Liquidation

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On December 3, 1942, the Nazis announced that the ghetto was going to be liquidated and that everyone had to report to the courtyard the next day. Alex, his father, brother, and Moshe Heller’s (the brother of Alex’s aunt) family decided that they would go to the cellar in the glass shop to hide. They stayed there all night, and the next day Moshe went out to see if the coast was clear. Unfortunately, when he returned to the cellar, he was escorted by the Gestapo, and everyone was forced return to the courtyard. While in the courtyard the Jews were separated into different groups. Alex and his father were taken out of line, but his brother was put on a truck to be transported to a concentration camp. Alex and his father were sent to the Luftwaffe Labor Camp in Krosno in December 1942. Alex was put to work in the military laundry room and his dad worked in the kitchen peeling potatoes. The two were at the camp for over a year until they were selected in early January 1944 to go to the Concentration Camp of Szebnie. The camp had recently been liquidated and Alex and his father were brough there to clean up the sight. The work did not last long before the workers were again transported to the Labor Camp of Plaszow at the end of January 1944. At the camp Alex and his father were again assigned to be glaziers. On May 7, 1944 Alex, his dad, and several workers were taken to a Nazi doctor for their monthly check-up. The doctor would examine the Jews to determine if they could still continue their work at the camp. During the examination Alex was selected to go to one side of the room and his father was ordered to go to the other side. The soldiers went to his father’s side of the room to collect the Jews’ prison numbers, which included Alex’s father. A week later, on May 14th, Alex’s father was ordered to be loaded up in the trucks outside of the camp. The last thing that Alex’s father told him was that he needed to always remain a Mensch, which means a person of integrity and honor. That was the last time Alex saw his father because he was taken to the gas chambers at Auschwitz.