Oral History Interview with Adam Tems

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English
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Title

Oral History Interview with Adam Tems

Date

April 1, 1981

Contributor

Interviewee:
Adam Tems
Interviewer:
Marian Salkin

Summary

Adam Tems was born in Lódz, Poland on July 18, 1911. He describes his upbringing and education before World War II. He discusses how antisemitism affected the lives of Polish Jews. He details the rule numerus clausus which was used in Europe to restrict Jewish students from study. He managed to get dual degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering even though the University of Warsaw would not admit him because he was Jewish. He was inducted into the Polish Army, felt he was held back from leadership roles because of his religion and after refusing to sing anti-Jewish songs with his troop was punished by being sent to court and jail on 16 different occasions after having been threatened with death for not following orders. The Germans took him prisoner September 3, 1939. He escaped. In Lódz he was arrested by the GESTAPO and interned in a camp at Radogost (Radogoszcz).

After his release, he was reunited with his family in the Lódz Ghetto. He describes life in the ghetto, which was established in 1940, including food supplies, how the ghetto was organized, schools for the children. His only contact with the outside was listening to the BBC on the radio. He mentions an attempt by the Polish Socialist Party to start a resistance movement. Mr. Tems explains in great detail why Rumkowski, the head of the ghetto, was not an evil man. Mr. Tems was very involved in the administration of the ghetto and describes his many activities. He managed to protect many of the children until the ghetto was liquidated and the children were sent to Auschwitz.

Mr. Tems was deported to Auschwitz Birkenau October 27, 1944, then to Dachau, later to a subcamp of the Neuengamme concentration camp system, where he worked in a maintenance crew. He then worked in a manufacturing compound in Vechelde, south of Braunschweig and in December 1944 was sent to [possibly] Wöbbelin1, as the Germans were trying to stay away from the approaching American soldiers. His entire family perished in Auschwitz.

Mr. Tems explains how he managed to survive, details his liberation by the 9th Airborne Division, and why he decided not to go back to Lódz. He stayed in the American compound, then in a transient camp. He lived in Belgium for five years and after he finally received his papers, emigrated to the United States on October 24, 1950.

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Publisher:
Gratz College
Number of Tapes:
2
Language:
English
Identifier:
HOHAGC00526
Cite this item
Oral History Interview with Adam Tems. 1981. InterviewInterview by Marian Salkin. Audio. Oral History Interview With Adam Tems. Holocaust Oral History Archive. Gratz College. https://grayzel.gratz.edu/hoha/oral-history-interview-adam-tems.

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