Zelda Klaiman
"It should never be forgotten, it should never be forgiven.."
Name at birth
Zelda (Zeldusia in Poland) Koplowicz
Date of birth
05/05/1929
Where were you born?
Where did you grow up?
Pabianice, Poland
Name of father, occupation
Joseph Koplowicz,
Business (paint and brushes) with five partners.
Maiden name of mother, occupation
Sisla Moskowicz,
Homemaker.
Immediate family (names, birth order)
Two younger brothers: Zawel-Laizer 1931 and Avrahamn 1938 approximately.
How many in entire extended family?
60-100. Father had 4-5 sisters and Mother 3 sisters, 1 brother.
Who survived the Holocaust?
My cousin Hela and I. An uncle who was in hiding in Marseilles.
We lived on 31 Warshawska Street in an apartment with three big rooms, a kitchen, bedroom, and a dining room for a family of five, my father, mother, Hela, myself and my brother, Zawel Laizer.
I had a very happy, beautiful, wonderful family maybe because we were middle class or a little less than middle class. We had a large family. I was the oldest granddaughter on my mother’s side.
I attended a Jewish public school, #13, everyone there was Jewish. We had all the classes that everyone else had but in my school, we didn’t go to school on Saturday but on Sunday. School was six days a week. Our religious teacher taught us the Jewish religion.
The principal of my school, his name was Klaiman; he was an uncle of my future husband, Joseph. This is how we met, because this is what my dad told me on the way to Auschwitz. His last words that he said to me on the boxcar to Auschwitz, if you survive, be sure to marry someone whose family that you know.
When the Germans invaded Poland, my family was coming home from vacation. We couldn’t get a bus, instead we took a wagon and horses. Because he was young, they drafted my father into the Polish army. It was chaos. My father soon came back home, the war lasted only about two weeks in Poland.
In Pabiance, we lived in nice place, a big apartment. Approximately four weeks into the war, men were immediately taken to work by the Nazis, cleaning toilets, using toothbrushes to scrub bricks with chemicals to make them white, the chemicals were harsh and burned their skin. We tried to hide the men.
Someone knocked at the door. It was Montek. Montek worked for us in the store since he was about eight or nine years old. He was like a son in our family.
Montek asked for Mr. Koplowicz. Montek was wearing an armband with a swastika on it; his family was Folksdeutsche, Poles who were of German descent.
He said we need some men for work. Mother said, “Montek, I would hit you, this is what you deserve. You’ve been like a son in our house.” Montek responded, an order is an order and then he left.
We were another two weeks in our apartment. The Germans arrived with tanks, motorcycles, in uniforms. Already there was no food. Men were scared of being sent away to work. Mother stood in line for bread for hours, father was home with the three children. We were told that in two hours later, all Jews needed to be out in the square. Mother never returned to the house that day.
They had a Selection in the town square of Pabiance. They took our grandmother, Chava Moskowicz, aside and made a red letter B on her and other old people. Those with the letter B on them and children under the age of eight were taken away. They were designated for death.
They took the others by streetcar to the Lodz Ghetto. We were in the Lodz Ghetto from May 14, 1942 for two years until sometime in July.
The baby was taken away from my mother. My mother’s hair turned white overnight from the anguish of having her baby taken away.
My father showed up the following day. The Germans assigned us places to live on May 15.
On May 16, I was already sent to a straw factory, braiding straw. There was a bench with nails and you had to braid the straw. There were twelve girls in one room. When the straw was done, the boys took the braids to sew boots. We worked half a day. We were too young to work a whole day.
I was 13 years old. The other half day, we sat around, talking about bread, oil, sugar, and reading. There were bed bugs in the summer. Father was sent to a place building things for Germans. Mother was sent to the laundry room to wash and iron clothes for the German soldiers. We were given wooden shoes to wear.
One day on the way to work, passing the hospital, I saw Germans throwing live babies from the second floor onto a large open truck on the street. I kept walking.
In Lodz Ghetto, everyone was starving. For the first three days had a little food, for the remainder of the week, we had hardly anything left.
There were 100,000 Jews crowded into the Lodz Ghetto. People were falling like flies. There was a special group that would pick up the bodies in a wagon and take them to the cemetery. They received more food. People were lying in the streets and the smell was so bad.
We lived in a one room attic for the family in an old neighborhood. There was no water indoors. There was an outhouse and well water. My mother, father, brother and cousin Hela, my father’s oldest sister’s daughter and I all lived together.
My brother worked in metal store making canisters for water.
Being part of the Jewish Organization helped keep us alive. There were libraries, I read a lot classics, mostly, and we talked.
One day, they started “cleaning” out the Lodz Ghetto; they said they would be sending us to better camps with work, nicer rooms, clothes, and better facilities. We tried to hide, but we were starving, they had stopped giving us food.
It was the end of July 1944. After two weeks, our father told the family that we needed to pack up clothes. Five of us went on trains that took us to Auschwitz. The trains left from the Marysin train station in Lodz (Radegast). We walked two miles to the train station.
The Germans had told us that they were no longer going to feed us in Lodz, we were told to get out things together and go to train station.
It took a whole night, twelve hours, to get to Auschwitz. There were 100 people at least in the boxcar, some were standing and some were sitting. We passed by woods and parks.
So I was standing looking out the window, it was five in the morning, maybe. I was standing next to my father, we both were quiet, this is what he said to me, it was dark and it smelled terrible.
My father told me in the boxcar, “My child if you survive, you are young, they are taking us to a place that no one knows about, if you survive, try to marry someone whose family you know.”
