The Holocaust was the killing of many innocent races centered on, but not limited to the Jewish people. Many innocent people were killed yet some survived the hard ships and the torture of this horrible massacre. The haunting memories of the Holocaust have left unhealable wounds in the hearts of many . Yet those many tell these stories in hopes to educate all of mankind 
                                                        JOSEPH  HENDRICH
Joseph Hendrich witnessed his synagogues burned on November 9,1938 and all his families belongings smashed when German soldiers came in and ruined their house. Joseph and his brother ran to the police for help but all they did was laugh and told them to scram. That day they found shelter as they saw many Jews arrested and tortured. The next day they fled to his aunt and uncles house while there the Germans came to take away his uncle away but his father wouldn't allow him to go alone so they took his father to. After his father and uncle had been taken away  they ran to the police to find out where  the Germans took father but they wouldn't help them. His mother sent his brother, sister, and Joseph to Holland with a group of 25 or so of children led by a Jewish lady. As we arrived journalist, committees, and photographers were there to ask question such as ''how was life in Germany and what is it like''. They told them of the burning of synagogues and the arrest of the Jewish people.

In Holland his brother, Asher, and him were put in a home for refugees children in Den Dolder. Young kids from the near by school '' Children's Werkpeats'' told Mirjam a, Dutch language teacher, to help them. Boeke rented a house close to the school where later  about 50 refugees children were taught and practically lived in. While there Joseph  became almost a brother to Mirjam as he saw her as a sister they became best friends . Mirjam took Joseph  to her parents house as she introduced Joseph and here mother and father took him in as a son  and treated him just how they treated Mirjam. In 1939 before the war had begun the most of the children of Den Dolder were sent to live with a family in Holland but instead of a family Joseph was sent to an orphanage in Utreck
May 10, 1940 as war begun  to break out Joseph Hendrich  was sent to a group called, a Youth Aliyah located in Zeeland and once again moved to another Youth Aliyah in Loosdrecht which was near by Mirjam's parents house. While in Loosdrecht  the S.S. ordered them to be sent to a concentration camp but the leaders insisted and instead they hid them. The group that was hiding them  was lead by many people and at the head was Joop Westerweel, a non Jewish. Other than Joop  the group had Mirjam, the Loosdrecht leaders, and teachers from Werkpeats school all places Joseph had been. All of the leaders risked their families and their own life by getting fake identity cards.  

 

The next place he was to go was to a painters house in Arnhem but he was in danger so he was to leave immediately. Then they were moved to a man house which was well known as a communist. As that man was blamed for  the towns wrong doing , they were a sleep one night and a Dutch  police officer came for the man and noticed Joseph and some others lying on the floor. The officer  woke them up and asked for our identity cards Joseph said ''I'm only 14 years old'' he replied with '' get up, get dressed, and get out. They tried with all the neighbors houses but the neighbors  knew they boys had been hiding with Urban. After hours of trying to find someone to stay with no success they then took a bus back to Amoterdam. Joseph was not able to see  Mirjam until after the war but Merachen, Loosdnecht leader,  became her husband so He was able to stay in contact through him so there was never a time that Joseph didn't know what Mirjam was up to. .

In 1943 Josef and his brother left Holland bound for Spain as they  waited for a man to help them  more and more refugees children  showed up. As the kids kept coming it started to get loud and packed tightly with Children. Across the hall a lady started getting suspicious and she  told a German solider that she had thought  a group of Refugees children were staying across the hall from her. Luckily they carried around cards  that stated  we were  Dutch students working for Germans in the France so once again they were saved. Next the boys had been taken  by German soldiers to La Manche where we worked 8 months but still they stayed in contact with the Westerweel group. 
As they were split in two groups but still remained in the same area one group noticed a wooden house occupied by two Jewish men.  Later  both men fled to  Spain with the group of 34. It was organized that we would cross the Pyrenees Mountains in February of 1944. The group of 34 men crossed threw extremely deep amounts of snow so it was hard for some to keep going as two had fell. They were ordered before the trip if any was to fall behind just to keep walking but the men could find no reasons to just let them freeze on the mountain so their two strongest men went back to help those who fell behind or be left behind. On the third day we came to the village of Mohgarri. Once we arrived the people of the village wondered where the group of 34 men came  from when they told them from Pic de Montvalic they thought that Joseph and his group were insane they also said  it was impossible. When they continued on to Estern police forces awaited them but the group was  let off. They headed to  Barcelona where they hoped to go to Spain. Unfortunately they missed the Portuguese ship but after 8 months on October of 1944 the S.S. Guine sailed from Gadiz for Palestine. On November 4,1944 they landed in Haifa E've  where Joseph Heinrich has been ever since.

