Mordekhai Meyo

Testimony of Mordo Mordechai Meyo, born in 1928 in Kastoria, Greece, about his experiences in Auschwitz, Weisswasser, and other camps Childhood; Italian-Greek war; father mobilized and dies in 1941; German occupation ensues in April 1941; Jews' homes marked; white Star of David edict; prohibition of leaving Kastoria; deportation to Thessaloniki; life in the Thessaloniki ghetto; life in the "Baron Hirsch" ghetto; deportation to Auschwitz on Passover 1944; witness selected and remains with uncle; reaches the Weisswasser camp and is separated from uncle; taken to a labor camp and put to construction work; annexed to a transport from Hungary; sent to Lager 5 in Germany and digs ditches; snow; hunger; sent back to Weisswasser and works with uncle in shoemaking; front closes in; death march to northern Germany via Czechoslovakia and reaches a camp (apparently Flossenbürg); spectacle of dead bodies; transferred with uncle to Bergen-Belsen; Germans escape and British arrive in 1945; uncle dies; witness returns to Kastoria, Greece; expelled from parents' home, which is occupied by Greeks; Greek civil war breaks out and witness is arrested on charges of being a Communist; spends a year in prison; forced to join the Greek army after being released from prison; wounded and discharged; joins a hakhshara (Zionist training venue) and immigrates to Israel in 1950; rehabilitates and adjusts to life in Israel.