Oral History Interview with Ernest Eckstein

Abram Shnaper was born in Vilna, Poland May 15, 1918. His detailed testimony includes pre-ghetto life under the Russians (including antisemitic attacks by Lithuanian and Polish right wing armed gangs), restrictions placed once the Germans invaded, life within the ghettoes and his deportation to several labor camps.

Mr. Shnaper had a traditional Jewish upbringing. He was educated at a Tarbut school and was a very active member of Hashomer Hatzair youth group. Mr. Shnaper and his family were moved to the Vilna Ghetto in 1941 and he describes the move, conditions and labor assignments. Mr. Shnaper’s testimony regarding life in the ghetto includes explanations of the role of Ponary Forest, a place of execution by the Germans and of underground activities by the FareyngtePartizannesOrganizatsye/United Partisans Organization (FPO). He also describes Jacob Gens, the Judenrat and Salek Desler, chief of police. Mr. Shnaper provides a firsthand account of the confrontation between Gens and Yitzhak Wittenberg and the eventual surrender and execution of Wittenberg. He also recounts episodes from his work with the resistance and Abba Kovner’s efforts to save individuals.

Mr. Shnaper eventually landed in Vaivara, a camp in Estonia and was also deported to several other camps. In April 1944, Mr. Shnaper was forced on a death march to Klooga, also in Estonia. He describes four German soldiers who helped him at various times and to whom he attributes his survival. Anticipating the end of the war, Mr. Shnaper hid and observed the German guards as they destroyed the camp, including chasing inmates into fires where they burnt to death.

Upon liberation, Mr. Shnaper returned to Vilna and reunited with Abba Kovner. Money was being sent from the American Joint Committee to bring survivors to Vilna. During this time, Mr. Shnaper worked as a bookbinder who sewed money into book bindings to be passed onto others, and organized forged passports and other papers needed to assist people in leaving Europe. Moving to Warsaw, Mr. Shnaper spent three years assisting people to emigrate to Palestine. While there he met and married his wife who was from Warsaw. He comments that in 1946, the

Polish government permitted emigration to Palestine. From 1944-48, Mr. Shnaper worked with Brihah1, an underground movement.

Mr. Shnaper and his wife Luba eventually left Poland for the American Zone in Germany and lived in the Displaced Persons camp at Bergen-Belsen. He emigrated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States to get assistance for his daughter at Shriner's Hospital. In Philadelphia, he began organizing survivors into the Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and assisted in the erection of the first monument in the United States to the memory of the Holocaust, the Monument to the Six Million Jewish Martyrs sculpted by Nathan Rappaport, once a member of HaShomer Hatzair. Mr. Shnaper was also instrumental in establishing the Mordechai Anielewicz contest, open to students to express through the arts their commentary on the Holocaust.

See also his 1981 interview in Yiddish with Nora Levin and his wife, Luba Shnaper’s 1981 interview.

Joseph (Jóska) Schweiger was born on November, 9, 1912 in the small Hungarian town of Isafiret [phonetic]. His father was an electrical engineer and fought in the Hungarian army in World War I. Josephdescribes how his family identified themselves as Hungarian and spoke Hungarian at home. His parents and he both had Jewish and Gentile friends. Joseph was a sergeant in the Hungarian Coast Guard and trained as a mechanic. He briefly discusses his education and the family’s observance of holidays.

Joseph describes how in 1938 antisemitic laws took hold in Hungary and people were told not to frequent Jewish owned shops. In 1940 his father was sent to a labor camp, but returned after a few months because someone intervened. Joseph describes some kindnesses of a Romanian officer who liked Joseph’s accordion music and did not allow Jews to be transferred while he was in charge. In 1942 Joseph was separated from his parents and two sisters and sent toa labor camp in Hungary. He describes horrible conditions, standing in line 2 hours, scarcity of food, hard labor and beatings by the SS. He describes losing his job in the kitchen for telling the truth about the beatings to an investigator. In 1944 he was deported to Belz,alaborcamp,in the Ukraine. He describes a scene where they were told to work while mortars were reigning down on them.After one or two months, he wasdeported toMauthausen, but does not share many details about his experience there.He describes the death march from Mauthausen to Gunskirchenincluding beatings they received, one of which broke one of his vertebrae, and injury from which he still suffers.

Joseph was liberated in 1945 from Gunskirchen by the American Army and was taken to a hospital in Hörsching. From 1945-1948 Joseph worked for the Jewish underground,Brihah1, aiding refugees to get to Palestine. Brihah sent him to Vienna and then to Salzburg, where Joseph learned to become an auto mechanic. With the help of the Jewish Family Service Joseph, his wife and mother-in-law came to the United States on the SS General Black in 1949. Joseph attributed his survival to his aggressive attitude and determination not to be pushed around.

Joseph found out after the war that his parents and sisters were killed in Auschwitz.

Interviewee: SCHWEIGER, Joseph Date: April 3, 1988