One act of Kindness

The young boy at the far left in the photograph above is Stephen Ross, a 14-year-old Jewish orphan from Poland, who said that he had survived 10 different concentration camps in 5 years before he was liberated at Dachau.

In 1939, Stephan Ross was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp in Dachau, Germany. Stephan and his brother were the only ones of their family who survived, and in 1945, they were freed along with all of the other prisoners in Dachau, thanks to allied troops. As Stephan was walking along a road, an American soldier by the name of Steve Sattler gave him his food and an American flag to remember him by.

Stephan was emotional and deeply moved by this, and it helped give him the strength to survive and continue with life.He and his brother later moved to the United States, and Stephan, who lives in Boston, now helps troubled teens.(Picture below of Stephan Ross and his son)

For 67 years Stephen Ross looked for a soldier who shared his food with him when he was starving, who gave him a handkerchief-sized American flag, and showed him kindness after years of being beaten, starved, having medical experiments done on him, and more.

Ross spent years trying to track down a kind soldier that helped save his life. He even went on the television show “Unsolved Mysteries” in an effort to reconnect with him.

On August 26, 2012, Stephan Ross received a call from the granddaughter of his American hero, Sadly to report that Steve Sattler died on December 7, 1986. Despite the disappointment of the bad news, he was excited at the prospect of finally finding word of the soldier after sixty-seven years.

On November 11, 2012, Stephan Ross was united with descendents of Lt. Steve Sattler at a Veterans Day ceremony in the Massachusetts State House.