When the Nazi prosecution began in his small native town in Hrubieszow, Poland, Mr Dichter was ten years old. In 1941, his uncle was imprisonned for kosher slaughtering. 8,000 Jews were marched a hundred miles through the snow towards the near Russian border; 3,000 did not die on the way; they were driven over the frontier, machine gunned or sent back by the Russians, the rest shot by the SS (p.1-2). Sokal Ghetto contained abt.10,000 displaced Jews. As he did not look Jewish, the boy became the go-between for the about 300 men working for the Germans at Hrubieszow and their relations at Sokal.

Budzin (p.3-4). Jewish camp commander Stockmann under SS Lagerkommandant Veiks, an evil sadist. Abraham and others saved their lives once, hiding in the copper kettles of the kitchen. The guards were Ukrainian, committing acts of atrocity of the most appalling cruelty, much worse than the Germans.

Transport to Majdaek in 1943 (р.4); all Jews being liquidated, there were only 2,000 prisoners at the time: Russians or Germans. Conditions were much better here although once, 500 Poles, a whole village, were shot dead as a reprisal.

Transferred to #Auschwitz, he found the treatment by the SS worse than anywhere.

In the winter of 1944, many prisoners died of suffocation on the transport to Mauthausen in Austria. The Lagerälteste was a communist, the “Kapos“ communists and criminals; they drowned the Jewish policemen who had ill-treated the prisoners.

Forced labour in anti-aircraft factory near Leipzig (p.5-6). Kind German boss. In 1945, via Leitmeritz to Theresienstadt (p.6). Incarcerated there until 8 May.

The Russians treated them well, offered to take them to Moscow, but most of them preferred to go to England with a view to get to Palestine, later.