Testimony of Miriam (Kuperwasser) Baran, born in Lodz, Poland, 1926, regarding her experiences in Pabjanice, the Pabjanice Ghetto, Lodz Ghetto, Auschwitz and Birnbaeumel camp

Testimony of Miriam (Kuperwasser) Baran, born in Lodz, Poland, 1926, regarding her experiences in Pabjanice, the Pabjanice Ghetto, Lodz Ghetto, Auschwitz and Birnbaeumel camp Her childhood and family background; decent relations with the local non-Jews; move of the family to Pabjanice. Outbreak of the war, September 1939; abuse of Jews; confiscation of property; establishment of the Pabjanice Ghetto, 1940; draft of the witness and her father to labor; ghetto life; help to the family by a Volksdeutsche, ethnic German; establishment of an underground Zionist organization; "Aktions" and deportations; liquidation of the Pabjanice Ghetto; transfer to the Lodz Ghetto; hunger; Zionist activities; her grandfather's death, May 1944; labor in a factory; deportation to Auschwitz, August 1944; camp life; deportation to Birnbaeumel, November 1944; labor digging anti-tank trenches; death march, January 1945; escape; in hiding in a German village; liberation by the Red Army. Return to Poland; move to Italy via Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Austria, with Bericha, 26 April 1945; aliya training; illegal immigration to Eretz Israel, 1946; enlists in the Haganah, 1947; participation in the War of Independence.