) Friday, December 5, 1947 DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE UJA Rebuilds Orphans' Lives Youngest Auschwitz Survivor Reenacts Story of Hell-Camp THE HORRORS OF the Ausch- witz extermination camp have been described many times by those fortunate enough to sur- vive its nightmarish realities, but it was not until now that the youngest survivor told his story. At the Polish headquarters of the Hebrew Sheltering and Im- migrant Aid Society (IIIAS), 17- year-old Felix Piotrkowsky told how the Gestapo and SS came to his native Lodz, Poland, in 1940, when he was just 10 years old. He related that the Germans erected walls around an area in the center of the city, created a ghetto, and drove in all the Jews. For months Felix, his parents, and hiS brothers and sisters lived in one room with another family —eleven people In one small MOM. • • • HERDED LIKE CATTLE FELIX WELL REMEMBERS the day In June, 1941, when the Nazis herded the Lodz Jews into cattle-cars, a hundred people to a car, and began the death-jour- ney to Auschwitz. Of the trip itself, Felix re- members very little. But when the train finally stopped at Auschwitz and the cars were emptied, Felix could not find his family. He never saw them again. At Auschwitz other prisoners took care of the child, and after three days on a construction de- tail he was transferred with their help to the job of camp mes- senger. This helped save the boy from the gas-chambers, but it did not prevent him from seeing what no child should ever see. • • • GHOULISH ROLLCALL FELIX TOLD THE HIAS offi- cials about the daily "Selektion" —or rollcall—at which victims were chosen for the gas-cham- bers. Ile described the methods used by the Germans to vary the simple monotony of slaugh- from which IIIAS officials launch- ter., ed a search for' any relatives the "At four o'clock one morning," boy might have. An uncle was he related, "an SS officers entered located in Montevideo, and now the barracks, carrying a stick the youngest survivor of Ausch- He lined all the men up against witz is ready to begin a new We the wall and made them jump, in Uruguay. one by one, over the stick. Those who could not were marched away immediately to the death rooms." At other times, Felix said, the guards would measure the pris- oners. Those who were below a certain height were gassed. 15,000 ARE SIIIFTED WHEN THE RUSSIANS ap- proached the frontier in 1944, Auschwitz was ordered evacu- ated. Fifteen thousand of the male inmates, among them young Felix, were marched inland, changing direction daily to avoid the new thrusts of the Allied troops. Hundreds who could not keep up the pac., were killed at the roadside by SS guards. At Gross- rosen they stayed for a month. Upon the arrival of 25,000 Hungarian deportees, all the Jews were compelled to move again, this time to Gunskirchen Camp, which consisted of about 20 tre- mendous tents in the middle of a forest. • • Dental Leaders Off to Freshen Up DP'S in Profession NEW YORK—Three leaders in American dentistry left for Europe via Pan American Air- ways recently to organize an present a series or refreshes courses in modern dental tech. niques for dentists among tilt Jewish displaced persons in Germany, Austria and Italy un- der a program sponsored by the Joint Distribution Committee. The instruction course for DP dentists, which will last for two months, is part of the com mittee's public health activities. Funds for JDC activities abroad are provided through contributions to the $170,000,000 campaign of the United Jewish Appeal. Some 100,000 of Europe's Jews have already been aided through 229 producers' cooper- CRITICALLY ILL atives, twelve loan funds and CROWDED INTO these tents, 36 credit cooperatives supported many, including Felix, contracted by the reconstruction program of the Joint Distribution Com- typhus. Finding no place to lie mittee. in the tent, Felix climbed up in- to the wooden framework of the Chronicle Social and Club tent and tied himself to a beam. He was lying up there, critically News deadline is noon Monday ill, when the first American jeep entered the camp at the head of a column of the liberating forces. Careful attention by American Army and UNRRA doctors brought the boy back to health, and he was sent to a DP camp, • Lewis F. Brown 1900 E. GRAND BLVD. • Orphaned Jewish girls play with a neighboring peasant's goat in the yard of a child-care institution In Greece sup- ported by the Jews of America through the $170,000,000 United Jewish Appeal for Refugees, Overseas Needs and Palestine. - • CHANUKAH GREETINGS » Page Thirteen Chanukah Greetings and Best Wishes to All * rUNNINGHAM ■ 10 , Drug Stores Chanukah Greetings • With deep gratitude in our hearts • With hopeful prayers on our lips • With thanks for the opportunities in America. THE UNITED DAIRIES Wishes to express their appreciation for the loyal patronage of the many thousands of Jewish customers we have been privileged to serve and extend our sincerest wishes for HEALTH, HAPPINESS and SECURITY Chanukah Greetings .. . May Yours Be a Joyous Chanukah UNITED DAIRIES, Inc. 4055 PURITAN UNiversity 1.2800