Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

Larry Wayne - 2005

Contents

An interview with Larry Wayne, a Holocaust survivor, conducted by Dr. Sidney Bolkosky, Professor of History at the University of Michigan--Dearborn. Larry Wayne was born in Łódź, Poland in 1923. He had three blood siblings and two adopted siblings. His family owned a successful bakery and sent him to private school at the Katzenelson Gymnasium where he was trained to be a lieutenant in the Polish army. Shortly after the Nazi invasion, Larry and his extended family were forced to move into a small apartment in the Łódź ghetto in 1940. His father died in the ghetto. Afterwards Larry's family was transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau where his mother and little brother were gassed in 1944. Larry and his brother Jack signed up to work at the Janina coal mine and then were relocated to various camps. Larry attempted to escape during this relocation period and was shot in the knee. He was brought to Buchenwald where the Allied forces liberated him in 1945. After the war Larry was treated for typhoid fever by the American army and moved to Bad Nauheim where he began smuggling Aliyah Bet. Once he reunited with his brother Jack and sister Ruth, they immigrated to Detroit in 1946.

  1. Introduction
  2. Family
  3. Religious Life
  4. Katzenelson Gymnasium
  5. Education
  6. Surname Change
  7. Religious Life II
  8. Anti-Semitism
  9. Poland before the war
  10. Military school memories
  11. Life before the war
  12. Politics
  13. Start of war
  14. Ba?uty
  15. Extended Family
  16. Order to move into the ghetto
  17. Attitudes toward ghetto
  18. Violence against Jews
  19. Death of father
  20. Bakery union in ghetto
  21. Siblings
  22. Rationing in ghetto
  23. Ghetto memories
  24. Mother and brother in hiding
  25. Ghetto street life
  26. Music
  27. Verdi Requiem
  28. Chelmno
  29. Guilt
  30. Auschwitz
  31. Transport to Birkenau
  32. First Impression of Birkenau
  33. Janina labor camp
  34. Relocation after Janina
  35. Liberation
  36. Death march and escape
  37. Organizing in camps
  38. Relationship with guards
  39. Relations to Poles and Germans
  40. Buchenwald
  41. War crimes trial
  42. Opinions of Germans
  43. Being shot
  44. Relations with other prisoners
  45. Liberation II
  46. Reminders
  47. Legacy of Holocaust
  48. Life after liberation
  49. Reunion with sister
  50. Reunion with brother
  51. Quotas
  52. Being Ill
  53. Job with Jewish Chaplain
  54. Desire to go back
  55. Rejecting Judaism
  56. Moving to Detroit
  57. Detroit
  58. Sharing with children
  59. Memoirs
  60. Going back to ?ód?
  61. Auschwitz memories
  62. Tattoo
  63. Life in U.S.A.
  64. Nightmares
  65. Conclusion

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