Survivors+of+the+Holocaust

**[[image:burk_portrait large[1].jpg align="right"]][[image:burk_portrait large[1].jpg]]Solomon Radasky**
Mary Kate L.



Family Information

 * only one to survive out of 78 people in his family
 * he lived in Poland
 * 5 siblings went to Treblinka and were never seen again
 * father was shot in [|Warsaw ghetto]
 * mother was shot because she could not give the Germans any gold or fur

Life During Holocaust

 * worked a little bit at Tobben's shop as a furrier and made Eisenhower jackets for the German army
 * two meals: lunch-bread and soup supper-bread and coffee (also traded furs for more food)
 * went to Warsaw ghetto to find sister, but he could not find her
 * next day, April 19, 1943- Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (Jews tried to overthrow Germans)
 * he was shot in the ankle throughout the process
 * he was taken to Majdanek death camp (was there for 9 weeks)
 * there a doctor operated on his ankle, with no medicine so he had to use urine as an antiseptic on the wound
 * had to walk 3 km to work (if he limped, he would have been killed)
 * put on train to go to [|Auschwitz]
 * some people in his group were machine gunned in the field right there
 * a number was tatooed on his arm-- 128232
 * found out he was in the hospital wing, where [|Dr. Mengele] would do experiments on them
 * was lucky because he was hidden by some of the other doctors at the hospital
 * he was then taken to another work place where he worked in the sand mine, carrying it to Birkenau to cover ashes from the crematoria
 * a solider there helped him by sneaking him bread, but one day he vanished
 * Jan. 18, 1945-- left Auschwitz (Auschwitz was liberated 9 days later)
 * taken to [|Gross-Rosen camp] (murder camp) where he was treated horribly
 * his only food was a slice of bread and some coffee (ate snow for water)
 * marched to railroad station where he was taken to Dachau
 * left Dachau on 26 or 27th of April, 1945 (Dachau was liberated May 1st)
 * at this point he only weighed around 78 pounds
 * 4 a. m. on May 1, 1945, the Americans came and arrested the Germans
 * Americans helped them learn to eat again (stretched their stomachs)

Life After Rescue and Current Life[[image:file:radasky_w_wife]]

 * went to [|Feldafing] (place to find missing people)
 * one of his friends found him
 * was introduced to his wife shortly after rescue, and they were married (November 11, 1946)
 * later they moved to the U.S.
 * had a son on May 13, 1948
 * came to New Orleans in 1949 where he developed himself as a furrier
 * raised and educated 2 children
 * currently spreads his story as much as possible, educating the public

[|Survivors] of the Holocaust Emily L.


 * Joseph Sher's story in the camps**
 * in Czestochowa each family had to give up one man
 * his brother wanted to take his place, but he couldn't
 * were taken in cattle cars to Lublin
 * out of the 1,000 who went from Czestochowa, only 3 survived
 * slept in straw barns w/ 70-80 in each
 * only received 2 kilos of bread and was divided between 4 people
 * got lice, and people got diseases and died
 * to go to the bathroom you had to drop your pants and sit over a big ditch-wipe with leaves
 * Ukranian and Lithuanian guards took their guns and played with the Jews
 * they would shoot close and if they got you, they wanted you to fall in the ditch
 * got diarrhea from bad food
 * some labor was cutting down trees, digging up hills, filled trenches
 * there was this cart they had to push up the hill
 * 4 people pushed it, it was used to move the earth
 * going down was harder than going up since it had no brakes
 * people would get killed doing this
 * if you got hit/hurt you were worth nothing and would get shot
 * he was very careful not to get hurt
 * he did get hit one day, right in the head and began crying
 * those who escaped, there bodies were brought back tied to a horse
 * two German soldiers were the only reason he survived
 * he knew them from the big ghetto in Czestochowa
 * one night he was sleeping and 2 Ukranian guards came in and called for him
 * instead of shooting him as he thought they took him to the infirmary
 * put bandages on him up to his neck- he looked injured
 * next he was shipped to a little village, nearby
 * the two men were there waiting
 * they took off his bandages gave him clothes and a ticket for the next train
 * he was in that slave labor for 9 months- he was the only one who came home


 * Rudy's story at Auschwitz**
 * loaded in cattle cars
 * 80-100 in each cart
 * heard gun shots but didn't know what from
 * marched for 4-5 hrs. between two posts of barbed wire with a huge sign, EXTREME DANGER, HIGH VOLTAGE ELECTRICAL WIRES
 * each morning we'd get metal cups and a spoon
 * got 2 slices of bread and sometimes a pat of butter
 * the midday meal was potato soup with maybe a little bit of meat
 * they were beginning to starve
 * in the evening they got another piece of bread- that's it
 * if anyone would complain they were shot
 * we weren't aware Auschwitz was an extermination camp
 * there was always a sickly sweet smell in the air
 * later they found out it was gas canisters that were used in the gas chambers to kill people
 * his brother had a book he hid that they read so many times they memorized it
 * they had a deck of cars and that's all they did for 'fun'
 * no birds, no grass- it seemed like no living thing, no
 * mom found wild grass that she had seen geese eating before
 * dead people were stacked 4ft. high- eyes open
 * starving for 3 to 4 months....already

