Post by novillero on Mar 31, 2008 9:08:54 GMT -5
I came across this story in American History Magazine. It was written by a resident of Freehold. I tried to get the link from the American History website, but there was none. I googled the Freehold author and found that he put the story up on another website. The content below differs slightly from the magazine, I guess due to "professional" editing, but the story is essentially the same. The attachment at the bottom of the link has the story, as published, with photo. Here is the online version:
subjectseek.com/articles/36/1/NAZI-NIGHTMARE-TO-AMERICAN-DREAM/Page1.html
NAZI NIGHTMARE TO AMERICAN DREAM
By Jack Fajerman Published 03/2/2008
This photo of happy people in prison uniforms beneath the American flag was taken at the Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany on April 29th 1945. The American soldiers fighting their way through Germany discovered and liberated the city-sized chamber of horrors. The Nazi’s Third Reich and its diabolical “Final Solution” to murder Jews, Communists, Homosexuals, Gypsies and any opposition (hundreds of thousands of innocent people were murdered at this site) had finally been halted. This collection of survivors pictured includes my father, who was living his first day of freedom since 1939 (third from right in the first row wearing a long coat and tilted hat).
Rising again after disaster requires a strong will, focus, resolve and courage. My parents’ story will not be included in any book. They chose to share very few of their personal experiences. There remains limited information of what occurred between the years of 1939 to 1945. These tough two survivors either didn’t have post traumatic syndromes or they ignored them. Instead, they chose life.
My father (age 27) had been previously married and had a son before the Nazis came to his village and promised that “Arbeit Macht Frei” (work insured freedom). It was a lie. He was a slave and predestined to be worked to death. His entire family was taken to the Treblinka Death Camp where they were likely gassed and thrown in the ovens to be reduced to ashes. My father’s troop of forced laborers built railroads, worked in a glass factory and buried civilians gunned down by Nazi firing squads. When the war was nearly over the Nazi’s marched those judged to be strong enough from the Buchenwald Concentration Camp to Dachau, approximately three months before liberation.
In another area of Eastern Poland/Ukraine the Nazis imprisoned my mother (age 17) in a work camp where she regularly endured beatings and starvation. She heard the rumors circulating about camp “liquidation”. The women were stripped naked and lined up for execution. She and two of her friends were sent to do one last task when in desperation chose a risky escape out of a small window in the back of the kitchen. They dodged bullets to break out into the forests where they allied themselves with a group of partisans who hid and fought. After nearly three years of living on the run, the area of “The Woods” that they were in were conquered by the Russian soldiers who allowed them safe passage.
My parents Leijzer Fajerman and Estera Kanner met and married in a displaced persons camp in Germany after the war. It required four long years of waiting, but finally on Dec. 24th 1949 their dream of coming to America came true. They arrived in New York City ready to start again in a country that promised safety, opportunity and freedom.
(At this point of the story I feel duty-bound to stop and thank the Greatest Generation of Americans Ever for coming to Europe’s rescue…and add… GOD BLESS AMERICA!)
Through hard work and perseverance they raised our family in a farm community in South Jersey. During those years, Vineland may have had the largest amount of Holocaust survivors per capita of any town in the USA (possibly the world). My father worked in a bakery and we raised chickens in coups built on our seven acre farm. Eventually, they purchased their own bakery in town and worked twelve to fourteen hour days to provide for my brother, sister and me.
The Nazis’ “FINAL SOLUTION” had robbed my parents of their freedom, loved ones and all of their possessions. Yet, it did not stop them from surviving and eventually achieving the “AMERICAN DREAM”. They have since both passed away ( my mother at the age of 78 and my father at 93). I pray that their 10 grandchildren have inherited the strength of heart, body and soul of these hard working, proud to be first generation Americans.
