Max Kleinmann

Even in the first few months I had to do various cleaning jobs and in winter I had to shovel snow for hours on end. Then came the ghetto. In the ghetto we lived in the most oppressive conditions, although I wasn't particularly tall for my age, I was made to do heavy labour. I was repeatedly harassed and beaten. I witnessed atrocities every day. We also suffered from great hunger as the food rations were miserable. But I got the biggest shock when my beloved parents, my two brothers and my sister were deported in September 1942. I never saw them again.

Being aware of the significance of a statutory declaration and the punishability of false statements, and having been advised that false statements may jeopardise our compensation claims, we hereby affirm in lieu of an oath as follows:
1. Siche (formerly Zysla) SCHHWARC, born on 21 March 1921 ibn Czenstochau, Poland, now residing in Brooklyn, New York. My compensation claim is pending in Munich under file number BEG 2472.
2. My name is Walter (formerly Wolf) Grayer, residing at 81 Crooke Avenue, Brooklyn, New York. I received the number Munich 93818/VII/27412 for my compensation claim, but as far as I know the matter has been referred to Trier, and I do not know the new file number.
3. My name is Harry Gliklich, I live at 3569 Broadway, New York. My compensation claim is registered in Munich.  File number 12363/VI/3047.

We are neither related by birth nor marriage.
At the time of the German invasion, we three were living in Czestochowa. We all came from the same neighbourhood, in the district that was later enclosed as a ghetto.
From the end of 1939 we had to wear Jewish badges and do forced labour, in the early days not every day but by May 1940 at the latest we were doing it constantly, all day from morning to evening, 6 days a week. All three of us worked for the ‘water management’ company, we had to do drainage work and mostly worked in the water.
I, Gliklich, was transferred to PRZEROW in 1941, while we, Schwarc and Grayer, remained in Czenstochau. Nevertheless, we were able to maintain contact with each other, because on Sundays, 10-15 people from PRZEROW would come to Czenstochau on a one-day Sunday holiday, including me, Gliklich, not every Sunday, but quite often. When we were allowed to go to Czestochowa, we received a special pass, and of course we were identified by the armbands. In any case, we stayed in contact this way and knew where each other was. Towards the beginning of 1942, I, Gliklich, came to Czestochowa and from then on we were all together again.
A few months later we all came to Blizyn, where we remained for over a year. There we all worked in the quarry, I, Schwarc, in the sawmill during the last months. We stayed there until the autumn of 1943, then we all came to Auschwitz, not together on the same transport, but around the same time, we all met again in Auschwitz.
We were in Auschwitz until late autumn 1944 and were then sent to Dachau-Kaufering, again not on the same transport, but separately, I via Sachsenhausen. Anyway, we all came together again in Kaufering, around November 1944. We stayed there until the evacuation towards the end of the war, then we were put on the march and liberated together in Buchberg near Wolfratshausen, that was on 1 or 2 May 1945.
We can therefore truthfully confirm to each other that we were deprived of our freedom together as stated above.

Ziche Schwarc file,Landesamt für Finanzen, Labndesentschädigungsamt, Munich, file reference BEG 2472

Akte Ziche Schwarc, Landesamt für Finanzzen, Landesentschädigungsamt, München, Aktenzeichen BEG 23472