Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Fred Ferber - September 11 & 25, 2001

Fred Ferber was born in 1930 in Swietchlowice, Poland in 1930. In 1933, the Ferber family re-located to Chorzow, Poland and then on to Kraków, Poland ca. 1936. Following the German invasion, the Ferbers were forced into the Kraków Ghetto located in Podgorze. In 1943, the family was rounded-up and sent to the Płaszów forced labor camp on the outskirts of Kraków. While in Płaszów, Fred's father was murdered by the camp's Kommandant, Amon Goethe. Fred worked in the metal and fabric shops in the camp while his mother worked in a labor detail. Fred's brother was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau where he died. Fred was separated from his mother when he was transferred with a number of other prisoners to the Mauthausen forced labor camp in Austria. From there, he was transferred to Gusen II and then to Gunskirchen (both sub-camps of Mauthausen). He was liberated by the American Army in May 1945. Following liberation and a short stay in a Displaced Persons Camp where he recuperated from typhus and dysentery, he returned to Poland to find his family. He was reunited with his mother in Sopot, Poland. After finding his mother and learning the fate of his brother, he moved around Europe until the late 1940s, when he immigrated to America. While in America, Fred stayed in an orphanage in San Francisco while attending school and college.

1. Introduction
2. Family
3. Religious Life
4. Krakow
5. Life Under Germans
6. The Judenrat
7. The Krakow Ghetto
8. Reaction to Schindler's List
9. Liquidation of Ghetto
10. Survivor Groups
11. Talking About Experience
12. Płaszów
13. Death of Father
14. Labor in Płaszów
15. Appell in Płaszów
16. Selections in Płaszów
17. Conditions in Płaszów
18. Transport to Mauthausen
19. Mauthausen
20. Conditions in Mauthausen
21. Gusen II
22. Death of Prisoners
23. Conflicts with Other Prisoners
24. Death of Uncle
25. Labor in Gusen II
26. Conditions in Gusen II
27. End of War
28. Gunskirchen
29. Conditions in Gunskirchen
30. Liberation
31. American Army
32. Typhus
33. Searching for Mother
34. Anti-Semitism
35. Relations with non-Jews
36. Religion
37. Interview Continued - September 25, 2001
38. Returning to Poland
39. Believing
40. Tirschenreuth
41. Life in Germany
42. Immigration to America
43. Orphanage in San Francisco
44. College
45. Life in America
46. Polish Catholics
47. Thoughts on Poles
48. Wife's Background
49. Conditions in Mauthausen II
50. Education in America
51. Detroit
52. Reunited with Mother
53. Friends
54. Reactions to Holocaust
55. Graduation
56. Ambition
57. Post-War Religious Life
58. Meeting Wife
59. Lessons of the Holocaust
60. Telling Children