Jacob Wasserman
Jacob was the eldest of three sons born to religious Jewish parents in the city of Krakow. His father was a flour merchant. The Wassermans spent summer vacations near Proszowice at a farm owned by their grandfather, who also ran a flour mill.
1933-39: In March 1939, at the age of 13, Jacob celebrated his bar-mitzvah. That summer, his family vacationed as usual at his grandfather's farm. They returned to a nightmare. Krakow had been occupied by the Germans on September 6. Jews were not allowed to walk on the sidewalks, to ride streetcars, or even to own radios. Jacob and his family were even afraid to walk in the streets because Jews were often kidnapped and beaten.
1940-45: In 1940, Jacob's family retreated to the farm. Early one Saturday, the Jews in the area were rounded up. They were being marched into Proszowice when a Polish policeman—two dead bodies next to him—motioned to Jacob demanding why he hadn't greeted him "Good morning." As Jacob came closer the policeman loaded his gun and pointed it at him. But as Jacob passed, the policeman bashed him with the barrel, smashing his nose and jaw. Jacob broke away and lost himself in the column; the policeman shot someone else instead. Four days later Jacob and his father were deported to the Prokocim camp.
Jacob spent the rest of the war in labor camps. In 1947 he attempted to immigrate illegally to Palestine, but was detained in Cyprus by the British. He settled in Israel in 1948.
Item ViewBenjamin Bornstein
Benjamin and his younger brother Zigmush were born to Jewish parents in the industrial city of Lodz. Lodz was Poland's second biggest city before the war, and one-third of its inhabitants were Jewish. Benjamin's father, Moshe, owned a candle factory, and his mother, Brona, was a nurse.
1933-39: In 1939, as Benjamin began the third grade, the Germans occupied Lodz. Jews were forbidden to ride buses, and were ordered to wear yellow stars. Because the Germans sometimes grabbed Jews off the streets for forced labor, his father wouldn't leave the house. Benjamin became his family's "messenger," running errands along with their housekeeper's son. He and Benjamin had lived in different worlds before the war--now they were together every day.
1940-44: When the Lodz ghetto was sealed in April 1940, Benjamin managed to smuggle all he could from their old house into their new quarters in the ghetto. Then in 1944, when Benjamin was 14, his family was rounded up and loaded onto cattle cars on one of the last transports from the ghetto. One of the first in his car, Benjamin saw a message scrawled in blood on the wall: "We have arrived in Auschwitz and here they finish us off!" The message was hidden when the car filled up, but now Benjamin no longer had any doubts about their destination.
Benjamin was deported to Auschwitz, and later to a forced-labor camp in Hanover, Germany. After the war, at age 16, he immigrated to Palestine with a group of orphans.
Item ViewEmanuel (Manny) Mandel
Manny was born to a religious Jewish family in the port city of Riga, Latvia. Shortly after Manny's birth, his father accepted a post as one of the four chief cantors in Budapest and the family returned to Hungary, where they had lived before 1933. Manny's father was based at the renowned Rombach Street synagogue. Between the wars, Budapest was an important Jewish center in Europe.
1933-39: Manny's father wouldn't let him have a bicycle. He thought someone might take it away from him because he was Jewish. After anti-Jewish laws were passed in 1938, Jews were severely harassed in Hungary. Manny's father followed him to school to see that he made it there safely. His school was only a few blocks away, but his father was afraid someone might come up behind Manny and push him into traffic. His father said things like that had happened before.
1940-44: Manny was just old enough to explore his neighborhood when the Germans came to Budapest in March 1944. His mother told him that they were being deported. Manny wasn't sure what that was, only that they were leaving. It sounded like an adventure to Manny, but his mother said it was serious. They were with a group of Jews the Germans were exchanging for trucks. They left on trains; at night they slept outside in tents. They came to the Bergen-Belsen camp. It was muddy and Manny's shoes fell apart. That meant he couldn't run around; running was the only "play" they had.
After the war, Manny went to Switzerland with his mother for several months, before emigrating to Palestine in 1945. He moved to the United States in 1949.
Item ViewNorbert Wollheim describes his liberation at Schwerin, in northeast Germany, in May 1945
Norbert studied law and was a social worker in Berlin. He worked on the Kindertransport (Children's Transport) program, arranging to send Jewish children from Europe to Great Britain. His parents, who also lived in Berlin, were deported in December 1942. Norbert, his wife, and their child were deported to Auschwitz in March 1943. He was separated from his wife and child, and sent to the Buna works near Auschwitz III (Monowitz) for forced labor. Norbert survived the Auschwitz camp, and was liberated by US forces in Germany in May 1945.
Item ViewMurray Pantirer describes the antisemitic climate in postwar Krakow
The Germans occupied Krakow in 1939. Murray's family was confined to the Krakow ghetto along with the rest of the Jewish population of the city. In 1942, Murray and a brother were deported for forced labor in the nearby Plaszow camp. In May 1944, his brother was transferred to Auschwitz and Murray was sent to the Gross-Rosen camp in Germany. Murray was later transferred to Bruennlitz, in the Sudetenland, as a forced laborer for German industrialist Oskar Schindler. Schindler helped the Jews who worked for him survive the war. Murray was liberated in 1945.
Item ViewTomasz (Toivi) Blatt describes gassing operations in the Sobibor killing center
Tomasz was born to a Jewish family in Izbica. After the war began in September 1939, the Germans established a ghetto in Izbica. Tomasz's work in a garage initially protected him from roundups in the ghetto. In 1942 he tried to escape to Hungary, using false papers. He was caught but managed to return to Izbica. In April 1943 he and his family were deported to Sobibor. Tomasz escaped during the Sobibor uprising. He went into hiding and worked as a courier in the Polish underground.
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