Death March

Dec. 7, 1941: Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Dec. 8, 1941: Japanese bomb the Philippines, destroying many aircraft at Clark Field Dec. 22, 1941: About 43,000 Japanese troops begin the main invasion of Luzon; American and Filipino troops begin to amass on Bataan Dec. 24, 1941: Manila declared "open city" End of December 1941: Ground war in progress on Bataan Feb. 8, 1942: Japan decides to regroup after its forces are repelled ...

"Happy birthday!" my mom and her first cousin will wish each other on Sunday, even though neither was born on Jan. 27. Rather, it's the anniversary of their new lease on life, of the day the Soviet Red Army liberated them from behind the barbed wire of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945. My mom, Rena Margulies Chernoff, was 11 then, and her cousin Frieda Tenenbaum was 10. They were among the very few children who somehow survived the infamous death camp, where more than a million people - mostly Jews, including more than 200,000 children, but also gays, Poles, Soviet prisoners of war, Roma and Sinti (Gypsies)

Harry Eisen, a Polish-born Holocaust survivor who founded Norco Ranch Inc. in western Riverside County in the 1950s and built it into one of the state's leading egg producers, processors and distributors, has died. He was 95. Eisen died July 19 of complications of lung disease at his home in Beverly Hills, said his daughter, Frances Miller. When Eisen and his Polish-born wife, Hilda, immigrated to Los Angeles in 1948, they had no money and spoke no English. Eisen had managed a sausage factory and three outlets in Warsaw before World War II, but with his lack of English he could only get a job cleaning out meat barrels in a hot-dog factory in Vernon.

Dec. 7, 1941: Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Dec. 8, 1941: Japanese bomb the Philippines, destroying many aircraft at Clark Field Dec. 22, 1941: About 43,000 Japanese troops begin the main invasion of Luzon; American and Filipino troops begin to amass on Bataan Dec. 24, 1941: Manila declared "open city" End of December 1941: Ground war in progress on Bataan Feb. 8, 1942: Japan decides to regroup after its forces are repelled ...

As the Republican presidential candidates savage one another in the GOP nominating contest, advisers to President Obama said Wednesday his campaign is busy laying the groundwork for their fall campaign, registering voters, opening field offices and recruiting volunteers. Next week, they will release a 17-minute documentary about the challenges the nation was facing when Obama took office and the work his administration has done to improve the economy since then. Additionally, Vice President Joe Biden will begin a series of speeches across the nation about the administration's accomplishments.

Like all his buddies in the Philippines, Eddie Laursen was herded into a prison camp and treated to the sardonic wit of a Japanese officer. "You are now guests," the officer told the exhausted men, "of the emperor of Japan." It was April 1942. After being overwhelmed by Japanese troops, some 76,000 U.S. and Filipino prisoners of war were forced to trudge 65 miles in tropical heat with almost no water. Those who fell or protested were summarily shot or beheaded.

Those of you of my generation may remember, when reminded--and others may recall from the quick dust-off given American history in schools these days--that during this week 48 years ago, the American soldiers defending the Philippine Islands were pushed back to a place called the Bataan Peninsula where they were decimated and the remnants captured by the Japanese. The final American bastion was a fortress called Corregidor, two miles off Bataan.

Even as the United States commemorates the 50th anniversary of World War II, Army veteran Ken Hale is still amazed at how little many Americans know about the war. Hale, 72, and his friend Joe Verdugo, 74, both served in the Army's 31st Infantry Regiment in the Philippines at the beginning of the war in December, 1941, and are survivors of the infamous Bataan Death March. Both men became prisoners of war 52 years ago this month, when U.S.

Every Saturday night for years, rock 'n' roll blared from the outdoor speakers on the balcony of Charlie Minor's rented Malibu beach house. Until the frosty hours of the next morning, scores of beautiful bikini-clad women, music executives and celebrities checked in to enjoy Minor's food, drinks and hospitality, their limos swallowing up dozens of parking spots along Pacific Coast Highway.

Leon Beck has proven he can persevere. He did it when he escaped the Bataan Death March in 1942 and hid out in jungles as a guerrilla fighter for three years. And he's done it since 1953, fighting the government to try to recoup the money he says he's owed for rations and shelter during the war. "There's a principle involved in this," Beck said. "I fulfilled my contract with the Army; now they should fulfill their contract with me as an individual and an American soldier."

