RelatioNet AA BB 11 CC DD
Full Name (Survivor)
Interviewer:
Full Name/s
Telephone: +972-972-09-0000000 Fax: +972-972-09-0000000
Mobile: +972-972-052-3333333 Email: aaa@bbbbbb.net
ICQ: No
Messenger: No
Address: Town Country
Survivor:
Code: RelatioNet AA BB 11 CC DD
Family Name: Family First Name: First Name Middle Name: Middle Name
Father Name: Father Name Mother Name: Mother Name
Birth Date: 1/01/1925
Town In Holocaust: Town Country In Holocaust: Country
Profession (Main) In Holocaust: Profession
Status (Today): Alive/Dead
If Dead - Death Place: Town Country Death Reason: Death Reason Year Of Death: Year
If Alive - Address Today: Town Country
Email: aaa@bbbbbb.net
Relatives:
Code: RelatioNet AA BB 11 CC DD
Family Name: Family First Name: First Name Middle Name: Middle Name
Father Name: Father Name Mother Name: Mother Name
Relationship (to Survivor): Relationship
Birth Date: 1/01/1925
Town In Holocaust: Town Country In Holocaust: Country
Profession (Main) In Holocaust: Profession
Status (Today): Alive/Dead
If Dead - Death Place: Town Country Death Reason: Death Reason Year Of Death: Year
If Alive - Address Today: Town Country
Email: aaa@bbbbbb.net
The Jews of Cracow during World War 2:
On the eve of World War 2, 60000 Jews lived in Cracow out of a total population of 250000. During the first days of the war thousands of Jews fled from Cracow.
On September 6, 1939, German troops occupied Cracow and began persecuting the city's Jewish population. In late October, the Nazis made Cracow the capital of the "General Government". A Jewish committee was set up and declared a "Judenrat".
In May 1940, the Nazis commenced expelling Jews of Cracow to nearby towns, in an effort to make it "free of Jews". By March 1941, approximately 40000 Jews had been kicked out of their homes, and only 11000 remained. That same month, the German authorities established a ghetto in the southern part of Cracow. Cracow Jews were forced inside, as were several thousand Jews were from nearby communities. They were subjected to overcrowding and unsanitary conditions. In addition, the Germans installed several factories within the ghetto in order to take advantage of the cheap Jewish manpower.
Within the ghetto, several Jewish organizations were created to improve the conditions. In October 1942, many groups united under one underground organization, called the Jewish Fighting Organization. Its leaders decided they would fight on the polish side of Cracow. The resistance managed to launch 10 operations outside the ghetto. In late 1943, two of the underground leaders were caught. The underground dissolved after their disappearance.
On March 19, 1942, the Germans initiated a terror operation, against the ghettos. At the end of May, the Germans commenced deporting the remaining people in the ghetto to extermination camps. During the operation, which lasted until June 8, 300 Jews were killed on the spot and 6000 were deported to Belzec. After that action the area comprising the ghetto decreased by half, while there were still 12000 Jews living there. In late October, the authorities embarked on a second action, during which the deported 7000 Jews to Belzec and Auschwitz and shot 700 instantly. Following this action the Nazis further reduced the ghetto's area and divided the remaining part into two, one part for the working Jews, and the other for the rest of the prisoners.
In March, 1943, the Germans transferred the 2000 working Jews to the Plaszow camp, and proceeded to liquidate the rest of the ghetto, murdering 700 Jews on the spot and deporting 2300 to Auschwitz. Only a few hundred of the Jews who had been transferred to Plaszow survived the war.
Interview
Before the War our family was financially stable: we had a servant and I even went on a vacation twice to Zakopan, in the mountains of Poland, for two months in the winter. I was there as a kid so I liked to play, catch butterflies, pick blueberries and strawberries and play by the streams of water. I also liked playing with bunnies in the stable.
I especially remember the holidays. We always did everything together. At Pesach we had the Seder in our home and I always found the Afikoman. In Succoth we built a Succa out of wood and in Purim there was an Adloyada and the school band played while everyone wore costumes and marched in a parade.
