Write this same thing in a paper and in ant color pen Michael Herskovitz was born in Botfalva, Czechoslovakia in
1929 to hard-working, happy parents. In March 1944 he noticed
German soldiers in the village and learned that Germany had
invaded his country. Within weeks, Michael’s father lost his
grocery store. Forced to wear yellow Jewish stars on their clothing,
Michael, his parents, and 4 siblings were transported to the
Uzhorod ghetto for their “protection.”
In April 1944, the Nazis placed 15 year old Michael and his
family on cattle cars to camps with “better facilities.” Always kept
in the dark about their future, the family reached its destination, Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Michael’s family, along with other families, was separated into trucks: men from women,
children from parents, old from young. “All you could hear were soldiers hollering, dogs
barking, gunshots, and people screaming and crying.”
In late 1944, Russian troops advanced on Poland. After six months in Auschwitz,
Michael was transferred to Mauthausen and Gunskirchen, concentration camps in Austria,
where the facilities and degradation were the worst he experienced.
Michael lost all will and hope until one day in May 1945 when he awoke to gunshots.
When he looked around, his German guards had disappeared and British troops were giving
out food. Michael survived mal-nutrition and Typhus fever. He re-connected with an uncle
who told him that the Nazis murdered his parents and younger brother.