Michael Nelson

Photo portrait session of Dr. Renata Laxova who was on the last train out of Prague, Czechoslovakia on the Kindertransport in 1939 | upstairs | with Breenie | living roomDr. Renata Laxova’s Story Renata Polgar Laxova was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia in 1931.  At the age

Map used by Al and Mike to navigate Walk in Remembrance for Days One and Two | route marked in blue Route of Day One start | Blechhammer Concentration Camp | First night's camp location | Debowa ReservoirAl and Mike walked 180 miles in 10 days from

Press On | A Walk to Remember | Blechhammer to Gross-Rosen Panoramas from Gross-Rosen Konzentrationslager | Apellplatz | entrance to concentration camp | gallowsGuard tower overlooking campnew prisoners documentation photosart work depicting prisoners | barracks storage lockersgranite quarry were prisoners were forced to work Portraits from a Walk to

Press On | Walk in Remembrance Day Ten routeIn a marathon effort Al and Mike walked 30 miles from their campsite in the Sudety Mountains to the former Nazi concentration camp of Gross-Rosen.  Icy mountain roads and strong winds in the open terrain made the

Press On | Walk in Remembrance Day Nine routeAl and Mike pushed hard today.  Up early and on the road they covered 20 miles with tough going on snow covered mountain roads in just above freezing temperatures.   The Death March, as historical documents showed, veered

Press On | Walk in Remembrance Day Eight routeAl and Mike - in windy conditions and walking along a major road - were able to cover 17 miles.  As darkness fell they approached the city of Dzierzoniow and were told by a local outdoor enthusiast

Press On | Walk in Remembrance Day Seven routeAl and Mike woke early and started walking as the sun rose.  With warm temperatures in the upper 30s and relatively open terrain and making their way through small villages, there were able to press on and

Press On | Walk in Remembrance Day Six routeAl and Mike along with Maciej Szop and his dog Rudy walked 15 miles in moderate above freezing temperatures along a hilly route eventually finding a camping spot next to Lake Otmuchowskie. Scenes from the walk |  from

Press On | Walk in Remembrance Day Five routeAl and Mike got an early start and walking primarily only rural routes were able to complete 16 miles in moderate sunny winter temperatures with daytime high of 35 degrees F and nighttime temperatures dipping into the

Press On | Walk in Remembrance Day Four routeAfter an early morning press interview in Niemyslovice, commemoration ceremony at the Laczki massacre site and a school lecture in Biskupow, Al and Mike were only able to cover seven miles in sunny slightly above freezing day

Press On | Walk in Remembrance Day Three routeAfter another long day on the walk which took Al and Mike from their campsite near the abandoned Jewish cemetery outside of Glogowek along the busy 40 roadway and with a brief lunch stop at Laskowice, they

Press On | Day Two route | Kobylice to GlogowekA late breakfast stop outside the Catholic Church in Lezyce (Lenschutz)Al’s journal entry 22 January 2020 Day 2  /  22 Jan AM: 27 degrees F  PM: 29 degrees F Cloudy all day, wind, rain, snowflakes Kobylice

Press On | Day One route | Blechhammer Concentration Camp to Debowa | "(Garmin inReach tracking and mapping)" Al Willner and fellow walker Mike Bayles set out on a 170 miles walk to retrace Al's father's Death March from Blechhammer to Gross Rosen.   75 years ago today

Press On | Walk of Remembrance will commemorate the World War II death march that German Jewish teenager Eddie Willner, along with 4,000 other concentration camp prisoners in his group, were forced to endure. 75 years ago, in January 1945, as the Soviet Army

Gathering Earth | The Eddie Willner story tells the amazing Holocaust survivor story of German teenager Eddie Willner from growing up in Monchengladbach, Germany to his flight to Belgium following Kristallnacht in November 1938 and six years later his dramatic escape from the Langerstein Death

Further episodes of Press On | The Eddie Willner Story will be posted in the future

Here is the third episode of Press On:  The Eddie Willner story Press On | The Eddie Willner Story

Here is the second episode of Press On:  The Eddie Willner Story

This is the first episode of The Eddie Willner Story

It’s been almost a year since I retired after a 36-year long career as a wire service photojournalist.  I spent much of the first part of the year grappling with no longer having a career and a monthly pay check.  Except for a