Jack Alder
Dachau Death March Survivor
The American Troops liberated him on May 1, 1945. He states, “on the death march out of Dachau, you marched day and night, slept in the woods, people were trampled or killed on the side of the road, and if you were unable to continue, you were shot. They would not leave you behind.” Adler believes he survived by another margin beyond comprehension. If it weren’t for his liberation on that exact day, he would have died. He states, “One more day, I couldn’t have continued the march. I was freed just in time. So how can I explain that?” He believed that his liberation was an accident, rather than a miracle of God. Since he was only 16 years old at the time of liberation, he was brought to the US as a war orphan and was taken care of by a family in the largely Jewish suburb of Skokie, outside of Chicago. Alder states, “I had nightmares initially, shortly after I was liberated, but I was very fortunate to be placed in a wonderful foster home. They showed me a lot of care and support, and this reignited my faith in humanity.” The care and support he was given helped Alder as he went on in life. He served in the US Army, married in 1953, raised two children, earned a college degree, pursed a successful career as an accountant and Justice Department analyst, and later retired and moved to Colorado in 1992. In retirement, Alder began speaking about what happened to him and his family, and includes the theme of tolerance in his speaking. He wants people to remember what happened, and to teach not to hate. Alder states, “I don’t believe in hate. Hatred to me is a waste of energy. I’d rather utilize my energy toward doing something positive with it. However, I believe those who commit atrocities against any human being should be brought to justice and dealt with accordingly.” According to Alder, he also believes tolerance is the only effective tonic against the kind of hatred that led to the Holocaust. “No matter how we identify ourselves, by religion, ethnicity, or by the color of our skin, all seven billion of us, whether we like it or not or believe it or not, belong to one race, the human race. Our world, and world history, is full of much good, but our world, and world history, has been full of evil as well, and our lesson needs to be this: always strive to do what's right."
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Harold Gordon
Dachau Death March Survivor
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Harold Gordon, born Hirshel Grodzienski was 8 years old when he, along with his family was sent to the Grodno ghetto. They were sent there in June 1941 and stayed there until the liquidation where they were supposed to be marched 8 kilometers to Kelbasin. From there they were supposed to be sent to Treblinka Death Camp. Harold and his father managed to escape and walk 70 miles to Bialystok ghetto, however his mother and brother did not escape and were indeed sent to Treblinka never to be seen or heard from again. After Bialystok was liquidated Harold and his father were sent to Buchenwald concentration camp where they both worked as barbers. After 9 months of working there they were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where they were in line to be gassed when by pure luck Harold and his Father, along with 10 others, were pulled out of the gassing line to go work in the crematorium. Eventually they were again transferred to Oranienburg, a sub-camp of the Sachsenhausen until it was bombed and they were sent to Dachau in May, 1944. When the orders came to take the prisoners out of the camp Harold and his father were 2 of the nearly 7,000 that were sent out onto the Dachau Death March. On the march American planes started flying over them and it was during this chaos that a lot of prisoners, including Harold and his father, ran for the tree line. The Germans started shooting at
the prisoners telling them to come back. However, him and his father hid in the trees until 2 days after the liberation of the Dachau Death March when they along with 3 other prisoners saw the American tanks. They then proceeded to run towards them finally realizing the war was over and they had been liberated. After spending some time in a refugee camp Harold, at the age of 15, immigrated to California and changed his name. He ended becoming a speaker and writing a book called The Last Sunrise depicting his time during the war. |
Nick Hope (Nikolai Choprenko)
Dachau Death March Survivor
He was 17 years old when be became a prisoner at Dachau. In his experience, liberation was unexpected. He believed he was going to die at the hands of the Germans. Then he and 7,000 others were marched out of Dachau towards the Alps. He remembers being divided by health and ability to work. He remembers coming to a large quarry in the middle of a forest near Auchkirche and Woltefrashausen. At that quarry, he was convinced that it was where he was going to die. Later, he recalls the marchers stumbling across the forward movement of American troops. He says the guards panicked and deserted the prisoners. Some of the prisoners took advantage of the chaos of the guards and escaped the group. He says, “we climbed another hill, and when we found ourselves at the top, we saw American tanks moving along the high road. Upon seeing them, we started to dance for joy. We were free at last.” After he was liberated, he became very ill, only weighing eighty pounds. He was eventually taken to the Guating Sanatorium, where he remained for three years after liberation before fully recovering. After he recovered, he met his wife Nadya. They married November 9, 1950, in Munich. They later immigrated to the United States in 1961, and Hope worked in construction. On March 13, 1974, he and his family became US citizens, and he changed his last name from Choprenko to Hope. Today, he lives with his wife on Myrtle Beach, in South Carolina. When asked about his experiences, Hope states, “Many asked questions about what happened. They just wanted to know . . . It was a terrible time.”
