Testimony of Yaakov Shibek, born in Czeladz, Poland, 1914, regarding his experiences as a British Army soldier at Tobrouk, in German captivity in Greece, Lamsdorf, Jaworzno, Boyten and other places

Testimony of Yaakov Shibek, born in Czeladz, Poland, 1914, regarding his experiences as a British Army soldier at Tobrouk, in German captivity in Greece, Lamsdorf, Jaworzno, Boyten and other places Life before the war; joins Beitar when he is 16 years old; drafted into the Polish Army when he is 21 years old; participates in the invasion of Czechoslovakia; discharge from the army, January 1939; drafted a second time, April 1939; discharge from the army, August 1939; aliya to Eretz Israel, 1939; training in Beer Tuvia for one year. Drafted into the British Army, October 1940; transfer to Tobrouk, Libya; transfer to Egypt; transfer to Greece; taken captive by the Germans in northern Greece; return to Egypt, March 1941; life in the northern mountains of Greece; taken captive by the Germans along with Yitzhak ben Aharon (later Executive Secretary of the Histadrut and an Israel government minister) in southern Greece; disappearance of the German guards and release; joins a British unit; transfer to Crete; taken captive by the Germans; transfer to a POW camp in Thessaloniki, 1941; transfer to Austria via Belgrade; transfer to Lamsdorf; camp life with other Eretz Israel POWs such as Yosef Almog (later an Israel government minister, mayor of Haifa and other positions) including labor digging trenches; labor in a sugar factory; labor in a cement factory; transfer to Jaworzno; camp life including labor in a coal mine; sending packages to his family with help from a Polish miner; visit to Czeladz which had been emptied of Jews, summer 1943; testimony regarding the transfer of Jews in the direction of Auschwitz by train; transfer to Boyten; camp life including labor digging; Red Army approach; liquidation of the camp, January 1945; death march until April 1945; liberation in Bayerin by the US Army. Move to France; move to England; return to Eretz Israel; joins the Haganah field corps.