UIRER 65211111111111111111111 311111111191 ill 1q11zmr 31.1985 11 hunt. ll' ?tied (tt?tll?ut" i; st 111 tlu? Slaq? ll 1nd In l11::1 1s 1 [my would (.11 this Ltd-w! .tf Hut hen? Aid. ?iE ?1 0 ?At Birkenuu we met :1 group of local boys. and I suggested that my father show them his tattoo. He rolled up sleeve. They gasped. One of them backed away. Slowly, the reality hit them This man had been a prisoner Journey to my father?s A Together, famer and son retraced the path to Auschwitz and Buchenwald. By DAVID LEE PRESTON a? ?m 4- mmeMmu Joel 1:3 lifoohp?vaumnntothucmti- I MMIPMUADEWPAWER nyoheadm'.? . David Lab. my fathet's fathom If with numerahontheirm munhted umm- Macbeth-in journey became one tiny I dull me. ?23[bathe .WohvalodtotheSovMUnionhichm dupiu :20 .mhmvin. home on noon' 21hr. stoodindn for30yun ?mumm?. Ehwifgubonmrvim Delaware's and .n Motility-moths. i i .hc?ownh hummer WaSe-Ioulvhen mocha '9thth YahLuhy whonholovuddouly hound MWIMMWW Weaning)?. At Birkenau, where the Nazis murdered 2% million jews, we visited a barracks similar to the one in which my father had been housed. Sixprisarters slept on each tier ofthe three-level . . . wooden bunks. Myfather?s technical training saved his life. is an lnqutrer staff writer. DAVID LEE PRESTON Apt! 21. ms mom?: DAVID LEE mm. AM I905 INQUIRER .QHWM mm .m mm mamm mm ?mm Beams .5. had died mu. Nth-Tau Mm balm Wart?. mot .2: who a? .m wm?mm :mm ?mm been fate Amm WNW ?at? ?tto tho Ibcbed Wm ?Bu-aw Wm ?Wham? Inn-d ?lo-I'M w: mumwm ?.m.mm mm . mm? %mmw mm mm ?Mum DAVID IE (3) andchi?ludiodthao?moud?minpm mandala: m?n?udenMth-dnmp?ntu knowntothewu?thoWampthoRode . ftg?mh?f I he AtB?kmube-saw? megpu?chikbenaway?mn tbarmotbasanddnow tbanonmaucksbeadedfa' ?m"asdooamwmsutmtwow thid kink?? hthulhd. . . . II. I935 23 hailed. he still had a tiny loose-leaf booklet containing a few engineering notations and pbotoaofhisfamily.Amongtbefew had brought to Birkenau, it was the link with his past. One day, it was announced that technically trained people were needed. Thousands of 1 prisoners came forward, hoping for a chance to go far away from the continuously smoking chimneys of the crematoria. Engineers from the Siemens Co. tested the prospective workers 160581 paasedanoraltest. Next, hehadtodrill opening to a precision of one-one-bundreth of a millimeter through which a cube could fit Six workers were chwen. One was 160581. He 3 would be housed in Block 11 at Birkensu, along with 25 other engineers. Their assignment: I1 transform an abandoned four-story brick build- ing several miles away at Bobrek into a mod- ?ern. onestory plant. To do this job. they were gig-ks down. In the bitter cold. 160581 and the others wore thin prisoner uniforms and wooden shoes. Every (aiming, they were brought back to Block 11 til the plant and its barracks were completed. Block 11 was laid out like the other barracks: three tiers of wooden bunks on both . sides, with an oven running down the middle fur heat. 160581 slept with five other prisoners . on a board, sharing a single blanket. He slept in the same clothes he were during the day. Several times, men lying beside him died At Block 11, the Siemens workers were to receive better treatment than the other prison~ But the ?senior inmate? in charge of Block 11 was a particularly vicious Silesian who delight- ed in Siemens workers. His name wasEmil Landhemaintainedastrict ngimmIfhefoundaspeckofdustona prisoner?s blanket, he would beat him with his walking stick. Bednsrek bit 160581 over the back so often that he was almost paralyzed. Bednarek forced his prisoners to do painful exercises, which he called ?sport.? During one running exercise. a prisoner was unable to continue, and fell exhausted onto the ground. 160581 saw Bednarek kick his shiny boots into the man?s chest until he was dead. On another occasion. while an SS man watched, Bednarek placed his walking stick against a fallen prison- er?s throat and stood on it. Then he rocked back and forth until the prisoner was dead. The 88 man offered hearty congratulations. After Bednarek killed people, he returned to his room to pray. . 