This post has been corrected. See the note at the bottom for details. For Dick Cooksley, the nightmares from that most trying and lethal time of his life still linger: slogging through island jungles in the dreaded Bataan Death March, watching as some of his fellow soldiers and friends were beheaded by their Japanese captors. But Cooksley, now 92 and living in Arizona, survived it all - three long years of enemy captivity in seven different camps. This week, nearly seven decades after his release, the retired Army captain received long overdue recognition of his suffering: the Bronze Star Medal.

Harry Eisen, a Polish-born Holocaust survivor who founded Norco Ranch Inc. in western Riverside County in the 1950s and built it into one of the state's leading egg producers, processors and distributors, has died. He was 95. Eisen died July 19 of complications of lung disease at his home in Beverly Hills, said his daughter, Frances Miller. When Eisen and his Polish-born wife, Hilda, immigrated to Los Angeles in 1948, they had no money and spoke no English. Eisen had managed a sausage factory and three outlets in Warsaw before World War II, but with his lack of English he could only get a job cleaning out meat barrels in a hot-dog factory in Vernon.

As the Republican presidential candidates savage one another in the GOP nominating contest, advisers to President Obama said Wednesday his campaign is busy laying the groundwork for their fall campaign, registering voters, opening field offices and recruiting volunteers. Next week, they will release a 17-minute documentary about the challenges the nation was facing when Obama took office and the work his administration has done to improve the economy since then. Additionally, Vice President Joe Biden will begin a series of speeches across the nation about the administration's accomplishments.

The longtime Bel-Air home of actress Elizabeth Taylor has come on the market at $8.6 million. Owned by Taylor since 1981, the 1960s ranch house with brick motor court sits on 1.27 acres. The 7,000-square-foot home features a wood-beam ceiling and wood-burning fireplace in the living room, which like a sitting room and the dining room, can access the pool terrace. A galley-style kitchen, powder room, a master suite, two other bedrooms, maid's quarters, an office and a bathroom with sauna complete the downstairs.

Wearing No. 20 patches to honor their slain teammate, Middle Tennessee stayed close in the early going before falling to sixth-seeded Georgia, 56-41, Sunday in the first round of the NCAA women's tournament at Auburn, Ala. Jasmine James scored eight of her 18 points over the final 5 minutes 40 seconds to lead the Bulldogs (22-10) over the 11th-seeded Blue Raiders (23-8), whose teammate Tina Stewart was stabbed to death March 2. "With everything that we have been through, it took a little bit more than pride for us to continue playing, because no one around the country has been through what we have been through," Middle Tennessee guard Kortni Jones said.

Nathan Alan Morgan, 25, was found beaten to death and buried under a mound of sand on Venice Beach on the morning of March 10, 2008. More than a year later, police still don't know who killed him or why. Just hours before his battered body was found in the area where the Venice Beach drum circle is performed, Morgan had been treated in Centinela Freeman Regional Medical Center's emergency room for an injury to his left elbow. Coroner's records show that he told hospital officials he had hurt himself while "doing gymnastics drunk."

"Happy birthday!" my mom and her first cousin will wish each other on Sunday, even though neither was born on Jan. 27. Rather, it's the anniversary of their new lease on life, of the day the Soviet Red Army liberated them from behind the barbed wire of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945. My mom, Rena Margulies Chernoff, was 11 then, and her cousin Frieda Tenenbaum was 10. They were among the very few children who somehow survived the infamous death camp, where more than a million people - mostly Jews, including more than 200,000 children, but also gays, Poles, Soviet prisoners of war, Roma and Sinti (Gypsies)

German authorities have posted a $10,000 reward for clues leading to an arrest in the firebombing of a museum honoring the victims of a Nazi death march. The attack Thursday night destroyed the main exhibition of the death march museum in the Belower Woods, which detailed how the Nazis drove concentration camp inmates deeper into Germany as the Soviet army advanced at the end of World War II, with 700 to 800 prisoners dying of exhaustion or hunger.

A man convicted 24 years ago in the murder of an elderly man in Newport Beach has been granted a new trial by a federal judge who said he was unable to participate in his own defense because of drugs the jail staff administered. James Andrew Melton, who has been on death row for almost a quarter of a century, will be returned to Orange County for retrial unless the state attorney general asks U.S. District Judge Robert M. Takasugi to reconsider his ruling or appeals the case.

My father, the war hero, abandoned his family. He couldn't cope with the responsibility any longer. Financial burdens overwhelmed him. Late one Passover night, while I was away at rabbinical college and my brothers and mother were gathered at my grandparents' Seder table, he packed his suitcases and departed Chicago for Florida. His exodus was as rushed as that of the children of Israel when they ran from Egypt. I never heard from him again. That was more than 30 years ago.