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TRANSCRIPTS OF HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR INTERVIEWS (Page 6)
©2000 Jim Terr / Blue Canyon Productions. All Rights Reserved
ARON STRASER…on this subject, and 20% of the American people seem to agree with the Holocaust deny us. Twenty percent is an enormous amount. We have to try what we can to, not only prove them wrong, but to prove that there is a malicious intent on their part to do that…..OK, I'm ready whenever you are….
I'll start with where I come from, and then go on from there. Is it OK for me to occasionally look into here, or, as I say, 90% I know it by heart, but I don't want to jump. I want to stay with the story and not to jump the subjects.
My name is Aron Straser. I was born in Poland, in a shtetl or a village not far in the northeastern part of Poland, about 150 kilometers from the Russian border. We lived there, my family and I, which consisted of my mother, father, brother and sister--peacefully, I would say. Although Poland had the largest Jewish population of any European country--over 3 million people. I consider now that the Jews of Poland were treated as secondhand citizens. In other words, we had our limitations, but just the same, we were not faced with a life-threatening situation. In 1941, as you know, Stalin and Hitler signed a pact to divide and occupy Poland. On June 22, 1941, the Germans began their…Oh, I'm sorry, I have to go back…..In 1939, the Russian…..I'll just retract a little bit. ….In 1939, Stalin, the Russian leader, and, of course, Hitler, signed a pact to divide and occupy Poland. Since we were in the northeastern part of Poland, we fell under the Russian occupation. Briefly, things have changed for the Jewish people, in respect that a lot of the properties of the businesspeople were liquidated, but the ordinary worker didn't face much of a change. I had to attend the Russian school, and learn the language. There was no freedom in Russia at that time, but as I said earlier, our lives were not threatened, until June of 1941, when the Germans attacked the Russian forces, and in a week they had reached our area. We already knew what to expect from the Germans. I recall in the beginning of 1941, some Jewish refugees from Germany ended up in our area, and from them we learned these unbelievable stories of atrocities that they were exposed to in Germany. Their properties were confiscated; they could not work at their professions; they had to wear a yellow Star of David on their outer clothing; they could not walk on the sidewalk, only on the streets; they were finally ordered to turn in all of their valuables under the threat of prison. Then they were taken to the Polish border and forced under the threat of a machine gun, to cross into Poland. They tried to reach Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, and from there, perhaps escape to the west. But I don't think any of them had a chance to make it.
The day after the Germans attacked the Russian forces; we found one couple who happened to be employed by our village as teachers. We found them in a water well. And that's when we realized that the stories we heard that we thought perhaps were exaggerated, were not exaggerated at all. This particular couple could not face the Nazis anymore, and they committed suicide. Knowing what to expect from the Germans, the question is what could the Jews of Poland do? Three million people-where could they run to? Really, Poland is a land-locked country. To the south of Poland is Czechoslovakia, which was already overrun by the Germans. And, of course, to the east was Russia. So, my family and I started to run toward the Russian border on foot. The question was, to which border, of course. The only border we could reach was the Russian border, hoping that they would let us cross into Russia, and from there, perhaps escape the Germans. But this was wishful thinking on our part. We reached the border in three days. Once we were there, we were told that since we were not citizens of Russian, we would not be allowed to cross into Russia. We waited there for a few days, hoping, perhaps they would change their minds. I would estimate there were about 500-600 people that tried to do the same as we planned.
We reached a little village called Haraodok which was a few miles from the border. Soon, we heard that the Germans were coming and that they were coming from the east. They occupied Minsk, which was the capital city of White Russia. And I-not only I-many of us were puzzled. How is it possible when Germany was to the west of us? What happened is that they had conquered a huge area to the south and north in White Russia, and they were just mopping up the area. They rounded up several hundred thousand Russian prisoners of war. So here we are, facing the Germans, and I'll never forget the impression it made on me. The powerful German military, compared to the Polish Army, it was like a David and Goliath comparison. As I was watching them passing by-of course, the ground was shaking from the weight of the tanks--I was just thinking to myself, how can an army like that be defeated. Which means, what does the future hold for us. Not only uncertain, but probably pain, misery, and we couldn't think of being liberated. Anyway, we didn't really have much time to think about it. All of a sudden, the Germans on those motorcycles showed up with a Polish police interpreter. They told all of the Jews that were gathered there to go to the city square. They separated the men from the women. Our brothers and sisters were about a hundred feet away, maybe two hundred. And the men from the age of 15 and older were told to kneel on the ground with our hands above our heads and simply wait. We were surrounded by the Germans, with their machine guns pointed at us. We could hear the women crying from far away, because we weren't sure what the Germans had in mind. We thought, perhaps, that they may liquidate us right there and then. But evidently they didn't have the orders to do that. After about 2 hours sitting on the ground, they told us to get up, join our womenfolks, and go back to where we came from, in order to qualify for food rationing cards. Of course, without those cards, food was not available. You couldn't buy it. Needless to say, we rounded up our belongings and started on foot to go back to the village of Smorgonie, where we came from.