I just looked at him, I was fifteen years old, we were going to Auschwitz.
Why he thought of this going to Auschwitz, we were on that train the whole night, looking out of the little window. I was short, I took my backpack, we were told to take a backpack, I took my backpack and my brother’s, my mom and my brother were sleeping on the floor,.
The baby was already taken away two years earlier. It was horrible to live with my parents, especially with my mom, since they took away my baby brother. I was like maybe twelve, I missed my baby brother but I couldn’t understand at the time why my mother cried all of the time. There was no food, there was nothing, but my mother missed the baby all the time. They took away her baby.
When we got off the train, we were with our families but then we were separated, men went to the left and women to the right.
We were on the train for twelve hours with about a hundred people on the train. You know they gave us each a bread which was precious. One woman was screaming, “I forgot my bread on the train!” My father gave her his bread. Someone said how could you give away your loaf of break, bread was so precious. My father said; let’s just finish what we have.
When we arrived in Auschwitz, we saw guards, dogs, and whips. They said leave everything on train except the bread.
We went through the Selection. The Germans said that all of our things had our names on them and that they would be delivered to us.
They separated the men and women. I was with Hela and my mom. I was holding my mother’s hand. Hela and I were told to go to the right and my mom to go the left.
My mother said to me, you go with me. The SS men broke our holding hands. I never saw my mother again. I never saw my father and brother again.
Hela and I were told to undress and we went to the shower. They gave us rags as dresses that did not fit. We were to dress and take some type of shoes.
After being in Auschwitz for four weeks, there was another selection. Hundreds of women were naked. Some were told to go right, some to go left. Some stayed in Auschwitz, some were sent to their death, some were sent to other camps.
Hela and I were sent to Bergen-Belsen. In a way, Bergen-Belsen was worse than Auschwitz. In Auschwitz, there were bunk beds. In Bergen-Belsen, we were laying in camping tents on grass or sand. We were given bread and cheese filled with sand.
We were there for four weeks and were then sent to another camp. I can’t remember the name of the other camp. We made ammunitions there.
We worked in an ammunition factory in the woods. We used ether; the smell would make you faint. I was the youngest one in the labor camp, I was fifteen years old.
We then were moved to another labor camp where there were salt mines. We dug for salt; trains would take it away.
It was so hot. We wore the striped clothes and striped underwear. Many took off their dresses because of the heat. We worked there for a few months.
We were then sent back to Bergen-Belsen in the beginning of 1945. We were now in a soldier barracks which was as big as a football field. Many had typhus or diarrhea.
Hela found a cousin who had a connection and took me to a hospital. I couldn’t walk any longer. I had typhus; I was burning up with fever. I dreamt that my father was on my bed feeding me raspberries and another type of grapefruit and was telling me to eat.
We were liberated on April 15, 1945 in Bergen-Belsen.
Out of the window, I saw mountains of dead people. I was in the hospital for four weeks.
After Bergen-Belsen, I ran into childhood girlfriend, Mia. She introduced me to my future husband, Joseph Klaiman. The principal of my Jewish School was his uncle!
This was someone whose family I knew, just like my father had told me. After I met my husband, I would not let go of him!
Hela got sick before liberation and ended up going to Swedish hospital. She had to have a lung removed. She moved to Israel and where she met her husband, but she could not have any children. They adopted a seven year old Sephardic boy.
Name of Concentration / Labor Camp(s)
What DP Camp were you after the war?
Near Frankfurt With girlfriend, June and Minia. Had planned to go to Israel, Mother’s brother survived in Marseille, France. He said he would meet me in Israel. Met in Israel, but became pregnant and had to wait. It was 1948. Did not want child to be born in Germany. Registered for papers for the United States. It took two moths. Felt that Israel is the only place that I should be and go was Israel. Never thought of going anywhere else. Came in November 1949 in ninth month. Federation and UNRA (or HIAS) were good to them. They sent them straight to Detroit. Asked them what profession they had. Husband worked in metal and Detroit was city of cars. Arrived in NY only for a few hours. Came by plane, not by boat because she was pregnant. All people on plane were pregnant. 48 hours.
Where did you go after being liberated?
Liberated on April 15, 1945.
Where did you settle?
Detroit. Gave them a room with an Hungarian family. Flat on 12th Street in Dexter, got one bedroom. When returned from hospital switched rooms, from small to larger with bassinet, scale.
Occupation after the war
First worked for Ginsberg making salami for about ½ year. Husband worked for Chevrolet making parts in Hamtrack 4 years. Learned a trade, plumbing. Learned English in night school. Then went into business into the plumbing business with an older man.
When and where were you married?
July 4, 1948 in Zalszcham, Germany
Spouse
Joseph Klaiman,
Plumbing business
Children
Susan is a medical technologist. Five years later, Michael is a CPA. Five years later, Allan is a Urologist.
Grandchildren
Nine grandchildren (7 girls and 2 boys). Susan - Daniel, Stacy, Jessica; Michael - Amanda, Steven, Jacki; Allan - Samantha, Michelle, Kimberly. Five great children - Ryan, Jack Joseph, Gaden, Ella, Sasha Joseph
What do you think helped you to survive?
I don’t know. My husband wanted to survive. I was a pain to my cousin Hela. I was never happy being left alone. I was always heartbroken being alone without my family. It’s hard to grow up by yourself in a strange land. I was never so grateful that I survived. I was never happy that I was left alone. I had a wonderful family and husband.
What message would you like to leave for future generations?
It should never be forgotten, it should never be forgiven..
Interview date:
09/29/2007
Experiences
Survivor's map