I studied in the "Mizrahi" school where I had Jewish friends like me. After school we usually fought with Polish kids from other schools, but I also had Polish friends. One of them once told me that I was a good guy but I crucified Jesus and I answered that I didn't remember doing that. I have only one sister who's older than me by about a year. We used to fight a lot, she annoyed me and I hit her even though she was older than me.
When the war started many prohibitions were made on Jews such as: Jews couldn't go to school, Jews from the age of twelve had to wear a patch with the Star of David, Jews couldn't walk through squares and parks, only a small number of the Jews were allowed to use the tram, Jews had to give all their property to the Germans and each Jew was allowed to have only 2000 zlotys. Before that we soled all our property so the Germans didn't have much to take. They took radios, furs, wedding rings, jewelry and holy vessels and we had to give then everything with no arguments. Once, dad went to sell property and the Germans caught him and forced him to clean the sidewalk.
On Yom Kippur the Germans went from one house to another and took the men to work in the S.S camps. Dad was afraid to get out so all the burden of selling the property fell on me and I was the supporter of the family. When I was a smuggler I risked my life and my family was dependent on me.
In the village next-door there was a girl who I can't forget. She was about 12 years old; she had a long braid and a mischievous smile. Her name was Hana'le Haimovich. I really loved her but I don't know how she felt about me as she died during the war.
In 1940 general Hans Frank, the governor of Poland and Hitler's lawyer didn't want Jews to live in Krakow so they were expelled to all sorts of towns and villages around Krakow. Whoever stayed in Krakow was sent to the termination camp in Balzac. The ghetto of Krakow was founded in 1941 and the Germans put there all the people who could work there, about 12000 were Jews. The weak ones were sent to termination camps. I was only 14 but I lied and said I was 16 so that I could work and stay alive. I worked in a German airport.
From there I was sent to Plashov camp and I was there for half a year. I worked in a cemetery and smashed tombstones. After that I worked at the S.S camp and cleaned the snow in the yard, carried coal to the basement and cleaning the military base. After that I worked as a painter's assistant.
A day before the destruction of all the ghettoes (March 13th 1943) I was sent to Shevnia, where they brought all the Jew's property, and there I sorted it and looked for valuables which were hidden in the clothes.
In the camp, there was a girl name Lala, In Polish; doll. Once, On Easter night, the Germans got drunk and sent someone to call 40 Jewish girls, who lived in the women's shed. They were brought to the Germans camp, and they raped them. The next morning, the camp commander found out about it, and he said that "it's embarrassment to the German race that a German would sleep with a Jew" so he commanded them to take all the 40 girls to the forest near the camp, and kill them. Of course, they undressed them first. When the cart came with their clothes, I recognized Lala's dress. She was 15 or 16 years old. I hugged the dress, and cried... In the camp I also made friends with a boy called Yosef Shviatovich (who I have just recently met here in Israel).
An incident in Shevnia, which left me with a mighty impression, is the story about a mechanic, who couldn't fix the camp officer's car, because he didn't have spare parts. So he got 50 lashings, and passed out. He was taken off the table that was meant for whipping, and the commander told him: "I'm going for a few days. If you don't fix my car by the time I'll be back-you will be dead." The commander left, and the mechanic, along with his assistant, wearing S.S uniforms, cracked the money box, took the money and the car-and ran off to Hungary.
There was a law in the camp: for each person who escaped, they would kill 10 people, and if someone killed or hurt one of the guards, they killed 100 people. Apparently, my friend Gosty and her sister Rosy helped the mechanic escape. Rosy and Gosty were wonderful girls. Once I told Rosy that I don't know what happened to my parents and sister-maybe he's in Plashov, and she said:
"Write a letter."
"Why, Rosy? Are you kidding me?"
"I'm not. Write a letter, I'll give it to Pyecha and he will pass it over to Plashov."
I wrote the letter, and dad got it through Pyecha, which allowed him to answer me! That's how I got a letter from dad.
