Group portrait of students, teachers and benefactors at the dedication of the new Mizrachi school (that was still under construction) in Ostrowiec, Poland.
Overview
- Caption
- Group portrait of students, teachers and benefactors at the dedication of the new Mizrachi school (that was still under construction) in Ostrowiec, Poland.
Among those pictured is Alte Kesenbaum (an uncle of the donor), who was one of the school's founders. - Date
-
1934
- Locale
- Ostrowiec, [Kielce] Poland
- Variant Locale
- Ostrowiec Swietokryzski
Ostrovets - Photo Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of David Winchester
Rights & Restrictions
- Photo Source
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial MuseumProvenance: David Winchester
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Biography
- David Winchester (born David Wincygster) is the son of Shmuel and Chana (Grafstein) Wincygster. He was born May 1, 1924 in Ostrowiec, Poland, where his father worked as a furrier. David had five siblings: Sheindel, Esther, Herschle, Sara and Chaya. The family was both religious and Zionist, and David attended the Mizrachi primary school until the fourth grade. Thereafter, he attended public school until the start of the war. In 1940 the family moved into the Ostrowiec ghetto. David survived the October 1942 action, during which approximately 2,000 Jews in the ghetto were killed. In 1943, he and his brother, Herschle, were sent out of the ghetto to work in an iron factory. When they returned after a week, they discovered that the large ghetto had been liquidated, and its residents deported to Treblinka. The few remaining Jews were moved to what was called the "small ghetto," but was, in fact, a labor camp. David and Herschle remained in the small ghetto and continued to work in the iron factory until 1944, when they were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. There, David was tattooed with the number B4647. He remained with his brother for a few weeks, until he was transferred to the Eintrachhuta camp in Silesia, where he worked in a factory producing anti-aircraft guns. In the beginning of January 1945, David contracted pneumonia and was taken to the infirmary. When the camp was evacuated soon after, a friend urged him to leave with him, but David was too sick to move and remained in the infirmary with five other men. He was liberated the next day and transferred to a hospital in Swientochowice in Upper Silesia. He remained there for three or four months. David returned to Ostrowiec in September 1945, hoping to discover what became of his family. He found his family's home in ruins and learned that only one cousin had survived. He then went to Germany and continued his recuperation in the DP hospital in Saint Ottilien. After a few months he was sent to the Gabersee DP camp in Bavaria, where he met his future wife Helen Spielman. David immigrated to the United States in November 1949, sailing aboard the General Muir. He and Helen married in New York on March 17, 1951.
- Record last modified:
- 2004-05-14 00:00:00
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1151013