                                                         Isak Borenstein & Shep Zitler

Isak Borenstein born in Random Poland on May 5, 1918,was taken by Prussia's soilders and told that he was now part of the Prussian Army. Isak was able to diffuse a bomb with the help of a chisel. The worst thing he remembers during the time of the Holocaust was seeing Jewish people lead in to a building gassed and or shot then brought out in potatoes sacks after that they were never saw again. The next victim who was taken by a group of solders is Shep Zitler. Shep was born in Vilnius, Lithuanie, on May 27 of 1917. The month of February in 1939, he was put in to the Polish Army against his will. While in the army Shep was made fun of extremely bad even his very own head officer hung a sign on his door which stated that ''NO FORBIDDEN JEWS OR DOGS'' so as you can see these two men were both those of Jewish race who were teased because the were those of a Jewish family.
 
                                                                  Eva Galler
Eva Galler was on of the women who you could say were daring and didn't like to be innocently accused for there race. Eva was born in Oleszyce, Poland on January 1,1924, as the Germans came and told her family to get on the train which they all knew would be heading straight to a concentration camp. As Eva and her family boarded the train they realized that Eva, her sister, and her brother would have to get out of that train some way some how. When the trained started to jug Eva came with this plan to take the barb wire off the side of the train and jump out at least they would have a chance to try and escape. They jumped out of the train and into a ditch that was filled with harsh winter snow with guards on the trains top shooting at ever one who attempted to escape. Unfortunately Eva's brother and sister were shot but Eva and a friend she met while waiting for the train survived. Her question to herself was ''Why did I survive when 1 of about ever 10 did?''

Solomon Radasky  Joseph Sher

With all their respect Solemn Radasky and Joseph Sher would like to show you how they gave Jews a final resting place. Solomon Redskin had the Job as a furrier, to cover the burned Jews with ashes after they went to the crematorium. Solomon witnessed many horrible things but the one thing he remembers the most was when World War II was coming to an end and the Germans were trying to kill a many Holocaust victims as possible. They put children that were still alive in to the crematorium he remembers and always will remember the kids screaming and yelling. Solomon knows not stopping the German's from doing this was wrong But he wants every one to know that ''Please don't hate me because I had to do what ever it to make it through another day so I'm sorry''. The next survivor of the Holocaust is Joseph Sher who would also like to show you how he gave all his respect to a group of 20 or so Jews. As the end of the World War II finally came Joseph was out digging in his back yard when he found a hole filled with about 50 Jewish bodies quickly Joseph ran to the local police station where he reported it. Later as the police told Mr. Sher that the hole consisted of Jews from the time of the Holocaust. While he listened to this horrible news Joseph knew it was his duty to give these bodies a quite place to be. Joseph spent most of his life savings buying many Grave sites.

Dr. Karl Targownik
Dr. Karl Targownik, a victim of the Holocaust, was put in to a ghetto well know as Bochniain, Poland, in the year of 1942. He was sent by his parents to go out and run an errand but when he returned home he saw an empty house that was destroyed. Later Karl was ordered by the German's because he was a carpenter to help pick up over 2,000 Jewish bodies that were lying all around Bochnia.
Dr. Karl Targownik, a victim of the Holocaust, was put in to a ghetto well know as Bochniain, Poland, in the year of 1942. He was sent by his parents to go out and run an errand but when he returned home he saw an empty house that was destroyed. Later Karl was ordered by the German's because he was a carpenter to help pick up over 2,000 Jewish bodies that were lying all around Bochnia.
Around the end of 1943 Aushwitz had requested to have 250 carpenters come and help and of cores Dr. Karl Targwnik was assigned the job. When they arrived at Auschwitz they were right away sent to the main camp. The other 2,250 that rode the same train were immediately sent to be gassed. Karl and the other 249 were shaved from head to toe and then sent to the showers. The day after he arrived Dr. Targownik had the number 174174 tattooed on his fore arm. When they were putting the number on the man doing it told him '' Congratulations at least you know that you will live another day.'' While working in Auschwitz he was to clean out the trains which imported Jews in to the camp. He recalls when mothers would leave their children so they wouldn't have to go straight to the gas chambers. Once Karl even saw a mother push away her daughter with the little girl saying ''Mommy I love you!'' The ones he admired were those who held their kids and told them it would be O.K.

As the fall of 1944 came along and Germany was losing the war all of Auschwitz's camps quit killing the Jews so Karl Targownik rode a cattle car to another camp on the trip there he remembers having to relieve himself so bad that he, a medical student, knew that if he didn't use the rest room soon his bladder would explode which meant death. Karl says the happiest thing he can remember is going to the bath room as soon as he stepped off of that train.

