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Oral history interview with Abraham Zwirek

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1995.A.1285.57 | RG Number: RG-50.149.0057

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    Oral history interview with Abraham Zwirek

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Abraham Zwirek, born in 1926 in Plock, Poland, describes his family; his education; experiencing antisemitism; his family’s business; his family’s Zionist sympathies and religious practices; the German invasion of Poland in September 1939; seeing the destruction in Gąbin, Poland; expecting help from Britain and France; the confiscation of Jewish property, including his father’s business and the family home; restrictions on Jews; beatings of Jews in the streets; living in the Plock ghetto; smuggling food into the ghetto; Jewish ghetto police; food rations; the obligation to work for Germans and treatment of workers; maintaining morale; liquidation of the ghetto in early 1941; living in the Suchedniow ghetto; escaping from the ghetto; his mother being sent to Treblinka; being in Skarzysko concentration camp from 1941 to 1944; his work duties; being beaten by a Ukrainian guard for stealing potatoes; the execution of people unfit for work; his tooth being extracted; suicides; being in Buchenwald concentration camp form July 1944 to September 1944; his work serving food; being in Schlieben concentration camp from September 1944 to March 1945; his work duties; the kindness of the German construction supervisor in the quarry after an accident; Allied bombing raids on the camp; the suicide of a fellow inmate; the behavior of a female SS guard; the operation on his hand without anesthetic; suspected sabotage of the factory; evacuation of the camp in March 1945; being sent to Theresienstadt concentration camp in March 1945; contracting typhoid; being liberated by the Russians; the death of former inmates from over eating; contracting mumps; the Russian attitude towards revenge against Germans; the fate of his family during the Holocaust; further details on Buchenwald; his Holocaust experience; his attitude towards Poles and Germans; being smuggled by a Russian soldier to Czechoslovakia; and his first impressions of England.
    Interviewee
    Abraham Zwirek
    Date
    interview:  1986 January 16

    Physical Details

    Language
    English
    Extent
    3 sound cassettes (90 min.).

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
    Conditions on Use
    Restrictions on use. Permission to copy and/or use recordings in any production must be granted by the Imperial War Museums.

    Keywords & Subjects

    Personal Name
    Zwirek, Abraham, 1926-

    Administrative Notes

    Holder of Originals
    Imperial War Museum
    Provenance
    The interview was conducted by the Imperial War Museum as part of their retrospective oral history interview program. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum acquired a copy of the interview with Abraham Zwirek from the Imperial War Museum in February 1995.
    Record last modified:
    2023-11-16 08:17:34
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn510860

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