Isak Borenstein
By: Taylor Thompson
End of War
The Invasion
- American soldiers came
- German guards were told to execute the remaining prisoners
- Instead they took prisoners back to Linz lll
- Stopped in Wes and American soldier told prisoners to break all their rifles and take the SS guards to the camp.
- Overwhelmed Isak ran away and bought sugar and water to survive off of for three days
- Started home when a Russian soldier told him to join army
- In the Russian army for 14 months
- Returned to Radom: found out that the Germans came looking for him a few days after Isak left to Russia
- Killed another man with the last name of Borenstein
- Fun fact: Radom had 34,000 jews that lived there. In the end Isak couldn't even find 10 Jews left
- http://www.holocaustsurvivors.org/data.show.php?di=record&da=survivors&ke=1
- Age 20 when invaded
- Ran away to Russia and became a carpenter
- When Russia was invaded, he joined the Russian Army and changed his name to Broniewski (a polish name)
- Germans surrounded all 35 Jews and killed all but two
- Took both surviving men as prisoners of war
- Isak escaped and a Russian woman hid him
- For a while he was safe until his friend told the Germans about Isak and 60 other Jews
- Arrested and taken to a prison in Dnepropetrovsk.
Relation
- Hazel Thompson
- Born February 14, 1918
- Birthplace: Adairsville, Ga
- Women took over man jobs
Prison
- While in prison, someone said that he looked like a Jew
- Spent 10 days in the death chamber where he met a young girl named Ira Pogorelskaja
- She nursed him when he could not move because of the beatings.
- Ira held him in her arms and protected him from the other prisoners. She saved bread and fed him.
- She was half- Jewish and a member of the Communist youth organization.
- They took her out of the jail and she never returned.
Death Chamber
- Given cold showers
- Beaten with leather straps
- Beaten so much that should have confessed about being a jew but stuck to the story of being a soldier
- Convinced the German soldiers
- Almost ratted out by a Polish officer prisoner
- Russian prisoners beat the officer to death or Isak would have been caught and killed
- Pure luck that he survived
Journey
- Taken to Auschwitz but no room so then taken to Mauthausen
- Mauthausen: killed bad, good worked, sick was hospitalized
- Isak had typhoid so he got hospitalized
- Polish hospital worker recognized that Isak was jewish
- Sent him to a sub-camp called Schlier-Redl-Zipf.
- Only way of survival
- Worked in factory that exploded then sent to Linz lll
The Life of Isak
Linz lll
- Forced to watch hangings
- Slaughterhouse: treated like animals
- Saved three times here:
- 1) German was going to kill someone out of rage. Gun pointed at Isak. Another German said he was a soldier so kill someone else.
- 2) Got extra soup going to be shot. German saw the low number which meant a long time in camp. Needed to live longer
- 3) Bomb that Isak had to defuse. Hit bomb with a hammer and it broke off and did not explode
- Born: May 5, 1918
- Role in War: Prisoner of war
- Birthplace: Radom, Poland
- Occupation before war: Helped his dad who was a livestock dealer
- Slaughtered in their own home which was against the law
- only ate part of the meat which was kosher.
- Jews not allowed to eat blood