TRANSCRIPT: Morgan Ortagus Interviews Parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an American Hostage.
On "The Morgan Ortagus Show", Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin share stories about their son and what they know about the hostages still being held captive in Gaza.
A note from Morgan:
“I had the privilege of interviewing the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin who is one of the Americans still being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. It was a heart-wrenching conversation that I hope you will take the time to listen to or read below. Hersh is injured, scared, and his parents miss him dearly. I will not stop advocating for the release of every American hostage until they are returned safely to their loved ones.”
[Editor’s Note: This transcript has been lightly edited and condensed for ease of reading.]
MORGAN ORTAGUS:
I have an interview for all of you that is going to be a little hard to hear, but the story is incredibly important. The story is one that we all need to hear.
As a parent, it's a story that I don't want to hear because I'm here with two parents who are living my worst nightmare. The worst nightmare for any parent or grandparent listening; but we want to tell their story because we want to keep their son in the news. He is still being held hostage by Hamas and we don't want him forgotten or any of the hostages forgotten.
As our listeners know, on October 7th, not only were at least 32 Americans killed that day, but more Americans have been killed since.
We know at least 8 to 10 hostages were American hostages that were taken that day and one of those American hostages is Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
I'm here with his parents Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg, originally from the Chicago area.
Thank you both for being here.
I was in the Kibbutz in Kfar Aza this morning, and I just said a little prayer in one of the rooms that I was in, one of the safe rooms. I said, “Please, God, don't ever let this happen to my Adina. Please take me.”
I know you have to be feeling that way. I know it's hard to do this. It has to be devastating to have to talk about your son as a hostage, but let's talk about him.
Let's tell his story because he is still being held hostage and we still have the chance to get him back.
So, Rachel, I'm going to turn it over to you just to tell us about your son.
RACHEL GOLDBERG:
What can I tell you about Hersh… Hersh turned 23 on October 3rd. He is a curious, fun-loving, voracious reader, sports fan, music fan, and very respectful young man.
I like to say he's the perfect son for me. He's my eldest child. He's my only son.
He and one of his best friends on October 7th went to the music festival that was happening down south, and on Saturday morning, when rockets started falling, there were about 3,000 young people at this music festival. It was called the Nova Music Festival for Love and Light and Unity.
Hersh and one of his best friends named Aner and two other kids got into a car to try to escape, but Hamas had lined the main road and was shooting at people at point-blank range as they were coming toward them.
So you can imagine there ended up being this massive traffic jam because all these people who were driving were dead.
So Hersh's car made a U-turn, rockets were falling, and the four kids who were in the car got out and ran to a roadside bomb shelter to seek cover.
Hamas descended upon that bomb shelter.
First, they started throwing in hand grenades. Aner was standing in the doorway, from what we have witnessed and accounts of what ended up happening.
He was picking them up and throwing them back out and we actually have video footage of that from a dash cam from one of the Hamas cars. The eighth hand grenade exploded as Aner was trying to throw it out.
Two more hand grenades made it in, and then Hamas came to the doorway.
They fired in an RPG and then they came to the doorway of this room, which was 5x8 feet.
There were 29 young people mashed into this 5x8ft room, and they just sprayed the room with machine gun fire.
Most of those kids were dead right away, many were terribly wounded and dying.
There were three lucky ones below all the dead bodies that could pretend to be dead.
When Hamas came in, after the dust settled, they saw that three young men were slumped against one of the walls, wounded but alive. One of them was Hersh.
The people who were hiding under the dead bodies told us that Hamas told them to stand up and the three boys stood up, and that's when they told us that Hersh's left arm from the elbow down had been blown off. He's left-handed, as am I.
They told all three of them to go outside. They put them into a Hamas pickup truck and they drove off in the direction of Gaza.
Hersh's last phone cell signal was at 10:25 in the morning, Saturday morning, October 7th. The last communication we had with him was two text messages that he had sent us at 8:11.
They said, “I love you”. “I'm sorry”.
That's the last thing that we knew.
We happened to have received video footage of the abduction, where we can see the three boys being marched out of the bomb shelter, and put on the pickup truck. When Hersh turns to sit down, you see the stump where his left arm used to be.
That was 90 days ago.
MORGAN ORTAGUS:
Well, we are just devastated to hear that story, but I want to make sure that we continue to tell these stories.
Two of the little girls that got back to the U.S. from captivity, their uncle Dori and I were on TV together in the first week after October 7th.
And then later they were reunited, and Dori and I went back on television together to tell their story.
When you get Hersh back, I'm going to come to Israel, and I want to do the same thing that I did with Dori to tell his story and celebrate and rejoice with all of you.
We have to get these hostages back.
Jon, I want to turn to you as his father.
I know that this is tough because you have two governments essentially representing you, not only the Israeli government but the American government as well.
Are we doing enough to get your son home?
JON POLIN:
I will say that we do feel an embrace from our governments.
The United States government from the beginning has been very sympathetic. We have had several calls with President Biden and many others in his administration.
The bottom line is there's one result we are looking for here.
We want Hersh home and all the hostage families want their loved ones home, and that has not happened in 90 days.
So the answer to whether people are doing enough, is no. We have all collectively failed in our mission.
MORGAN ORTAGUS:
Do you know how many American hostages are left and then how many hostages there are in general?
I know just from meeting with you the other day that the hostage families, you all have now formed your own family, bonded through this terrible tragedy.
Can you give us a sense of who is left [in captivity]?
JON POLIN:
Sure. I believe the number of hostages remaining is 133. We know that some of them are dead.
