How I SURVIVED Four Different Nazi Concentration Camps | Ben Lesser

Buren was part of aitz Buren was everything that was being killed was in Buren now they opened the door it was still night and they shouted leave all your belongings where they are don't pick anything up the women had children the right men to the left and I'm grabbing to my sister my sister Goldie a little brother Tuli and they are separating us never to see each other again my sister and my little brother went straight to the gas chambers when we arrived at the Stuban Elder Stad Barracks, the man in charge of the barracks comes out , was a Polish prisoner and says, "You Hungarian Jews think you are here on vacation, think again, you see those chimneys, those flying ashes, those are your mothers, your fathers." your brothers and your sisters and if you don't behave and do exactly what you said, that's how you're going to end up in ashes.

I couldn't believe you mean my sister, my little brother, ashes. This is the 20th century, how is this possible? They are about to embark on the great crusade to confront this growing aggression and make no mistake about it, good will will prevail. I had a nice life at home, a family of seven and um, we went to school. All I know is that we went to a Jewish school. to Shiva and other schools and everything I did most of the day we studied day and night seven days a week that's what we did um my father had a wonderful chocolate factory um he was the first to make chocolate covered wers as children just in the form of little animals with foil every day he came home from work for kids with search pockets and he made sure he had some in there and then he also had a wine and syrup making, um both. of these businesses were removed immediately from the beginning things started to happen uh The school stopped immediately they didn't let us go to school and on Li's fifth day of occupation of the city of k a truck stops At the door we lived in a three-story building and they started banging on the door and the doorman ran away.

Well the only thing they want us to know is that the Jewish people lived and he was quick to please us, he showed our apartment and there was another young couple on the other side Jewish eh husband wife two daughters mother gave birth to a child empit two months before and they came breaking down the door and hitting us with pistols whipping us we were in bed at 5:00 a.m. in their hands they had open sexes and they were shouting throw all your valuables money gold jewelry everything they can find they threw they are beating my father to open the safe while my father opens the safe we ​​heard these terrible screams from our neighbors apartment My Sister Lola and I walked through the back kitchen door into her kitchen and walked into her apartment and this is what we saw: This monster was holding the baby by the legs and swinging him around and yelling at the parents to make him quiet. above the fathers are screaming and the daughters our baby our baby don't hurt his baby with a smile on his face you can see he was enjoying what he was doing he smashes the baby's head against the door post killing him instantly these are memories they gained Don't leave me, I have nightmares seeing that baby screaming and that sudden silence and what came out of me said Oh my God, my father was getting ready to go to the CCO ghetto because this whole family entered the ghetto of more than 200 people.

CCO while he packed his bags. A young man named Michael comes and says to my father Mr. Lesser you know how I feel about your daughter Lola one day I would love to marry her he said do me a favor come from the same community he said my parents are moving and my father gave him the option from going to the small community from CA to NE. He went to Neam and said it was miracle number one because all the people who entered the ghetto were taken out of the ghetto and transported to Belac and they were all exterminated. an extermination C so it was a miracle out of nowhere we lived in The Farmhouse uh the farmer lived on one side and we lived on the other side and uh my father became a little baker to feed the family and somehow he became in a small AFA for him and he started Bay for the community, he baked inside the house where we lived and I baked with him.

He was 12 at the time so life went on like that for about a year or so and then my sister Lola marries Michael and after they get married they move out of the house and into a duplex. They move into the duplex on one side of the duplex. They live on the other side where the owner lived, who happened to be the mayor of that community, so one day. The mayor comes home and says Michael Lola, save yourself, we heard a rumor that there will be a raid on the Jewish people tonight or tomorrow night, so Michael went out and rented a cart with the driver and we snuck away in the middle of the night and we left, which was Miracle number two because that night after we left they went from house to house, they gathered all the Jews, they put them in a truck and they took it to the forest and the man gave them shovels, they dug a ditch and they all got shot thousands of people they got all shot we were lucky we left and the only place we could go was a place called BNA VNA had a ghetto within the ghetto um it had a very bad reputation from time to time two or three dump trucks would come into the ghetto and take children out of their beds and throw them into these dump trucks in the middle of the night.

