RelatioNet EL AD 34 PO PO
Interviewer:
Stav Din and Shai Vaknin
Stav Din and Shai Vaknin
Code: RelatioNet EL AD 34 PO PO
Family Name:Admon
First Name:Eliezer
Father Name:
Father Name:
Mother Name:
Birth Date: 09/09/1934
Birth Date: 09/09/1934
Town In Holocaust:
Country In Holocaust: Poland
Profession (Main) In Holocaust:
Status (Today): living in Kfar Saba
Interview
Eliezer lived in Weber, a small town, next to Warsaw with his parents. His father served in the Polish army and two weeks later the war started. The Germans occupied Poland. Because of that Eliezer’s father joined the Polish underground. After a while, the Germans caught the people in the Underground and killed them on 28/12/1939. The next day, Eliezer’s mom took him to the place where Eliezer’s father had been murdered. She wanted Eliezer to cry, however he didn’t and until now he doesn’t know why. Even though his mom pinched him, but he didn’t cry. Then Eliezer, who was five years old when the war started, with his mother and his aunt left for the ghetto. In the ghetto he found out that he was a Jew. He discovered that only then, because his family hadn’t behaved as Jews, except his grandfather, who was a religious man and lived in the village. Actually all this Eliezer found out after the war. His entire mother’s family escaped to Russia. Eliezer and his mom also wanted to escape to Russia, but for them it was too late.
He doesn’t remember a lot of the ghetto. However, he does remember that the ghetto was very dirty and crowded. In addition, in the ghetto the children had a lot of jobs. Because Eliezer had an Aryan look, he was sent out the ghetto to bring food to his mother and his aunt. He told us that when he went out of the ghetto he asked people who helped Jews if they could give him some food to eat. He found that the people who helped the Jews were bribed with money, a lot of money. He thought that the Polish people helped the Jews because they were nice and were against the war but they were not. He did it frequently. After that he told us about the forest where he was with his mother.
In the forest Eliezer was with his mother, his aunt and with Russian soldiers, who fought the Germans. They needed to walk from place to place for long distances as they didn’t want to be seized by the Germans. In addition, Eliezer told us that he had one pair of shoes that were with him for the whole of the time he was in the forest period and one day when he ran in a muddy place his shoes got stuck in the mud. That was the reason Eliezer’s shoes were wet and dirty. So when they were sitting somewhere, Eliezer’s mother took the shoes and dried them by the bonfire that they had. Later Eliezer tried to put on his shoes. However he couldn’t because the shoes were too dry. They had become as stiff as a board. So, in winter, he wore pieces of sack and in the summer he didn’t wear anything at all.
In addition, the conditions in the forest were difficult. In fact in the winter they dug bunkers under the ground, were the conditions were terrible. They were inside for the whole winter period and didn’t go outside because the Germans could see their footprints in the snow and therefore find them. They also lacked hygienic conditions, they only bathed if there was water, and if there wasn’t they didn’t bathe. Furthermore, he remembers that he had a big coat made form sheep’s wool and because of the terrible conditions and the very bad hygiene his coat was always full of lice. When he shook the coat in the winter he saw the lice on the snow.
As for food, in the night the soldiers and Eliezer left the forest and stole potatoes, and fruit from the fields. In addition, they killed animals such as cows and pigs and hung them on the trees. One of Eliezer’s functions was to steal food as his looked German with his blond hair and bright blue eyes. No one suspected him or knew that he was Jewish. One night a Russian soldier gave Eliezer a piece of bread and he put it behind his neck. In the morning of the next day, Eliezer wanted to eat the bread, but he found that it was not there. Because of that, he asked the Russian soldier if he knew where the piece of bread was. However, the soldier didn’t know and he got angry and said that all Jews were bad, except for Eliezer, who he called a good Jew.
In 1945 Eliezer and his mother were released and came to Balistock. After a while, when he realized what Palestine and Judaism was, he only wanted to go to Israel, even though there was a possibility to emigrate to the U.S. His uncle also survived the war but he found out about it only later. His uncle went from Poland to the U.S with his children. They sent Eliezer’s mother pictures of his children and that’s the only thing he has from them. He doesn’t know what they are doing today and where they are. From Balistock, Eliezer and his mother went to Germany in order to reach Israel. But in Germany they stopped and there he started to study, but not in an organized fashion.
Eliezer emigrated to Israel with a youth group called “Dror” in 1949. His mother emigrated a short time after him. The reason for that is because his mother had rebuilt her life from the beginning. She married again in Germany, and there Eliezer’s stepsister was born. And in Israel another brother was born. He has a good relationship with them even today. His stepfather passed away. However, Eliezer didn’t have a good relationship with him. His mother passed away 8 years ago, when she was 84 years old.
When he came to Israel he was 15 years old. Later he joined the Israel army in Nahal, he was in the first Watial unit, because he was only 16, he was too young, but he received special permission and he joined up. He even went to an officer’s course. While he was in reserve duty, the army asked him to change his profession and go to the Tank officer’s course and he served in all the wars in the tank division but then in 1958 went to the paratroopers.
After that he left the Hanita Kibbutz, he met his wife Lin in Ben Shemen in 1962. His wife is also a survivor from Holland. Lin was a special education teacher and Eliezer worked as a janitor. They really loved Ben Shemen, and they looked for a similar place and came to Kfar Saba in 1989. At that time, there were lot of fields and orchards.
