Holocaust survivor Joshua Kaufman, 93, who lost his mother and siblings at Auschwitz before being transferred to Kaufering, a subcamp of the Dachau concentration camp, was a passenger aboard the D-Day Doll Wednesday for a celebration of the 75th anniversary of Victory Over Japan (VJ) Day.

Another passenger aboard the DC-3 aircraft happened to be WWII paratrooper Vincent J. Speranza, 95, one of the liberators of Kaufering.

After 75 years, the two met for the first time.

“I’m speechless,” Kaufman said. “I cannot express my happiness. I don’t believe it’s true, but it’s true.”

Speranza fought back tears recounting the liberation of Kaufering at the end of the war. He said the details have not faded over the years and that he can still recall the horrific sights and smells when they entered the facility.

“The ovens were still smoking with bones in them. There was a pile of bodies thrown out like garbage—babies, men, women, children,” Speranza said. “We were in a fog of anger and shock. I can’t forgive it, I can’t forget it.”

The two men embraced several times and shed tears as they spoke to one another on the tarmac outside Signature Flight Support at Long Beach Airport.

The celebratory event featured multiple WWII-era DC-3 aircraft as well as an SNJ-4 and a T-6 Texan. The eight historic planes took off from Long Beach Airport and flew a circuit over 16 cities in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.