You can imagine that the parents scream for the children, the children scream for the parents, they filled these garbage cans. trucks and began to leave the ghetto the parents were running after these trucks shouting for their children but these cultured people had machine guns at the end of each truck so they mowed down the parents who were running after their truck which echoed throughout Europe stay away from B GTO because of these atrocities, but we had no choice, one day a kind Jewish policeman says to Michael, my brother-in-law, Michael, I heard there will be a r tonight, save yourself now since those traffickers came into the ghetto taking the children out.

From their beds, every house and every apartment had a hiding place, they called them bunkers. That's when I discovered that our bunker was an ornate piece of furniture where you hang your coats and jackets. When you open the door, you push on the latch and the back panel. We would slide in, there was a hole in the wall and there was room for the 12 of us to crawl through that hole and stand between two buildings. Now the last person would close the door behind them, put the clothes on, close the back panel and we would stand.

It was snowing there, luckily for us, the outside of the buildings was connected, but the roofs were open and it was snowing, it was cold, we heard gunshots all night, dogs barking, people screaming. I have never heard so many screams in my life. Towards morning there was silence. and we dared to go out when we came out this is what we found we couldn't believe that there were people lying in the snow half torn apart by dogs some of them were still a little alive and blood everywhere um there were people walking around with guards and collecting these bodies and They put pieces of bodies in the pusher and then took them to the ghetto square, piling them up as high as they could, and these educated people came with cans of gasoline and poured gasoline on the people. and they started a human bonfire the dog house you chose?

There was a stepladder on the floor of the doghouse, there was room for seven people for food, bedding and everything that awaited them. I went there to see what happened to him and I was surprised to find out that my sister was not there, but everyone else was in the snow with a bullet hole in their head, they took out the seven people and shot them now my sister Lola and her husband They were saved by a Jewish policeman and he took them because it's a long story anyway, he took them to a

different

hideout. place where there was a foam tannery in a water tank in a foam tannery they stood kneeling in the water all freezing night and luckily they heard the same gunshots barking dog anything but luck uh no one checked the tank and they

survived

I escaped from Poland and a double-decker truck called up between the column and the chassis 10 people lay down on the sides and they took us to the border and we were able to cross and then we had to cross the Czech border. to Hung Hungary and we arrived in Hungary um days later, I'm counting it very quickly but we arrived in Hungary it was a free country this was in 1943 in the summer of 43 and in March of 194 4 the Nazis marched into Hungary as they did they were invited when They arrived, they knew all the Jews where they live, their address and everything, and within two months they were already sending trains full of people to the

camps

, they told us that Germany needed workers, we will all be relocated to Germany.

Along with your valuables that you can carry with you, leave everything else behind. Anyone found hiding will be shot and charged. 82 kettle cars pushed me, my sister, my little brother and I into these Kettle cars, amazing story, but I'm cutting it short. now we are inside the kettle car 0 two buckets of water the water ran out there are no sanitary facilities there are no toilets uh one day two days three days those buckets were filled with human waste and they kept overflowing um my goodness and now we were lucky We had lumps to sit on in bundles instead of sitting on the human waist at the bottom for 3 days and three nights and we arrived at a place called Aitz.

It was called Osim Polish on the sign and meant Aitz, but we didn't look there. and he continued walking another 3 kilometers and had reached a place called aitz um Burana Buren was part of aitz Buren was everything that was being killed was in burino they opened the door it was still night and they shouted to leave all their belongings where it is do not pick them up nothing women and children on the right men on the left and I'm holding on to my sister Lola and my little brother my sister Goldie a little brother Tulie and they're just separating us never to see each other again my sister and my little brother went straight to the gas chambers um I didn't know about gas chambers who knew but they took him there and I went with the man instead of with the children yes I have gone with the children I was 15 and a half years old, I was not a child nor an adult either, but I decided to go with my uncle, my cousin, I thought this is a work camp, they will feed you better if you work like this.

