There was Selektion by Josef Mengele, sometimes there was some experiments with Mengele.
Some prisoners were "sent to the ovens".
By some miracle, some prisoners managed to be saved from death by gassing.
Sometimes shower was just a shower.
Some were lucky enough to survive even the Death Marches.
This is a list of survivors of several death camps and death marches. (My old post cannot be accessed anymore)
I included some dead links on purpose if someone could find the missing articles somehow. I managed to find updated links to some.
Fred Wander (Fritz Rosenblatt)
(1917 - 2006)
Liberated from Buchenwald
survived more than 20 Nazi camps including
Drancy internment camp, Auschwitz, Gross-Rosen [Groß-Rosen], Buchenwald, S III (Ohrdruf) subcamp.
"Between 1939 and 1945, Wander was interned in a score of camps in France, Germany and Poland.
This Dantean tour of a univers concentrationnaire, chronologically obscured in the author’s only novel,
“The Seventh Well,” deserves a voice: In the beginning, there was a muster in the
Stade de Colombes, followed by stints at Meslay-du-Maine, Angoulême, Périgueux,
Toulouse, Saint-Antoine, Gurs, Le Vernet, Les Milles, Saint-Cyprien,
Argelès-sur-Mer, Lager Agde, Montpellier, Lager Sete, Abbaye-de-Valmagne,
Rivesaltes and Drancy (I’m missing a few, perhaps; unsure as to where, or when, Perpignan fits in)…
then Auschwitz, from which Wander was marched to Gross-Rosen,
from which he was marched to Hirschberg, over the Riesengebirge (“Giant Mountains”), then Buchenwald,
from which he was liberated by the Americans in April 1945."
Survival Ode: Fred Wander’s Wartime Story - The Forward
https://forward.com/culture/12374/survival-ode-01048/
"Fred Wander’s story is not unusual for many who survived; for whom Auschwitz was merely a stopover because they were considered fit for work and were quickly transferred to other places."
Fred Wander - Auschwitz
https://www.auschwitz.at/fred-wander-en
Fred Wander - Buchenwald Memorial
https://www.buchenwald.de/en/geschichte ... red-wander
https://www.newstatesman.com/books/2008 ... rmany-life (Link dead)
Meyer Kornblit/Majir Kornblit
(October 12, 1923 - June 19, 2012)
Liberated from Dachau.
Majir (also Major) "Meyer" Kornblit and Mania/Manya Korenblit/Kornblit (nee Nagelsztajn) survived 13 concentration camps, including Auschwitz.
"survived in about a dozen concentration camps"
http://newsok.com/article/3174677 (Link dead)
Meyer Kornblit survived eight Nazi concentration camps
Dachau, Flossenburg, Kaufering, Mauthausen,
Budzyn, Mielecz, Wieliczka, Leitmeritz
Manya Kornblit survived five concentration camps
Liberated from Auschwitz.
(
Eight camps plus five camps equals thirteen camps)"In a no-nonsense manner, she volunteered to show me her arm, where her Nazi captors had imprinted the letters KL, representing the German words for concentration camp."
Goodbye to a survivor - The Oklahoman
https://eu.oklahoman.com/story/news/rel ... 966769007/
Another article from the same site does not mention the "KL-tattoo":
"A faded blue tattoo on Manya's forearm is evidence of her life at the notorious camp. The tattoo was her serial number: A-21321."
Couple faced death in German captivity - The Oklahoman
https://eu.oklahoman.com/story/news/200 ... 718275007/
Ponca City resident and Holocaust survivor Kornblit dies | News OK
http://newsok.com/article/3686559 (Link dead)
New link:
https://eu.oklahoman.com/story/news/201 ... 063924007/
Holocaust survivor and author Fred Wander dies | The Jerusalem Post
https://www.jpost.com/jewish-world/jewi ... icle-27700
Meyer Majir Kornblit Obituary | 1923 - 2012 | Ponca City, OK
https://www.tributearchive.com/obituari ... r-kornblit
More about their experiences in Nazi Germany's death camps:
Couple faced death in German captivity - The Oklahoman
https://eu.oklahoman.com/story/news/200 ... 718275007/
And there is a book:
Until We Meet Again: A True Story of Love and Survival in the Holocaust
Author Michael Korenblit is President and co-founder of the Respect Diversity Foundation
https://respectdiversity.org/
A true story of love and survival in the Holocaust | Northern Oklahoma College
https://www.noc.edu/noc-news/a-true-sto ... holocaust/
Google search for Majir "Meyer" Kornblit gives results related to
therapy, trauma, psychosocial adaptation.
