areas: UNICEF looked into five areas, including child poverty, health and safety, education, behaviour and housing conditions. The Netherlands is labelled the best place for a child or teenager to grow up in, along with Finland, Sweden and Germany. Countries at the bottom of this year’s league table include the United States, Romania and Lithuania. However, for Britain, the report shows that children here have worse prospects in life in several areas, including a higher percentage of children living in poverty than other European countries like Slovenia and the Czech Republic. Anita Tiessan, the deputy executive director...

Read More........ → January 19, 2015

Mobile phones turn 40

. Forty years ago Motorola engineer Martin Cooper made the first mobile phone call by calling a competitor at another telecoms company, telling them he was speaking from "a real cellular telephone". VoR’s Daniel Cinna reports on the legacy of Cooper's first call. The early days: The first mobile phone was around nine inches long, weighed more than a kilogram and the battery lasted for just 20 minutes, but took 10 hours to charge - quite different from what we are used to today. But 40 years ago today, using the first mobile phone, Motorola engineer Martin Cooper made the first mobile phone call. The recipient? His rivals at AT&T in America, to say that he’d beaten them to the discovery, which paved the way to an £800bn mobile telecoms industry. Unheard-of: Dr Mike Short is from the Institute of Engineering and Technology: “It was absolutely amazing because until then there had been police car to police car type communication. But the idea of calling someone on a landline from a radio device was unheard of. It was a major technical breakthrough in the sense that...

Read More........ → December 07, 2014