Sigmund (Siggy) Boraks was fourteen years old when World War II began. He was born in Wielun, Poland. His father was a barber. His parents and younger sister Basha were murdered at Treblinka death camp. Siggy survived ghettoes, labor camps, and Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp (where he worked in crematorium #3). He was liberated by American troops at Dachau concentration camp in April 1945, five and a half years after his tragedy began. This interview was conducted by the Southern Institute's Plater Robinson.
Name and Date of Birth
PR I'd like to begin by asking you if you would be kind enough to tell me your name and when and where you were born?
SB My name is Sigmund Boraks. And I'm born July 18, 1925, in Wieulun, Poland.
PR This was seven kilometers from the German border.
When the War Started
SB That's why when the war started, the Germans arrived the same day in my town. Hardly a few days passed when a law came out that all Jews must wear the yellow band and star. And they put people to work. At the time it was not so important work, any work. Clean up. Before Germans came they were bombing houses, burning, and we have to clean up.
War Against the Jews
PR Did you know this was going to be a war against the Jews?
SB No, 100% no. Actually my parents told me, as I remember, in the First World War they got along pretty good with the Germans and reason is Yiddish (Jewish language of Eastern and Central Europe) is very similar. They could speak German. So I remember my mother keep saying that the German people are nice people, smart people. We never believed in our dreams that this will happen to Jewish people, no.
Expelled from Home
PR And then, on Nov 11, 1939, you were expelled from your home.
SB On November 11th, a Polish national holiday, Independence Day, so they arrested about 56 Jewish and Christian people, including my father. He was a Polish soldier during World War I, and fought the Russians at Warsaw in 1920 [Miracle of Vistula]. All retired soldiers were taken, and they suppose to send them back home after the 11th. Mother talked to police. Don't worry, they said. By the 12th, your husband will be home. On the 13th they send him to Lodz camp, he told me later. Then, at end of November, beginning of December, two Polish police men came, and said, You have one hour time to move everything. One hour time. One of the Germans soldiers ripped the ear rings from my mother's ear.
PR They were ordered by the Germans.
SB They were ordered by the Germans. The Polish didn't do it on their own. They took orders from Germans. One hour. You don't know what to take. My sister and my mother were hysterical. One put in two pair pants. Put stuff in pillow case. My Uncle Gustav's wife came over. My father's brother was in same situation. So both families, we rent a sled, we rode one horse. From Wielun to Czestochowa. Czestochowa was a big railroad station. At the time we didn't notice anything bad against the Jews. I remember one time, this one soldier was checking the tickets, he even said to me, Good boy, good boy. So you don't think anything like that. Then we took the train to Krakow. My dad found out through Jewish community, he found out we were coming. He was waiting. We took the street car and we went to his place. It was a miserable place. Third or fourth floor. So cold. Four families. We slept in our clothes. After couple weeks some moved away. We were living in one room: my uncle and dad. My uncle got a wife and one child. And, well, we was living in Krakow about four weeks when my dad found job as barber. All boys between 14 years of age, they had to work. Go to work. All boys have to register with Jewish community. Every day they send us somewhere else. We were suppose to get paid: five zloty [Polish money], once a week pay day. I was staying half night in line to collect, but never did. My name was never on the list. This was when they start to make ghetto in Krakow. Everybody who came in 1940 was sent back to different towns. Our family to Czestochowa. Czestochowa was a large ghetto at the time. Got room from lady. She was Jewish but somehow she forgot she was Jewish. Hitler reminded her she was Jewish. She wouldn't give us any place. My dad went back to Jewish Council and said she not let us in, and they came and they made her. We slept on floor. This was 1940, and later they made a small ghetto. Some of people send to other cities. We staying in small ghetto, and through a connection my daddy had, we got actually a room on our own. We didn't have to share with nobody.
Deportations to Treblinka
PR And then came October 1942 when the deportations began to Treblinka [death camp].
