IamA the grandson of a HOLOCAUST survivor who is alive and able to answer questions AMA!

Hi everyone! My grandpa is getting tried, although is thankful for all of your questions and was very happy to engage.

I will continue to answer questions on his behalf from what I know. I will indicate when I do not know an answer.

Again, thank you. I am beyond thankful to have some wisdom from your grandfather and I hope it wasn't too hard on him to answer this many questions in such a short period.

he was happy to be involved. thank you so much for being engaging.

What was something you did to keep your spirits up during your time in the camps?

nothing. i survived by shutting off instead of having hope or high spirits. i was able to turn off.

How did they find you to be sent to extermination camps?

we were all told we were being sent to work jobs in germany and we got into the cattle cars willingly.

Do you still have faith in humanity after what you've been through?

"Yes" is all i can get him to say about this one.

What would you say to someone that is a Holocaust denier? And how do you feel about the current genocides happening now?

He has tried to write a book entitled "Can You See What They Do To You" about other genocides around the world and how they have gotten very little attention in comparison to the holocaust. he feels education on the violence is key. his book was never successfully published commercially, but here is an amazon link: http://www.amazon.ca/Can-You-See-What-They/dp/053315197X

What was it like the week/days before liberation? Did he know that they would soon be free?

"In the daytime a week before liberation I was 
assigned to a commando that worked in the stone quarries. The S.S 
guard must have been in Auschwitz at its beginning when half of the inmates were daily killed at work. He remembered me from then. And when he asked me and I told 
him I came from Auschwitz he told me to rest and work only if the 
superior passed by. The end was coming then, i knew.

How did it feel knowing that soon it would be over? What was the moral of the camp during this time?

everyone was exhausted in equal measure. guards and prisoners alike.

What happened the day you were set free? Did they just open the gates or was there a certain process?

We were counted and set up to go and the S.S man lifted the arm of his baton yelling "Achtung!" And before he could finish with the word "march" he was shot dead from behind by an American soldier. A tank was behind us and the soldier waved for us to go behind it and hide: we ran and we were at the outskirts of a German village. Everyone ran into the houses to get some food. I was too beat to eat and very weak from the Typhoid so I lay down in an empty pharmacy, on the floor and I had two raw chicken eggs I put in my pocket.

[deleted]

according to my grandfather, he was mid-march between camps when they were liberated from American soldiers. "We marched westward through the Bravarian countryside and in the daytime American planes flew very low so I could see the pilots face behind his mask. They were machine-gunning us mercilessly. We waved at them 
with bed sheets and they could see our striped clothes. The Americans killed more inmates in the last 8 days than the Germans did."

He says the last camp he was incarcerated in was called Flossenburg.

The American pilots were killing prisoners on the ground?

yes, according to my grandfather.. "The Americans killed more inmates in the last 8 days than the Germans did."

I teach the Holocaust twice a year at high school level, and I'm always very keen to hear the thoughts of survivors regarding education about the event. What does your grandad think is the most important thing for students (in any country) to learn about the Holocaust? And, non-genocide related, what is his favourite romantic comedy? :)

he says the most important thing about education in regards to the holocaust is to remember it was driven by hate. and that hate is the most destructive force of all.

He says he loves some movie called "porgy and bess" haha.

Thanks so much to both of you for doing this AMA! Very interesting :) Question: What is his most vivid memory of the experience?

we were forced to do what were entitled "sport exercises" where we had to do a series of memorized steps and motions. like choreography. and if someone could not keep up with the steps they were taken out of line and murdered with a shovel to their neck. we did this very often. i was very quick.

I gasped. Please let your grandfather know that his openly discussing his experiences is an incredibly important, and equally incredibly selfless thing to do. (My father was in Vietnam and he is, understandably, unable to discuss his experiences to this day. I understand how hard discussing the type of trauma most of us will never encounter is for a person.)

thank you for reaching out

Pre-war, what was your life like?

difficult. i was from a farming village and we led terribly difficult lives. but it was the city jews who dropped like flies in the concentration camps. they were not prepared physically the way we had been.

I apologize for asking so many questions successively, but this is, for me, a very rare opportunity.

1) What kind of recreation did they have or enjoy after evening roll-call?

2)How important was song for maintaining good spirits for people in the camps?

he says he does not remember any pleasant recreation that didnt involve eating or sleeping.

Would you describe for us a typical day at a concentration camp?

Other than your brother, were any members of your family at the same camp?

What were the attitudes of the prisoners in general; did they seem only to lookout for themselves or was there a sense of community? Can you recall any stories to demonstrate one or the other?

Thank you for taking the time to do this AMA.

"About half of the people were sent to an underground coal mine and came out in the evening all black, but they all got a small yellow soap bar to wash up. This soap had printed on it three letters-RIF and we were told that it was made of pure Jewish fat. I kept one of these bars. A memento. I was not sent to the coal mines, I was given a shovel digging up foundations for a factory building. I was a good worker and had no problems. We were returned to the camp in the evenings"

and to the second questions.

He, his brother and his mother were all sent into the extermination camps. they all survived, which is a very rare case. His brother did however pass away a few weeks after liberation from an infected wound.

ever been confronted by any holocaust deniers?

never until i created this AMA. there has been a surprising amount of input from deniers.

Welcome to the internet, where the assholes are anonymous and facts are meaningless.

yikes

Did his brother also make it out? What did he/they do afterwards?

His brother survived by a couple of weeks. In the final few days of improsnment his brother was shot in the back. The bullet was removed but he was eventually to die of infection. This was the most difficult loss in my grandfathers life.

get a tattoo on your arm? still there? just a number? or nothing?