Stephen Ross (Szmulek Rozental)
(September 20, 1931 – February 24, 2020)
Liberated from Dachau
"terrorized at 10 different death camps"
"escaped twice after being chosen for death at the camps."
Stephen Ross Obituary
https://obits.al.com/us/obituaries/birm ... d=60249500
"Steve Ross was just 9 years old when he was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp.
Over the next five years, he was starved, beaten, experimented on, forced into labor, and terrorized at 10 different death camps.
He escaped death by hiding in human waste in an outhouse and by holding onto the axle of a train as it went to another death camp."
'Etched In Glass' Chronicles The Life Of Holocaust Survivor Steve Ross | Radio Boston
http://www.wbur.org/radioboston/2017/11 ... steve-ross
Continued:
"On April 29, 1945, American soldiers liberated Dachau. Some 30,000 Holocaust survivors were freed. Ross was among them."
He was
"In places like Budzyn, Krasnik, Czechna in Radon, Bietigheim, Vaihingen, Unterriexingen, Grossachsenheim, Neckarsulm, Auschwitz, and lastly, Dachau.
Nazi concentration camps where he was imprisoned, tortured, starved, and beaten for five years, from the age of nine to 14."
(Link dead)
http://newton.wickedlocal.com/x85370053 ... z2bgDSGsjP
Holocaust survivor: Stephan Ross meets family of soldier who rescued him from Dachau | Daily Mail Online
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... achau.html
Documentary chronicles Holocaust survivor’s search for his American hero - Jewish Journal
https://jewishjournal.org/2017/06/30/do ... ican-hero/
History | New England Holocaust Memorial
https://www.nehm.org/the-memorial/history/
Chaim Ferster
(1922-2017)
Liberated from Buchenwald
Chaim Ferster survived eight or seven Nazi death camps
Markstadt, Klettendorf, Faulbruck, Graditz, Annaberg, Auschwitz, Langenwerke AG concentration camp at a town called Niederorschel, Buchenwald
"From March 1943, Chaim went through seven concentration camps."
Holocaust Educational Trust - Chaim Ferster, 1922-2017
https://www.het.org.uk/news-and-events/ ... -1922-2017
"survived Auschwitz, malnutrition and typhus"
"Between 1943 and 1945 he was moved between eight different camps across Germany and Poland, enduring terrible conditions, in which many died."
Holocaust survivor Chaim Ferster, who survived eight Nazi death camps, dies - BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-38893479
The man who survived eight Nazi death camps - BBC News
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-34405565
He remembers the infamous shower rooms, and the prisoners who were sent there.
"They put us into a block. All of us, one particular large block. Then the following morning, a selection of that block went into the shower room," he said.
"We went to the shower room. It's the same shower room that other people went in and the gas came in. But we got the water that came down and we washed ourselves."
The man who survived eight Nazi death camps - BBC News
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-34405565
Another shower experience:
"After a few months, I along with around 100 inmates were sent by cattle truck to a much bigger camp called Faulbruck.
This was a far worse place than Klettendorf, the daily routine was gruelling.
We were woken at 3am and had half an hour to shower, and collect our portion of bread, margarine and black coffee."
Chaim Ferster - Yom HaShoah Manchester
https://yomhashoahmanchester.org.uk/chaim-ferster/
Half an hour should be enough. I manage to do that before going to work."Holocaust memorial bench destroyed and thrown in lake.
The bench carried the voice of the late Chaim Ferster, who had moved to the city after surviving eight Nazi death camps including Auschwitz"
Holocaust memorial bench destroyed and thrown in lake in Salford (2026)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crlexx07e16o
Hershl (Henry) Sperling (Heniek Szperling)
(1927-1989) committed suicide
Liberated from Dachau
survived seven camps
Treblinka (escaped after ten months), some penal camp (Treblinka?), Auschwitz, Birkenau, Sachsenhausen, Kaufering, Dachau (somewhere Gleiwitz is also mentioned)
Treblinka survivor : the life and death of Hershl Sperling / Mark S. Smith
https://www.nli.org.il/en/books/NNL_ALE ... 205171/NLI
Hershl "Henry" Sperling survived seven Nazi concentration camps, one of those being Treblinka
where he worked as Sonderkommando.
He was also assigned to Josef Mengele's special work detail (known as 'the zoo') in Auschwitz.