SB Yeah, in 1942, one day after Yom Kippur [Jewish holiday], early morning. It was five o'clock, and Jewish police came. Said, Have a green card? I was the only one with a green card. I was working on railroad. My dad was a barber and not important. If you were working for the Germans, you had green card. They were taken to one place, and I to one place. I remember my dad told me, Don't worry, we will see each other after the war. And he told me to come to the same town. And this was the last time I saw him.
PR And then the Germans had you dig graves in a field.
SB I was in a factory. When I was in there after few hours a soldier came and look for volunteers. I never did like to be in a camp. I volunteered and they give us a shovel. Walking to a street outside city, they told us to dig a hole. Later I found out it was a grave. We didn't know at time. What they talking about. Quick, they shouted. Schnell, schnell, schnell. Then all of sudden a truck came with dead bodies. When empty down I saw a guy who look like my dad because he got a trench coat on. But when I tried to turn him over to see, they wouldn't let me. They were afraid I might make a scene. Even the Germans were nervous at the time. Those that was watching us. After the war I found out it couldn't be my father. My uncle [Gustav] who lived through Treblinka told me that somebody told him, A week ago your brother came with his family and got killed in Treblinka.
Transferred to Blizen Labor Camp
PR You were transferred to a labor camp [Blizen].
SB After ghetto got so small, I was still working on railroad and I came back to factory to sleep. One time, when we came back, they round us up, 500 people. Wouldn't let us in ghetto. They put us in a cellar. Next morning they took us out and went to railroad station, put us in cattle wagon, and we was sitting on railroad two days, two nights. No food, no water. Polish people were selling bottles of water. German let them. Value $50 a bottle of water. Sometimes they took money and sometimes didn't deliver. After two days we was on the way and took us about another two days. Then we went to Blizen. Blizen was a labor camp [near Radom]. Women was one way, and men in another way, but in same camp. And looking us over, they took what we had. We did keep our private, civilian clothes. Never took civilian clothes.
Escape from Blizen
PR You attempted to escape from Blizen.
SB One time we were working in a field and the Ukrainian guard was talking to a Polish girl and so I just walked to the forest. It was about a 1,000 yards away. I figured I take the chance. I got to the forest and met a Polish farmer and I explained to him that I escaped from Blizen. He said to come with him and he would contact the partisans. He took me to his barn and gave me milk and bread and told me to stay there. I fell asleep and then I awoke and heard a German language outside, and I knew that the farmer had betrayed me to the Nazis. Sure enough, he opened the door and said, Here is my Jew. Where is my prize? He was paid a pound of sugar. The German guard, when we were walking back to the camp, said, Even your own countrymen denounce you. I don't know why, but I wasn't shot. Usually they shot you if you tried to escape. They gave me 25 lashes, and I had to count each one. In German. I fainted at 7. The blood was all down my body. I could hardly walk. The next day I had to go to work.
Stealing from a German Kitchen
PR You once smuggled yourself into the German kitchen.
SB My friend worked in the SS kitchen, and he said he left the window a little open and we should go at night and get some bread. We waited till late at night and pulled a board from the floor and slipped out and crossed the camp, hiding from the guards and the searchlights, and, sure enough, the kitchen window was open. We left our shoes outside and climbed in and there was so much food: potatoes, bread. I put everything in my pants, and the potatoes were hot and burned me, but I didn't care. We were leaving and I saw that they have a big pot of pea soup for the German guards. I don't know why I did it, but I pissed in the pea soup. I think Athe devil made me do it. But this was the only way I could fight them. A couple of weeks later my friend said, Let's go back, and I said, No, the Germans are not stupid. They know we were there and they will be waiting. I left footprints that night because it was wet outside. Sure enough, my friend went back with another guy and they were caught and they beat them so terrible that you couldn't see that they were human beings. They brought the bodies to the appel [roll call] the next morning for everyone to see. Sometimes you have to be smart, and lucky.
Brought to Be Executed
PR There was an occasion when someone escaped.
SB More than one escape.
PR And as a result you were brought to be executed..