When we returned to our village, we found that our homes were burned out. We stayed with friends whose house was still standing. About a week later, we were told that all the Jews had to report to a ghetto.
Wherever the Jews lived in Poland-whether in a small village or a large city like Warsaw of the city of large (?)-The Jews were separated from the other groups and put into a ghetto. Now a ghetto you may think is a place where a certain ethnic group is residing, like perhaps the ghetto of Holland. That's not what the Germans had in mind for the Jews. They would usually pick Islam area, and encircle the area with a barbed wire fence, with one main gate open, guarded by the Germans or the Polish police, or together. We were told that we couldn't take with us, except whatever one could carry on his shoulders. No furniture, not even a bicycle. A family of 2 or 4, or 6, or 10 people was stuffed into a room. And if a house had 4 or 5 rooms, 30 or 40 people sometimes ended up in the same house. Needless to say, one could find sleeping accommodations underground on a straw sack.Every morning at 6:00 a.m., at the sound of a siren, we were told to line up for a head count in front of our houses on the main street. The Germans and the Polish police would come and take as many workers as they needed to work for them. Primarily to clean the barracks, to sweep the streets and the sidewalks of the city, or we were taken to the woods to cut down trees for the wood supply for the winter. After work we would be given a quarter soup, which consisted of some potatoes, some vegetables. I say some, because not everybody was lucky to get that. And this was our almost daily ration. Prior to that, we would be given a slice of bread and a piece of margarine, and this was it. Occasionally, we would be given some potatoes so we could perhaps boil them on the outside, at home. But needless to say, on a diet that consisted of maybe 800 or 900 calories, one didn't have to worry about gaining weight.
The worst thing to get used to was the uncertainty of what the next day will bring. Prior to the closing of the ghetto-and, of course, every Jew had to wear this yellow Star of David on his outer clothing, which was about 5 inches in diameter--anyone found not wearing the Star of David outside would be simply taken to the woods, or shot, or hanged, whatever. And, unfortunately, that's what happened to my father and my cousin. Shortly before the ghetto was closed, they went out to the nearest farmer to trade some of our belongings, that bedding or clothing, for food-potatoes, vegetables, whatever was available, flowers.
They were rounded up by the Germans and because they didn't wear the yellow Star of David. Obviously, they couldn't wear it, otherwise they would have been caught right away….They were taken to the woods and shot. Now one would ask, how could the Germans tell whether you were Jewish or not. Very simple….In Europe, only the Jewish males were circumcised. This would give any Jew away.There is no good time of losing a father, but since, to me, this was the worst time for us, we still had to go on. My brother and I were taken every day to work, most of the time in the woods and for the military. The women were taken somewhere else. In the beginning, little babies with young mothers were allowed to stay home. But then, the Germans realized that they were losing the labor that the mothers could provide. They took the babies, up to the age of 5 or 6, and promised to put them in a kindergarten, with visitation privileges, which they did allow the mothers to do. But, after the 2 weeks, the children and the elderly disappeared from the ghetto. And, of course, at that time we just couldn't comprehend that they would be taken away and killed, but that's what it turned out to be--the German plan. This was already at the end of 1941, to get rid of as many Jews as they could, starting with the babies, and the elderly, which they considered a non-productive element. Why feed them?
My brother and I were told to report to a Labor Camp. Our ghetto was ordered to supply about 500 young people. My mother and sister decided to join us, because we knew once were separated, we may never get together again. We ended up not far from the City of Vilna, now it's called Vilnius, building a parallel rail line, parallel to the existing one so the Germans would have two-way traffic to the eastern front and back. I contracted typhoid, because of the unsanitary conditions in the camp. As you know, typhoid is a very contagious disease. I was taken with another group of 23 youngsters to the ghetto of Vilma, which had the only hospital available. Once I recovered, I was allowed to stay in the ghetto of Vilna.
The ghetto of Vilna was much, much larger. At that time, it had about 120,000 people, although it was the largest ghetto. The ghetto of Warsaw was much bigger, and the ghetto of Lodz I hear-that's where my wife comes from-had between 300,000 and 400,000 Jews.
