Interviewers:
Amit Trugman
Almog Tzabary
Email:
amit.trugman@gmail.com
aalmog23@gmail.com
Survivor:
Code: RelatioNet IS SH 29 Al GE
Family Name: Shtrauss
First Name: Israel
Birth Date: 1929
Town In Holocaust: Altenlotheim
Country In Holocaust: Germany.
Profession (Main) In Holocaust: Messenger,
Address Today: Living in Kefar Sava
Interview
I was born in Germany in a little village called Altenlotheim. There were only five Jewish families in the village. My family ran a store, and life was ordinary, until Hitler showed up. As time passed, the Germans treated the Jewish people worse. My family was treated well, comparing to other Jews, because my father had a good reputation for saving a few Germans during World War One.
During the Crystal Night, my father was taken to jail, and came back twelve days later. He was forced to work in a company which built pipes and sewers. In 1936, we closed our store because my father could not help us anymore. I was not allowed to go to school, so my family moved to Frankfurt, where I studied in an all-Jewish school. The Germans treated us very badly in Frankfurt. They were always beating and hitting us.
When the summer was over, I went back to school and noticed that the Germans had begun to take Jews to transports. Our turn to take the train came soon after that. We were only allowed to take one suitcase with us. Of course we had to leave our house and property. When we asked where they were taking us, we were told that we're being taken to Latvia. The trains were small, and very, very crowded. My father, mother, brother and I were all on the train. It took the train three days to arrive in Latvia. It was freezing in Latvia. A lot of people fainted as soon as they left the train, since the temperature was way below zero. The young men, including my brother, were taken to "build the Jews camp". The remaining people had to follow the S.S to the ghetto, which had a total of 1800 Jews.
The amount of food we received in the ghetto was very little, around half a piece of bread per day. The S.S patrolled outside, and locked all of the Jews inside the ghetto's building. Some of us sneaked outside when the S.S weren't looking, and searched for food. Once, the guards caught us, and locked us inside a shack, not giving us any food. We jumped out of the window and ran. The S.S guards started shooting at us. Some people got hit and fell, but I and a few more people escaped. Those who didn't get hit sneaked back to the camp. A few weeks later, the S.S started to take people to work, and they killed those workers as a punishment for escaping the locked shack.
I worked in a few jobs while I was in the ghetto. My first job was being a messenger for the S.S. After that, I worked in a glue factory inside the ghetto. My mother worked in a German military hospital, and my father fixed some of the S.S property. My family was given a little more food because of that.
I beged the guards for more clothes, because the hunger worsened. I traded those clothes for food at the fence of the ghetto. The ghetto became less populated as time passed. Most of the Jews had already been killed.
One day, we heard that the ghetto was about to be pulled down. We had been transported to a work camp in Riga. We worked in a paint factory there. The food was okay. I didn't want to work in a paint factory, and a plumber was needed, so I started working as a plumber even though I knew nothing about it. The man who was in charge of this job showed me how to do it. The food was pretty good there also.
One day we heard a loud noise. When we went to check what had happened we saw the S.S running away. It was the partisans who had attacked the S.S. Some of us joined the Partisans, but I didn't. A few days later the Germans counted us, and sent those who were ill and wounded to death camps. My brother, who had been sent to build a camp, had gotten ill because of the extreme cold. He was taken to a hospital, and that was the last time I saw him. One day, I was sent to fix the boiler of one of the S.S commanders. I wasn't careful of the acid, so when I finished my job my hand was full of burns. The S.S commander took me to the clinic, where a doctor took care of my hand. I got food and I didn't work for 5 days.
The Germans had begun to fall back in the war and we heard the guns far away. We were taken by ship to another work camp. In the new camp we were given a half piece of bread every day. We, the Jews, were also beaten by the Germans every day. We had bad conditions. We weren't allowed to take a shower, and we slept 4 people in a single bed. My father went work in the snow. His job was to lug carts. One day, the cart slipped from his hands and fell on his leg. He was taken to a hospital, where he got medical treatment. The doctor told him what to do in order to heal, but due to mistakes he did exactly the opposite. He got ill in his stomach and died right after he came back from the hospital. When I asked a policeman where the burial site was he showed me a mass grave.
