Shlomo Kaplinski

Testimony of Shlomo Kaplinski, born in Bialystok, Poland, 1925, regarding his experiences in the Bialystok Ghetto, Radom Ghettos and Dachau From a large religious family; attends a Jewish school. Outbreak of the war, 1939; life under Soviet occupation; German occupation, 1941; does odd jobs for the German soldiers; deportation to the Bialystok Ghetto; ghetto life including labor in a textile factory for a German company; in hiding in an attic during an "Aktion", August 1943; concentration of the ghetto Jews in the city's square; separation from family; escape from deportation to a camp, via a forest, to Radom; transfer to the Radom Ghetto; ghetto life including labor in a weapons factory and burying the murdered; approach of the front, 1944; death march to Dachau; various assignments; liberation by the US Army, 1945. Receives medical treatment; drafted into the US Army in Feldafing; work for UNRRA; enlists in Machal in Wasserburg, 1947; aliya to Eretz Israel on the ship, "Kedma", from Marseilles; participates in the War of Independence; wounded in the battle for Latrun; marriage, 1950.