Arthur Gross photographs

Arthur Gross was born in 1925 in Andrychow, Poland. His father, Wilhelm (1888-1942), owned a shoe store and was an area distributor of Bata shoes, and his mother, Salomea Skibelski Gross (1887-1942) was a homemaker. Arthur had two older brothers: Daniel (b. 1912) and Aleksander (1915-1945). Daniel Gross studied medicine in France and during the war served in the French Foreign Legion. On Rosh Hashana, September 28, 1941, the Jews living in Andrychow were forced into a ghetto on the banks of the Wieprzowka River. Most of the young Jewish men, including Arthur and Aleksander, worked as forced laborers in improvements to the riverbed. Wilhelm Gross was forced to work as a personal servant to Hauptmann Haze. On July 2, 1942, the Andrychow ghetto was liquidated. Arthur and Aleksander Gross were deported to Rudolfswald forced labor camp in Germany, where they worked for a year on a gas pipeline. In May 1943 they were transferred to Płaszów concentration camp and a month later to Gross Rosen concentration camp, where Arthur received prisoner number 19052. In March 1944 they were transferred to Kittlitztreben (Kotlicki-Trebin) concentration camp, a sub camp of Gross-Rosen. In February 1945 Arthur and Aleksander Gross were forced on a death march that took them to Buchenwald, Flossenbürg and sometime in April 1945 in the area of Straubing in Bavaria, Germany. On April 24, 1945 Arthur and a friend managed to escape from the marching column. His brother, Aleksander, attempted to escape a few days later, was shot by the German guard, and died on April 29, 1945. Arthur stayed in Straubing for about a year. He contacted his older brother, Daniel, via the Red Cross, and joined him in Marseille, France, in 1946. In February 1950, Arthur moved to Israel. On March 26, 1952 he married Yvette. They had two children, Shlomit and Ze'ev, and four grandchildren.