Shimon Kohen

Testimony of Shimon Kohen Kahan, born in Vișeul de Sus, Romania, 1927, regarding his experiences in the Oradea Mare Ghetto, and the Auschwitz, Birkenau, Mauthausen, and Gunskirchen camps His mother was from a Vizhnitz hasidic family; childhood in Oradea Mare; learns in a heder, a Neolog school, and a public elementary school; attendance at synagogue services; his father's death; membership in the Beitar youth movement. Annexation of Oradea Mare to Hungary, 1939; cessation of his studies; imposition of limitations on the Jews; deportation to the ghetto; ghetto life in extreme crowding; deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau by train; entry process into the camp; receiving a personal inmate number; selection; separation from his mother; transfer to the "Gypsy Camp"; transfer to Auschwitz I together with his brother; forced labor; abuse; transfer to Mauthausen; separation from his brother and sister; transfer to Gunskirchen by foot; mass mortality; liberation by the US Army. Life in the Linz Displaced Persons camp; unsuccessful attempt to make illegal aliya to Eretz Israel on the ship, "Palmach", 1946; deportation to Cyprus; aliya to Eretz Israel.