I went with them and it's good because I mean with my sister they would have sent me to G, okay, so I went with them and now I go forward and I see a doctor, uh, asking questions and he goes with the finger like. that right left right left that was do mangela the angel of death he decided who should live who should die with a quick movement of a finger so when I stood in front of him he asked me a young man is coming to 5 kilm You can run it 5 kilm Or would you rather go by truck?

He said he had a bad knee. I would prefer to go by truck. Poor soul, not realizing that it meant a certain debt and they sent him on a trip. Who knew that doctors asked you that but it didn't make sense to me. Look at Barracks, why? What would I ask you if you can run 5 kilometers? I thought he was testing us to see if we are strong enough to work, so I told my uncle, my cousin, let me go first. I spoke German and was in front of him. Before he asked me a question I stretched out and greeted him and told him I'm 18 years old I'm healthy and I can work so he like me with 5 kilm You can run it 5 kilm I said And and they sent me to the left and my uncle followed me and my cousin followed me to the left and we headed to the big Auditorium, they told us to rest, take off our clothes, take off our shoes and walk towards that row of barbers that they cut your hair and then go to the showers, okay, no I told you the whole story because I had diamonds on my shoes, so my uncle gave me those diamonds on my shoes and his son had diamonds on his shoes that they took off. because they ordered us to do it, I refused, so I'm naked with those beautiful black shoes and I walk up to these barbers and they cut my hair and the Nazis walked back and forth looking at us, no one said a word and they said they sent me to the home from bed with my shoes on, if they had seen my shoes they would have killed me.

I disobeyed an order, you know, to give an example, but anyway when we get to the Barracks, Elder Sten dead, the man in charge of the Barracks walks. It was a Polish prisoner and he said: "Oh, Hungarian Jews, you think you are here on vacation, think again, you see those chimneys, those ashes flying, those are your mothers, your fathers, your brothers and your sisters, and if not "You behave well." and do exactly what you said this is how you are going to end up in ashes I couldn't believe you mean my sister my little brother ashes this is the 20th century how is it possible after 5 weeks they took us to DN how and he was a quarry of rock while they dynamited the mountain it was our job with sledgehammers to break those rocks into manageable pieces pick them up and throw them away the mining cards take them to the crushing machines to make gravel with them and push those mines cards back very hard work hard work I thought my uncle would never I would survive this so I brought the chef in the kitchen with my diamonds to give my uncle a job in the kitchen he took mydiamonds and gave my uncle a job in the kitchen.

It became easier for him and anyway, every day we came home from work, everyone had to line up to be counted, even the kitchen workers had to go through the row, so we stood in rows of five and they were counting. us and counting and counting normally they tell it and they let us go for our ration and go to our Barracks this time they continue counting and the commander comes down with his line fr with his girlfriend says I'm going to teach the schin Hun the lesson that they will never forget I will teach them those pig dogs a lesson that they will never forget what happened three inmates escaped and that is why he orders his henchmen to take out every 10 people in line to receive 25 lashes, so while they take out every 10 personal lines, I see that my uncle will be a five or a 10, he was in front, so I pushed him behind me and took his place and I was a 10 they took me to the middle of the yard, they call it in the middle of the yard, all of us are ten and they brought down a bunch of hardwood stakes and they bought a sawhorse you know what a sawhorse is and this is what they ordered us to walk towards the sawhorse bend over on tiptoe but his stomach can't touch it 2x4 his heel can't touch the ground a man pulls his pants the other hits he has to count out loud if he doesn't count it start from one again so anything even if the heel touches the ground you start from one again if your stomach touches the 2x4 you start from one again, the first one got up and made a mistake, of course, touched the ground and touched. again and again and finally he falls and falls the commandant goes over he kicks him in the face get up he couldn't take out the revolver and shoots the phrine his girlfriend approaches the Comon gives him a hug and a kiss he simply performed a heroic act , he killed number two the same way he also fell and the commando kicked him in the face, he couldn't get up, shut him up, number three was a little younger and he also made a mistake, I mean, couldn't he? he shouted, please have mercy on me, don't shoot me, then the comment says, then get up and come here and face me, the poor guy tries to get up, he takes five steps, his knees give way under him, he falls down at the moment When he falls, we go down, he shoots him now it's my turn Ben minor next to the line.

