Testimony of Shmariahu Shmiel Talmon-Zelmanowicz, born in Skierniewice, Poland, 1920, regarding his experiences in Poland and Germany before the war, and aliya to Eretz Israel, 1939

Testimony of Shmariahu Shmiel Talmon-Zelmanowicz, born in Skierniewice, Poland, 1920, regarding his experiences in Poland and Germany before the war, and aliya to Eretz Israel, 1939 His childhood in a religious, well-to-do family; move of the family to Breslau due to the fear of draft of his father into the Red Army; attends a Jewish school in which most of the pupils are of eastern European origin; his Bar Mitzvah celebration; visit of his family with his mother's family, who own a textile factory in Tomaszow and with his father's family, who trade in animals and sell meat in Skierniewice; blessing from the local rabbi, and his advice not to make aliya to Eretz Israel; his parents own a textile store in Germany; rise in the number of pupils in the Jewish school along with the Nazi rise to power, 1933; Zionist education; unsuccessful attempts to leave Germany; joins Bachad aliya training, 1938. Deportation to Buchenwald with a group of aliya training participants; camp registration process; camp life and daily routine, without forced labor; attempt to continue a religious way of life, prayers and studies; release of about 250 young people after six weeks; decision to return to Breslau; travel to Bachad headquarters in Berlin; his parents acquire a student's certificate for him. Aliya to Eretz Israel, 1939; absorption. Knowledge concerning the fate of his family: deportation to the Breslau Ghetto, 1940; deportation to Izbica camp; deportation of his parents and younger sister to Auschwitz or Treblinka; deportation of his older sister, who was ill, to Theresienstadt.