Testimony of Dov Berel Peled Puchnik, born in 1927 in Oszmiana, Poland, about his experiences in camps in Latvia, Germany, and Czechoslovakia

Testimony of Dov Berel Peled Puchnik, born in 1927 in Oszmiana, Poland, about his experiences in camps in Latvia, Germany, and Czechoslovakia Life in poverty as an affiliate of the Misnaggedim; active in the Democratic Party in the late 1930s; war breaks out in September 1939; Soviet occupation; German-Soviet war erupts in June 1941; attempts unsuccessfully to cross the border with brother; escapes back home with brother; Jews rounded up on a lot; people captured due to denunciation; father deported in an Aktion and murdered; establishment of the Oszmiana ghetto; mother sent away to forced labor in lieu of Judenrat chairman's wife; Grossaktion in October 1942; deportation to Mielegjany; assigned to forced labor with mother; does roadbuilding work until late 1943; reassigned to tracklaying in Ilja; sister and sister's daughter murdered; transferred to Kaiserwald; site becomes a camp in mid-1944; transferred to Stutthof; sent to Buchenwald two days later and spends two weeks there; transferred to Reinsdorf; assigned to dismantling bombs as a forced laborer; transferred by rail; air raid ensues and passengers escape from the train; captured by police and placed in a death march; reaches the Litoměřice camp; Jews and non-Jews separated; reaches Theresienstadt; typhus; liberation in 1945; passes through several displaced persons camps; active in the Bricha organization and in youth counseling, immigrates to Eretz Israel in 1947; adjusts to life in Eretz Israel and undergoes rehabilitation.