There wasn't enough food in the ghetto and those who were in charge of handing the food out kept most of it for themselves. I became ill with Typhus. Because of my illness the Germans took me to a separate shack under their watch for a few days. One day I heard someone whispering my name. It was my friend who called me through the window. He told me that the Germans were pulling down the camp and I had to sneak to his shack when it was dark to escape, and I made it.
In the morning, while the Germans were pulling down the camp, my friend helped me get to the ship because I was ill. After we had sailed for a day and a half we got to Germany. Because of the extremely low temperatures I fainted. When I woke up I found myself in a cowshed. It was a German who took me and some other kids to his farm in order to protect us. He was turned in by someone, and when the Germans came to arrest him they put us in small shacks which were near the army's airport. There was no food in the shacks. They made us dig tunnels and place mines. Suddenly there was a siren so I jumped into a tunnel. It was a bomb that fell and killed many Germans. As soon as we realized that the S.S soliders were dead we went to the warehouse where they kept the food and we ate. Our camp was just between the Germans' camp and the Russians' camp, therefore we suffered from a lot of gun fire.
One day, the Russians got to our camp and told us to run to an abandoned village which was safer. When we got to the village we took a shower and ate. We couldn't stay there for long because the Germans fought a counter attack and we had to run away. We kept running until I saw a railroad. From that point we took the train to Torun in Poland, or so we thought. Instead of getting to Torun we got to Lodge.
In Lodge I entered an orphanage and after a few years an exodus to Israel was arranged. We were on that exodus, even though it was crowded. When we were 2 Kilometers from the beach the English caught us and sent us to Cyprus. After 2 years in Cyprus we finally got to Israel in 1947.
On the night of Yom Kippur, my friends and I arrived in Israel after being in Cyprus for 2 years.
All of the ship’s passengers were divided into different Kibbutzes around Israel. I was selected to go to Kibbutz Ayalon. In Kibbutz Ayalon I was taught how to dig tunnels and how to use guns. I went to Merhavia because I wanted to join the army. They didn’t accept me into the army, because I was usually angry and depressed. After that, I went to help build a Kibbutz called Nahshonim. My guide knew that I liked to work as a gardener and that is what I did in Nahshonim. In addition I was very active in the Kibbutz, I was in charge of the shopping, managed the kitchen and was part of the Kibbutz's committee. After four years I realized that I wanted to do something else. I wanted to work as a carpenter. In the Kibbutz they insisted that I stay, but I refused and left the Kibbutz.
Later, I spoke with Mischa Asherov, who was an actor in the Bema. He arranged for me to get a job. My wife and I lived in Kfar Saba with our two children in the apartment we rented. I began to work in the Bema. I worked in the Bema for two years. During this time I met someone who offered me a job delivering cookies and sweets. I took the job. I had a driver's license since I had lived in the Kibbutz so I delivered the cookies with a car. After a while my boss told me that he needed me as a warehouse manager, so I managed the warehouse. Then the Yom Kippur war began so I volunteered for the army even though they didn't want to recruit me. I told them I wanted to do a first aid course but they gave me another course instead. After five months and twenty seven days I came back. All those who were in the army for at least six months received a grant. I was missing three days, but I got a chance to study for two years anyway. After work I went to Tel Aviv to study bookkeeping.
At the same time I was working in the warehouse I heard from my neighbor that one of the institutes was looking for an account manager. I decided to quit my job and check the job in this institute. I met the same account manager who was working for the cookies company, so he knew me and arranged that I get the job. I was working in the institute as a balance checker until I retired. After I retired I gave lectures in a city which was near the town I was born in, and also in Ramat Gan in schools.
Town:
Altenlotheim is located in the basement forest on the edge of the National Parks Keller-Edersee. There is a main road running through the village. Altenlotheim was associated with Schmittlotheim and Kirchlotheim , and their name was Lotheim.
The village has a sports field and playground. There was once a high church outside of the village, but now there is a chapel.
The Jewish community around Altenlotheim was sent mostly to concentration camps. The remaining Jews were placed in some ghettos. Less than 200 people managed to escape the war. All the rest were divided in three other concentration camps, where only some of them survived. That was the end of the Jewish Community of Marburg and Altenlotheim.
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