He had some friends in his childhood but he does not remember them, even though he has their pictures. In addition Eliezer knows a lot of languages, like Hebrew, Russian, German, Dutch and Polish. He was member in a voluntary association for Holocaust survivors, there he met Tammy. He became the treasurer of the association. Then because he got sick and he had a few health problems, he could not dedicate himself to it, so he retired. But he stayed in touch with Tammy. He was also in the 98th Battalion. He did everything in order that no one would feel that he was different, so he wanted to learn only Hebrew. In 1967, he had to go up to Mount Scopus, which was in the Jordanian’s area, so they dressed him in a policeman’s uniform and they gave him a name. That he does not remember.
The war affected his life in a few ways: firstly, if there had not been a war he would say that today he could have had a better life. He could have studied in an organized manner. Despite these difficulties he has a second degree in engineering. He did all this in a disorganized fashion. He didn’t even have twelve years of study, he studied in an elementary school for barely two classes. When he was in the Kibbutz, people told him he did not need a Bagrut certificate in order to get accepted to the Palamach. Only when he left the Kibbutz did he realize he could not get ahead without learning. The second affect was that after the war he felt haunted all the time. For a long time he couldn’t sleep in a bed. He tried to stay sane as much as he could although it was very hard because he had not had a childhood. He was born into a war, into a reality where he had to learn to manage by running away from the Germans and surviving. So, even today when he sees a German cap with black boots, he gets a shiver although he is over 65.
He told us his story for the first time. The reason for that is that when he was younger he didn’t want to talk about it because he thought that no one would understand it. It was a hard period which is difficult to understand. The different kinds of abuse that he saw are still in his memory today. Only in the last few years did he start to open up more. If someone asks him about the war, he will answer now.
In Israel, his hobbies are movies and cameras, so in 2001 he went on a roots trip to Poland with his wife. When he came off the plane he felt that he had came home, and the language came back to him easily. There he looked for the songs from his childhood. He remembered that his mother had told him that he sang very nicely for his mother’s friends. He did not remember the lyrics of the songs only the tune, even though he had not sung those songs since the war. The seller gave him a similar song because he did not recognize the tune. In addition, on the trip he visited his father’s grave and the Chopan Park in Warsaw. He also visited the village where his grandfather had lived, the synagogue there has remained the same as before the war. In addition, he passed through Cherwonka because he found out that the name of this village was his name, and he wanted to know why they had the same name. He tried to ask people about the village but they did not want to talk to him. They told him to go to the priest but he never came. Only when he got back from the trip did he remember that he had gone with Christian children of the same village to a church and he had prayed with them. He was satisfied by this roots trip.
Warsaw Town
In Warsaw there were 1.3 million people. Warsaw was the capital of the resurrected Polish state in 1919. Before World War 2, the major center of Jewish life and culture was in Warsaw. In addition, the Jewish community of Warsaw was the second largest in the world. The Jews in Warsaw were part of the Polish people. They worked at professions such as medicine and legal practice.
Also, they contributed to the development of housing in the cities and to other services thanks to their different kinds of public building.
The Jews, in 1939, made up one third of the city’s population. The Jews took part in the political, social and cultural life. Warsaw was under the Nazi’s regime. They closed all the higher education institutes and all Warsaw’s Jews were sent to the ghetto.
As early as November 1939 in Warsaw Jews, who were under the Nazis regime and over the age of twelve were forced to identify themselves by wearing a Star of David on their clothes. In addition the Jews were reduced to the status of slaves and chattel. They were forbidden to work in public organizations or government institutions, as well as to bake bread, to earn more than 500 zloty a month, to travel by train or trolley-bus. In addition they couldn’t leave the city limits without special reason, plus all Jewish shops and plants also had to be marked with the Star of David. They lived their lives in a state of constant fear. In October 1940 the Jews began to be taken from the town. Thirty percent of the city’s inhabitants were now living in an area that consisted of less than three square miles, or 2.4% of the city. In November that area was closed off by a formidable wall, topped with barbed wire.
The conditions in the ghetto were very difficult and as time passed, the conditions got worse and worse. At first some normal life continued, cafes were still open, newspapers published, and more. People in the ghetto tried their best in order to continue their normal life. Due to the fact that people suffered from hunger, they sent their children outside of the ghetto in order to bring food for their family. Moreover, the people in the ghetto were suffering from diseases.
During that time, the Nazi’s brought more and more people into the ghetto. Also, the amount of money available for bribes for people outside the ghetto for food was drying out. In 1943, when there were about 60,000 people in the ghetto, the first sign of armed resistance started. The Nazis began their destruction of the ghetto and due to this resistance; the Nazis were forced to temporarily stop their action. In the same year, there was another attempt to destroy the ghetto, and that resulted in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Fighters of the Jewish Combat Organization under the command of Mordechai Anielewicz together with the Jewish Military Union had a well developed network of bunkers and munitions. Thousands of armed soldiers of the Wehrmacht and SS fought against them.
The Polish Underground actively supported the Ghetto Uprising. On May 8th, after a respectful defense, the bunker at Mila 18 Street fell, and the members of the Jewish Combat Organization, with their commander all lost their lives. Although, some of the fighting continued well into the middle of July. A number of those fighters, who survived were evacuated by the Polish Resistance to the “Arian” side via sewers.
Warsaw stayed the capital city of Poland and also the heart of the political and economic life. A lot of ancient buildings and churches were preserved. The Warsaw Metro opened in 1995. As a result of the entry of Poland into the European Union in 2004 Warsaw has become a city with a flourishing economy. In 2012 the opening of UEFA Euro took place in Warsaw.
