The Holocaust
... be relocated to a different camp. He was put on a train on route to Auswitz. When he arrived at Auswitz he was taken to get a number tattooed on his arm in which he would be identified. By giving them all numbers, it took away their uniqueness because they were no longer called the name once given to them. His number was 128232 and when added together it equaled 18. In Hebrew, letters of the alphabet stand for numbers and 18 was “Chai” which means “Life” (Menszer). Solomon was assigned to building railroads and since he was short, and the Capos liked to see people in pain, they would assign a tall man to help Solomon carry the iron. This meant that the tall man, would have to bend his knees. One of the days he was working, he fell and was unable to lift himself back up. The Capo yelled, beat him, and took him aside because there was going to be a selection that night. They were stripped naked, made to stand all evening and then thrown in to a Red Cross van, one on top of another. Solomon thought for sure they were going to the gas chambers. When they arrived he found out that they were in a hospital. He talked to a man that he had seen in Treblinka that was also chosen to be taken to Auswitz. The man said that the hospital was a bad place and they made a selection two days a week. Solomon’s chances of living were extremely slim. His selection was to be made on the next week. Luckily, he overheard someone talking about working and he begged to go. Although he was injured, the man gave him a paper and told him to report to Block 6 (Menszer). Once he arrived, the guards at the gate made him wait all day until they could let him in. He made friends with a man that knew someone from Solomon hometown. The man took him to work with him and nine other guys. The guys asked Solomon to make the Capo a hat, so from then on, the Capo never beat him again. He ended up digging sand and walking over 10 miles a day to do it. They had to dig sand and bring it to cover the ashes of the dead bodies from the crematorium. He did this for over a year. Since he worked on the other side of the extermination process, he saw people being brought into the camps, being lined up, and coming out of the other side. In August and September of 1944, he saw them throwing living children into the crematorium. Over 6 million Jews were murdered during the holocaust (Levin). 1.5 million of them being children. Over 5 million Non-Jewish victims were exterminated as well, 3 million of those victims were Poles and Catholics (Katz). Eventually, on January 18, 1945, then began liquidating Auswitz and that’s when Solomon left. He walked for days and days, eventually coming upon another camp named Gross-Rosen. This was death to most of the people who arrived there. During the day they stood, at night they slept head to foot and only ate bread. When they finally left, they were put on trains for days, eventually arriving at Dachau (Manszer). Leaving Dachau a few days later, Solomon was liberated on May 1st. During this time they were traveling on trains and they could hear gun shots and bombs. They needed people to clean up after the bombings and Solomon was picked. They walked to a town nearby and he was given a pick. He had a small piece of bread in his pocket which he was determined to eat. He was beaten down and kicked until he finished the last bite. He then got up and went on his way to work. Early the next day, they heard jeeps outside the train. It was the Americans and they said that everyone was freed. They arrested the Germans. The Americans cooked rice for all of the prisoners but Solomon was not able to eat the rice because his sto...