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Survivors and Others
Mentioned in This Documentary:
Where Are They now?
Jakob Aisenberg: One of my roommates, now lives in New York.
Motel Apelowicz: Member of our underground group, now lives in Australia.
Mania Bluzsztein: (Maria Migus) Devoted Bund party member, now manager of Unser Sztimme in Paris, France.
Chil Bukowski: My cousin was brutally murdered in our town by Piotrkover Poles, shortly after the war was over.
Waclaw Bordo: Good-natured Socialist, now lives in Piotrkow, Poland. I visited him in 1984.
Israel Falk: Now lives in Montreal, Canada and is involved in many public and cultural endeavors.
Dr. Leon Feiner (Mikolaj Berezowski): Tireless leader of the Bund underground during the Nazi occupation of Poland. He was his party's representative in the Coordinating Committee and Zegota (Help to Jews). He sent clandestine reports in 1942-3-4 to the representatives of the Bund in London, England about the German mass murders of the Jewish population in Poland. He pleaded with them for material help.
After the liquidation of the ghetto, he tried desperately to save some of us in the slave labor camps with moral and material help. He suffered anguish for not being able to do more for the remnants of the Hitlerite massacres. He lived to see the German defeat and died of throat cancer in February of 1945.
I am attesting that monies air-dropped from the West into Poland in the years 1943-44 were delivered with great danger and sacrifice by young Polish and Jewish girls couriers to our slave labour camps. Because of that help, I am one of many, who had a purpose to overcome and survive those terrible times. Only altruistic civic leaders such as Dr. Leon Feiner and also Dr. Adolph Berman of the Zionist group, who cared enough, were able to lift our spirits in order to survive the Nazi Holocaust.
Bernard Goldstein: One of the Bund leaders in Warsaw (now deceased), wrote in his book (in Yiddish) In di yorn fun Yiddishen churban: "Very often our letter and money received by a distant comrade in a labour camp, is a matter for further encouragement and endurance to fight. I will give you an example: We sent to the Piotrkover camp a letter with 20,000 zlotys for our comrade. If you could only read the letter that we received from him. "This was the best moment of our bitter life," he wrote. The one that we sent the money to, our comrade, contacted under most difficult circumstances other comrades in other camps and sent them some money that he received from us. He also gave us names of other comrades in Skarzysko and Czestochowa, so that we were able to contact them and send them money too. This was the only way to spread out our activities to other camps."
Salomon Gomberg: Unsung hero of many deeds in Piotrkow. He was in poor health and died of natural causes in Buchenwald.
Herford: Block Commandant of Kara and Hortensja labour camp. He was tried and sentenced in Piotrkow after the war.
Berek Kurtz: He is now a Council member of the Piotrkover Society in Montreal, Canada.
Hersz Lewkowicz: Trustworthy and goodhearted person. Sorry that I did not take him instead of Wengliszewski. Regretfully, my mistake.
Mosze Leber: Brother of my friend Burech, lives in Paris, France.
Ala Margules: Dignified Jewish wartime courier. One of the bravest Jewish girls that I had the opportunity of knowing in captivity in 1944. She is now a practicing doctor in Paris, France.
Vladka Meed: One of the most courageous wartime couriers alive, now residing in New York City. She brought 50,000 zlotys to me from the Coordinating Committee in Warsaw. In her book On Both Sides of the Wall, she wrote about another brave courier, "Our smuggling missions were not always so successful, many of them ended in grief. My friend Ala Margules (the daughter of Dr. Anna Margules) had a narrow escape from the Germans. Ala had succeeded in gaining admission to a factory in Piotrkow where Jews were employed and with the help of a Polish guard managed to transmit letters and money to them. Two passing Germans had taken her into custody and accused her of trespassing in a restricted area--an offence punishable by death. The Jews whom Ala had helped immediately aroused the whole camp and ran after all German officers and officials, begging them to free the "innocent Aryan." Ala was eventually set free, ransomed with the very money which she had brought the Jewish inmates."
(Correction: At that time Vladka, or for that matter Ala, did not know how we had saved Ala Margules. I used 10,000 zlotys for a bribe from the 50,000 that Vladka had brought to me previously, because the Germans intercepted the 75,000 zlotys that Ala brought. C.K.).
Mosze Nowak: Helping hand from the Kara. He now lives in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
Lilka Nutlciewicz: Mrs. Szlomo Meizner, now living in Los Angeles, CA.
The brothers Pinkusewicz: Two heartless Kapos of Flossberg concentration camp. One lives in Israel, the other in the U.S.A.
Noah Rosenwald: He consented to escape from a moving train that was destined for Mauthausen. We were hidden in Czechoslovakia for some weeks. He lives with his wife Dorka in Ness-Ziona, Israel.
Itzhak Samsonowicz: Hardworking member of the Bund Central Committee outside the ghetto in Warsaw. He survived the war and held a prominent Government post in Poland. He was in poor health and passed away.
Vogt: Flossberg's inside camp leader. He was arrested after the war and put on trial in Germany. The ex-Kapo of the electricians in Flossberg traveled through Germany, Austria and Italy to gather signatures for the release of Vogt. He later came to Modena, Italy and recognized me and asked for my opinion and signature. I also signed for his release. He was set free.
Szymon Warszawski: Infamous President of the Piotrkover Judenrat and the Bugaj camp, perished in Buchenwald.
Nachum Wengliszewski: Underground member blamed for improper conduct, was killed under mysterious circumstances in Buchenwald.
Renia Zaks: She was once involved with our underground, without being aware of it. She relayed a letter from Ala Margules to her friend Pfeffer that was destined for us. She now lives in Haifa, Israel.
Josek Zamel: He helped our underground cause when he was called upon. He now lives in West Germany.
The money that I received: 20,000 and 50,000 (45,000) zlotys. It was parachuted from airplanes from the West into Poland. The A.K. had a special division called "Import" under the supervision of Lt. Ignacy Lubezynski. Emanuel Singer (now living in Israel) was a soldier of the A.K. during the war and worked in that division.