Abe Price showing his Auschwitz tatoo to school children
Abe Price (birth name Abram Piasecki) is a Polish Jew, and one of the last living Holocaust™ survivors.
His Holocaust™ tale is one of the all-time greats.
Abe says he was held captive by the Germans from 1939 to 1945, and was sent to Auschwitz in 1944.
The Germans used Abe to work on highways, at a stone quarry, a woodworking factory, and to build an oil refinery.
He says he escaped from the Nazis five times in six years.
According to Abe, those under the age of 16 and older than 40 were immediately killed at Auschwitz-Brikenau, and the rest were sent to labor camps within the complex.
"For three years, I didn't see a child under 16 or an adult older than 40", claims Abe.
I guess all these children liberated from Auschwitz just missed going to the gas chambers or Elie Wiesel's fire pits...
Child survivors of Auschwitz liberatd by the Red Army,
January, 1945 1
Abe apparantly didn't see Thomas Buergenthal either, who was 10 when sent to Auschwitz and "miraculously" survived the "death" camp. Maybe Thomas told the Germans he was 16, and they were so stupid they fell for it.
Abe says 12,000 to 20,000 people died every day at Auschwitz.
At Auschwitz, Abe was put to work building an oil refinery. They were on a 300 calorie per day diet. He weighed just 90 pounds.
When the Russians closed in on Auschwitz in January 1945, Abe was put on a death march. But Abe escaped the death march by running away with another inmate. They hid out on a small farm in a barn under a pile of hay. They stayed there under the hay pile for 5 days straight, without any food or water.
"We didnt' eat or drink for five days", proclaims Abe!!
He then returned to his small town of Kielce in Poland. He says only 7 people were left of the 28,500 who lived there prior to the war.
Abe claims to have lost 200 members of his family in the Holocaust.
He eventually made his way to America. Now Abe spends his time going to schools, and telling his tale to young children.
Abe has written two books, “Memoirs of a Survivor” and “Tamed By an Angel.”
He says he gives all proceeds to the Naples, Florida Holocaust Museum.
Article:: "Holocaust survivor"
UPDATE:
Abe now has an updated version of his tale. He now says he spent all six years of the war in Auschwitz (not arriving there in 1944 as he said before).
Article #2: "Holocaust survivor shares his story at Marco Academy"
Appendix:
When he escaped from Auschwitz he "didn't eat or drink for five days".
Holocaust survivor
John Dempsey, Pharos-Tribune, Logansport, Ind.
Combined Jewish Philanthropies
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
July 26, 2009
Jul. 26--I spent six years in hell," Abe Price stated, "between the ages of 16 and 22 during the Nazi occupation of Poland."
Though he is 86 years old, his voice is firm, his eyes ablaze. The tattoo on the inside of his left arm is evidence backing up his statement. B-3266, the number he was given on arrival at Auschwitz. The B, he explains, stands for 200,000.
The pain remains evident 64 years after he escaped his Nazi captors. And it's there for good reason, as he will tell you.
"I lost 200 members of my own family," the father of Logansport optometrist Herb Price said during an interview here Thursday.
He was 16 and in high school when the German army invaded Poland Sept. 1, 1939, the event that officially started World War II. His name was Abram Piasecki. He was Jewish and he lived with his parents and four older brothers in Kielce. The city was home to 28,500 Jews in 1941 -- one-third of its population.
When he returned after escaping a Nazi death march in January 1945, there were seven.
"It looked like a cemetery," he said.
The Gestapo confiscated his parents' shoe factory, which employed 110 people, and their stores.
"They forced us to put the Star of David on our arms," he said. "My oldest brother went to the Soviet Union because he thought that was discrimination."
And while he was sent to a Siberian gulag to do forced labor for six years, that brother survived the war.
"My parents, two brothers and their wives, the Nazis killed," Abe continued.
While living in the large Kielce ghetto, his parents were taken to Treblinka, one of six extermination camps, where they were killed in 1942.
"My next younger brother, he was an attorney in Lithuania," Abe explained. "He was murdered by Lithuanian Nazis with his wife in Mariampolie on September 1, 1941. That was just a couple months after the Nazis invaded Russia.
"My third brother went with his wife and was taken to Treblinka and died August 24, 1942."
In 1940, Abe was sent to work on highways, but escaped. In 1941, he escaped again while living in a labor camp and working in a stone quarry.
Abe and his fourth brother, Charles, were living in the little ghetto when three boys came back from Treblinka. "They told us the news of what the Nazis were doing there."
"My eyes were opened. I then knew the facts of life," he said. "For the next 2 1/2 years, I knew every day could be my last."
In 1942, he was picked up again and sent to a woodworking factory. When he escapted that time, however, he was caught.
