Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

• Contents
• Map

Saul Raimi - July 7, 1982

Okay, let's back up uh, a bit.

Yeah.

Uh, um, when you got back to your town uh, the--when was the last time you saw your parents and your family?

My parents, I saw the last time--I never went back over there to, to Lubartów but we--the mail, we did get mail from them. But in '41, they ordered, they are, uh... In '42 in, in summertime in about June, July, they ordered--there were rumors they were going to liquidate the whole Jewish population of that little town. And as I heard lately that town was sent to Treblinka. You heard about Treblinka?

Yes.

And that was the fate of my parents.

And uh, your sisters?

My sisters went with me together to Auschwitz. And for--I didn't see them for awhile because before I had a chance to get a little acclimatized or to know the uh, camp, I heard later, later that one of the uh, two of the sisters got sick in Auschwitz and they got sick especially in '42. That was the end of you. In order not to be separated, they went all of them together in a gas chamber. In fact, I believe that maybe two could have saved but they were so dedicated each other they were, the uh, the dedication amongst our, our family--in order not to be separated, they all went to their deaths. The others, they simply got sick.

And you got word of this somehow?

This I got word after because while I was in Auschwitz, I ended up from Auschwitz--I was in Auschwitz--I was chosen later to Buna, which was a... Also they called it Auschwitz number two. And that was about twenty or thirty miles away and at that time, once you were there you couldn't get any news what was going on a mile away from you. So, I didn't know what was going on there. But after the war I met some girls from our hometown who told me uh, what happened how they uh, all died together.

And your other brother had already gone to America.

Yeah, yeah, he was in America ???.