- "In a world of absurdity, we must invent reason..." - unknown - "Fear not your enemies, for they can only kill you. Fear not your friends, for they can only betray you. Fear only the indifferent, who permit the killers and betrayers to walk safely on the earth." - Edward Yashinsky - "For your benefit, learn from our tragedy. It's not a written law that the next victims must be Jews." - Simon Wiesenthal - "I survived the Nazi horrors and bestial oppression, nothing if forgotten." - unknown - "We hold these truths to be self evident. That all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." - unknown - "I was there, I saw, I remember what happened. All that will be left will be books of literature and research, pictures and films, and multitudinous testimony." - Zvi Gill - "Those of you who may survive, bear witness, let the world know what has happened here." - Aleksander Arohwich Pechersky - "Perhaps some day someone will explain how, on the level of man, Auschwitz was possible; but on the level of God, it will forever remain the most disturbing of mysteries." - Ellie Wiesel - "The element that distinguishes the Holocaust was the search for God. From morning until night we cried out for a sign that God was still with us...We were always accompanied by the crushing and unsettling feeling that God had disappeared from our midst." - unknown
 * Quotes and piece of mind or the survivors.....**

__*Told to her by her sister while she was in the home.....__
 * Jeannine Burks story in hiding**
 * her father took her in a streetcar and this was the last time she saw her father
 * they walked a long distance and he knocked on the door, a lady came, that was the last time
 * she lived in that house for two years [[image:burk_portrait+large[1].jpg width="163" height="199" align="right"]]
 * sometimes she could go in the backyard, but never in the front
 * she was never mistreated but, never loved
 * most of her childhood was lost b/c she was a Jew
 * when the Nazi's would have parades you had to open your door and watch
 * the lady would always watch but hid me in the outhouse
 * "I was petrified. I just didn't know what I was scared of yet."
 * one time, while in the outhouse, she opened the door, and on her hands and knees grabbed a cat, and held it
 * no toys
 * the only fresh air was in the back yard
 * made up imaginary friends b/c she had no one else
 * doesn't remmeber being hugged or kissed for two yrs.
 * her brother was 12 yrs. older and already hiding in a Christian boys home
 * her sister couldn't be moved easily b/c of a bone disease called osteomyelitis
 * some neighbors snitched on them
 * there mother said they could shoot her as long as they left her sister
 * the Gestapo took her father and threw him in there truck
 * they said they'd be back
 * there mother luckily made a final call and got her sister into a hospital
 * one night her mother and sister waited for her father
 * later the agency called saying he had been gassed
 * in 1944 her mother got her and than her sister, she had to learn to walk again
 * "My father never killed anyone, robbed anyone, yet they murdered him b/c he was a Jew" - Jeannine Burk
 * after the war they had nothing
 * her mother got breast cancer- they removed the breast but it then spread throughout the body
 * in Feb. of 1950 her mother died

Allyson K.

-Many children survived by just simply hiding -Got liberated -Ran away -Hid in sewers for months and months -Some German officiers told Jews to lie about their age in order to be sent somwhere where they'll survive -1,000 of the survivers were liberated and returned home from Aushcwitz on January 27 -One surviver, Kate Bernth survived just by never giving up and loosing hope -Sometimes if Jews wanted to survive they had no choice but to eat worms, spiders, raw potatoes, etc. -Eva Galler survived by escaping from a death train
 * Ways People Survived

-Joseph Sher -Was born in Krzepice, Poland -The family moved to the city of Czestochowa when the German Army came -They burned down the Synagogue -Joseph and his close friend Isaac heard young kids were going across the bored to Russia and that it was safe there, they decided to go -Joseph Sher survived, because of two German Jews that he knew from the BIG ghetto
 * Personal Stories

-Otto Frank -Was born on May 12, 1889 -Worked for a metal engineering company in Germany -Had two daughters [Anne Frank and Margot Frank] -Otto survived by basically playinghis cards right -He helped the Nazis with little chores now and again -Since he helped them with things [didn't help kill Jews] they let him escape to freedom

-Isak Borenstein -Born in Radom, Poland -Born May 5, 1918 -During wartime he was a Prisoner of war -He's married with one son -he ran to Russia and wokred there as a carpenter -When Hitler invaded Russia Isak Borenstein joined the Russian Army -When him and 35 other Jews surrenedered only two survived the shootings, whereas the rest were picked out by the Germans and killed

-Krystyna was seven and hid in a sewer with her mom, dad, and brother for 14 months -They survived by the black bread and margarine they recieved from the Polish sewer workers -"There was worms, bugs, and smelly water, and red rats running around everywhere." Krystyna said -They couldn't talk loudly all they could do was whisper to one another -Toward the end of her hiding she heard canons and sirons...she was scared but she knew it was their liberators -She was so happy when she finally saw the sun and flowers once again

-During the Holocaust survivors lives were chaos and they felt that there was nothing to live for but now that they had survived something so terrible they live their lives to the fullest EVERYDAY -Holocaust survivors are happier than ever to just be alive and free once again -Joseph Sher says "Some mornings I wake up and I am so worn out I cannot go to work, I am free but I am still in he concentration camp. You go through it again and again."
 * Lives today

-"You must survive and let the world know what happened." --Annonymous -"I've met Holocaust survivor victims, through other films, and I know what survivor guilt is like." --Annonymous -"Every Jew alive today is a Holocaust survivor, and I feel that also will be true for every Jew in the future... Th Holocaust survivors are the most patriotic, most loyal American Citizens we should have." --Neil Sher -"As the generation of Holocaust survivors and liberators dwindles, the torch of remembrance, of bearing witness, and of education must continue forward." --Dan Gillerman -"I know as do other people know it's very important to tell the story for the future. For the children and the grandchildren. To preserve these memories because everyday there are less and less of us left." --Annonymous
 * Quotes