SB We were sleeping on a bunk. Seven up, seven lower. If one guy turns over, everybody has to turn over because it's tight. Germans got a law: whoever escapes, the partner, whoever he sleeps next to, he will be responsible. He will be shot. A couple of weeks later someone did escape. He was sleeping on my left side. So they took us, I had number 550 on my pants, at that time we didn't have a tattoo, and they took us in a forest, it was a couple of guys, three or four. I was telling this guy, This is the last time I'll see the sky. We dig our own grave. If you didn't, they beat you up. We have to do whatever they telling us to do. I tell you, at times you are like a zombie. You do it without thinking. If you do it slow or don't do it, you got beaten up. Once you got beat up, you were a marked man. Because every guard, he saw you got beat up and he beat you up again. He figured you did something wrong. The grave was ready. Maybe another five minutes it will be all over. Like I said, An angel. All of a sudden a guy on bike, a German soldier, came. He said, We found those guys that escaped. They were on a train. Covered themselves with stone. We were making stones for railroad. They got dynamite in between stones and covered themselves. They found them. Found them about 100 kilometers further from place., I think, in Radom. They brought them back. But they had no reason to shoot us because they got the guys.
PR Your life was saved in a split second.
SB A split second. And those guys who escaped, they were shot and buried in same grave that we were digging for ourselves.
PR How much of survival was luck?
SB I would say 99% was luck.
Sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau
PR In early 1944, you were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau [death camp].
SB Yeah, when Russian came closer to our camp, Blizen, the camp was liquidated. We were sent to Auschwitz. The commandment was humane. He insisted that everybody from Blizen camp should be put [as a group] in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Because another camp commandant came and they were picking up people strong enough to work. Somehow we were all sent in morning to quarantine field for new people, for two or three weeks. If you have lice, or sickness, and after three weeks they take us to work. This was in 1944. In about April I was working on railroad tracks. Cleaning garbage. A train came and I told the people, If you have small children, babies, don't hold them. Give to elderly people. They will be killed. At least the younger people have a chance to live. If Germans find out you talked to them, they shot you then and there. Those people cussed me out. How can you tell us that? Nobody would do something like that. I said, Look over there at smoke. They asked, What is it? The guard came and I was afraid to talk anymore, and pretend to work a little bit faster on the side. They didn't believe me. They didn't know. They went probably to their death without knowing it. It was so smart the way it was done. When people came to gas chamber, they had a soldier going around and said, Women here, men here. Undress. Take shower. They told them, You're going to a camp. Going to work. Tie shoes together. And make sure your children tie their shoes together. Because when you come out, you don't so much spend time look for your shoes and your clothes.
PR All a lie.
SB All a lie. They were not thinking about it that they will be dead in another fifteen minutes. When people went inside, the women and men came together. Everything was pretending like everything is kosher. Then when they put the gas, the stronger were on top, the weaker on bottom. Because the air was better on top than on bottom.
PR So people would fight for the last breath of air.
SB That's right. Because when they opened the door, you had to have a water hose to separate the bodies. They were so tight. You couldn't separate by hand. Water spray. And then some people, especially women, if they scared they let themselves go, the muscles. So later we have to clean the floors of waste.
PR How large was the gas chamber?
SB Pretty big. They could put thousand people at one time.
Hungarian Jews Arrive at Auschwitz
PR In the spring of 1944, almost 500,000 Hungarian Jews arrived, and you witnessed it.
SB The Hungary people came in, they were dressed nice. They was not hungry. Skin looked okay. And they were not two or three days in camp when they were put away in gas chambers. They picked up some strong men to work. But I would see ninety percent of Hungarians died.
PR When the Hungarian Jews came, they came with a lot of food.
SB When they came, a prisoner came over. I was working on a water detail with two Catholic priests and one man, he was in Polish police department before the war. I don't know why he was put in Auschwitz. He came over and said, They have so much food; you have no idea. Like before the war. So I took a chance. I tied little string on my pants. I went over there. Sure enough. Sugar, candy, bread. Everything just lay there. Because they have to leave everything there and go away. So I got a hole in my pocket. I put everything in. I keep walking. I was almost there. Three quarters of the way. And all of a sudden there was a woman commando. And kapo from woman's camps. She was screaming, showing me something. I turned and there was a German guard with a rifle. He was holding it against me. I know, Well, that's it. I just stood still and he came closer. He said, Open pants. Everything went on the floor. He said, What's this? I said, Well, it was laying on ground anyway, I thought I could have it. He said, You can't have nothing. Go against the wire. If somebody went against the wire, he's trying to escape. It was impossible to escape.