When the work was finished in the camp, my brother, my mother, and my sister were allowed to join me in the ghetto. But we were reunited for a short period of time. My brother and I were going out, leaving the ghetto with another group, to the airport, to work there. They were enlarging the airport. The work, of course, was hard. Although the food rationing was just about the same-about 800 or 900 calories-people were beginning to succumb to sickness. I mean elderly people. At that time, when I was 16-17, obviously anyone over 30 was, in my eyes, considered elderly.
Then, one day, we were rounded up at the airport, put into cattle wagons, and taken to Estonia. However, before we reached Estonia we were sure that we may end up in Bonari, which was about 15 kilometers from the City of Vilna, and it was a killing place. That's where the Germans would take all the Jews from the neighboring smaller ghettos, promising to take them to the ghetto of Vilma, but they never reached the ghetto. They reached Bonari. They were forced to run toward the mass prepared graves, and get undressed and they would be machine gunned.
Several of the youngsters that were ordered to bring the corpses to the graves-one can only imagine what went on under these circumstances. People, when they were exposed to shooting, began to scream, run, and hoping to escape. But, of course, they were hit, and fell on the ground, 50-100 feet away from the graves. The youngsters were supposed to drag their corpses and put them in the graves.
After the killing, the Germans were simply sitting back, relaxing, and boozing. Evidently, even for them, it was not an easy job to do. The youngsters realized that they would probably be shot, because the Germans did not want to have any witnesses, and if they could they would take a chance and try to escape. Since it was a wooded area, many of them, during the escape, were shot and killed. Half a dozen managed to escape. They reached the ghetto of Vilma and they told us what was going on in Bonari. Needless to say, we knew by then already that every Jew was sentenced to die. It was just a question of when, how, and where.
Knowing that, what could we do? Really, not much. Being on the cattle wagon on our way to Estonia….And, of course, we assumed that we would be taken to Bonari and face the same fate as our brothers and sisters. But, they needed us in Estonia, where they put us to dig test wells for shale deposits. And when the deposits were located, then they built a mine and we had to mine the shale. The Germans had a way from extracting oil from the shale deposits.
In order to try to fill in, I have to abbreviate my story. I'm sticking to too many details. Estonian winters were cold. Lots of snow. People began to succumb to sickness and die. The Russians began to push the Germans out of Russia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia. When the Germans retreated, for some reason they took the inmates from this particular camp with them. We will never know why the other camps were liquidated, by putting the people in barracks and simply blowing them up. We would not ask any questions. We were given orders to do this. Anyone that was silly enough to inquire would simply get a beating that he'll never forget. We were given a loaf of bread and marched to the port of Tallin, which is on the Baltic Sea.
After 3 days of walking, we arrived in Tallin, put on a German merchant boat, and after a seasickening ride, we came to the port of Danzig, and from there we walked at night for another 3 or 4 hours, to a place which was called Stutthof. Stutthof is a concentration camp. It had a gas chamber and a crematorium. When I arrived at Stutthof, I had a tattoo on my arm, which is 79,970. That's how many inmates were in Stutthof at that time. Although the population doubled shortly, because they were bringing in transports, trainloads of Jews from Hungary and Rumania. Stutthof was a warehouse where they kept the people. We didn't work in Stutthof. Periodically, some German representatives would come to Stutthof and pick workers for their factories. One can imagine a slave market, where we were lined up in columns of 100, our shirts off, and the Germans would pass by and pick the ones that still had any meat on their body, and that looked like a better working specimen.
The ones left behind had to contend with the fact that the smell of the crematorium, of burning human flesh, and the smoke from the crematorium chimney were just a reminder that our days were limited. We envied the people that were picked to be taken out of Stutthof. However, after a few months, the same people would return to Stutthof in very debilitated condition. Like ghosts in slow motion. They would be taken to the gas chamber, in order to get rid of a large group of people.
At one time, my brother and I were picked to go out. We were put, again, in cattle wagons, and taken to the smaller concentration camp of Neungamme, which is near the Dutch border, near the cities of Aurich and Meppen. There, we would be put to dig anti-tank trenches, because the second Allied front was already attacked, and the work, again, was very, very hard. By that time, we were so deteriorated physically that I just wonder how one could be exposed to such hard labor and still be able to stand on our feet.
When the work was done, they took us back to Stutthof. This was already the beginning of 1945. We were told that…..We already knew that the Germans were losing the war. How did we know? We didn't have any newspapers, any radio, not a watch, nothing….We were completely cut off from the world. But, occasionally, people that worked on the farms were able to pick up a discarded magazine or newspaper, read the headlines, and come to the camp and tell us. So, we knew that the Germans were retreating, and we knew that the war would come to an end, eventually. The question was whether we would be around to face liberation. It was a very hopeless situation, because I could see people around me that I talked to two days earlier….They were sitting on the ground, dead.
