Schindler's Factory

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On October 14, 1944, Alex’s name appeared on a list of workers assigned to German industrialist Oskar Schindler. At the time Schindler was relocating his factory from Poland to the Sudetenland to avoid advancing Soviet armies. To this day, Alex is still not sure how he ended up on Schindler’s list, but he suspects he was selected because of his glazing profession. Alex’s specialty in glazing made him a rare commodity and that is why Alex believes he was selected to work in the new factory. The workers were soon placed on trains to be transported to the new factory in Bruennlitz-Bruessau. Before reaching their destination, the trains stopped at the Gross-Rosen concentration camp. There, Alex was taken off of the train and put first in the showers. There was a slight fear for Alex entering the showers on whether gas or water would come out of the showerheads. It was water and Alex breathed a huge sigh of relief. He then had his head shaven and was given a grey shirt that looked more like a dress because it went all the way down to his knees. Alex spent a couple of days at the camp before again he was loaded back up on the train to go to his new permanent location. Alex says that Gross-Rosen was the worst experience during the Holocaust. Once Alex arrived at Schindler’s factory, he was assigned to a small area of the factory to work as a glazer. There was not a ton of work at the factory, so Alex would hide out from time to time in order to pass the time. The food at the factory at first was not the greatest until Mrs. Schindler started to get extra portions of bread from the local bakeries. Alex worked at the factory for over six months before the Soviet armies entered into the city and liberated the workers.