Holocaust Remembrance
I was born in Gleiwitz, Germany on June 24, 1919. My name at birth was Heinrich Kukuk. I later moved with my father, Jakob Kukuk and mother, Bina Kukuk to Sosnowiec, Poland. Sosnowiec is part of the Zaglembie region of Poland. I had two sisters who later perished in the Holocaust. I was educated in private schools, spoke several languages and dreamed one day of becoming a doctor. We kept a kosher house and observed all the Jewish holidays. I attended orthodox services with my grandfather.
I was 16 years old when the war broke out. I did not expect to understand the ramifications that the war would bring in. The Germans separated by decree the Jews from the poles. They rounded up a lot of Jews and killed quite a few people in the community. We were not allowed to walk through certain streets, or walk on the sidewalk when a German soldier was walking on the sidewalk. After a couple weeks, we had to tip our hats to every German Soldier. We were not giving the same food ration coupons as the non-Jews.
In 1942, we were taken from our home and sent to the ghetto in Sosnowiec. The ghetto was on the outskirts of Sosnowiec. We had to leave most of our possessions and we could only bring the few belongings that we could carry in our hands. Two or three families were given one room to share. Food was very scarce. Schooling was only available in the underground. My sisters and my parents and my grandfather were together with me in the ghetto. In 1942, there was a big round up in the stadium and they selected my grandfather and sent him to Auschwitz.
We tried to spend as much time as possible outside of our room in the ghetto as it was too cramped. Living conditions were awful- though this word is not enough. There was nothing to do and the Germans were always rounding us up for forced labor without pay. There were little food rations.
In the ghetto, I worked in a factory run for the benefit of the Germans. I worked there in order to earn the right to stay in the ghetto and not to be sent to a forced labor camp.
The ghetto was governed by the Jewish Council. The leader was Merin. The governing was done by decree that was posted on the walls. You had to follow it. Life was restricted. There was no freedom to leave the ghetto. The black market was prevailing because people tried to buy food and life necessities. People tried to pay to stay out of being sent to camps. Medical care was very scarce. The doctors did not really have medicine or supplies.
Quite a few people moved out of the ghetto and joined resistance groups. Passive resistance did take place- they taught the children who were forbidden to learn. Keeping ourselves alive - this was the only way we could resist. We continued to practice our religion in the ghetto.
In April 1941, I was called to go to a forced labor camp. I secured a job through friends in the metal factory run by the Germans and allowed to stay and work in the factory instead of going to the camp. I crushed three of my fingers at the factory but I thankfully recovered. My sisters also worked and that is why we were permitted to move into the ghetto. Later, my older sister had to report to go to a forced labor camp. Again having a friend in the Jewish Council, we worked out a deal to let my sister stay home and I would go instead. I was sent to a forced labor camp. That’s when I left the ghetto.
In later years, my parents and sisters were sent to concentration camps where they perished. I was sent to several different slave labor camps.
From April 1942 until 1943, I was in three different labor camps. I did tinsmith and locksmith work so I worked in skilled work. This made my life easier as I didn’t have to be exposed to the elements as much as my friends. We were 40-50 people living in one large room sleeping on bunk beds with one inch of straw between the boards and our body. There was no blanket. Food was given twice a day and was a watery soup and a wedge of so called bread. We had to just try to help ourselves and organize food amongst the free workers we had contact with during the day. We did not have any communication with the outside world. Our friends who tried to escape were shot on the spot. We didn’t have clothes. Everything we arrived with was confiscated. We improvised cement sacks we stole from the construction site to make underwear for ourselves and filter the wind from penetrating through our clothes to our bodies. Shoes were given to us with wooden soles and the snow would stick to it and we would slide and fall. If you fell, you were pounced upon and hit by the German watchman. There was no heat in the barracks and no hot drinks or food. Only the younger people were able to survive by the sheer strength of their bodies.
In September 1944 we were transported to camp in the Gross Rosen camp system. I worked for IG Farben there. When we arrived at the camp, we had to strip naked and were searched for any hidden valuables. We were given stripped concentration camp uniforms. Our clothing was taken away and they searched the clothes for any valuables. I worked in the warehouse at this camp. By illegal means I was able to get some extra food. I had five friends and we helped a lot of people by sharing the excess food we obtained. I had a privilege to go outside the fence to the German office so I had contact with French and Czech workers and was able to smuggle in food to the camp.
