Collective testimony of Michael Dow Erdinast, born in Lodz, Poland, 1928, and Szymon Hendlisz, born in Konstantynow, Poland, 1929, regarding their experiences as children in the Lodz Ghetto, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Gunskirchen and other places

Collective testimony of Michael Dow Erdinast, born in Lodz, Poland, 1928, and Szymon Hendlisz, born in Konstantynow, Poland, 1929, regarding their experiences as children in the Lodz Ghetto, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Gunskirchen and other places Szymon: Deportation with his family and the Jews of Konstantynow to Glowno, late 1939; life in cabins in the forest during the winter; division of the family because of lack of food; transfer of his father, brother and sisters to Warsaw and their disappearance; life in the Lodz Ghetto including his mother's death; transfer of Michael and Szymon with a group of youth from the Lodz Ghetto to a children's institution in the Marysin quarter ; life in the institution including studies; labor in ghetto workshops; the teachers, educators and physicians; Torah studies within the framework of the religious group. Michael: Escape to the ghetto; "Aktion"; labor in the shoemakers' department; deportation to Birkenau; camp life including a struggle to be given a place in the Maurerschule; separation from his three sisters. Michael and Szymon: Deportation of Michael and Szymon to Auschwitz; Michael and Szymon's lives in the bricklayer's school in the camp including learning the construction trade; liquidation of the camp, winter 1945; death march among camps in Germany to Austria; mutual help among the youths; transfer of Szymon to Gunskirchen; liberation by the US Army. Care given to survivors by Jewish Brigade soldiers in Linz; Szymon's aliya to Eretz Israel, 1945; Szymon joins a religious institution in Kfar Saba; Michael's year long convalescence in a hospital in Linz; Michael's aliya to Eretz Israel with Youth Aliyah, 1946.