Jason+T.

Jason T. Hello my name is Katherine hoder and I am a cancer survivor.

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Rabbi Baruch G.

Labor Camps and Death Camps

Hello, my name is Baruch G. and I am here to talk to you about my experiences in the Labor and Death camps of the Holocaust. I was born in Mlawa, Poland in 1923 to a loving Jewish family. I have fond memories as a child of the holidays and extended family that visited. I enjoyed these times all the love our family shared. One summer during my leave from religious studies in Warsaw Poland was invaded and our town Mlawa was one of the first to be overrun. Soon Anti- Jewish laws were being created along with a Judenrat a Jewish council that oversaw the Ghettos we were now placed in. In addition to these new ghettos being formed forced labor was also imposed. I lost my father for nearly a month to these labor camps and afterwards he was never the same joyful man. Soon I was being force to work in forced labor as well and I can still remember the first time I was beaten. When you were working verbal corrections were not followed because if something was wrong they just beat you. I was laying bricks for a wall and instead of telling me how to lay them correctly I was beaten unaware of my mistake. I remember times not being so much terrible as they were difficult. We were nearly always hungry but the good thing was that we were together as a family. It is this that allowed us to stay strong and keep our faith.

Eventually things changed, we were deported to Lubartow in 1940 and in the summer of that year I was smuggled back to Mlawa. I arranged for my bother and mother to come back. We had already lost my sister and father I didn’t’ want to lose them too. They made it back and were later deported to Auschwitz. My mother and brother were immediately gassed and I was sent to brick laying school. I was deported to various other camps in Germany and Italy. Throughout the time I was feeling a sense of loneliness and worthlessness. I later married and had a child and fearing for them we moved to the US after the war. I will never forget the mental and physical scars of my experiences I had during the war.

Hello my name is Jason Tew and I am interviewing my Grandmother, Katherine Holder, who is a cancer survivor. My name is Katherine Holder and I am a cancer survivor. It started three years ago when i was feeling alot of stomach pains one day. I was tired all the time and i had been sick alot. I went to the doctor and they told me they wanted to do more test. I later learned that I had been diagnosed with Uteran cancer. At first I was scared as most people are. It left me with uncertinty and doubts about what the next few months of my life would hold form me. I was fearful that the cancer had spread to other parts of the body. I was relieved to learn though that it had not spread and that I would only need surgery and not chemotherapy or radiation. I knew that it would be rather major surgery but I was glad that they had caught the cancer early. This increased my chances of survival greatly and for that i was very happy. I had surgery a month later to remove the Uterus and for 6 -7 weeks I was very sick and couldn’t go through my daily life as usual. I was sick a lot of the time but, it was minor compared to what it could have been. I feel that this experience changed me as it does a lot of people. It made me think about how I was living my life and it made me appreciate what I was living for. I was lucky because I had the support of a lot of friends and family, and it is with their support that I was able to make it through my fight.