One day, again, we were given a loaf of bread, put into cattle wagons-usually 100 people per cattle wagon. Whenever we were given bread, we knew that we would go somewhere. They dragged us around for almost 2 weeks, back and forth. The Germans were surrounded by the allied forces. And then the train stopped near Hanover. I think it was a station called Pferden . We were told to get out of the cattle wagons. Most of us had to be taken out, because we were too weak, physically to do it by ourselves. We were put on the ground. The train took off. Still guarded by the Nazis, with their machine guns pointed at us, although we didn't have the strength to walk, never mind run.
Again, we were sure that these were probably the last hours that we would be around. Then, they forced us to crawl on our hands and knees, (Whoever could walk, of course, could walk) for about a mile, and we ended up near a POW camp. They put us in the adjacent camp that was still under construction. We didn't get any food for, maybe, 3 days. The day after we reached the camp, and, I mean, most of the barracks were unfinished. My brother and I ended up in a dug out hole, and that's where we spent the night. The following day we were given some soup. We stayed there for about a week, and then we heard the ground was rumbling, and we knew that these were not German tanks, because somehow we figured the German tanks probably wouldn't be around here. These were the British forces that liberated us on the 28th of April, 1945.
The prisoners from the adjacent camp came over from the other side. They brought with them a lot of food, because they stole the warehouses.
Both my brother and I succumbed to disintery and typhoid because our systems were not used to the rich, canned food that was given to us. We developed disyntery. And, unfortunately, the British did not expect to find so many sick people that required immediate attention. There's an unknown figure of how many survivors died after liberation. The British tried to help as much as they could, obviously, but that was the case.
We were separated. I was taken to a temporary hospital, and so was my brother, in a different place. When I was well enough to walk around and look for my brother, I just couldn't find him. As I say, not only did we have beards on our faces, and the people were lying on the ground, on straw sacks in the temporary tents. I remember walking by and looking into every person's face, trying to find my brother, but I couldn't.
The people from my camp were scheduled to go to Sweden for recuperation. Sweden decided to take in about 100,000 survivors for recuperation, and I was scheduled to go there too, not knowing all along what happened to my brother. When I arrived in Bergen-Belsen (that's where the ghettoing point was), on top of a British military truck, for the first time I saw women that went toward us. Their heads were shaven, in striped clothing. When they reached us, they were inquiring who we were, what camp we were in, what part of Poland we were from. In other words, they were looking for their husbands, brothers, etc. Seeing women-because, until then, I was sure that women had no chance of surviving-that made me think, suppose my mother, or sister, or both of them, are somewhere alive. How will I ever get in touch with them. I knew Sweden was in the other side of the Baltic Sea. I decided right there, I am not going to Sweden.
I stayed in the camp. The transport left. Of course, Bergen-Belsen had at that time had about maybe 8,000-10,000 survivors. I wrote to my Aunt in Israel-the only permanent address I could think of-letting her know that I was alive. My mother, that was liberated by the Russian forces-my mother and sister. And that time, where in the community center of Lodz did the same. She wrote to her sister, letting her know that she and her daughter is alive. Through my Aunt, I found out that she was alive. When my mother heard that I am in Bergen-Belsen, they decided to cross the border of Czechoslovakia into Germany, and we were reunited in July, I believe the 7th of July.
When I mentioned to my mother that I really didn't know what happened to my brother, we went to the same hospital in Rottenberg, Germany, and after looking over the various papers we found that he passed away on May 19, 1945, and was buried in a mass grave with about 4,000 people, after the liberation. Needless to say, it was a great shock for my mother. But, at the same time, we knew that we were probably one of the few families where more than one member survived. Life had to go on.
I met my wife, Judy, in the camp of Bergen-Belsen, and she survived with her mother also. My mother and sister went to Israel, when the State of Israel was established. I stayed in Bergen-Belsen for a short while later, because I wanted to finish the ORT school (trade school) that I attended. But then, the war of liberation in 1948 in Israel broke out. I got a letter from my mother. You got out of one fire, don't get into another. Wait until the war will end. We listened to my mother's suggestion.
Meanwhile, the American Government passed a law to permit 300,000 DP's (displaced persons) to enter the United States above the normal quota. We signed up for it, not really thinking anything would come out of it, and 2 weeks later we were told to be ready, so we packed our belongings and two suitcases, and were taken to a temporary transit camp. From there, we came by plane, because my wife was pregnant with my son, and it was already too late for her to go by boat. We arrived on June 24, 1949 to the United States.
We are grateful for the opportunity to go back to a normal life, and for the tragedy of the Holocaust on the back burner, because it isn't something one can forget.