Testimony of Yaakov David Alcheh, born in Saloniki, Greece, 1924, regarding his experiences in Greece and camps

Testimony of Yaakov David Alcheh, born in Saloniki, Greece, 1924, regarding his experiences in Greece and camps Assimilated family; life in a Jewish neighborhood in Saloniki; his father's work in an insurance company; Jewish institutions in the neighborhood; daily life until 1943. German occupation and deportation of the men to forced labor assignments; escape, wanderings between villages in the area and farm labor; capture in Varonis and deportation to Birkenau by train, 25 April 1943; selection by Mengele; camp life until 27 May 1943; labor distributing water to laborers digging trenches; receives leniencies by a Polish labor foreman named Willi during labor and at meals; transfer to Warsaw and camp life near the Pawiak prision; labor for approximately 10 months clearing rubble from the ghetto; death of approximately 2,000 out of the 5,000 inmates in the Warsaw camp due to disease; transfer to Dachau; deportation by train to Landsberg camp number seven to labor digging in a forest; camp life; his German labor foreman Willi; POWs of other nationalities in the camp; transfer to Tyrol and liberation by the US Army, 02 May 1945. Return to Greece; aliya to Eretz Israel, October 1945.