When it comes to Americans, we believe that there are 6 still living, including Hersh, our son. There are at least 2 hostages that have unfortunately died, who were American.
MORGAN ORTAGUS:
When we were talking about the story that morning, your son had gone to the festival… I did that as a young person, something many young people do. A peace festival at that, something that wanted to bring Arabs and Israelis together.
Where were you, Rachel?
Where were you guys on the day?
Where was the rest of your family?
And maybe just tell our listeners a little bit, if you can, about that morning.
RACHEL GOLDBERG:
We live in Jerusalem and the evening before we had a Sabbath dinner- Shabbat dinner-with good friends of ours, Hersh was at that dinner. Around 11 o'clock he said, “Okay, I'm going. I'm going to go pick up Aner and we're going to go do something fun.”
And I kissed him goodbye. I'm really happy I didn't just wave.
Jon kissed him, thank God.
And he [Hersh] said, “Love you, see you tomorrow.”
Those five words.
When I woke up Saturday morning, Jon left at 7:30 to go to synagogue.
We normally go to synagogue on Shabbat, on the Sabbath.
I was still having a cup of tea in the kitchen and right around 8:00 I heard bomb sirens going off in Jerusalem, which is very unusual.
I ran to my girls' bedrooms to wake them up and we got into our bomb shelter, which every apartment in Israel has.
So, in Jerusalem, we got into our bomb shelter. The protocol is you wait 10 minutes, and if you don't hear an explosion, then you can come out.
We didn't hear anything, so we came out. Normally, I don't use my phone on the Jewish Sabbath, but because I knew that Aner and Hersh were camping out somewhere, I said, “This is a life or death situation. I have to turn my phone on.”
That was at 8:20.
When I ran to turn on my phone, those two text messages had popped up from 8:11.
I knew that when you get two messages “I love you and I'm sorry” at 8:11 from a 23-year-old, you know something horrible is unfolding.
My throat closed and my stomach clenched up. I just knew that he knew to say I'm sorry. He knew we were going to suffer terribly.
I think he thought he was dying.
We know from the timing now, and from the witness accounts, that those hand grenades were being thrown in. The bullets were coming in and I think he was saying goodbye.
I think the reason he said, “I'm sorry,” is because he really thought that he was dying.
MORGAN ORTAGUS:
That's heavy.
Thank you for sharing something so personal and so intimate with us.
Jon, as your wife Rachel was talking, it occurred to me that you're American and Israeli. Just hearing the story Rachel just told, there's a protocol whenever we go into a bomb shelter.
That's not something that the average American knows. I was in Iraq in 2007 and we had “duck and covers.” We called it a “duck and cover” which I think is very similar to your bomb shelters. We had a bomb shelter in my home in the green zone, in Baghdad.
However, the average American- because thank God we're surrounded by peaceful countries and massive bodies of water- it’s not something that I think the average American can conceptualize. What it actually feels like to have enemies surrounding you.
Can you explain to our audience of American listeners?
What it's like, not just October 7th, but on a day-to-day basis what it's like to be Israeli.
JON POLIN:
Sure.
I was thinking… what I want your listeners to understand is that Israel is a modern, first-world, technology-driven, booming economy. When we're not in the midst of war, as we have been since October 7, people walk around freely.
There's a thriving tech scene, a thriving entertainment scene, and a very active lifestyle.
Unfortunately, since October 7th, things have been fraught.
We do live in an environment now, where there are these red alert sirens that go off and the whole country has to go into bomb shelters.
Most buildings today are equipped with bomb shelters. Depending on where people are in the country when a siren goes off determines how much time they have to go inside.
Of course, a terrible way to live. I don't want there to be a single other air raid siren, ever.
I will tell you that there have been a few times, that I know of, when important people visiting have experienced them- people from the media, and from the United States government.
While I don't want there to ever be an air raid siren, I feel that it's super important to experience it, to be able to report on it, and to be able to understand what it's like to live when there's always a risk of bombs and rockets and threats around us.
MORGAN ORTAGUS:
Well, I want to thank you both for sharing. Not only what it's like to be an Israeli, but sharing this incredibly intimate story of what happened that day.
Rachel, just before we close, is there anything else?
Are there any messages that you have about your son, or to American or Israeli government officials?
Is there anything that you want the world to continue to hear?
RACHEL GOLDBERG:
First of all, if by chance Hersh can be hearing this, my mantra has been, “We love you.”
“Stay strong.”
“Survive.”
“We're coming.”
I want him to know that and all the hostages should know that.
Jon and I moved here [Israel] when we were almost 40. We are very much culturally and in our language, steeped in America.
We are very proud and grateful and we feel blessed to be American. We still pay American taxes.
We really want Americans to feel like this is your son.
There are six Americans being held hostage in a place that they don't want to be. It's the most dangerous place on earth right now.
There are 133 total people who range in age from 11 months old to 85 years old. They are from 20 different countries, and they represent 5 different religions.
People don't realize that the people being held are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist. This is a crazy humanitarian catastrophe.
I really hope and pray that Americans know about it and don't forget these people.
MORGAN ORTAGUS:
His name is Hersh Goldberg-Polin. We are not going to forget his name.
We're not going to forget him because he is an American being held hostage by a terrorist group, one of the worst terrorist groups in the world, Hamas.
He is in Gaza now, and we will continue to say his name and continue to advocate for him and all the hostages to get them out. Especially our six Americans and Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
Thank you for listening to this pretty heavy, but important interview.