Reprinted with permission from The Insider.

Howard Triest and his wife Anita lived around the block from me in Oak Park. I grew up with his son, Brent, and younger brother Glenn. During the 1950s and ‘60s, it was not unusual to see tattoos on the arms of our friends’ parents. We were too young to know the pain and suffering these markings represented. They kept most of their shocking stories to themselves. Howard was a survivor. He wasn’t in the camps but experienced another type of horror.

Looking back, Oak Park was an idyllic city to grow up in. It was primarily Jewish and had all the amenities a child could desire — a park with an outdoor swimming pool, tennis courts, baseball fields, an ice-skating rink, and a famous hill used for sledding in the winter months. There were sidewalks for bike riding and we, the Baby Boomers, thought we had it all. Our school system was top notch, and parents were pleased with their choice to live in this special city and put the past to rest.

Brent and I attended the same schools and graduated from Oak Park High in 1970. Our friendship and memories of those early days remain intact. Years later, I discovered that Brent had moved to Huntington Woods. I lived there as well. Ironically, we raised our families in a city that was quite similar to the one in our youth.

I had the pleasure of teaching Brent’s son, Jonathon, and then his sister, Katie, when they were in high school. Our granddaughters are also friends. I have said it many times — Oak Parkers have a deep connection.

Howard and his sons were the catalyst behind Journey to Justice. Knowing their father’s backstory, the threesome began working on the documentary in 2003, when Howard was 80 years old. Glenn was an accomplished photographer, and Brent was involved in the investment world while also dabbling in television. This dynamic team decided to put a plan into action.

They asked Steve Palackdharry, a documentary filmmaker from the Detroit area, if he would be interested in pursuing their project. His initial response was not exactly what Brent and Glenn anticipated — he had reservations.

He told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, ‘The historical and artistic record of the Holocaust is so rich already, I wondered what I could add to it. But the Nuremberg angle was unique to me. This is such an unusual story.”

Palackdharry ultimately decided to join the team and became the writer and director. Brent and Glenn were the executive producers.

The group traveled to five countries in three years to chronicle the experiences of their father. Howard’s wife and his sister Margot joined the team and the documentary began to take shape.

The film centered around Howard’s life. Howard began as a happy child, but then became a refugee, a soldier, and an interpreter for three psychiatrists at the Nuremberg Tribunal from 1945 to 1946. Attempts were being made there to evaluate the Nazi officials charged with crimes against humanity, and Howard was the messenger. These monsters were responsible for the deaths of millions of Jews, including Howard’s parents, and the majority of his extended family.

Howard, a German Jew, was born in 1923. He had a close-knit family and enjoyed a privileged childhood. But as Hitler’s extermination machine was ramping up, Howard’s parents, Berthold and Ly, knew they had to remove their children from the perilous situation that was developing in their homeland.

In 1939, at the age of sixteen, Howard left Germany and arrived in Luxembourg on the day that World War II began. Two weeks later the situation improved when Howard’s parents and Margot finally joined him there.

After spending eight months in Diekirch, the Triests still hoped to sail together to the United States. But finances precluded that notion — there was only enough money for Howard to book passage. Howard arrived in the United States when he was 17.

In May 1940, when the Germans invaded the Netherlands and Belgium, Howard’s father Berthold was arrested and held for some time. Margot and her mother then left for France to be near Berthold. It was a perilous journey. Dreams of escape and a better life were fading.

Unfortunately, Berthold and Ly were arrested in France in 1942 and sent to Camp Drancy, an internment camp near Paris. Margot tearfully said her last good-byes to her parents by the railroad tracks. She was only 13 years old.

Berthold and Ly were deported to Auschwitz on August 26th, 1942. They were murdered.

Margot eventually found her way to a home for refugee Jewish girls near Limoges, France. She survived due to the help of the OSE — a Jewish children’s rescue organization. As the situation worsened in France, and children were being herded to concentration camps, the staff put Margot and 10 other girls on a train to a town close to the Swiss border. Miraculously, Margot and her band of brave children crossed safely into Geneva.

While in the U.S. Howard worked in a tool factory and tried multiple times to enlist in the armed forces. Eventually he was drafted and in 1944 became a proud serviceman. Howard landed at Omaha Beach on June 7 (the day after D Day) and witnessed intense combat during the Normandy Invasion. He observed in the film, "The life expectancy for a machine-gunner like me wasn’t too long.”

