Testimony of Jakob Zaide, born in 1928 in Zduńska Wola, Poland, regarding his experiences in Zduńska Wola, deportation to the Lodz ghetto, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and Kaufering

Testimony of Jakob Zaide, born in 1928 in Zduńska Wola, Poland, regarding his experiences in Zduńska Wola, the Lodz ghetto, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and Kaufering Childhood in Zduńska Wola; studies in a primary school for Jewish students; manifestations of antisemitism before the war; the German occupation in September 1939; decrees against Jews; deportation to a local ghetto in August 1940; work as a servant for a German officer; stealing food for the family; Aktionen in the ghetto; his mother and two younger brothers deported to the Chełmno camp and their deaths at the camp; deported with father to the Łódź ghetto in August 1942; forced labor in carpentry; Judenrat headed by Haim Rumkowski; the Jewish police in the ghetto; deported with his father approximately two months later to Auschwitz Birkenau, in October 1942; personal number tattooed on his arm - 95198; work at the construction school in Auschwitz; working with other Jews in removing bodies from the gas chambers and transferring them to the cremation pit; selection in the presence of Dr. Mengele; being sent to the gas chambers; waiting naked in the block before entering the gas chambers; successfully escaping and returning to the construction workplace; identified in a further selection by Dr. Mengele; additional stories of survival; deportation to the Kaufering camp in October 1944; labor in an aircraft factory; the camp’s liquidation; the prisoners removed to a train; escape to the forest; liberation by the US Army; Landsberg DP camp in May 1945; wandering as far as Italy; legal aliya to Eretz Israel in 1945; absorption through Youth Aliyah.