160581 was so hungry that at one pomt he sneaked away from Block 11 in the middle of the day, when he was supposed to be working. . An SS of?cer stopped him. ?iglbat the hell do you have there?" the man barked. It wu the little booklet with the photos of his family.TheSSmangrabbedthebook. ?These are pictures of my parents," 160581 said. The of?cer laughed uproariously. ?You stu- pid bastard,? he said. ?You think you?ll ever secyourparentsagain? Youseethosechim- neys?? He pointed to the crematoria. ?That?s where you'll end up.? The of?cer beat and kicked him. Then he walked away with the book. 160581 was left writhing on the ground. In May 1944, after the Siemens workers had readied the Bobrek plant, they began to be hoimd nearby. At the plant, 160581 and his co- workers were put to work making dies to be used in fabricating electrical components for German submarines. It was only a matter of time before 160581 became ill with typhus from the constant expo- sure to lice. As part of the Siemens group, he was not sent to the gas chambers despite his illness Instead, he went to the camp ?hospital" adjacent to one of the crematoria. There he lay for several weeks without medical treatment. I-Iis fever was high, and most of the time he didn?t know what was going on around him. Among the prisoners in the hospital, 160581 recognizedaface: ItwastheJewishdoctorfrom Paris, the man who had extracted the bullet from the prisoner at the work camp. He was doctor told 160581 that no matter how sick he fromthe hospital and report back to work. A new transport of inmates was expected. the doctor said, and all the sick prisoners would be sent to the gas chambers Summoning his last ounce of strength, 160581 willed himself to leave the hospital and return to his job. THE SUN IS OVER BIRKENAU on the first day of June. and I am standing in the middle of the railway tracks. alone, inside the camp. To my left is the building where Mengele stayed. and beyond that the women?s camp. stand where the selections were made. Ahead of me. the gas chambers and the ovens. At my right, the men's camp. Behind me, along a sidewalk outside the camp, a boy in shorts is pushing a baby in a carriage. Two men in a cart are pulled by a horse. Another boy. maybe 5 years old, rides past on a tiny bicycle. It is quiet but for the sounds of the country evening: a cow?s moo. the music of many kinds of birds, a dog?s bark, frogs? croaks from the pit where a little more than 40 years ago, human beings were drowned. In the distance, a train Wooden watchtowers on either side. At my back. the main gate. 1 turn right and enter the men's camp through the opening in the barbed-wire fence. Before me, two endless rows of naked concrete stripped away. diverse. A brick chimney is all that remains of Block 11; the same is true of the other barracks. kneel to inspect a daisy. studying it for a few minutes, marveling at its intricate beauty. Then i rise again to face the rows of chimneys and cement fence posts, stretching far into the distance on every side. movement of human bodies assuring that not a blade of grass could grow. let alone a daisy. All where toward the sunset, the call of a cuckoo farther into the woods where they burned my people. Iwouldliketosaythatlcan' whatit was like for my father in this for 14 alive, each minute an eternity of pain and fear. such things. I cannot see my father here, otherswhosufferedanddied. other single spotinhistory' . What givesrne right to stand here now? With the watchtower at my back. I retrace my steps, movrng' ever closer to the But how long could I sit, before the rains would come? Eventually would grow hungry, and what purpos_e_w_oulg it serve? IfUIhsing infants and children to - the Holocaust, would they be comfort: ed?lcouldnotreturnasingleoneof matter? 1 spin round again, slowly along the tracks. leaving the as of my murdered people to spend another lonely night unattended but for the crazy. mindless cuckoo bird marking time in the distance. The sun has set on Birkenau. NITHE NIGHT 017 JAN. 1 . come a number, 160581 set out with the other Siemens workers, joining thou- sands of prisoners from Auschwitz, Bir- kenau and other camps, marching northwest Ten thousand prisoners were lsdon footaboutsomilesthroughtbe cold of winter. Some tried to hide in the snow. For manyJ it wasa_de_ath march. When the prisoners arrived in a SS men loaded them onto flatcars. After the train was rolling. some prisoners it, butmostwereshot 160581didnot jump; he didn't trust the local populace to save him As the cars rolled slowly across the snow fall. and wow gag: ever so won- to im. train passed through Czechoslovakia, losing more passengers with every mile. At Prague. 160581 found himselfwithaloafofbreadanda container of water, among thrown into the train by kind-beam Czechs at the risk of their lives. watchtowers. The tune, the thegatesaid: ?Jedemdasseme? each. his due." This was Buchenwald. M11. DAVID LEE PRESTO.