Stephen Lerman papers

Stephen Lerman (1927-2010) was born in Zambrow, Poland, with the given name of Szlama Lermann. Following the German invasion of Poland in 1939, Lermann's family, along with other Jewish residents, was forced to move into a ghetto in the town. During that period, the Germans periodically took groups of people from the ghetto out to the surrounding forest and murdered them. On one such occasion, ther Lermann family was included in such a roundup, but Stephen, who was separated from his family remained behind in the ghetto, until he managed to escape and survived by living in the forest outside of town for some time. However, he was eventually captured and on January 16th 1943, Lerman was sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. He was later transported to Oranienburg, and Dachau. He was liberated by the United States Army on January 5th 1945. After liberation, Lerman was held at Pocking displaced persons camp. He would later attend the Nuremburg trials.