Harry Dymbort

Immediately after the outbreak of the war, my home town was occupied and that was the beginning of my ordeal. With regard to my imprisonment, I refer to the statements already made in the application for deprivation of liberty I had to do the hardest forced labor in the camps from the very beginning. Our treatment was more than brutal. Anyone who couldn't work fast enough was beaten. We were given so much to eat that we could just about keep our feet on the ground. But the worst thing was when anyone who couldn't work properly was killed, of course the older people and the children first. I trembled for my life every minute. None of my family - my parents, my three brothers and my sister - remained alive.

Source: Affidavit, compensation for  Damage to body or health,  1965?

I, the Harry Dymbort mentioned under 1., stated in my affidavit of 5.10.55 that I was transferred from my home town of Modliboschicze to Jenischoff in June 1941, but I forgot to mention at the time that I had already arrived at ZAL (note: ZAL - Forced labour camp) Zaklikow in the late fall of 1939. That was about 15 km from Modliboschicze. We were housed there with other young people from Modliboschicze in mass quarters and were used by the Germans for forced labor. We lived there like prisoners as strangers. We were fed from a communal kitchen, had to go to roll call every morning and were then assigned to work. We worked regularly every day.

We stayed there until the spring of 1940 and were then sent to LYSAKOW, where we worked in the quarries. We were guarded by Ukrainian ethnic Germans and slept at the workplace.

From there we were later sent to Jeniscoff, where we worked on the fortification embankment along the Vistula.

Source: Affidavit Damage to Freedom, 1956, Landesarchiv Niedersachsen, Nds. 110 W Acc. 14/99 No. 119886

I, the Zef Aljman mentioned under 2., can confirm the accuracy of the above information provided by Dymbort. I also came from Modliboschicze to Zaklikow in October and was together the whole time until our transfer to LYSAKOW. We were there together in the stone quarries and then later also in Jenischoff. From Jenischoff I came to Budzin at the end of 1942 or the beginning of 1943, just like Dymbort, and we stayed together there until 1944. Then I was transported to RADOM and from that moment on I never saw Dymbort again during the war.

Source: Zef Aljman's testimony, Schaden an Freiheit, 1956, Landesarchiv Niedersachsen, Nds. 110 W Acc. 14/99 No. 119886

From Jenischow I was sent to ZAL Budzin at the end of 1942, which became a concentration camp in the course of 1943. I stayed there until around May 1944 and was then sent to Reichshof, Plaszow, Wielicka, Flossenbuerg, Natzweiler, Sachsenhausen Watenstedt,  Ravensbrueck, Wehrbellin near Ludwigslust in Mecklenburg. I was liberated in Wehrbellin on May 2, 1945.

In the years 1944 -. 1945 - when I was dragged from one concentration camp to another - I was close to death every day. Exhausted to the extreme, I could think of nothing more than how to stay alive. I can't remember how many times I was beaten up. In the Watenstedt concentration camp I suffered from severe dysentery. When I collapsed while carrying bricks, I was beaten unconscious again.