Page Ten
DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE and The Legal Chronicle
Fifteen Year Old Boy Writes Vivid
Description of Experience Under Nazis
An extraordinary document, the
vivid autobiography of a 15-year-
old Jewish boy who has gone
through a number of the worst of
the German concentration camps
and has lost his parents and his
brother at the hands of the Ger-
mans, has been made public by
the Canadian Jewish Congress.
The original document which is
handwritten by Paul Hodess, of
Lodz, Poland, on cheap German
bookkeeping forms reached the
Canadian Jewish Congress through
one of its relief workers in Ger-
many, Philip Stuchen, of Ottawa.
It is written in a remarkably cor-
rect Yiddish with a natural direct
style which is noteworthy consid-
ering that he must •have received
nearly all his schooling In the
ghetto and in the German death
camps.
"I was born in Poland in the
city of Lodz. Now I am 15. At
the age of nine I was locked in
the ghetto with my family. We
suffered hunger and need. People
became swollen and died. In 1943
the Germans grabbed all children
of 10 years of age. I had a
younger brother of 7. We lay with
him in the attic without food or
water.
"In one week the situation
changed and the German S.S. be-
gan to search out the weak and
the thin people in the houses. I
lay in hiding with my family and
counted the shots. My father with
all the other men went down into
the courtyard for the selection to
cover the women and the chil-
dren. You can imagine what went
on in our hearts when our dearest
was standing in the courtyard and
c ould have been shot or taken
away at any moment, and how
great was our joy when we saw
our father return with news, the
pad news, that the Germans had
taken away more children and
had shot their mothers.
"Eventually we passed this hor-
rible time and were saved for a
while. There was one thing that
warmed and strengthened us, the
fact that we were all together.
As a child I could not then un-
derstand the full meaning of a
family, of being with father and
mother. Today I can really speak
of It now that I am left alone
without anybody.
GEO. J. SEEGER
Company
Passover Greetings and
Best Wishes to AU!
Season's Greetings and
Best Wishes for a
Happy Holiday Season
MALDEN
PAPER CO.
SOBERMAN
MILGROM
9727 JOS.
Passover Greetings!
RICHARDSON 8
BOWMAN
Texaco Products
5182
Grand River at Linwood
Ford Benzol
Auto Accesorie s
General Repair — TY. 4.9213
zss
Passover Greetings!
•
General
Smoked Fish Co.
1337 WINDER
La FLEUR
BEAUTY SHOP
•
Pure Food El
Dairy Co.
alone without help or means,
without a living sould that I could
call my own. There were times
when I regretted remaining among
the living, among the very few
surviving Jews. Thus two months
passed in Dachau. Many died and
many recovered. From Dachau I
went to a camp of Jews, Felda-
ring. I felt more at home among,
my own brothers. The American
Jewish Joint Distribution Com-
mittee helped us in every way.
Soon after I went to Heidelberg.
The representative of the JDC put
me in a school for Jewish chil-
dren.
"Today I live only for the words
which my father said on his dy-
ing bed:
"'I am already 43, and I will
not survive this hell. But you are
young. Remain that our name
shall not be torn out of the pages
of the world.' This keeps me
strong and I live thinking of a
better world tomorrow."
morning we were sent to work. Af-
ter working two days in the for-
est, my father became sick with
pneumonia. I kept going to work,
hard as it was, and was beaten
all the time. The week afterwards
my father became well but too
weak to work. He was taken to
the hospital block where it was
very bad. In two days he died. I
was left all alone without a sure
"In the summer of 1944 we were morrow. From day to day the
sent to Oswiecim. How terrible number of dead grew. Of the 600
was that moment in my life when Jews there were only 320 left. The
the Germans tore apart the wo- camp existed another week and
men from their husbands and the remnants, 125 weak men were
children from their mothers as sent to Dachau. I must have
we got off the train. The horrible looked like a corpse because we
crying and the tragic farewells. were taken to the hospital. Forty
Men collapsed. I was in a quan- died on the train and most of the
dary; my mother sent me to my rest of us never came to. Being
rather, and my father sent me young, they gave me a little more
hack to my mother. My mother to eat and after two weeks I was
had my younger brother as she well again. The doctor was a
Passover Greetings
said to me with tearful eyes, 'Go Frenchman and he had pity on
be with your father.' She could me and didn't discharge me from
feel the bad weather coming. I the hospital. He gave me light
might very easily have been lost work there. On April 25, 1945, the
in the crowd of crying people Germans gathered all the Jews to
Hair Stylists Permanent Specialists
and remained alone. At that mo- be taken to the Tyrol. The doc-
1 2 24 1 LINWOOD near Cortland
ment a Jew who worked at clean- tor wanted to save me and wrote
TOwnsend 8-8944
ing the cars came up and told me another diagnosis for me and put
that I better go with my father, me to bed even though I was
that is, with the men. After much well. He risked his own life as
trouble I found my father stand- well as mine for me. The trans-
PASSOVER GREETINGS!