I remember walking up to that thing and saying to myself Ben, this is it, you want to live in another 5 or 10 minutes, you better do exactly what you're told and I walk on my toes to bend over without touching the 2x4 a man is throwing me I take off my pants and start drying off Fe and every time I get hit I feel a line of blood coming out of my BS six seven I finally made it you could hear an agonizing fall in the camp No one believes anyone can survive this the man who was at me pulling his pants he says to me in Yish go and thank him so I get up the blood runs through my legs and I walk towards him I greet him D she comes down when she hears him put his hand on my short neck, turn me in front of the number 10 that still owes be defeated, he says now, I told you you could do it if you did it this way and you have nothing to worry about. and while this is happening there is a commotion at the door they grabbed those three bloodied inmates you couldn't recognize them they were pulling their hair and they came in and when the comment below that just like a child gets tired of a toy, he simply ordered all of us, Number 10, to get back in line and tells his henchmen to bring a portable gallows to hang those three men and then get back in line and watch to see if, if you dare close your eyes, they whip you.

You had to see how they hanged each one and I remember that the third one was a little younger, they gave him the news and um, he started to say a prayer, there is a Jewish prayer that consists of five words, sh Isel, five words and they heard it , they kicked. The stool was taken away after the third W and they didn't let him complete God it's a uh two words um there so say this from Z Now we will march seven weeks seven weeks we march TOA 460 kilometers from dur learn how Bal in bald they accepted us they told us they put us in at the Barracks and we slept there the next morning we had to leave because Bal is also being evacuated so we got in line and they took us to a lot of kettle cars 82 cattle cars and I tell my cousin to push him up, I say, find a place against the wall where we can rest our backs against the wall.

I remember going to Aitz with people around you, it was terrible anyway, it did after an hour inside the kettle car, they opened the door and walked in. 80 loaves 80 loaves of bread one loaf of bread for each person photo of this those people who were next to the door grabbed

four

or five loaves and I, my cousin against the wall we had nothing we don't know where we are going for how long then I started to climb over the seated prisoners to see if I could reach the door and snatch the bread from someone who had several and as I climb up this prisoner had the knife and stabs me, I feel a stab.

I feel like my mouth is filling with blood but I can't stop I have to get a loaf I carry on anyway I got a loaf I went back to my cousin he says what's going on Ben you're bleeding I put my finger here and I put it through. my tongue I have a lot of GH anyway uh one week two weeks I had enough common sense I rationed that bread between my cousin and I we behaved half the size of half a neck every day for two weeks it lasted everyone is dying around me dying there is no water and there was no food and after 2 weeks I was out of breath too and it was not another week of travel and we arrived at a place called da and we arrived at D they ordered everyone who could walk to leave the bar. the kettle car and

four

of us got out of the 80's everyone else was dead and we got inside and what we saw inside is amazing anyway. 3 days later we were liberated and after Liberation two GIS approached me and They handed me a can of spam and they opened it it smelled so good that we made a mistake, we ate some and went down.

Desia. My cousin dies in my arm the night after the liberation of the desert. I don't know why he died. But he died, why was I chosen to survive all that hell? The only answer he seems to find is that God needed a witness. Someone who can talk about it. Tell the story. Because most of us can't even talk. About it, it hurts me too, I have sleepless nights but someone has to do it and I dedicated my life for the last 25 years to nothing but traveling and talking on Zoom, those who have the world Listen, prevent the world from acquiring Amnesia remember remember this happened because