Nazi fighter planes suddenly swooped in, strafing the ground with machine-gun fire, as U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Frank DePergola raced a Jeep through a forest in Luxembourg as the end of World War II approached, with a lieutenant in the passenger seat. more

Bernard Suskind, a 93-year-old Atlantic Beach resident, recalls the date, Nov. 10, 1938, as though it were yesterday. It was the day his life changed forever. Bernard and his father, Alfred, were taken from their hometown of Furstenau, in northern Germany, to Buchenwald, one of the Nazi concentration camps. more

The train trip still haunts Evelyn Pike Rubin more than 75 years later. It was the winter of 1939. Pike Rubin, an only child who was 8½ at the time, was steaming from Breslau, in Nazi Germany, to Naples, Italy, where she was to board a cruise ship, the Hakusaki Maru, bound for Japanese-occupied Shanghai. more

When Dave Marshall turned 18 in 1943, the world was in the midst of a major war. The United States entered the conflict late in 1941, so Marshall knew he would be drafted once he became eligible, but he had no idea what would be in store for him after that. more

Ruth Mermelstein, 84, has been a member of the East Meadow Jewish Center since she moved to the hamlet in 1955. She and her husband, Sidney Mermelstein, moved to North Bellmore 13 years later, where they raised two children, and have lived there ever since. more

April 27 marked Holocaust Remembrance Day in the U.S., as synagogues across the country held services honoring the six million Jews who were killed by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime during World War II. The East Meadow Jewish Center hosted its own Yom HaShoah service last Sunday. The synagogue has a number of Holocaust survivors, including Alex Konstantyn, who spent years as a refugee in his own country with his family, roaming the Polish countryside while evading Nazi persecution, and Ruth Mermelstein, a native Romanian who spent time in several concentration camps, including Auschwitz. more

Even as a young figure skater who was within reach of making the United States Olympic Team in 1984, speed was Jacki Munzel’s biggest asset on the ice. more

I plugged a simple search term into Google last week: “Were Afghanistan and Iraq worth it?” Tens of thousands of entries popped up. more

Christina and Santo Puglisi of Lynbrook are pleased to announce the marriage of their son, Christopher, to Silke Scheid of Oberkerchin, of Germany. Silke is the daughter of Elka Scheid and the late Eduard Scheid of Oberkirchen. more

Mepham High School graduate Sade Ayinde has been named to the 21-player roster for the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Germany this July. Sade, who recently played with the U-20 team during a two-week training camp in California, will be a junior at the University of Maryland in the fall. more