Stephan Ross
c/o Citizen's Flag Alliance
PO Box 1055
Indianapolis, Indiana 46206–1055 

A Holocaust survivor supports flag-protection in stirring Congressional testimony.

Photo: Holocaust survivor Stephan Ross testifying before Congress on March 23, 1999 
I came to America as an orphan on April 10, 1948, and I became a naturalized citizen of the United States of America on May 3, 1953.

I came to my adopted country from  a place of gas chambers, fire, ashes, and chaos.  The American people embraced me, took me under their wing, and gave me an opportunity to grow and prosper so that I could become one of them. I am proud to live free in this generous society.

Fifty years ago, American soldiers saved me from the hell of Dachau. They nursed me back to health and restored my will to live. Yet, what I remember most about my liberation is my tears being spilled on a small American flag. From that day to this, my love for our flag has never faltered.

My story begins in 1940. When I was nine years old, the Germans took me from my home in Krasnik, Poland. For five years I was a prisoner of the Nazis in ten death camps where I saw thousands of men, women, and children brutally murdered and starved or worked to death by the Nazi death machine.

I lived on bread crumbs, sawdust, garbage, and one small prayer for redemption or death—whichever was quicker.

My prayers were answered on April 29, 1945, when I was liberated from Dachau by the 42nd and 45th Infantry Divisions of the U.S. 7th Army. We were nursed for several days by these war-weary but compassionate men and women until we had enough strength to travel to Munich for additional medical attention. As we walked ever so slowly and unsteadily toward our salvation, a young American tank commander, whose name I have never known, jumped off his tank to help us in whatever way he could.

When he saw that I was just a young boy, despite my gaunt appearance, he stopped to offer me comfort and compassion. He gave me his own food. He touched my withered body with his hands and his heart. His love instilled in me a will to live, and I fell at this feet and shed my first tears in five years. He kneeled by my side and gently wiped them away with a bit of cloth. It was only later, after he had gone, that I realized that this cloth was a small American flag, the first I had ever seen. It became my flag of redemption and freedom.

For more than 50 years, I have cherished that flag. It represents the hope, freedom, and life that the American soldiers returned to me when they found me, nursed me to health, and restored my faith in mankind. That is why, today, I am working to help pass an amendment to the Constitution to protect our flag from physical desecration. The memories of those heroes who liberated me will forever be a part of me. I show my gratitude to them for delivering me from hell every time I salute the flag that was theirs then and is mine today.

Even now, 54 years later, I am overcome with tears of gratitude whenever I see our glorious American flag, because I know what it represents not only to me but also to millions around the world. Most of us have come here in search of freedom. The flag we wave today has a very special meaning to me. It reflects the hope and freedom I have enjoyed for the past 50 years.
My great appreciation of the American flag is coupled with my gratitude for and my admiration of the American soldiers who found me, freed me from the Valley of Death, and restored my faith in God, in mankind, and gave me this Flag of Freedom.
Those who come from dictatorial societies never forget how precious the American flag is to them. Perhaps only those who have had their humanity brutally torn from them, as I did, can fully appreciate this great country and what its flag represents. Yet all Americans, out of deference for the sacrifices that purchased and maintain their freedom, should revere and honor this flag.

Protest if you wish. Speak loudly, even curse our country and our flag, but please, in the name of all those who died for our freedoms, don't physically harm what is so sacred to me and to countless others. When you harm our flag, you violate my freedom to protect what once protected me, liberated me, restored my human dignity, and wiped away my tears. The price of desecration is too high. I support a constitutional amendment to preserve America's dignity, America's values, and America's flag. God bless America, and God bless our flag. 

Note: Stephan Ross, a retired senior staff psychologist for the City of Boston Community Schools, spoke these words on March 23, 1999, at a hearing on a flag-protection constitutional amendment, House Joint Res. 33, before the Constitution Subcommittee of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. Mr. Ross testified at the invitation of The American Legion-founded Citizens Flag Alliance, an advocate for the amendment comprised of more than 130 civic, fraternal (including the Scottish Rite), and veterans groups representing nearly 30 million Americans.

The proposed 28th Amendment—"The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States"— passed in the House by a vote of 310–114 last session, but did not come to a Senate vote. Representatives Randy Cunningham of California and John Murtha of Pennsylvania introduced HJR 33.  Senators Orrin Hatch of Utah and Max Cleland of Georgia introduced the companion measure, Senate Joint Res. 14.  A two-thirds vote in favor of the amendment in both houses of Congress will send the measure to the states for ratification. The U.S. Supreme Court in 1989 invalidated federal law and the laws of 48 states banning physical desecration of the U.S. Flag. For more information, contact: Joe March, Lee Harris, or Steve Thomas at The American Legion Tel: 317–630–1253; Fax: 317–630–1368; or E-mail: sthomas@legion.org.