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Oral history interview with Jack Zaifman

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1997.A.0441.75 | RG Number: RG-50.462.0075

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    Oral history interview with Jack Zaifman

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Jack Zaifman, born in Radom, Poland on March 2, 1925 into an Orthodox Jewish family, describes his father, who was a merchant; attending public school and cheder until age 14; the savagery of the German bombing and invasion of Radom in September 1939; escaping from a round-up of Jews; bicycling to Wolanow and living for a year with a Jewish family until the small town was liquidated; being taken for slave labor at a nearby camp manned by Gestapo, Ukrainian, and Lithuanian guards; working as a tailor for the German Army; witnessing the massacre of 350 Jews and having to dig trenches to bury the dead; being ill with typhoid fever, when a righteous German soldier took him to the Radom Ghetto hospital; being sent to Blizyn labor camp, near the German border, where he was betrayed by a Jewish Kapo and severely beaten by guards when he tried to help another prisoner; how among the 3000 survivors (out of 10,000) of Blizyn, he was shipped to Auschwitz, where he sorted the clothing of the dead; being moved to Dachau, where he endured brutal labor, carrying cement; being sent on a death march from Dachau in April 1945; being liberated by Americans and taken to a hospital at Wolfratshausen, weighing 70 pounds; the Feldafing displaced persons camp, where he met and married his wife; moving to the United States in April 1949; and beginning to speak in high schools and colleges about his experience in 1977.
    Interviewee
    Jack Zaifman
    Date
    interview:  1985 April 22
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Gratz College Holocaust Oral History Archive

    Physical Details

    Language
    English
    Extent
    1 sound cassette (60 min.).

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
    Conditions on Use
    No restrictions on use

    Keywords & Subjects

    Personal Name
    Zaifman, Jack, 1925-

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    The Gratz College Holocaust Oral History Archive conducted the interview with Jack Zaifman in Philadelphia, Pa., on April 22, 1985. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum received the tapes of the interview from Gratz College on September 30, 1999.
    Record last modified:
    2023-11-16 08:36:22
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn508700

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