Howard’s battalion subsequently liberated Buchenwald concentration camp. He reported that he was “shocked at the sight of the mounds of bodies and the skeletal, haunted looking survivors.”

Howard’s course then quickly changed when an officer realized Howard could speak fluent German and he was whisked away for intelligence duty.

In 2006, Journey to Justice premiered at Oakland University for two consecutive evenings. It received rave reviews.

Brent recalled that his father liked the documentary. “He had wanted this story to be well presented for a long time. And I was, and continue to be, so pleased we were able to finish it in time for him to enjoy its multiple showings and chances to answer audience questions at a number of venues. It was a beautiful project to work on with my father and Glenn.”

And while I was teaching at Berkley High School in 2006, I asked my childhood friend Brent to share his father’s story with the younger generation. Students had just finished reading Night by Elie Weisel, and the discussions were still fresh in their minds. Brent and Steve were eager to meet with the senior class and view the documentary along with them. They introduced the film and fielded questions afterward — it was a true learning experience for all.

Then in 2023, Katie Triest Brent’s daughter, who lives in Telluride, received a call from a friend with exciting and strange news. While perusing the internet for Howard’s documentary to share with her son, she noticed an article announcing that a new film, Nuremberg, was in the works and that English actor Leo Woodall was being cast as Howard Triest.

Katie’s reaction was mixed — one of confusion and delight. She commented on a Facebook post, “Hollywood doesn’t typically contact families about films being made about them, so we were in the dark about what the movie was going to focus on or how my grandfather would be portrayed.

"When the trailer dropped for the movie, it was cool but still, we had no details.”

Brent shared similar thoughts. “There were mixed feelings in the family about the film’s direction and how they were going to represent the character ‘Howie’ Triest, a name, by the way, he never would use. We were at first a bit concerned, but as it turned out, it is something I think my father would have enjoyed. Plus, a good-looking, famous actor playing him — he would have liked that.”

Last month, much to Katie’s surprise, she thought she spotted Leo Woodall in Telluride. Katie is not a shy person and approached him and asked, “Hey, are you Leo?” After his quick acknowledgement she came right out and said, “This is kind of strange, but you are playing my grandfather in Nuremberg.”  Leo just happened to be in town for a premiere of another movie he was featured in.

There were instant hugs, tears and time spent talking about her grandfather. Katie then received a heartwarming invitation from Leo to attend the premiere of Nuremberg in Toronto with her family. Due to previous commitments only Katie, her friend Rachel, and brother Jonathon were able to travel to the premiere.

Katie recalls that the weekend in Toronto was “surreal.” She says, "After watching my papa’s story unfold with accuracy on a big screen, it brought such relief. It was clear to me that Leo cared about depicting my grandfather accurately and was invested in making sure it was told with grace and honor. I know that my papa would approve.”

Jonathon reacted in a similar manner to his sister. Says Jonathon, “I just kept thinking how happy my grandfather would have been with Leo Woodall’s portrayal of him. In Toronto and at the premiere. Leo was so kind to me and Katie. He expressed how genuinely interested he was in getting the part right. I think he nailed it.”

Nuremberg will debut in theatres on November 7th. With two Academy Award-winning actors, it should prove to be riveting.

Russell Crowe is cast as Hermann Göring, the highest-ranking German military officer under Hitler, and Rami Malik is one of the psychiatrists assigned to evaluate these brutal criminals. Other complicit defendants were Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s former deputy, Julius Streicher, the infamous propagandist, and Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Hoess. There were over 20 captured prisoners held for trial.

Little did Howard Triest know, at the age of 22, that he would be writing history when he was commissioned to the secret military prison housing the Nazi high command in 1945. Nuremburg was their last stand, and many did not back down from their warped mission to exterminate the Jewish race.

Howard left lasting words about his encounters with the prisoners.

“I’d seen these people in the time of their glory, when the Nazis were the rulers of the world. These rulers had killed most of my family, but now I was in control.”

“We treated them in a civil way; I kept my hate under control when working there. You couldn’t betray how you really felt because you wouldn’t get anything out of their questioning. I had a job to do.”

“I never shook hands with any of them.”

Howard passed away in 2016 – May his memory be for a blessing.