Peter Zuckerman, from 1941 to 1944, lived in a small Hungarian town as a member of a Jewish community where he was indentured as a printer’s apprentice. He was 12 to 15 years old. There were rumors of persecutions and massacres by Nazi Germany, but they were generally ignored. Of more concern, was the taunting of the Jews by the Christians in Hungary. Suddenly in 1944, this all changed as Germany occupied Hungary. Within days the entire Jewish community from Peter’s village was rounded up and temporarily housed in an empty warehouse. But very soon they were placed in boxcars and sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
One hundred people were placed in each box car. Peter was separated from his two aunts and he became truly an orphan. At Auschwitz, the people were taken from the train, ordered to leave their possessions behind, and were quickly inspected to separate them into groups. First, any twins were taken for “human experiments”. Then those judged, by a quick inspection, to be capable of work were taken for the labor camps. Peter was judged to be able bodied (he was large for age) and became a slave laborer. His left arm was tattooed with his number A-9867 and he was given a striped uniform. They were taken to brick buildings where a sign over the door said Arbeit Macht Frei (Work Makes Free) and organized into labor groups. Some went to armament factories; Peter was assigned to a group to cut grass for hay in the fields surrounding the camp.
As they worked, they wondered why the tall smokestacks were emitting smoke. But one day, they came across piles of ashes where it was obvious that the ashes were the remains of humans. At first, it was hard to believe but it became clear what happened to those who had not been selected for labor. Peter observed that there were people from every nation in Europe among the laborers including Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and atheists.
Life in the labor camps was not easy as the food was scarce and the labor was hard. The view of those in control was that life was expendable and a worker could be replaced by others. Peter’s youth was an advantage. Occasionally, the functionaries gave him some extra rations.
The news of the European invasion filtered into camp. Allied bombers could be seen overhead. For the first time, the guards showed fear in their faces. As the Soviet army approached Auschwitz-Birkenau, the extermination camp was gradually evacuated. Peter was sent to Stutthof, then near Danzig but now Gdansk in Poland. He was one member of a group of 600 who were to be sent to Hailfingen in southern Germany just south of Stuttgart. The first leg of the journey, from Stuttgart to Danzig, nearly killed Peter for they rode on open railcars in the freezing weather. In Hailfingen they were to work on airfields and roads for new jet planes and ballistic missiles.
(05 Oct 06)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.