Shlomo’s Video Interview Transcript

Good afternoon, my name is Jeanie Miller.

I am a member of the Kean College Oral

Testimonies Project of the

Holocaust Resource Center. We are

affiliated with the Video Archives for

Holocaust Testimonies at the Sterling

Library of Yale University. Sharing the

interview with me is Bernard Weinstein.

We are privileged to welcome Shlomo

Biezunski, a survivor presently living in

Fair Lawn, New Jersey, who has generously

volunteered to give testimony about his

experiences before, during,

and after the Holocaust.

Welcome Mr. Biezunski. I wonder if you

could tell us about the town that

you were born in and were growing up in?

I was born on May 13,

1926 in the town of Łódź in Poland.

This was a big industrial center –

textiles. We used to call it before the war

the Manchester of Poland. Many of the

factories used to employ hundreds, even

thousands of people and there was a

population of almost 600,000.

What percentage was Jews?

The percentage was – one-third was Jews.

You have – many people who developed

the silk industry and textile industry

in Paterson, New Jersey came from Łódź.

It’s known – they brought – by coming

to the United States, they brought with them

the skills and they developed it here.

Like I said, one-third of the

population were Jews, were very

involved in the trade profession and took a

very active life in

Jewish culture – and we actually

had even two newspapers, that my father

in Yiddish used to read. I remember there was Der Haynt

and Der Moment, that was the two Jewish –

there was a very vibrant city and my father –

studied pharmacy in Köln.

He had a brother. From 1918 –

to 1920, he was in Germany, at that time, in

the Köln University – I understand that it only

took two years at that time to get a –

and we had a like we call a drugstore

here, in Łódź.

And actually I had only an older sister,

her name was Manya, she was born on, I don’t remember

the date, but she was born in October 1920.

I remember those telling that my

father came in 1920 back to Poland and he

went to the Army and fought with the

Polish Army by defeating the Communists.

It was in a famous battle, it was called the

Miracle on the Vistula. It was a defeat for the Bolshevik Army

at that time, the Poles under Marshal Piłsudski,

he was a Polish marshal, and Poland became an