As the fall of 1944 came along and Germany was losing the war all of Auschwitz's camps quit killing the Jews so Karl Targownik rode a cattle car to another camp on the trip there he remembers having to relieve himself so bad that he, a medical student, knew that if he didn't use the rest room soon his bladder would explode which meant death. Karl says the happiest thing he can remember is going to the bath room as soon as he stepped off of that train.
On April 27,1945 an American solider rescued Karl from the Holocaust. Then in 1949 he came to the U.S. to finish his medical degree. Later Dr. Karl Targownik went to Topeka where he was a Psychiatrist at Minigers. He was very happy in Topeka where it became his very last ending place though many thought is should of happened in Germany. Karl stated '' God must of had this all planned out for me to be a victim in the Holocaust, survive so I could come tell the world my story, and help people with their difficulty's.''
                                                    Margot DeWild & Simon Rozenkier
Both Margot DeWild and Simon Rozenkier had forced sterilization in to their systems by Josef Mengele's experiments. Margot was at Auschwitz for two years where she was used like a large test tube but still she can not hate. At the end of 1945 Margot recalls such a beautiful sight a inmate caring around a U.S.A. flag. Margot DeWild states'' The Holocaust wasn't the first one hand it may not be the last time a group of people are persecuted because they are different.''

Simon Rozenkier is not able to ever have children again because Mengele and his evil experiments. In Aushwitz the #143511 was engraved on his arm . ''They gave me a shot which made me extremely sick, then sent him to go and work at Monowite, the I.G. or Aushwitz III. Simon could never understand how the farben could watch all of the Jews be beaten and starved how not just me but every one was treated. A few says later Dr. Horst Schmann checked him over very closely and then sent Simon to Dr. Josef Mengele's lab. When he arrived there all who were at the lab kept asking ''How could he be a Jew and have reddish blond hair and blue eyes. The killings were normal for the every day procedures. While in Mengele's lab he asked many questions but one she can remember was when he asked '' How old I was ?'' when he replied with ''Two years older than my known age '' Josef called him a liar and sent Simon to the family Camp or the Gypsy Camp. There the nurses promised Simon that some way he would live to see his sister again.
Later he was sent to Menele's Zoo Camp it was the worst torture of medical science a person could even imagine eye ball laid every where under tables, on tables, and just plain every part of the room.He even witnessed one of his friends put in to a huge thing filled with ice cubes and water he froze to death but they made him wait it out instead of just simply killing him. Day after day a Luftwaffe doctor injected Simon's gentiles with poison and while going through that process he was fed buck wheat to keep him strong for testing. They treated every one like they were guinea pigs it was horrible and simply wrong. Later as a truck arrived to take the ones who were strong enough to work a lady who worked with Mengele took Simon and put her on that truck (even though he really wasn't strong enough). They were sent out to mine coal with their bare hands and next Simon worked on a construction project in Javozno for the Bayer division of I.G. Farben.
Simon was then put in to the Buchenwald death march. But because he was so weak from dysentery he was taken to a Buchenwald Clinic. There the German doctors Knew that the Americans were on their way and they kept on reassuring Simon and the others that it would all son be over. " I will never forget when America's 7th Army rescued Buchenwald!!" stated Simon as he was sure it must have been a dream because after all those years and some one finally stood up for the Jewish people who ever day were getting killed.
                                                   Richard Weiheimer & Margulies
Richard Weiheimer and Margulies both remember the horrifying memories of their synagogues being burned. Richard witnessed shop keepers took from their homes in their PJ's, kids beaten, and all Jewish stores destroyed. Richard Weiheimer states ''We had no clue what was happening ?'' As he went out for a walk he saw the burning of not just his synagogues but those of many. When he returned home to destroyed disaster all the clothes had been scented with a horrid smell that he can't ever forget. Margulies doesn't remember to much but he recalls his mother coming to school to get him so they could go in to hiding. While walking home from the school he saw his Torah burned down to almost nothing. Margulies cried as he asked his mother if God had died?

Most would agree that life for the Jewish people during WWII wasn't at all easy. The Jews were starved, beaten, killed, and taken from their homes. Please realize it was not just Hitler who did this............many............many more help to follow out this evil procedure. In memories of all who could not live to see their families again, please think of these of Jewish race who became victims of the Holocaust. Lets help to NEVER let the past repeat itself.

 

 

 

Morgan Cooper

7th Social Studies

Rossville Jr. High

Holocaust Project

2004

 

Bibliography