Abraham Holcman - September 14, 1983
Fate of Family
What was happening with your parents and your brothers and sisters?
Uh, my father died in uh, '41 in, in the ghetto. He couldn't, he couldn't eat no traif.
Uh-huh. So, he starved to death?
Yeah, he did.
And what happened to your mother? [interruption in interview]
Okay, I think I asked you before we just stopped, what happened to your mother.
My mother went uh, '44 with us to Auschwitz and she went on the wrong side, I imagine.
Okay. And your brothers and sisters?
Uh, one brother came, uh... I, I, one brother came with me on the same, same side, and we been together, together 'til, 'til the end of the war. And I had one more brother, he died in, also in the ghetto for malnutrition.
Okay. Do you know what happened to any of your aunts and uncles or grandparents?
Yeah, when my uh, my grandfather died before the war, but both grandmothers came uh, with us to Auschwitz.
Your aunts and uncles?
Yeah, aunts and uncles uh, the one uncle who advised us uh, to leave uh, he, he left for Russia. But all the rest of them, all went to Auschwitz.
Did any of them survive?
None of them.
Did, did the uncle that went to Russia survive?
No, he didn't either. Uh, as far as we know uh, I never heard of uh, any, any sign. We wrote letters to the Red Cross, a, a lot of places and asked about him. No survive. That uncle probably uh, wanted revenge or something, and he got killed.
During that time you were in the ghetto before you went to Auschwitz, was you aware of any resistance that was organized in any fashion?
No, none whatsoever.
Were there any meetings or discussions with people where they were talking about what was happening and what they...
No, none whatsoever, as far as I know.
Did you ever hear what happened or what was going to happen to the people that were shipped out of the ghetto?
No, no, we didn't know. The only thing, the only thing uh, as far back as I can remember is what the uncle tell us. They're going to confiscate everything and, and send you out of the country like the German Jews came to Poland. That's all I remember. But in the ghetto itself we didn't hear. I didn't hear or our family didn't know nothing about it.
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