We were able to steal the newspapers the Germans would leave in our workplace and saw that the Germans were losing the war. We noticed that the old and young were being drafted into the German forces, which was a sign that the Russians were winning. We saw trains with wounded passing from the east. We also heard the German’s complaining the war was coming to an end. In April we heard bombs thirty miles from us.
At end part of the war, when transports of people coming from the east, I recognized two Jewish girls and fortunately, for them, they remained in our work camp and one of them knew my girlfriend, who later became my wife. The Jewish girl told me my girlfriend was in a transport from Auschwitz going west. She also told me that my family went to Auschwitz who all went straight to gas chamber. I still kept hope that this was not the truth and maybe they are alive.
These two Jewish girls remained in the work camp with us and with the help given to them through me by my friends, clothes and food and advice how to remain there, I secured from our camp paramedic a strong acid to burn their tattoos. Working with the Germans they were afraid the Germans would see the tattoos and kill them. I gave them the acid and they burnt their numbers off their bodies. One of the girls that survived – we saw them after the war- she wrote an article about this.
My keen intelligence helped me navigate these “camps”. I also never gave up. The drive to survive was hard especially since I was young. We hoped that by surviving we might see our family again. By giving up we would play into the Germans. We felt that resisting the thoughts of self destruction or giving up was a form of fighting the Germans.
Our camp commander ran away two days before liberation. The Russians opened the gates of our camp on May 8, 1945 and told us to go home. This was our liberation. There were sick people in the camp who were not given help by the Russians and they died. Under the instructions of the Russians, I, and others secured living quarters by moving in to a home previously occupied by Germans. This was the extent of liberation that the Russians gave us.
Emotionally I was very upset and depressed. We were all consumed trying to find relatives who were still alive. Physically, I was in pretty good condition. We naturally had some sicknesses and intestinal parasites that were able to be cured, but as far as weight was concerned, we were stealing food to survive.
I went back to Poland to try to find my family and left notices in the Jewish community in Sosnowiec about my contact information. From May to September I went back and forth to my town and eventually found out that my family was not longer alive. I tried to find a cousin who was in Russia and I found him in 1960 and he was in Israel. In my travels to Poland, I found out that my girlfriend before the war was still alive and was in Bergen Belsen. I found her sister living in Sosnowiec and brought her back with me so I could go find her sister and bring her back. I traveled to Bergen Belsen and told her I had found her sister. We decided to leave Poland because the Poles only gave us a year reprieve before being drafted into the army. Not wanting to join the Polish Army, we decided to smuggled ourselves into the American zone of Germany. In 1946, I got married to my girlfriend. I contacted my uncle through the Joint Distribution Committee and received affidavits and in 1947 we came to the United States.
We traveled on the liberty ships – ours was called Ernie Pyle on June 22, 1947 to the United States. Upon arrival in the United States, my wife’s aunt and my uncle met us at the Pier and we went to our uncle’s home. We lived with my uncle for three months until we were able to get an apartment for ourselves.
Once in the United States, our family helped us I started working. I came to the US with a strong will to live and determined to succeed in my new life. I did tinsmith work and worked overtime about 70 hours a week and worked until 1951. Then in 1951, I decided to go into business. I went into business manufacturing restaurant equipment. We worked hard and we succeeded. That was just the beginning…ultimately, I opened my own shop which afforded our family a good life.
I kept strong friendships with my fellow survivors. I was active in my community where I lived in the Jewish center. I had two children- a girl and boy. My daughter was born in 1948 and my son was born in 1951. They are both married and we have grandchildren.
It is hard to describe to a person the pain and torture one went through. My American friends who were inquisitive about my experiences, I don’t believe they could really understand the extent of the torture and the mental anguish that we experienced in the war.
It is important that the commemorations must continue, that the outside world should know what happen and not to permit these things to happen again. It is important that the young people should not estrange themselves from Jewish life. From generation to generation, people should know and learn what happen and not permit it to happen again.