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Zvi Griliches
Dachau Death March Survivor
He recalls leaving Dachau in sub groups toward the Alps. He had no idea how many other people he was marching with. He recalls marching day and night, getting into the woods and staying there. He never saw any locals while marching. In early May (He can’t remember which day), they were in a forest and there was snow on the ground. He remembers thinking he was going to die in that forest. He went to sleep that night and when he woke up the next day, the two guards that were with the prisoners had disappeared. He recalls everyone spent several hours milling around, and they didn’t really know what to do. He believed it was around noon when the American tanks rolled around near Waakirchen, Germany. He remembers thinking, “that’s when we all came up for air.” He was then given food by American soldiers from a nearby village, and became very ill. He spent a week in the hospital before being moved to a displaced persons camp in Munich. There, he caught up some of his surviving family. Later, he decided to go to Palestine, and then to the United States in 1951. He went to Berkeley to study agriculture and met his wife at a party. He later graduated in agricultural economics, and had two children. He went on to teach at Harvard. After his liberation, he recalls feeling guilty that he survived when others didn’t and felt extreme guilt for acting in ways that he knew was wrong, like stealing bread from another man because he knew he was going to die of Typhus anyways. Liberation saved his life, but knows his experiences had lasting effects on him. For example, he can’t stand in a line that is two long or else he will get severely anxious and find a way to get to the front of the line.
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Arther Pais
Dachau Death March Survivor
Recalls leaving Dachau to march while his father had to stay there because he was sick and dying. He remembers he marched for his brother and his life because if he didn’t, he would be killed. He marched for what he hoped, for what he feared, and for what he could do after the war was over. Recalls winter was still harsh and the conditions got worse along the Bavarian Alps. After walking for about five days, Pais went to sleep and woke up to a foot of snow and the guards were gone. The prisoners were roaming around scrounging for good. He claims, “that’s how we were liberated”. When the Americans showed up, they got them out and Pais was reunited with his father. He then recalls working for the army for food, and came to the US on a boat after leaving Germany, which was bringing civilians to the states. He later found work, went to school, got his GED and went to college. He fell in love, got married. He recalls marrying her, telling her parents, marrying her again, and then going into business with his father in law. He later had four children.
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Leo L. Silvers
Dachau Death March Survivor
Leo Silvers, born Leon Zylbersztajn on 3 July 1920 in Radom, Poland. Before the war, he was a practicing Orthodox Jew. Within the German invasion of Poland in 1939, Silvers remained at his home in Radom, and with his fellow Jews, stayed in the Radom ghetto. After that, he was sent to Auschwitz, Ostrowiec, Oranienburg-Heinkelwerke, Sachenhausen, and Dachau.
With the war all but lost in the spring of 1945, Silvers and his fellow prisoners were gathered up and forced to march from Dachau. They were exhausted, but they had to march. They could hear the Americans nearby from the artillery barrages. The idea was that the pace would quicken with the Americans advancing behind them. Silvers and two Russians escaped by jumping off a bridge into a river. When all of their fellow prisoners and guards had passed, they went to a nearby farmhouse. They were turned away by the owner, but hid in her cellar until the Americans appeared. When American tanks appeared, they got out and Silvers yelled in Russian while the tank commander, a Jewish lieutenant responded in Yiddish to hop on the tank. Like many of his prisoners, he was glad to be liberated, but soon realized that he would be returning to behind those barbed wire fences that had held him captive for so long. Rather than be a prisoner again, he fled to Munich. The Americans had occupied the city, but Silvers said they were afraid of him. One day, he met a German man and asked for his suit. The man couldn’t refuse, so Silvers got a new set of clothes and reintegrated back into life. He found friends and partook in the celebration that followed with the end of the war. He looked for his wife among the many DP camps, ending up at Belsen. He spent the first few months looking for his wife, and found her in August 1945.He stayed in Germany, but immigrated to the United States, where he made Florida his home.