Anyway, on the next formation, a S.S man who replaced the commander while he was gone, told Gosty to step out of the line. Her younger sister, Rosy, asked to be killed instead of Gosty, because her older sister had 2 kids. The S.S man didn't think too much: he killed Rosy, and after he did, he killed Gosty. I remember how I looked at the two beautiful girls. Their heads was smashed, because the Germans usually shot the Jews in their head. They both lay down a meter in front of me. After that, the S.S man called the "capush", the informer who reports and cooperates with them, who said to the S.S: "No, I didn't know, I didn't hear. I'm not guilty…" but it didn't help him. He got shot too. I don't feel sorry. Originally, he was from ghetto Lavov. I knew he was a capush, because once he entered the kitchen and asked for a special food: potatoes. I approached Mrs. Ribrnshtok, who was the kitchen manager and she said: "Be careful! He is a capush, give him whatever he wants, he is a dangerous man and he can also inform the S.S. with no reason."
We were kept standing in the formation and the Germans ordered us to be counted. Every 10th person left the line, undressed, and was shot on his head. (The command to get undressed was because the Germans wanted to preserve every valuable thing. I don't know what they did with those clothes, maybe they sent them to factories, or maybe to Germany). Many people were killed at that horrible night.
But the story doesn't end here. The next morning, I saw Gosty's two adorable kids pass by the kitchen, until than they had been hiding inside the shed and didn't get out. I asked them where they would go, but they didn't answer me. I will never forget what happened next, they left the shed and the 6 years old kid said to his little brother: "Come, Laosh, we have no reason to live here. Dad is dead, and they killed mom and aunty too. We have nothing left…" They went to the line, and didn't come back. They were killed. I don't know what the kids knew, but they chose to die.
I was in Shevnia until November 1943 and then I was sent to Auschwitz.
I was at a camp-quarantine for three months. This is the place where the Germans put the new people and then chose the people who were capable of working through natural selection: They forced us to run and whoever couldn’t make it died in Auschwitz.
I was sent to work in a coal mine where I worked until January 18, 1945, until the Russian army came close. The Germans blew up all the gas cells and the incinerators so that no one would be able to blame them. The people who were there were lead on the "Death Walk" to Germany to all sorts of other camps and whoever fell got shot. I walked for 3 days on foot towards Germany until we got to the city Glayvitz. Then we drove 10 days on the train, 100 people in every wagon. For 13 days we didn't eat anything, I ate a bit of snow. Only about 5 people survived from every wagon, the rest died.
We arrived to the city Dora (west-south of Berlin) where there was a missile factory where I worked as an etcher. After a month the Americans became close so there was a second "Death Walk" and we arrived to Bergen Belzen camp.
In April 15, 1945, The English people released the camp. I weighed 24 kilos when I was already 19. After two weeks I recovered and after a while I decided to go to Poland in order to search for my family. Before we split we decided that if anyone of us stayed alive after the war, then he should come to the village near Krakow, where we hid. So after the war I went to that village and waited a couple of days until I met my sister.
I also met the mechanic from Shevnia. I asked him if he knew that when had ran off, they killed Gosty and Rosy, the two kids and many others, and he answered me: "Yes, I know. What could I do? Gosty really helped me, but I didn't have a choice, we would have been killed one way or another. His being saved cost Goty's, her sister's and her kids lives, and many others, but when I spoke to him I saw without a doubt that he wasn't at peace with the fact that so many people were killed in order to save his life. His conscious kept torturing him.
My sister told me mom was in Prague so we went there to meet her. She was very surprised to meet me. She thought I was dead because someone told her he saw how I got killed. We were all very happy and finding dad was the only thing left.
From Prague we moved to Pilzen, a city in the south of Czechoslovakia that was under American authority. From there we have been taken by train to a "displaced persons camp" in Lansberg. There I met a person who told me he had seen my father being released from a camp in Germany.
