Testimony of Shmuel Kastenbaum, born in Arduzel, Romania, 1923, regarding his experiences in the Somcuta Mare Ghetto, the underground in Auschwitz and other camps

Testimony of Shmuel Kastenbaum, born in Arduzel, Romania, 1923, regarding his experiences in the Somcuta Mare Ghetto, the underground in Auschwitz and other camps Life under Romanian rule; deterioration of the situation for the Jews after the annexation to Hungary; labor in a metal factory in Budapest until the German occupation, 19 March 1944. Concentration of the Jews from the surrounding area in the Somcuta Mare Ghetto; abuse of the Jews in the ghetto by Hungarian police and gendarmes; deportation to Auschwitz, May 1944; selection on the ramp of the railroad station; separation from his mother; labor in the Union factory; contact with one of the leaders of the underground movement, Yehuda Laufer; joins the underground; tattooing of number 12599; explosion of the crematoria in Auschwitz-Birkenau by Sonderkommandos, 07 October 1944; German response; hanging of four Jewish women including their leader, Rosa Robota, for stealing the gunpowder from the Union factory, where they labored; death march, 18 January 1945; transfer to Buchenwald after witness' stay in eight smaller transit camps; meets members of the Auschwitz underground; liberation by the US Army, late April 1945. Meets Jewish Brigade soldiers; return to Romania after the war; work as a mechanical engineer until his aliya to Israel, 1978.