My father died before the war started. My mother age 42, myself age 18, my brother Jack age 16, Isaac 11, and my sister Ruth who was 13 were rounded up in the Lodz Ghetto and sent out for some shipment in a freight car.
After two days of traveling we came to Birkenau. The families were separated for what horrors G-d alone knew. Immediately we heard cries and moans, but we also knew that nothing would help. They came to our part of the line, before we were separated, my mother gave me her last order. I was under no circumstance to leave my brother. She gave me the responsibility of watching over him in so far as was possible. She took the youngest boy and my sister with her and went to her place, which was designated by an SS man.
In the distance, we saw that mother and my youngest brother, Isaac, were placed to the left, and we knew that it meant their death. My sister was put in the group to the right. That meant that it was to be a lingering death in the work parties. My brother and I were to be put to work also.
On April 11, 1945 I was hiding in a sewer when I was liberated.