More than 250 students at The John Carroll School in Bel Air learned powerful lessons about tolerance, understanding and moral courage through an extraordinary story that connects two families across generations.
WATCH: Two Maryland men discover their fathers' World War II connection when sergeant saved 200 lives at concentration camp
The remarkable tale began when Steven DiBiagio, president of The John Carroll School, shared the story of his late father Raymond during a school event. Raymond DiBiagio served as a sergeant in the 84th Infantry during World War II.
"They got to the bottom of the hills they were coming up. It looked like a prison camp, except the prisoners were skeletons. So they started dragging these prisoners, these bodies, down into this pit and as they started to pile up, my dad looked down and one of the corpses blinked. And my father, 18 years old, said, my God, these men are alive," DiBiagio said.
In the audience that day was Steven Salzberg, whose father had been held at the Ahlem concentration camp during the Holocaust.
"My dad grew up in the town of Lodge, Poland. And he was Jewish. He was from a family of eight. Only two of them survived the war," Salzberg said.
By the end of DiBiagio's presentation, Salzberg realized something incredible. On April 10, 1945, Sergeant Raymond DiBiagio's unit liberated the Ahlem camp. Salzberg's father was one of about 200 lives he saved.
The moment of recognition was captured during the spring 2024 event.
"Your father liberated my father," Salzberg told DiBiagio.
"Oh my God," DiBiagio responded.
"Thank you," Salzberg said, as applause filled the room.
DiBiagio, a devout Catholic, and Salzberg, an observant Jew, call their connection faith and credit the power of the lessons of the Shoah, the Hebrew word for Holocaust.
"In Jewish tradition, the Talmud has an expression that says whoever saves one life, it's as if they've saved an entire world," DiBiagio said.
Their story has resonated with students like Kiren Allen, a Towson High School senior who witnessed the spring moment.
"Knowing that there's been friendships built upon it and that they're so consistent. It just shows how we're being able to still move forward as a society and show love and to be able to support each other and hold each other up, even in tough situations," Allen said.
The two men, strangers until a year ago, have formed an unlikely bond thanks to their fathers and what happened more than 80 years ago.
"It's an unbelievable story. You'll go through life and you'll see things that will change what you're doing and change how you think about yourself, and more importantly, change how you impact others," DiBiagio said.
Salzberg co-founded Generations of the Shoah International, an organization dedicated to preserving Holocaust education and memory.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