"As a teenager, he had been an inmate of not just one, but seven Nazi concentration camps - including the horrific extermination complexes of Treblinka and Auschwitz"
Last victim of Treblinka: He survived SEVEN Nazi concentration camps... but the nightmare caught up with him | Daily Mail Online
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... t-him.html
Don't forget Barry:
"The deputy camp commander would unleash his ferocious dog, called Barry, to tear off their testicles"
Ernst Israel Bornstein
(26 November 1922 – 14 August 1978)
Liberated by American soldiers near Lake Starnberg in Bavaria
Ernst Bornstein survived seven Nazi death camps and several death marches
Grünheide (now Sieroniowice), Markstädt, Fünfteichen (now Miłoszyce), Gross-Rosen, Flossenbürg, Leonberg and Mühldorf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Israel_Bornstein
"four years enduring the horror of seven concentration camps and five transit camps"
Ernst Bornstein: The man who survived SEVEN Nazi death camps | History | News | Express.co.uk
http://www.express.co.uk/news/history/6 ... ht-memoirs
Dead link
"Later he discovered that of his extended family numbering 72 in 1939, only six survived the war including himself and his sister Regina."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/art ... z4YEwrHC9y
Bornstein wrote a book: The Long Night: A True Story
"His daughter Noemie with the help of a translator published the English edition The Long Night (The Toby Press) in 2015 with a prefaced later by the then Prime Minister David Cameron."
Ernst Israel Bornstein - Yom HaShoah Manchester
https://yomhashoahmanchester.org.uk/ern ... bornstein/
Holocaust Memorial Day: Ernst Bornstein's seven labour camps in four years - BBC News
Ernst Israel Bornstein - Koren Publishers
https://korenpub.com/collections/ernst- ... Vxm_v1wWEh
"“We were a happy family before The Night began, which lasted five years and eight days."
Ernst Israel Bornstein - Holocaust Matters
https://www.holocaustmatters.org/ernst/
Bornstein about his father:
"His work in the Zionist movement took a large part of his free time."
"He saw the realisation of the Jewish future in a Jewish State in the area of what was then Palestine."
“Our education was strongly influenced by his ideals."
His wife Renee was born in France and survived the holocaust, after being arrested by the Gestapo aged 10.
Herman Fayman
(1906-1986)
Escaped from Niederorschel
Auschwitz, Faulbrück (a subcamp of Gross-Rosen), Landeshut (a subcamp of Gross-Rosen), Annaberg, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Buchenwald, Niederorschel (a subcamp of Buchenwald)
EHRI - Concentration camp uniform jacket worn by a Polish Jewish prisoner who was in several camps
https://portal.ehri-project.eu/units/us ... -irn616842
"In September 1939, during the German invasion of Poland, Herman was serving in the Polish army when he was captured as a prisoner of war (POW). Herman was interned in a POW camp in Biała Podlaska"
Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn616841
Olga Horak (née Rosenberger)
(11 August 1926 – 15 August 2024)
Liberated from Bergen-Belsen
survived five death camps (the fifth camp unknown)
Sered, Auschwitz, Kurzbach (a subcamp of Auschwitz), Bergen-Belsen
Jewish Museum celebrates 25 years | Daily Telegraph
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslo ... bdb3530694
She was inspected by Josef Mengele
Saw one of the three air raids by the British Royal Air Force over Dresden
Wrapped herself in human hair blanket (dropped by SS guard) on the day Bergen-Belsen was liberated
https://www.motl.org/olga-horak-holocau ... he-nation/
Blanket was more likely made from angora as there were many rabbit farms near concentration camps.
"In 1997, the blanket underwent testing after it was donated to the museum, and examination confirmed that it consists of a mix of mainly animal and human hairs."
This blanket saved Olga's life amid the Holocaust
https://www.mamamia.com.au/olga-horak-h ... -survivor/
Holocaust remembrance day: a journey of dealing with intergenerational trauma - ABC News
http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2017 ... ma/8461534
One of Australia’s most prominent Holocaust survivors
and guide at the Sydney Jewish Museum
Goodbye to Olga Horak OAM - Sydney Jewish Museum
https://sydneyjewishmuseum.com.au/news/ ... lga-horak/
Olga Horak, Holocaust survivor: Heart of the Nation - International March of the Living
https://www.motl.org/olga-horak-holocau ... he-nation/
Horak was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_Horak
"Olga Horak was one of Australia’s most prominent Holocaust survivors.
She was also a brilliant artist."
Olga Horak’s visual voice - The Australian Jewish News
https://www.australianjewishnews.com/ol ... ual-voice/
Somehow, according to these same people - for example - Adolf Hitler wasn't a brilliant artist.
