Oral History Interview with Harvey Shreibman

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English
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Title

Oral History Interview with Harvey Shreibman

Date

May 3, 1982

Contributor

Interviewee:
Harvey Shreibman
Interviewer:
Phyllis Richman

Summary

Harvey Shreibman was born March 25, 1925 in Pruzana, Poland. He attended a yeshiva and worked in his father’s leather manufacturing business until Russia occupied Poland. He describes difficult conditions under the Russians, losing the business, harassment of his father for not working because he would not work on Shabbat and less availability of food and commodities. Harvey attended a Russian school where he was indoctrinated with communist beliefs. He describes the German invasion of 1941, when he witnessed airplanes falling from the sky while out with a youth group.

Soon after, his family was forced into the PruzanaGhetto, where Harvey worked as a shoemaker. He describes extremely difficult conditions in the ghetto, relations with the Judenrat and resistance efforts.

On January 28, 1943, the ghetto was evacuated and his family was sent by cattle car to Birkenau. He describes Shabbat observance during the journey. Harvey details vividly their arrival at the camp and his separation from his parents. During the next six weeks, he endured frequent beatings and other forms of torture. He describes his transfer to Auschwitz and describes it as a much better experience than in Birkenau. He worked with the shoemakers, and describes daily beatings from the Kapos. After a year was transferred again to Monowice-Buna, a sub-camp of Auschwitz, where he worked from before sunrise until late at night unloading freight cars. He mentions the camp orchestra that played as prisoners marched to work. He describes some instances of kindnesses from some non-Jewish inmates and was able to get a better job after finding a cousin in Buna.

In 1945, he was liberated by the American Army, lived in Bavaria post-war and later settled in the United States where he was married in 1953.


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Publisher:
Gratz College
Number of Tapes:
2
Language:
English
Identifier:
HOHAGC00482
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Copyright date:
2019
Cite this item
Oral History Interview with Harvey Shreibman. 1982. InterviewInterview by Phyllis Richman. Audio. Oral History Interview With Harvey Shreibman. Holocaust Oral History Archive. Gratz College. https://grayzel.gratz.edu/hoha/oral-history-interview-harvey-shreibman.

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