Jakob Aisenberg: One of
my roommates, now lives in New York.
Motel Apelowicz: Member
of our underground group, now lives in Australia.
Mania Bluzsztein: (Maria
Migus) Devoted Bund party member, now manager of Unser Sztimme
in Paris, France.
Chil Bukowski: My cousin
was brutally murdered in our town by Piotrkover Poles, shortly after
the war was over.
Waclaw Bordo: Good-natured
Socialist, now lives in Piotrkow, Poland. I visited him in 1984.
Israel Falk: Now lives in
Montreal, Canada and is involved in many public and cultural endeavors.
Dr. Leon Feiner (Mikolaj Berezowski):
Tireless leader of the Bund underground during the Nazi occupation of
Poland. He was his party's representative in the Coordinating Committee
and Zegota (Help to Jews). He sent clandestine reports in 1942-3-4
to the representatives of the Bund in London, England about the German
mass murders of the Jewish population in Poland. He pleaded with them
for material help.
After the liquidation of the ghetto,
he tried desperately to save some of us in the slave labor camps with
moral and material help. He suffered anguish for not being able to do
more for the remnants of the Hitlerite massacres. He lived to see the
German defeat and died of throat cancer in February of 1945.
I am attesting that monies air-dropped
from the West into Poland in the years 1943-44 were delivered with great
danger and sacrifice by young Polish and Jewish girls couriers to our
slave labour camps. Because of that help, I am one of many, who had
a purpose to overcome and survive those terrible times. Only altruistic
civic leaders such as Dr. Leon Feiner and also Dr. Adolph Berman of
the Zionist group, who cared enough, were able to lift our spirits in
order to survive the Nazi Holocaust.
Bernard Goldstein: One of
the Bund leaders in Warsaw (now deceased), wrote in his book (in Yiddish)
In di yorn fun Yiddishen churban: "Very often our letter
and money received by a distant comrade in a labour camp, is a matter
for further encouragement and endurance to fight. I will give you an
example: We sent to the Piotrkover camp a letter with 20,000 zlotys
for our comrade. If you could only read the letter that we received
from him. "This was the best moment of our bitter life," he
wrote. The one that we sent the money to, our comrade, contacted under
most difficult circumstances other comrades in other camps and sent
them some money that he received from us. He also gave us names of other
comrades in Skarzysko and Czestochowa, so that we were able to contact
them and send them money too. This was the only way to spread out our
activities to other camps."
Salomon Gomberg: Unsung
hero of many deeds in Piotrkow. He was in poor health and died of natural
causes in Buchenwald.
Herford: Block Commandant
of Kara and Hortensja labour camp. He was tried and sentenced
in Piotrkow after the war.
Berek Kurtz: He is now a
Council member of the Piotrkover Society in Montreal, Canada.
Hersz Lewkowicz: Trustworthy
and goodhearted person. Sorry that I did not take him instead of Wengliszewski.
Regretfully, my mistake.
Mosze Leber: Brother of
my friend Burech, lives in Paris, France.
Ala Margules: Dignified
Jewish wartime courier. One of the bravest Jewish girls that I had the
opportunity of knowing in captivity in 1944. She is now a practicing
doctor in Paris, France.
Vladka Meed: One of the
most courageous wartime couriers alive, now residing in New York City.
She brought 50,000 zlotys to me from the Coordinating Committee in Warsaw.
In her book On Both Sides of the Wall, she wrote about another
brave courier, "Our smuggling missions were not always so successful,
many of them ended in grief. My friend Ala Margules (the daughter of
Dr. Anna Margules) had a narrow escape from the Germans. Ala had succeeded
in gaining admission to a factory in Piotrkow where Jews were employed
and with the help of a Polish guard managed to transmit letters and
money to them. Two passing Germans had taken her into custody and accused
her of trespassing in a restricted area--an offence punishable by death.
The Jews whom Ala had helped immediately aroused the whole camp and
ran after all German officers and officials, begging them to free the
"innocent Aryan." Ala was eventually set free, ransomed with
the very money which she had brought the Jewish inmates."
(Correction: At that time Vladka,
or for that matter Ala, did not know how we had saved Ala Margules.
I used 10,000 zlotys for a bribe from the 50,000 that Vladka had brought
to me previously, because the Germans intercepted the 75,000 zlotys
that Ala brought. C.K.).
Mosze Nowak: Helping hand
from the Kara. He now lives in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
Lilka Nutlciewicz: Mrs.
Szlomo Meizner, now living in Los Angeles, CA.
The brothers Pinkusewicz:
Two heartless Kapos of Flossberg concentration camp. One lives
in Israel, the other in the U.S.A.
Noah Rosenwald: He consented
to escape from a moving train that was destined for Mauthausen. We were
hidden in Czechoslovakia for some weeks. He lives with his wife Dorka
in Ness-Ziona, Israel.
Itzhak Samsonowicz: Hardworking
member of the Bund Central Committee outside the ghetto in Warsaw. He
survived the war and held a prominent Government post in Poland. He
was in poor health and passed away.
Vogt: Flossberg's inside
camp leader. He was arrested after the war and put on trial in Germany.
The ex-Kapo of the electricians in Flossberg traveled through
Germany, Austria and Italy to gather signatures for the release of Vogt.
He later came to Modena, Italy and recognized me and asked for my opinion
and signature. I also signed for his release. He was set free.
Szymon Warszawski: Infamous
President of the Piotrkover Judenrat and the Bugaj camp,
perished in Buchenwald.
Nachum Wengliszewski: Underground
member blamed for improper conduct, was killed under mysterious circumstances
in Buchenwald.
Renia Zaks: She was once
involved with our underground, without being aware of it. She relayed
a letter from Ala Margules to her friend Pfeffer that was destined for
us. She now lives in Haifa, Israel.
Josek Zamel: He helped our
underground cause when he was called upon. He now lives in West Germany.
The money that I received: 20,000
and 50,000 (45,000) zlotys. It was parachuted from airplanes from the
West into Poland. The A.K. had a special division called "Import"
under the supervision of Lt. Ignacy Lubezynski. Emanuel Singer (now
living in Israel) was a soldier of the A.K. during the war and worked
in that division.