Shortly before sunrise I escaped from the camp and started walking in the direction of Augsburg, because I knew that if dad was released in Bohnoald he should be in Augsburg, Ulm and Stuttgaart. I had only a tiny bag with a shirt, a piece of bread and a container. I had no money. Sometimes I hitchhiked because there were no trains. On one truck, which took me, I made friends with another passenger, a German boy who told me that he was a member of the Hitler-yugand. I told him I was from a concentration camp and we still kept talking. Finally I got to Augsburg, and there I looked for Jews to ask them about my father. Everywhere I met Jews they gave me food and helped me as much as possible, but no one had heard of my father.
Since I couldn't find him there I moved to the next city Ulm and from there to Stuttgaart. There, when I asked one of the Jews if he knew my father, he said that he didn't but he pointed at a Jew from Krakow and said that maybe he would know something. I approached the Jew and asked the same question.
"Yes" he answered "I know him. I even got a postcard from him"
That was before Rosh Hashanah and the Jew showed me the Shana-Tova card that he had received from my father. I recognized his handwriting and I wanted to run and see him, I could barely stop my feet… He told me that my dad was in Stuttgaart and got sick with Typhus so they took him to a hospital to Heidelberg, a university city with hospitals that weren't damaged after the war. Finally I had a trace. I thanked him and started walking towards Heidelberg. But what are the odds of finding one person among thousands of refugees looking for each other?
On my way a German driver took me to where I wanted and when I got to Heidelberg it was already dark, curfew time, so the guard at the hospital didn't agree to let me in. While we were arguing a nun came and asked what the problem was. I said that I was told that my father was here and that I was looking for him. "Who's your father?" she asked. "His name is Zukerbrod" I answered. "He's in my unit, come on in" said the nun. Before I entered to see him she told me to wait. "I want to tell him slowly, so he won't get a shock". She entered and asked him if he was ready for a visit. "A visit?" asked my father "Now? At night? Who can visit me this late?" I walked in.
"Who are you? What do you want?" asked my father.
"You have greetings from your family. Your wife and children are alive" I said.
"I don't believe you. Who are you? Tell me!"
I thought for a moment and then I said "Look dad, I'm your son".
He still didn't believe me and started questioning me: "What's your name? Where did we live? Which village did we live in after Krakow?...."
The last time he saw me I was a thin14 year old boy. Now, I was 18 years old and changed. My father's shock was huge and I was very excited.
When dad got tired of all the questions the nun gave me food and offered me a bed on the porch. Dad couldn't sleep all night. The next morning he woke me up. "I came to see if you have a beauty spot above your lip on the right" he said and then started mumbling with excitement "you do…you really do…"
Now he knew I was his son.
We waited a couple of days until dad got better (because after typhus he had water in his lungs) and then we headed towards Lansberg. The road wasn’t easy since dad's health was still unstable but after a few days we got to the "displaced persons camp", where my mother and sister were. I was so thrilled that I could find dad and reunite the family!
We were probably the only family in all the camp where all the sons stayed alive. The wonder was even more considering how almost all the family died. Of all my dad's 6 brothers and sisters and their children – only three cousins survived. Of my school mats, I found only one until today.
After the war I started to learn mechanics in Germany and I worked as a driver in the "displaced persons camp" in Lansberg, and then I started working in the Jewish agency and smuggled Jewish kids to Israel. I wanted to participate and fight in Israel's war of independence in 1948, so I immigrated to Israel and enlisted into the army.
Two years later I was released and started to work so I could establish and build a family. In total, I was in the army for 2 years and 26 years in reserve duty. I fought in the Sheshet Hayamim war, the Hatasha war and the Yom Kippur war.
After the army I worked as a mechanic for 14 years. Later I became independent and I built my own garage.
I had no childhood or any adolescence. I had to grow up at once, due to the reality. My life was too hard for me to start all over again, without education, and built a magnificent family but I did it. I wanted to give my children all the things I didn't get when I was their age.
posted by RelatioNet Katza @ 4:43 AM
0 comments
