Max Frenkel
- Max Frenkel, born on January 6, 1922 in Hanau/Main, Germany
- arrested November 6, 1940 in Sosnowitz, Jewish star, forced labor
- 11/1940 – summer 1943 forced labour camp Saybusch ("Lachowitz")
- summer 1943 -11/1944 forced labour camp Parzymiechy
- 11/1944 Groß Rosen concentration camp ,
- 12/1944 – 11.4.1945 Buchenwald concentration camp
- Displaced Persons Camp Zeilsheim,
- October 2, 1947 Emigration to the USA
Sosnowitz
I lived with my parents in Sosnowitz, Marktstrasse 15. A few days after the outbreak of war, Sosnowitz was occupied by the Germans. All Jews, including myself, were rounded up and brought to a hall. There our hair was cut short and our beards were shaved. Apart from the time in which this procedure was carried out, we had to march constantly. This arrest lasted 3 days.
Around the beginning of November 1939, I had to identify myself as a Jew. At first I wore the Jewish badge on my arm. From then on, I was outwardly marked as a Jew until the liberation. I had no rights. Anyone who presumed to have authority simply took me away to work, which I had to do under constant supervision.
Max Frenkel, affidavit dated August 30, 1957
Lachowitz
I was arrested on November 6, 1940 in Sosnowitz (Upper Silesia) because I am Jewish, and put into the forced labor camp Lachowitz, Saybusch district in Poland. The inmates of this camp were used as a construction crew in several places in the district of Saybusch. I myself did this work until the summer of 1943.
Max Frenkel, affidavit of March 11, 1954
In October or November 1940, I was sent to the forced labor camp in Lackowitz. Here I was assigned to a special work detail. Our detail was tasked with tearing down the existing buildings and leveling the ground in order to create settlements for German refugees. I worked in various places in the Seibusch district.
Max Frenkel Affidavit of August 30, 1957
4. A few weeks after the Germans marched into Sosnowice, I received an order from the Gestapo or the SS through the Jewish community to go to a certain assembly point, and to do so in a suit. At the same time, we were informed that we had to do forced labor. I was in a group of about 160 young Jews. We were taken by uniformed Germans to a railroad car on a trip that lasted several hours. We then had to get off and march from this station, which I do not know, to a place called Lachowice. That was about 150 kilometers from Sosnowice, that was around the turn of the year 1939/1940, and I was in Lachowice for a full year, about 10 months, until November 1940. The Jews were brought to this place in L. to work for the SS, and we were employed in construction work. We had to tear down houses and erect another large building. We lived scattered in different places and were taken to the workplace every morning in groups of 10 by an SS man and brought back in the evening.
Statement of Abram Gelbart, born on 2/2/1920 in Siedsziszow/Poland, 12/1954. StAL EL 350 I/Bü 16348
Parzymiechy
We were under the command of SS Brigade Fuehrer Schmelk(1), who was the police president in Breslau. His quarters were in the villa of Count Potoschki. We were constantly guarded while we worked. This forced labor lasted until late 1944.
(1) This refers to Albrecht Schmelt, see Schmelt Office, Police President of Breslau from 1934-1942.
Max Frenkel Affidavit of August 30, 1957
He says that he lived in Sosnowitz OS, Poland, and in 1940, when he was 17 years old, he was taken to the Bautrop Lachowitz labor camp (Poland), where he then worked in one city or another for about two years. In the Parzymiechy camp, where he stayed for about three years, he lived in a large, unheated shed. His food was bad, his clothes in rags, his shoes made of wooden soles with linen uppers. He was forced to run and work in the snow. He was often beaten with a whip until he fell in the snow; water was poured over him and he was beaten again. He bled from the mouth and wounds. SS-Oberführer Meiwald often beat him with a bull whip, while his dog Rex bit him. Despite his wounds, he was forced to work; the wounds took three to four weeks to heal.
Expert opinion by Leo H. Pollock, Kansas City, dated 8 July 1964
5. In November 1940 our whole group was transported away to the Parcymiechy camp. I was there for more than four full years until my deportation to Buchenwald in January 1945. In the ZAL P. only Jews were imprisoned, mostly younger, able-bodied people. We worked under the SS, because the SS had taken over certain estates there as their own operation after a Count Potocki had been expropriated there. The SS had their own operation there, with several dozen people. A certain SS-Führer Maiwald was our superior; I believe he came from Lower Silesia. I worked as a carpenter, and the work was so hard because I had to start at 6 a.m. and was not allowed to stop until 9 a.m. The food was miserable. For most minor infractions, we were beaten. Many months of the year were very cold. We had no heating and when working outside I had neither the right clothing nor the right shoes for the snow. A certain Jacubowitz was the leader of the group to which I belonged. There was no medical care whatsoever and I was often ill. Several of us were shot, because the SS were very quick to use their guns. If someone tried to get food somehow, he was shot on the spot if it was discovered. I remember several such incidents quite clearly, which naturally terrified me. There were no privileges and no leave in this camp, only backbreaking labor, meager rations, and mistreatment. The number of inmates fluctuated between 300 and 600 people, all of whom worked for the SS. The SS men lived in a good house, which was on the other side of the street from our fenced-in barracks. I remember a certain man named Winter, who originally came from Auschwitz, and a certain Rosenbaum, who also came from Sosnowice. These two also did special tailoring work for the SS. The witness Schlomkiewicz I named came from Sosnowice. Among the SS officers was a Jewish camp elder, a kind of Kapo. A certain Joskowicz and a carpenter Rosenberg, who was also from Sosnowice, worked with me. About five Jewish female prisoners worked in the kitchen.
Statement by Abram Gelbart, born on February 2, 1920 in Siedsziszow, Poland, 12/1954. Staatsarchiv Ludwigsburg (StAL) EL 350 I/Bü 16348
Groß Rosen and Buchenwald
In November 1944, I was transported from there to the concentration camp Groß-Rosen near Breslau, where I stayed for two weeks. Then I was taken to the concentration camp Buchenwald, where I arrived in December 1944 and stayed until my liberation on May 11, 1945.
Max Frenkel, affidavit dated August 30, 1957
In December 1944, the prisoners were forced to retreat westwards on foot and he marched for three or four weeks through snow and ice until he arrived at the Groß-Rosen concentration camp. At times, they marched in pairs and were beaten on the head with sticks. They were then forced to undress in the snow and his whole body was shaved. This was done in a cruel manner; parts of the scrotum and skin were cut off by the razor. In this camp, where he stayed for ten days, he was constantly beaten. He had only insufficient clothing in the snow. In the new camp Groß-Rosen they were undressed and forced to walk outside in the snow for about four hours. After ten days there, they were loaded onto open boxcars, ninety people to a car; they were then exposed to the winter weather for three days and were taken to the Buchenwald concentration camp. Here he had practically nothing to eat for three or four months and weighed only 68 pounds when he was liberated on April 11, 1945.
Expert opinion by Leo H. Pollock, Kansas City, dated July 8, 1964
Notes
Further Sources
- Staatsarchiv Ludwigsburg, Akte Abram Gelbart, (StAL) EL 350 I/Bü 16348
Office for Comüpensation
Darmstadt
Notes
I received Abram Gelbart's application by mistake. However, it happened to contain a more detailed description of the situation in the Parzymiechy camp, which is why I included the statement here.
Picture Credits
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