PR So he was sending you to the wire to shoot you.
SB So he can shoot me. Exactly. This was his excuse. I was begging for my life at the time. I did nothing wrong. I'm hungry. You probably have children too. Anyway, he looked at me funny like. He turned around and walked. I stayed there till I didn't see him no more. I was afraid if I start to walk he might shoot me in back. He left. I was always in so much trouble. But I always come out. You see, in Auschwitz later when the Russians came close, still there were some prisoners because they couldn't empty everybody, our block was sent on train again and we went through a very narrow way. On one side was the gas chamber. On the other side was real place to take a shower. Every time they sent you to another camp they give you a shower. My heart was beating. Because I didn't know. I go right or left? Right was life, left was death. To left side I know it was a shower. They gave us a shower and put us on train. They gave us one slice bread and sent us to Oranienburg, not far from Berlin. They commandant wouldn't take us. He had no food. They sent us to Sachsenhausen from Oranienburg. We were over there for two or three weeks. They never feed us. They didn't have food for themselves.
A Japanese Wagon
SB They sent us to Kalfring. Kalfring was the worst place. Worse than Auschwitz. Kalfring was a camp deep in the forest. There was no food. We were sleeping on ground, digging tunnel to sleep in. It was ice, ice cold and every day people died. They dropped like flies. I was working with the Death Commando. We had to pick up bodies and bury them. There was no crematoria. In winter the ground was so hard. Like a rock. We have to pick place to dig graves. It took a long time. We had a wagon. They called it 'a Japanese wagon.' It had two wheels, big wheels. I was small. The front guy was holding it, and I got ten guys behind to push it. Well, we went up the hill and down. It was snow and ice. The guy tried to hold the wagon back and it went faster and faster. Finally I just let it go and the wagon hit a stone and jumped up and all the dead people was flying round in air. So a German guy with his wife was passing in a car. He had almost got in a accident. He was looking up and he probably couldn't figure out where the dead people come from. On the side he stopped the car. Later we had problems. We had to pick up the dead people and put them in the wagon. We had to make two trips. When we came in camp it was eight o'clock. It was cold. Snow, and cold.
Post-War Encounter with an Einsatzgruppen Killer
SB Some people take pleasure to inflict pain on the other people. For example, after the war I was living in Germany and I was talking with a guy. He was in Einsatzgruppe [mobile killing squads], and we was talking. He didn't know I was Jewish. Never asked. Never told him. One day it was Yom Kippur and I didn't come in. And he asked me, You are Jew? Like I'm a sick man. Yes. He left me standing there. Later, about four weeks, he told me, I was Einsatzgruppen. And I kill many women and children. He shot them. This was the law. He had to follow the law. They told me to do it, and he did it. I said, How can you sleep at night? I can understand solider kill another soldier but civilian people? This was a war about civilian people more than anything else. I couldn't do nothing that my parents were Jewish. I believe in one God. If I believe in God, we couldn't have ten Gods. Catholic. Protestant. Jewish. One God. We call him different names. Maybe he forgot about us. Maybe he was on a honeymoon or something. I don't know, but people lost faith.
Last Question
PR I know that you travel to schools. You and I have gone together. And I wonder what message you want young people to derive from you life story?
SB See, I couldn't talk about my own experience with my own children. I just couldn't. But fifteen years ago I start to talk about it. I feel children should know what can happen when a group takes power. Sometimes we vote for politicians and they promise everything and do the opposite in power. People in war time commit terrible crimes. Let the children know to vote for the right person. Get educated so you know what you're doing. Because without education, without knowledge, things like that can happen again. I hope not.
PR Thank you, Sigmund.
SB Well, maybe it will help something. Maybe.