Private Papers of G Slazak

Collection

Scope and content:: Photocopy of an excellent memoir (250pp ts), written circa 1992, describing his childhood in Lodz (Poland) before the Second World War, the invasion of Poland by the Germans in 1939 and the ensuing chaos, the occupation of Lodz and its effects on the population, his efforts to help Jewish people in the ghetto, the expropriation of the family shop by 'ethnic Germans' and the consequent necessity of dealing on the black market to survive, his work in a local factory, deportation to Austria in late 1941 to work in the 'Hermann Goering' tank factory in Linz, his arrest and ill-treatment by the Gestapo for alleged sabotage, the heavy bombing raids on the factory in 1944 and his subsequent attempt to escape, which ends in arrest and confinement (briefly) in Mauthausen concentration camp before being transferred to the sub-camp at Kleinmuenchen-Ebelsberg, where he survives the brutal regime to be liberated by US troops in April 1945, his abortive attempt to return to Poland and decision to join the Polish Army in Italy (where he was attached to the RASC), before settling in England in 1947.

Subject terms:: Forced labour (of Jews); Holocaust--Concentration camps; Holocaust--Deportation; Holocaust--Ghettos; Memoirs; World War II

Access, restrictions:: Visit IWM website for Research Room access provisions see https://www.iwm.org.uk/research/research-facilities

Links to finding aids:: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1030003226

Scope and content:: Photocopy of an excellent memoir (250pp ts), written circa 1992, describing his childhood in Lodz (Poland) before the Second World War, the invasion of Poland by the Germans in 1939 and the ensuing chaos, the occupation of Lodz and its effects on the population, his efforts to help Jewish people in the ghetto, the expropriation of the family shop by 'ethnic Germans' and the consequent necessity of dealing on the black market to survive, his work in a local factory, deportation to Austria in late 1941 to work in the 'Hermann Goering' tank factory in Linz, his arrest and ill-treatment by the Gestapo for alleged sabotage, the heavy bombing raids on the factory in 1944 and his subsequent attempt to escape, which ends in arrest and confinement (briefly) in Mauthausen concentration camp before being transferred to the sub-camp at Kleinmuenchen-Ebelsberg, where he survives the brutal regime to be liberated by US troops in April 1945, his abortive attempt to return to Poland and decision to join the Polish Army in Italy (where he was attached to the RASC), before settling in England in 1947.

Subject terms:: Forced labour (of Jews); Holocaust--Concentration camps; Holocaust--Deportation; Holocaust--Ghettos; Memoirs; World War II

Access, restrictions:: Visit IWM website for Research Room access provisions see https://www.iwm.org.uk/research/research-facilities

Links to finding aids:: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1030003226