Testimony of Shmuel Bar Ilan, born in Lodz, Poland, 1925, regarding his experiences in the Lodz Ghetto, in hiding in Lodz, in Auschwitz, Jaworzno and using a false identity in Hirschberg

Testimony of Shmuel Bar Ilan, born in Lodz, Poland, 1925, regarding his experiences in the Lodz Ghetto, in hiding in Lodz, in Auschwitz, Jaworzno and using a false identity in Hirschberg Life before the war; well-to-do family; draft of his brother into the Polish Army. Outbreak of the war, September 1939; death of his brother; capture of his father and another brother on the street and their transfer to forced labor; closure of the family's leather trade store; deportation to the Lodz Ghetto; Lodz Ghetto life; witness sells cigarettes and collects scraps of food; his father's work in a senior position in a leather factory; witness hides in the factory with his family during "Aktions"; activities in the Communist underground; preparation of a sabotage plan and the slowing down of the factory's production; liquidation of the ghetto; deportation to Auschwitz; camp life including labor in construction; transfer to Jaworzno; camp life including labor in a coal mine; injury due to the collapse of a wall in the mine; receives treatment from a Jewish physician; rescue during a selection with help from physicians; evacuation of the camp and the removal of inmates from blocks; explosion of blocks with sick inmates; death march, January 1945; marches in the snow including finding a hiding place among corpses; escape to Hirschberg; life in Hirschberg including forgery of documents; life using a false Polish identity; liberation by the Red Army, May 1945. Aliya training in Germany; aliya training in France; illegal aliya attempt on the "Exodus" ship; aliya to Israel, 1948; participation in battles in the War of Independence.