My parents and I arrived at Auschwitz by train on November 22, 1942 from the ghetto.  We traveled in a cattle car for four days.  My older brother Avram fled to Russia. He was in the Russian army fighting the Germans.  He didn’t trust the Germans after they invaded Poland.  He wanted the family to flee with him.  Our father however loved the Germans, he was educated in German schools had many German clients; he thought the world of the Germans. Poland was divided by Germany and Russia; Avram immediately went over to the Russian side.  He was never heard from again.          

 

The Germans evacuated the Jews out of Auschwitz on January 17, 1945.  Ten days later, the Russian army liberated Auschwitz on January 27th.  I wish I could have hidden out for those ten days.  I was on a death march for about four months I wound up in Dachau and was liberated by the American army.

 

It is very, very difficult to try to explain what it was like. It’s almost impossible, to believe what happened, I myself find it hard to believe even though I went through it.

 

After the war, in Backnang, suburb of Munich, I came together with other Jews.  I met someone who told me that I had a cousin in New York.  He was one of the first survivors who came to the United States.  He was seeking me out to help me to come to America. 

 

In 1947, I came to New York and was there for five years.  I was contacted by someone I knew from home who was living in Detroit and came here in 1952. In 1956 I married Barbara who died in 1985.  In 1990 I was remarried to Judy. 

I am concerned about world peace, we must eliminate hate. We must remember to continue our rich Jewish heritage

Oral History available in Holocaust Memorial Center Library Archive.