More her art:
https://goldstonegallery.com/olga-horak
Olga Horak's legacy of art - The Jewish Independent
https://thejewishindependent.com.au/olg ... acy-of-art
Sonia Schreiber Weitz
(August 27, 1928 - June 23, 2010)
Liberated from Mauthausen
Sonia Weitz survived 5 Death Camps
Plaszow, Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Venusberg (a subcamp of Flossenbürg), and Mauthausen
"As a teenager, she lived through five Nazi death camps and came to the United States,
where she later cofounded the Holocaust Center Boston North, in Peabody,
and joined Elie Wiesel as the second death camp survivor named to the council advising
the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington."
Sonia Weitz, 81; Holocaust survivor kept history alive - The Boston Globe
http://archive.boston.com/bostonglobe/o ... ory_alive/
Blog - Archives and Special Collections - Research Guides at Salem State University
https://libguides.salemstate.edu/home/a ... iber-Weitz
80 years after Auschwitz, lessons of late Peabody Holocaust survivor live on - CNHI
https://www.cnhi.com/rss_feed/80-years- ... r-live-on/
Holocaust survivor, advocate dies at 81 - Boston Herald
https://www.bostonherald.com/2010/06/26 ... ies-at-81/
She wrote a poetic memoir I Promised I Would Tell
Sonia Weitz | Facing History & Ourselves
https://www.facinghistory.org/resource- ... onia-weitz
Henia Bryer*
(Dec 1 1925 - )
Liberated from Bergen-Belsen
Henia Bryer survived four Nazi concentration camps
Majdanek, Plaszow, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen
"They were wearing these black uniforms with a skull on top and they installed loud speakers all over the town spreading hate propaganda," says Henia Bryer of the German army's arrival in Radom, eight days after they crossed the border on 1 September.
"she saw notorious camp doctor Josef Mengele"
Holocaust survivor Henia Bryer: Prisoner number A26188 - BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-21200051
"Henia survived the Radom Ghetto, the notorious Plaszow camp (known more widely through its depiction in the movie Schindler’s List), Majdanek, Auschwitz, and the Death March to Bergen-Belsen."
https://cjc.org.za/2025/02/02/defying-h ... turns-100/
Henia Bryer survived four Nazi camps and a meeting with Dr Death: Courageous teenager who never gave in - The Mirror
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-life- ... zi-1556662
Defying Hitler: Holocaust survivor turns 100 - Cape Jewish Chronicle (February 2, 2025)
https://cjc.org.za/2025/02/02/defying-h ... turns-100/
Henia Bryer - Cape Town Holocaust & Genocide Centre
https://ctholocaust.co.za/survivor-test ... nia-bryer/
"A fictitious tale built on a real Holocaust survivor's stories"
'The Lightness of Air': A heartwarming Holocaust tale - review | The Jerusalem Post
https://www.jpost.com/jerusalem-report/article-715463
*Alias
Fishman - release maiden name
Fiszman - maiden name
Henia Bryer - release name
Hinda - Hebrew name
Visual History Archive
https://vha.usc.edu/testimony/5970?from=search
Helga Weiss (Helga Hošková-Weissová)
(10 November 1929 - )
Liberated from Mauthausen
Helga Weiss survived four Nazi concentration camps
Her camp story mentions
Terezín (Theresienstadt), Auschwitz, Freiberg (a subcamp of Flossenbürg) and Mauthausen.
"Like Anne Frank, she kept a diary."
"Helga and her mother were sent to Auschwitz, where they joined the notorious queue as they arrived"
"Next day, at roll call, the women were addressed in German.
"The speech was very long – I asked my mother to translate.
She said, 'Oh, he says we are in an extermination camp.'""
My diary of a Nazi death camp childhood | Family | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... death-camp
"On an Auschwitz station platform in 1944, Helga Weiss and her mother fooled one of the most reviled men in modern history, Josef Mengele, and managed to save their lives."
The schoolgirl who survived the Holocaust by fooling the Nazis | Holocaust | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/ ... -the-nazis
"She tells Nicholas Shakespeare how she came to write – and draw – the most moving child’s-eye testimony since the diary of Anne Frank"
More of her stories about butterflies, lice and bedbugs:
Helga Weiss: an interview with a holocaust survivor
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/book ... vivor.html
Helga's Diary | Jewish Book Council
https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/helgas-diary
She also became an artist
Helga Hošková-Weissová - Terezín Memorial
https://www.pamatnik-terezin.cz/persona ... weissova-2
Jewish Museum in Prague | Exhibitions, Tours & Monuments
https://www.jewishmuseum.cz/en/program- ... hibits/88/
What we learn from these stories?
If someone survived Death camp, it was not a Death camp. Death did not occur.
If someone survived the Death March, it was not a Death March. Death did not occur.
