Testimony of Joseff Pepo Esformes, born in Thessaloniki, Greece, 1926, regarding his experiences in the Thessaloniki Ghetto, in Auschwitz, Dachau and Waldlager camps and in other places

Testimony of Joseff Pepo Esformes, born in Thessaloniki, Greece, 1926, regarding his experiences in the Thessaloniki Ghetto, in Auschwitz, Dachau and Waldlager camps and in other places Life before the war. German occupation, April 1941; confiscation of property; difficulties with observance of kashrut; concentration of the Jewish men including his father and their transfer to the "Liberty" stadium, July 1942; physical and emotional abuse; wears a yellow badge; Thessaloniki Ghetto life in the "Baron Hirsch" neighborhood; activities of the Judenrat; activities of the Jewish police; deportation to Auschwitz, March 1943; camp life; difficulties with the language; labor in a leather workshop; murder of his father; transfer to labor clearing the rubble of the former Warsaw Ghetto, October 1943; life in the former Warsaw Ghetto including finding jewelry and religious articles; existence of a black market; transfer on a death march; murder of the weak people en route; mutual help between the inmates; transfer to Dachau; camp life; transfer to Waldlager camp; transfer to Muehldorf; camp life; meets Jews from Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Lithuania; his typhus illness; transfer to Tutzing; escape to a forest; liberation by the French Army, 29 April 1945. Move to Feldafing; rehabilitation in Feldafing; aliya to Eretz Israel, 1946.