ing with the others with his head port left and I remained at the
down weeping. I got in the line- hospital.
up with him and we came to the
"On April 28, the Americans en-
German officer who picked out tered. As if we were new born,
the strong men and sent the others thousands in the camp rushed
with the children to be burned. I out to greet the liberators. The
was horribly red from crying and S.S. men had their hands in the
roughly dressed, and the officer air. I receive the news of our
liked me. I told him I was 17. He liberation coldly and was not at
Butter, Eggs, Cheese
looked at me and sent me with all joyful. I was shocked. I looked
my father after two days in Os- at the men who sang and danced
1951 E. FERRY
wiecim to the labor camp at for joy as if they were idiots. I
Kaufbaurn.
::• ■ •=1.0■ 0 41■ 0•=4, =104).11.04”0
looked at myself and couldn't
■0•1■0■ 0:.
"There were 600 of us. In the recognize myself. Only long after
did I understand. I had remained
Best Wishes
Passover Greetings!
Friday, April 12, 1946
Wallpaper & Paints
8675 12th St.
1734 W. JEFFERSON
TYler 6.6525
I*
•
Passover Greetings!
•
PHIL BRICKER
Manufacturer of Fine Furs
11612 DEXTER BLVD.
TO. 8.7692
Passover Greetings and
Best Wishes to All!
LET A
PHILIP STYLIST
GIVE YOU A
PERMANENT AND
RESTYLE
YOUR HAIR
Appointments to 6 P. M.
ado
MENDELSON
EGG CO.
3906
For
Chapped Hands
EMILIE PHILIP HAND CREAM
118 Clifford
CA. 6645
JOY ROAD
LA. 0830
CAMPAU
Best Wishes
for
a Joyous Passover!
Sincerest Passover Greetings!
DETROIT
TULLAR ENVELOPE CO.
Sincere Passover Greetings
MANUFACTURERS
The most complete line of
Artistic Upholsterers
Commercial Envelope s and Specialties
Plain and Printed
Established 1901
Creators of Fine Furniture
2744 W. Fort Street
Lafayette 2700
KOBLIN'S CUT RATE
500 MICHIGAN
16933 HAMILTON
FRESH AND FROZEN FISH
1349 ADELAIDE ST.
RANDOLPH
6355 — 776 11 )
Sincerest Passover Greetings!
La Measure Bros.
BABY VALET
7 0 . 4
•%••%•••••••••••••,: ••••••••V:•••••••••••Vt•VA••• •,
W. Adams
PASSOVER GREETINGS
AND BEST WISHES
p
UNITED FISH DISTRIBUTORS
408 Fine Axis Bldg.
•
NIM•SNNVfVVMIMXIM3aVVV‘XlaNWI
A Very Joyous Passover to All
Greetings of the Season!
CL. 0269
TOwnsend 8-5500
r't.•I‘:%:%:%W4ANNNN%NIV•
Best Wishes for a Joyous Passover!
•
Masseuse
LINWOOD WINDOW SHADE CO.
11828 LINWOOD AVE.
7755 GRAND RIVER AVE.
TY. 6-7500
Jessie Chabot
WINDOW SHADES
Made to Order or Repaired
PASSOVER GREETINGS
Detroit's Best For More Than 47 Years
LAUNDRY
SANITONE DRY CLEANING
James F. Coen
CURTAINS
District Manager
Phone LAfayette 2200
The Wadsworth Electric Mfg. Co., Inc.