EXCERPT FROM APPENDIX B – FELLOW RESIDENTS IN THE GHETTO AND CAMPS
“After weeks of marching and wandering on the roads, on which thousands of inmates lost their lives, I started to feel that my strength was leaving my battered skeleton. Nevertheless I continued walking. In the middle of April, I arrived at a camp, in which there were several Zawiercie residents.
I knew that the Red Army was positioned not far from Berlin and that the Allied forces had already beaten the Nazi military. However, I too was totally crushed. I was just skin and bones. I felt like my soul was lying on my lips and that my days were numbered. I was terribly tortured by the thought: It was clear to me that the Nazis were being conquered, but, but – will I survive and be a free man again? Yes, I knew that the end of the Nazis was a question of days, but – would I survive these few days? The Nazis transferred me to the camp in Mühldorf, which was a branch of the Dachau camp. I was only there a few hours when I heard someone calling my name: “Bornstein, Bornstein!” Who could be calling me here? I thought to myself. Who knows about me? I did not have to investigate for too long. It was Stützky, who used to live in Ogrozensky and later in Zawiercie. (There he was my father’s pupil in Zeirei Mizrachi). Stützky brought me a plate of camp soup with a few potatoes. My hopes of surviving the misery became more realistic. After this nice reception he brought me potatoes every day. Other Zawiercie residents in the camp also supported me with food. Those were: Osher Passerman, the Tzimbler brothers (today of New York) and Moshe Chaim Goldstein.”
