Survivor Profile

Ron, or Romek Unger was born in 1927 and grew up in Tarnow, Poland. Tarnow is about 40 miles from Krakow, in Southern Poland, and had a pre-war population of about 70,000, almost half of which were Jewish. He attended the Baron Hirsch School, a boys yeshiva and Jewish summer camps.

His father, Moses, had a store on the main street of town that sold and repaired bicycles, typewriters, gramaphones, and sewing machines. In September 1939, at age 11, Ron's life changed forever as the Germans invaded Poland. Schools did not open, parks were closed to Jews, as were the main streets of Tarnow.

Jews were required to wear arm bands with the Star of David and carry working papers or they could be arrested or shot in the street. In November 1939 Ron watched as Nazi soldiers burned down his magnificent synagogue, as well as all of the other synagogues in Tarnow.

Soon he and his family were forced to live in the back of his father's store, and then in 1941, in the crowded Tarnow ghetto. They witnessed the deportations of thousands of Tarnow Jews, including many aunts, uncles and cousins, to Belzec Death Camp, as well as mass slaughters in the town square and nearby forest.

Ron’s family was spared because his mother was a seamstress and his father was a skilled mechanic, with Ron as his assistant. They worked as slave laborers for a German manufacturer, Madritsch, who had set up a uniform factory in Tarnow. However, when the ghetto was liquidated in 1943 he and his parents were deported to Plaszow labor camp near Krakow, where they continued to work for Madritsch in deplorable conditions for almost a year.

When Plaszow was closed down in August 1944, Ron’s mother was deported to Auschwitz, where she was sent to the gas chamber upon arrival. Ron and his father were sent to Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria, infamous for its 186 “Stairs of Death” in its quarry. In the following months they were sent to a satellite camp of Mauthausen called St. Valentin. Again, because of his father’s expertise as an engineer and mechanic, they were put to work in a tank factory hidden in the mountains.

Ron saw his father die from malnutrition and infection on December 31, 1944, just months before liberation. Toward the end of the war Ron was taken to a camp called Ebensee where no one was given food for 2 or 3 weeks. On May 6, 1945, at seventeen years of age and weighing 85 lbs., he saw American tanks break through the gates of the camp.

After liberation, not wanting to go back to Poland, he made his way to southern Italy where he lived in a Displaced Persons camp for 3-1/2 years. Ron had wanted to go to Israel (Palestine), but his mother’s last words to him, from across the fence at Plaszow, were to memorize the name and address of her brother in New York: 1011 Sheridan Avenue in The Bronx. With this uncle’s help he was able to get papers to emigrate to America in December 1948.

Ron is involved in an “Adopt-a-Survivor” program on Long Island. By talking to teachers and students, he hopes to ensure that the horrors of the Holocaust and the personal stories of the victims and survivors, will never be forgotten.

Click here to read more about Ron Unger's life.