Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Simon Cymerint - June 8, 1982

The Factory

Where was the factory?

The factory was in Starowicea [Starowice]...

Had it been there?

in that city.

Had it been there before?

Oh yeah.

They took over a factory?

A lot of factories in my city particularly. Otherwise, in Europe it wasn't too many, in every city was not too many factories. But that city, Starowicea [Starowice], was a lot of ammunition uh, ammo...ammunition, that means ammunition factory.

Stalburgen.

Stal...yeah. They, they, it was uh, foundries. See, I worked in a foundry. What they made from all kind of uh, uh, materials. They poured in, in that oven and that melt for iron. They call it a foundry; here they call it foundry.

Let me ask you, did the, did the um, did the Germans seize factories and then they became the Herman Göring Works?

Sure.

They just confiscated.

Confiscated right away.

Was this the Wehrmacht or the SS?

No, this was the uh, the German government. It was no troops take over. Civilian Germans came from Berlin, but they owned factories there, see. The only thing you need is a director of the factory. A, a, a manager will take up the idea, you know, how to be in a plant. But no uh, military was in the factory at all. The only thing what they guarded us, they put guards, Ukrainians, in Ukrainian uniforms and they, they were the guards, but no SS.


© Board of Regents University of Michigan-Dearborn