With the war all but lost in the spring of 1945, Silvers and his fellow prisoners were gathered up and forced to march from Dachau. They were exhausted, but they had to march. They could hear the Americans nearby from the artillery barrages. The idea was that the pace would quicken with the Americans advancing behind them. Silvers and two Russians escaped by jumping off a bridge into a river. When all of their fellow prisoners and guards had passed, they went to a nearby farmhouse. They were turned away by the owner, but hid in her cellar until the Americans appeared. When American tanks appeared, they got out and Silvers yelled in Russian while the tank commander, a Jewish lieutenant responded in Yiddish to hop on the tank. Like many of his prisoners, he was glad to be liberated, but soon realized that he would be returning to behind those barbed wire fences that had held him captive for so long. Rather than be a prisoner again, he fled to Munich. The Americans had occupied the city, but Silvers said they were afraid of him. One day, he met a German man and asked for his suit. The man couldn’t refuse, so Silvers got a new set of clothes and reintegrated back into life. He found friends and partook in the celebration that followed with the end of the war. He looked for his wife among the many DP camps, ending up at Belsen. He spent the first few months looking for his wife, and found her in August 1945.He stayed in Germany, but immigrated to the United States, where he made Florida his home.
Mike Talmor
Dachau Death March Survivor
Mike Talmor was born Moniek Fajtlowicz on 22 December 1929 in Lodz, Poland. A practitioner of Conservative Judaism before the war, he was placed in the Lodz ghetto before moving to Birkenau. He survived the hell that was Auschwitz-Birkenau, then to Kaufbueren before he was transferred to Dachau in January 1945. In late April of 1945, he and his fellow prisoners were taken from Dachau on their death march by SS troops. Before the march, he mentions that the Germans gave them food from Red Cross packages. The destination was the Tirol region of Austria. After stopping for the night, Talmor woke up the next morning to see that the SS had left and were replaced by Wermacht troops. Apparently, a woman pleaded for the lives of the prisoners, and the SS left, so they weren’t killed. After this, the Germans said they were free and to go, so Talmor and his fellow prisoners just started walking. They encountered the American troops, finally liberated. Talmor and his fellow prisoners were housed in empty military housing at Garmisch-Partenkirchen. He then was transferred to a hospital near Gauting. After the war, he immigrated to Cyprus, Israel, and then to the US, settling in California.
Joseph Tschaschnik
Dachau Death March Survivors
Joseph Tschaschnik was born on 25 March 1920 in Katowice, Poland. Nineteen at the time of German invasion of Poland, he was sent to the ghetto at Lodz. He was transferred between numerous camps, including Auschwitz-Birkenau, Grunow, Reppen, and Kaufering Lagers IV & X. When the prisoners were ordered to march south in front of Allied forces, he and his fellow marchers thought they were marching to their deaths. He said that those who couldn’t walked were killed on the side of the road. The march went through German villages, where the people were sitting and watching. After stopping one night (1 May according to Tschaschnik), the Germans fed the prisoners with a dead horse. They awoke the next morning covered in snow. Most of the prisoners could not continue, so German troops assured that wagons would be provided for the weak. Tschaschnik said that he does not believe that wagons were provided, implying that they were killed. Near Waakirchen, they were herded into a barn. The Germans barricaded them inside, warning them that they would be shot if they exited the barn. According to Tschaschnik, it was around 10 AM near Waakirchen, Germany (date unknown, because their guards had fled), a rumble in the distance woke him and his fellow prisoners. American troops appeared soon after, to a scene of skeletons emerging from the barn. The troops that liberated Tschaschnik were, according to him, black troops. He recalled in his interview that he’d never seen a black man before, except for in the circus. The troops threw food from the tanks, while the prisoners explained who they were. Hundreds died from the food the troops provided. The troops stopped and organized a kitchen and barracks for the liberated prisoners. Tschaschnik was later placed in one of the Displaced Person camps in Munich, but left and made his home in Munich. He joined the US Army as a Pole, and guarded food warehouses. He met his wife there (also from Radom) and lived in Munich. After the war, he left Germany and moved to Ontario, Canada in 1948.
Jack Welner
Dachau Death March Survivor
Jack Welner was born Jacob Welniarz on 10 September 1920 in Lodz, Poland. When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, he and his fellow Jews were rounded up and placed in the Lodz ghetto. Like many prisoners of the Nazi camp system, he was transferred among the many camps, including Auschwitz and Dachau. He arrived in Dachau on the 24th and began the death march on the 25th. With the Allied advance into Germany, Welner and his fellow prisoners were ordered to march south. Welner spoke about how some troops would kill those who fell behind (SS troops), but there were those who provided food for the prisoners (Wermacht). Many times during the march, they stopped and hid in the woods. He also was placed in a barn with the other prisoners and was liberated near Waakirchen, Germany on May 2nd. The feeling of despair was replaced with hope. Welner actually said that at the time of liberation, he knew a little English. When the troops liberated them, they began to pass out canned food to the prisoners and caught a can of butter. He and another prisoner went to the town’s bakery, where they ate bread. Of course, their systems were not used to the food, and Welner fell ill. He was evacuated to a hospital near Bad Tolz, Germany. After regaining his strength, Welner went to a DP camp in Munich and later immigrated to America.