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Shep Zitler
19
Shep Zitler
Holocaust Survivor
Shep's Story
At the age of 17 he was drafted into the Polish Army six months before the war began. Once the war began and the Germans attacked Poland and the polish lost their battle within 16 days Shep and his regiments were captured near a city named Radom, and they were sent to a POW camp near Kielce. He was classified as a Lithuanian Jew and not a Polish soldier, which saved his life. He was in various camps for 5 years and 7 months.
Shep's Childhood
Shep passed away on December 1, 2009 of a heart attack.
Experiences in POW camps
Shep Zitler was born in Vilna, Lithuania on May 27, 1917. He was raised in a Jewish household with one brother, four sisters, his parents, and his brother-in-law.
Experience in the POW camps
POW camp
Unlike life in the concentration camps, there was an international law that made sure conditions in the POW camps were humane, and forbade Germans from forcing them to become slave laborers. Still, conditions were miserable.
Shep before he passed.
The Jews were always given the dirtiest jobs. Shep worked on the Autobahn in Kerms, Austria. He loaded coal in Ludwigsdorf and cleaned the excrement out of the slit latrines with his hands at Goerlitz.
Shep when he was younger.
How he survived
The Russian Cavalry
Shep after the war
Near the end of the war Shep and his fellow prisoners were marching 2 to 3 days without stopping. One day the Germans told them to lie down in a field. They slept. Then they were woken up by the Russian Cavalry. The Russians asked for there wristwatches and said "You are free". All 11 of them traveled to a nearby village and were nursed back to health. However, one of them perished from over eating.
After the war was through Shep worked as a salesman. Shep and other survivers saved money to take a trip to Israel.