Isak Borenstein

A Survivors Story: Isak Borenstien

Diary

Isak Borenstien

After the War

Dear Diary,

It is I Isac Borenstien. I must remind myself who I am so I don't let the demons and nightmares take me away. Today was a ordinary day, the bombs came and we had the duty of bringing them up and diffusing them. One of them exploded and I barely escaped, I saw my friends die in front of me. How may a cope with this in my life, how will a get rid of the images of death and torture in my mind. I saw a man shot for getting extra soup, I don't understand how they could commit such crimes. I must stay strong for my family. Aden you must not lose hope in me or god; you must still be hearty.

After Isak was out of Mauthausen he joined the Russian Army for 14 months and helped get Russian soldiers out of Germany and into Russia. After his time served in the army he went back to his home in Radom. When he steped inside his home nothing was touched everything the same way as they left it. Isak says that out of 34,000 Jews he could not find 10 that he knew. He found his brother but Abe was not the same, he was a broken man. They lived together in Stuttgart, Germany for a few years. Isak meet his future wife who also was Radom. In 1951 Abe and Isak went to New Orleans and started a woodworking shop. Abe wrote a testament about what happened during the war about his family and himself. Isak has not read it to this day. Abe died in 1974. Today Isak lives a happy life at the age of 95.

Picture of the Mauthasuen Concentration Camp. 150,00 murdered in the camp. Established August 8, 1938 and Liberated on May 5, 1945.

Road to the Concentration Camps

In the Concentration Camps

His Early Life

Isak fled Poland when Germany started the invasion. He ran to Russia, and joined the Russian army when Germany invaded Russia. He was surrounded before he got a chance to fight. All but two of the other Jews were killed so he changed his name from Borenstein to Broniewski to sound more Polish. Isak escaped but was later taken to a regular prison. He was taken to a death chamber and beaten because he was suspected of being Jewish. He only survived because of a made up story and dumb luck.

He was born Radom, Poland on the day of May 5,1918.

They were a big family, 3 brothers and 3 sisters. His father was a livstock owner.When they had a cow that they could eat they would butcher it themselves. They would drain all the blood out of the meat because Jewish people can no have blood. They had a very happy life before the war started.

Isak Borenstein

Isak was put in a labor camp even though they didn't think he was a Jew. The camp was near Dnepropetrovsk. Isak was supposed to go to Auschwitz but there was no more room for all of them. They went to Mauthausen Concentration Camp. At the camp Isak had many close calls to death. Once Isak had extra soup and the block officer was furious, he pointed his gun at Isak. Then he saw the number Isak had it was around 37,200 which is a low number meaning he has been at the camp for a long time and little respect. The SS officer let him go. During his time in the camp he was a part of the bomb commando which dug bombs that didn't explode from the earth. In six months they diffused 64 bombs. He only heard one bomb explode it was only 150 feet away from him, saved again.

By, Faheem Hossain and Manny Jeffery

His Brother

Family

Isak at the left and his brother Aden on the right

Father and Mother and 2 of his sisters.

Bibliography,

http://www.holocaustsurvivors.org/data.show.php?di=record&da=survivors&ke=1