"A9555" was tattooed on his arm and his brother received "A9556"

huh... did he ever consider removing it? or is it just something that he doesn't think about?

he says he would never remove it and this is is apart of who is he is. he says he is judgemental of jews who chose to erase their marks.

(granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor) Does your grandfather remember the invasion of Czechoslovakia? What did he feel when he heard about it? (Love and hugs from Tel-Aviv)

Hi Shira,

Yes my grandfather remembers, but he says many people were misinformed about what was happening, and that most people thought they were being rounded up to go work in german cities.

Thank you for reaching out!

How did you feel when you were liberated?

"Exhausted and starved. I found a pharmacy in a nearby town and fell alseep for maybe 24 hours. Many immediately ate and died as their stomachs were not ready for that much food intake."

Which of the movies you've seen best show what conditions were like in the camps?

Schindler's List.

He says he also participated in a Spielberg documentary about the holocaust and was involved in on-camera interviews for the project.

Thank you for your answer, and tell him I am amazed at his courage and determination for surviving all of that. Also, what was the name of the Spielberg documentary?

it was series of holocaust testimonials curated by Speilberg, here is some info: http://jewishgen.blogspot.ca/2008/09/spielberg-holocaust-testimonials-now.html

What town & country is your grandfather from? Does/Did he hold resentment against non-Jewish people in his town that aided the Nazis? How about those who simply did nothing to help the Jews? Thanks for both of your time.

He is from a small town called Zabrod in what was once Czechoslovakia, and I believe is now the Ukraine (but i am not sure). in regards to your question, he says "no one cared about the Jews and so we did not expect them to"

Thank you for offering your perspectives on your times and for facilitating (grandson)

1) Does he remember many non-Jewish prisoners around; political, religious, etc?

2)Who were his guards? Were they Germans, Ukrainians, etc?

He says he remembers that all of the gypsys were placed into the same camp. And that they were never forced to work and were never murdered, until one morning, they awoke and were told that the entire gypsy barrack had been exterminated in one day. he says he does not remember many non jews.

What is your grandpa's favorite "ethnic" food?

He loves Japanese. When he was physically able we would go for Sushi on occasion.

Is it true that prisoners received two cigarettes a day?

he says he doesn't know anything about this but the he could trade extra labour for the occasional extra slice of bread or bowl of soup.

what is his favorite episode of the Simpsons? Is he watching the marathon right now?

he says the Simpsons is ridiculous haha

What goes through your mind when you hear people deny that the Holocaust ever happened?

He said something along the lines of "non jews dont care about jews and they still do not"

Has he read any of Elie Wiesel's books and what does he think of them?

He has and apparently he is not a fan of the work "Night". Im not sure why but he has talked badly about it in the past.

[deleted]

he says any education on past or current atrocities is helpful in the prevention of further violence.

What is one thing you'd like to see every person reading this AMA to do to better the world we live in?

He's getting tired, so i think this is coming to a close, but for this question he said simply "read more"

Past or present, what has been your greatest joy in life?

My family, four beautiful daughters and five wonderful grandsons.

What was it like feeling like your government was turning against you, and not being able to stop it?

he is from a small town who had very little incoming information about anything political. they were told they were going to germany for work. most of his peers and family were not aware anyone was turning on them until they were imprisoned, and even then there was a lot of confusion about what was actually happening to them.

I know I'm probably too late but, when he was finally liberated was he certain he was finally free or did he maintain a fear that he would end up back in (in the coming weeks/months, not long term)? It would be terrible to be frightened for any amount of time that it would happen again. I've not heard much about the moral as far as how certain they were it was finally over for good.

i will find this out for you tomorrow. thank you for your question.

What wisdom would he give this stranger, pertaining to anything under the moon or the sun?

don't become a doctor.

Does your grandfather have any lingering medical effects from his time in the camp?

there are no lingering physical effects that we know of, but the psychological effects are glaringly obvious from time to time.

My question, why is Holocaust in all caps?

im fairly new to reddit, but from my experience, it can be helpful to make the most relevant word in your title all caps. this way when people scan down they will automatically be made aware of what this post is about. i apologize if that seems obnoxious.

Being jewish, the holocaust is always a sensitive topic for me. I know for myself that the odds of me surviving the holocaust would be zero. It bothers me to no end when people compare the holocaust to other genocides. I always say that it is something that isn't comparable to anything that the would understand. The stories i have been told have been passed through the generations of my family. My great grandfather escaped the Ukraine on a boat with two of his brothers and one of his sisters, days before the capture of his village. Only him and one of his brothers survived. The rest of his family was later captured, his father was placed in a work camp along with his oldest brother, his mother to a death camp as well as his other sister. None of them survived.

On that note...Did your grandfather have anyone in his family from whom he has not seen again? (because they escaped before it was too late or they were separated when being shipped to or from camps)

fortunately my grandfather didn't lose anyone during the holocaust itself, and although his brother died two weeks later, he was able to find him before his passing.

Good to hear he found his brother before he passed. Good to have some sort of closure rather than not knowing. My condolences to your grandfather. And thank you for representing him in this AMA and for making this possible.

thank you for reaching out

What is his opinion on how Israel is treating the Palestinians and Gaza?

he says he is "passionate about the safety of the jewish state." i urged for more information but he was hesitant as this is a public forum.

Am I missing something about the proof? OP just put a link to some paper, followed by a book that might not even be about the holocaust.

The second is a link of a book he wrote about his holocaust experience (to an extent, there is also opinions on world politics). The first link is a paper with his name listed.