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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Memoir:
What Makes Babey Run?
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Volume 15i
Babey
Widutschinsky-Trepman
What
Makes Babey Run?
published by
the
Concordia University Chair in Canadian Jewish Studies
Copyright � Babey Widutschinsky-Trepman, 2001
Key
Words
Bergen-Belsen; Siauliai; Lithuania; Ghetto/two sections: Kavkaz
and Traku; Auschwitz; Batchunai, small village; Foerster, camp commandant;
Paventchiai, a town; Stutthof; Danzig; Ochsenzohl, near Hamburg;
Role of Jews and non-Jews in survival; Role of language; liberation;
Active in post-war theatre group; Canadian Jewish Eagle sponsors
immigration to Canada; Life in Montreal
Abstract
Family
life in small town, Siauliai, Lithuania. Soviet invasion in 1940;
father forced to sign declaration expressing sympathy for the "masses"
in the Soviet Union. When Germans invade on June 24, 1941, Lithuanian
police arrest him as communist sympathizer. Local Lithuanians carry
out pogroms. Jews forced into labour camps and ghetto established
September 4, 1941. Describes living and working conditions in ghetto.
Works as maid for gentile family outside the ghetto. Later works
in auto-repair shop; notes the kindness of the director of the plant,
a German army officer. Organization of illegal schools and cultural
activities in the ghetto. Selections begin and ghetto closed July
22, 1944. Mother and younger sister sent to their deaths in Auschwitz.
Works in munitions plant in Ochsenzohl camp near Hamburg. Characterizes
camp commandant as brutal and sadistic; but he is succeeded by a
commandant who is described as a "wonderful human being."
Some days before liberation, sent to Bergen-Belsen. Description
of camp conditions. She contracts typhus, but survives due to the
efforts of her older sister who has been with her throughout the
entire period. Describes the reactions to liberation. Post-war activities
in theatrical group, tours European countries. Meets her husband,
a journalist, who survived the camps as a gentile. Sponsored by
the "Canadian Jewish Eagle," they come to Canada. Both
work as educators in Montreal Jewish day schools. Raise two children,
now professionals. Husband Paul publishes his account of the war
years, Among Men and Beasts in 1978.
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