Volume 23

Benjamin Kujawski

My Long Road to Freedom

A publication of
The Concordia University Chair in Canadian Jewish Studies

Copyright © Benjamin Kujawski, 2002

IN MEMORY OF

My dear Parents
All my relatives
And the millions of Jews who perished during the Holocaust

IN MEMORY OF

My loving and devoted Daughter Sara (Sue) who fell victim to cancer at the age of 38

AND IN MEMORY OF

My dearly departed Brother Misha (Moyshe) who was like a Father to me during my long period of physical rehabilitation, and remained my best friend forever.

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST, IN MEMORY OF

My big brother Isaak, my childhood hero who in 1936 was arrested and sentenced to a month in prison for daring to resist an attack by anti-semitic hooligans.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

To my dear daughter Ella, for her patience and skills in transforming my hand-written memoirs into a viable, properly typed manuscript.

And to my loving wife (of 48 years), Ann, for her patience and support.

ABSTRACT

The author describes the social and economic conditions of growing up in Lodz during the 1930's, especially the wide-spread anti-semitism. Father wins a lottery ticket which improves living conditions. When the ghetto is established they do not have to move because their building is located within it. Conditions rapidly deteriorate; food shortages lead to epidemics.

Is active in starting a soup kitchen. Father volunteers to be sent to a labour camp near Poznan because he wants to reduce the burden on the family. Describes the round-ups and deportations, the camp management, working conditions, the wide-spread corruption and its benefits. Meets Rumkowski and speculates about his character.

The final evacuation of the ghetto is conducted with politeness and deception and promise of resettlement to fool people into docility when being loaded into cattle wagons. Arrival in Auschwitz. Selection is accompanied with great brutality. Transfer to Birkenau's gypsy camp. Mistreatment by by Tadek, a Polish criminal, full of anti-semitism and sadism. Continued selections for work and again into cattle cars. During the long journey they vainly hope for some gifts of food from Polish farmers, but when they cross into Czechoslovakia farmers throw them food without being afraid of the guards who ignore them. When they arrive in Munich the public ignores them and the behaviour of the guards changes while they are transferred into passenger cars. The train arrives in the town of Kaufering and from there they have to walk to the camp.

They are employed by the Leonard Moll Construction company project under inhuman conditions and with too little food. Then they were moved to Camp 1-Landsberg to do the same work, but conditions were even worse due to the dominance of Lithuanian Jews who discriminated against Polish Jews. For a short time he enjoyed much better conditions by being assigned to an O. T. camp for German work supervisors to make drawings for an art-loving SS man.

Diseases were spreading. His twin brother was transferred to a special unit for sick inmates - their first separation ever. When he also got sick he was placed into a newly constructed model hospital that was spotlessly clean and where good meals were served in bed. This special treatment was eventually explained by a Red Cross visit.

When he needed an operation he was returned to the standard hut. Much ethnic friction among inmates. Return to camp 4 where people soon reached the last stages of starvation. Brief reunion with twin brother. Transfer to "typhoid hat" where people were left to die without any attention or food rations. Final evacuation of camp. Being thrown on top of other bodies - some dead, others still barely alive. Death train. Liberation. Waking up in an American field hospital. Slow recovery. D.P. camp. Emigration to Canada.

KEY WORDS

Lodz
Rumkowski
Marishin, rail station
Poznan
Hans Bibov, Nazi ghetto head
David Gertler, head of Sonderkommando
Auschwitz
Mengele
Birkenau
Gypsy camp
Munich
Dachau
Camp 4 Kaufering, Dachau sub-camp
Camp 1 Landsberg, Dachau sub-camp
Leonard Moll construction company
Organiztion Todt (O.T.)
D. P. camp

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword
Some reflections about the title of my memoirs

Ch. 1 The Years before W. W. 2
Our apartment - the school years - the turbulent thirties - anti-semitism - the government - lies and scapegoats - an improvement in our living conditions - a not too memorable excursion - on our way - on the train back home - back home at last.

Ch. 2 The German occupation of Lodz (The Ghetto)
The bridge.

Ch. 3 The Soup Kitchen (Winter Of 1940-41)

Ch. 4 On Charniekiego (The Ghetto Prison)

Ch. 5 Father’s Departure (The "Sperre" 1942)
The Sperre - sealed cattle wagons at Marishin -the aftermath of father’s departure.

Ch. 6 My Mother
The departure of aunt Rachel - Sept. 1939-Aug. 1944 - a case of guilty conscience.

Ch. 7 Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski
My personal encounters with Rumkowski = Rumkowski’s apparent search for a remedy - Rumkowski’s second concept - an attempted short strike at the fur factory - Rumkowski’s return to the fur factory - my personal thoughts about Rumkowski.

Ch. 8 The Final Days Of The Lodz Ghetto
On the way to the rail station - in front of the cattle wagons - Auschwitz-Birkenau - Arbeit macht frei - on the way to the bath house - a second selection inside the bath house - Tadek our block eldest - leaving Auschwitz-Birkenau - inside the cattle wagon

Ch. 9 Arrival At Munich, Germany (Then Camp 4 Kaufering)
Dachau-camp 4 Kaufering - the official welcome - block eighteen - a meal fit for a king -again some help from an unexplainable source.

Ch. 10 Camp 1-Landsberg Dachau
Twenty-five lashes - help from a highly unexpected source.

Ch. 11 Christmas Of 1944 At Camp 1 Landsberg
The tragic effects of the holiday feast - a hot welcome by my newest block eldest - a newly erected showcase hospital - at the bath house - the new place - a taste of apple peelings - a very important visit - the beginning of the end of the good life.

Ch. 12 Back At Camp 4 Kaufering
One day’s work in the camp kitchen - reunion with my twin brother - a small food parcel from the Red Cross.

Ch. 13 Camp Kaufering (Passover 1945)
The first confrontation with my block eldest - my second and last confrontation with Zulty - expelled from the hut.

Ch. 14 The Last Week At Camp 4 Kaufering, Dachau
Evacuation - my guardian angel at work again - the last voyage - alone at the end - liberation - liberated but still not free - finally liberated.

Epilogue
At last a reunion with my twin brother.

Appendix