Testimony of Yaakov Zilberstein, born in Tomaszow Mazowiecki, Poland, 1924, regarding his experiences in Buchenwald, Auschwitz and Altenburg

Testimony of Yaakov Zilberstein, born in Tomaszow Mazowiecki, Poland, 1924, regarding his experiences in Buchenwald, Auschwitz and Altenburg Only child from a family of Gur hasidim; learns in a "heder" and yeshivas in Lodz and Lublin. Outbreak of the war; capture on the street; detention in the Rawicz prison; prison life including labor distributing water to the army; deportation to Buchenwald, late 1939; camp life including labor in a quarry, gardening and agriculture; help from a friend in Buchenwald who was like a brother; transfer to Auschwitz, late 1942; camp life including labor preparing an infrastructure for sewage and a rubber factory; smuggles demolition materials to the commander of the Communist underground; informed on and flogging; transfer to the camp hospital; hides during selections; recuperation; return to labor preparing the infrastructure for sewage; camp life until liquidation of the camp, January 1945; transfer back to Buchenwald; request for transfer to Altenburg; camp life including labor in a weapons factory; receives food from a Polish woman; air-raids; liberation by the US Army. Acts of revenge against Nazi POWs; move to Italy; aliya attempt; detention in Cyprus, 1947; aliya; life in Israel and volunteer activities for Holocaust survivors.