The exceptionally helpful staff of the HOLOCAUST MUSEUM in Washington DC supplied a copy of the Dachau Liberation photo. They genuinely enjoyed hearing the story about my father’s survival and achievements in the USA. Their employment at the museum requires that they see the saddened visitors as they exit and emotionally draining exhibits daily. The pursuit to find this photo in the archives was a welcomed change from their daily routine that includes witnessing one of the most horrible periods in history. I thank them for the work that they do and for finding this photo
subjectseek.com/articles/36/1/NAZI-NIGHTMARE-TO-AMERICAN-DREAM/Page1.html
NAZI NIGHTMARE TO AMERICAN DREAM
By Jack Fajerman Published 03/2/2008
This photo of happy people in prison uniforms beneath the American flag was taken at the Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany on April 29th 1945. The American soldiers fighting their way through Germany discovered and liberated the city-sized chamber of horrors. The Nazi’s Third Reich and its diabolical “Final Solution” to murder Jews, Communists, Homosexuals, Gypsies and any opposition (hundreds of thousands of innocent people were murdered at this site) had finally been halted. This collection of survivors pictured includes my father, who was living his first day of freedom since 1939 (third from right in the first row wearing a long coat and tilted hat).
Rising again after disaster requires a strong will, focus, resolve and courage. My parents’ story will not be included in any book. They chose to share very few of their personal experiences. There remains limited information of what occurred between the years of 1939 to 1945. These tough two survivors either didn’t have post traumatic syndromes or they ignored them. Instead, they chose life.
My father (age 27) had been previously married and had a son before the Nazis came to his village and promised that “Arbeit Macht Frei” (work insured freedom). It was a lie. He was a slave and predestined to be worked to death. His entire family was taken to the Treblinka Death Camp where they were likely gassed and thrown in the ovens to be reduced to ashes. My father’s troop of forced laborers built railroads, worked in a glass factory and buried civilians gunned down by Nazi firing squads. When the war was nearly over the Nazi’s marched those judged to be strong enough from the Buchenwald Concentration Camp to Dachau, approximately three months before liberation.
In another area of Eastern Poland/Ukraine the Nazis imprisoned my mother (age 17) in a work camp where she regularly endured beatings and starvation. She heard the rumors circulating about camp “liquidation”. The women were stripped naked and lined up for execution. She and two of her friends were sent to do one last task when in desperation chose a risky escape out of a small window in the back of the kitchen. They dodged bullets to break out into the forests where they allied themselves with a group of partisans who hid and fought. After nearly three years of living on the run, the area of “The Woods” that they were in were conquered by the Russian soldiers who allowed them safe passage.
My parents Leijzer Fajerman and Estera Kanner met and married in a displaced persons camp in Germany after the war. It required four long years of waiting, but finally on Dec. 24th 1949 their dream of coming to America came true. They arrived in New York City ready to start again in a country that promised safety, opportunity and freedom.
(At this point of the story I feel duty-bound to stop and thank the Greatest Generation of Americans Ever for coming to Europe’s rescue…and add… GOD BLESS AMERICA!)
Through hard work and perseverance they raised our family in a farm community in South Jersey. During those years, Vineland may have had the largest amount of Holocaust survivors per capita of any town in the USA (possibly the world). My father worked in a bakery and we raised chickens in coups built on our seven acre farm. Eventually, they purchased their own bakery in town and worked twelve to fourteen hour days to provide for my brother, sister and me.
The Nazis’ “FINAL SOLUTION” had robbed my parents of their freedom, loved ones and all of their possessions. Yet, it did not stop them from surviving and eventually achieving the “AMERICAN DREAM”. They have since both passed away ( my mother at the age of 78 and my father at 93). I pray that their 10 grandchildren have inherited the strength of heart, body and soul of these hard working, proud to be first generation Americans.
The exceptionally helpful staff of the HOLOCAUST MUSEUM in Washington DC supplied a copy of the Dachau Liberation photo. They genuinely enjoyed hearing the story about my father’s survival and achievements in the USA. Their employment at the museum requires that they see the saddened visitors as they exit and emotionally draining exhibits daily. The pursuit to find this photo in the archives was a welcomed change from their daily routine that includes witnessing one of the most horrible periods in history. I thank them for the work that they do and for finding this photo