Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive

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Szymon Binke - June 16, 1997

Contents

Szymon Binke was born in 1931 in Łódź, Poland. Shortly after the Nazi invasion his family was moved to the city's Baluty district which became the Łódź ghetto. In 1944 the family was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau where his mother and sister were gassed. Szymon was placed in the Kinderblock but escaped from it to join his father and uncles in the main camp of Auschwitz. Later he was transferred to a series of forced labor camps until he was liberated in May 1945.

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  1. Introduction
  2. Religious Life
  3. Relations With non-Jews
  4. Childhood
  5. Education
  6. Outbreak of War
  7. The Łódź Ghetto
  8. Life in the Ghetto
  9. Life in the Ghetto II
  10. Work in the Ghetto
  11. Family Life in Ghetto
  12. Dealing with Corpses
  13. Food Rations in the Ghetto
  14. Ghetto Police
  15. Witnessing a Beating
  16. Liquidation of the Ghetto
  17. Transport to Auschwitz-Birkenau
  18. Arrival in Auschwitz-Birkenau
  19. Appell in Birkenau
  20. Appell in Birkenau II
  21. Conditions in Birkenau
  22. Sharing Resources
  23. Departure from Birkenau
  24. The Kaufering Camps
  25. Discussing Fate of Family
  26. Worst Things About Camp
  27. Landshut
  28. Father's Job in Camp
  29. Mühldorf
  30. Mühldorf II
  31. Mühldorf III
  32. Liberation
  33. Liberation II
  34. Feldafing
  35. Life After Liberation
  36. Emigration to America
  37. Sharing Experience
  38. Reactions to the Holocaust

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