Abraham Bomba (1913–2000) was a barber in the city of Częstochowa when Nazi Germany invaded Poland in September 1939. In 1941, Abraham was imprisoned in the Częstochowa ghetto. There, he married his first wife, Reizl, who gave birth to a baby boy. In September 1942, the family was sent to the Treblinka killing center along with thousands of others. Upon arrival, Abraham's wife and son were murdered in the gas chambers. However, Abraham was one of the few people selected for forced labor. At Treblinka, he had to pick up and sort clothing that the Nazis had stolen from the murdered Jews. He was also forced to cut women's hair before they were killed in the gas chambers. In January 1943, Abraham escaped from Treblinka and made his way back to the Częstochowa ghetto. There, he tried to warn the remaining Jews about the murders happening at the Treblinka killing center. During this time, he also met and married his second wife, Regina. Regina's first husband had been killed at Treblinka. Abraham worked in a labor camp from June 1943 until his liberation by Soviet troops in 1945. He and Regina immigrated to the United States in 1951.
We had scissors. From them we took bunches of hair. Cut off. Threw on the floor to the side, and about two minute has to be finished. Not even two minute be...because there was a line waiting to come up the next to it. And that's how we worked. Inside it was very painful. Most painful was because some of the barbers, they recognized their dear ones, like wives, mothers, even grandmothers. Can you imagine that you have to cut their hair and not to tell them a word because you were not allowed? If you say a word that they going to...uh...be gassed in five or seven minutes later, there would be a panic over there and they would be killed too.
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