"A Polish girl helped me, but they arrested four women. I was hiding in the small ghetto. I had a hand gun and wanted to join the small underground," he recalled. "A fellow recognized me and called the police. I was taken back to the factory and got a bad beating.
"I was taken to the Germans and they interrogated me. I knew three of the women, but I wouldn't implicate them, so they were set free. I played dumb. They asked me why I escaped. I said I wanted to go home and thought the war was over."
The Germans began to liquidate the small ghetto in 1943. As Abe and Charles were being led behind a building, Abe saw a number of Ukranians in black uniforms with machine guns and thought they were going to be killed.
"I pulled his sleeve and said 'run after me,' but he didn't," the Naples, Fla., resident said. Charles was sent to a concentration camp in Germany where he was eventually rescued by American troops.
Abe was eventually sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1944. That was where he was tattooed with the number.
At Birkenau, 12,000 to 20,000 people died every day. Trainloads of people were brought in boxcars, at least 120 per car, from all over Europe. There was no ventilation, no food and no sanitary facilities. Those who survived the trip were separated by age. Those under 16 and older than 40 were killed with the rest sent to labor camps in the complex.
"The devil himself couldn't have figured out such hell," Abe said. "One and a half million Jewish children died there. For three years, I didn't see a child under 16 or an adult older than 40."
He was put on a work crew building an oil refinery.
"There were 800 people in this camp that was bordered with high-voltage fence and watchtowers with machine guns," he said. "We were only there for half the year when they took us on a death march. The Russians were coming and about a week later they freed Auschwitz."
So, with his friend Ernst Tauber, Abe bolted.
"We were condemned to die until I took the chance. I know we would have died if we had stayed," said Abe, who weighed just 90 pounds by then due to the Germans' 300 calorie a day diet.
Sure to stand out in striped uniforms, wood shoes and shaved heads, the two contained their escape to fields.
"We came to a small house about 15 miles from Auschwitz ... crawled through a window into the barn and dug our way under the hay," Abe said. "We didn't eat or drink for five days. Finally, we decided to knock on the door figuring it was a Polish family.
"The old lady opened the door and invited us in. She had two daughters living with her. Their husbands were in the German army. They were ethnic Germans. They were wonderful people."
The women attempted to dye their uniforms, but when that didn't work, they were given some of the husbands' clothing.
"They could have brought the police. But they gave us hot milk, eggs, bread and butter -- food we hadn't seen in a year. They were afraid the neighbors would see us so they told us we had to leave."
The women gave them five loads of bread before they left. The eventually came to another farm where a Polish farmer had returned, taking his land back from Nazi farmers.
"We stayed for three days. The SS came to house and was checking IDs. The farmer had one but I didn't," he continued. He went to the barn to use the restroom and heard two soldiers saying that he had escaped.
Abe went back in where the SS officer asked where he had been. But, the officer never asked for an ID and didn't arrest him.
"It was pure luck. I spoke in Polish only so he didn't know I was Jewish," he said.
The farm was on the front where the fighting was going on and changed hands three times. But, with the Soviets back for good, Price and Tauber secured a pass from a Soviet officer.
Over the next few days they checked out Auschwitz and Birkenau before making it to Krakow.
Tauber remained in Krakow because his home of Prague was still occupied by Germans. Price headed for Kielce, but only remained there three days.
When he speaks of his wife, Sala -- Hebrew for Sarah -- his eyes soften and his tone changes.
Their meeting was chance. After leaving Kielce, he moved to Sosnowiev, a city 150 kilometers away.
"I lived there four months and settled in a house where my wife and her family had lived before they were sent to a concentration camp," he explains. Sala was liberated from a camp in the Czech Republic by the Soviet army.
"They came back to their home and I was living there. We knew each other for two weeks and decided to get married. We were married for 63 years."
At the time, Abe was working for a group called Judgment & Justice.
"We hunted two-legged animals -- chiefs of police, Nazis, members of the Gestapo, collaborators. It was dangerous work," he said. "They were rich and were armed. They had bodyguards. She told me to quit and so I did."
The newlyweds decided to go to Palestine where thousands of European Jews were attempting to emigrate.
"We didn't want to live in Poland or Germany," Abe said. "We left for Czech Republic, then went to Austria and Germany, back to Austria and then to Italy. We were there four months trying to get to Israel," he said. "But the British wouldn't let us go there. The ships that were caught were sent to Cyprus."
The Prices enjoyed their time in Italy. "We loved Italy. And, we really loved the Italian ice cream," he said, his eyes lighting up as he grinned.
With the route to Palestine cut off, he and Sala decided to go back to Germany.
"We registered to go to the United States. We had a choice of going to the U.S., Canada or Australia," Abe said, "but we picked the U.S. because we had relatives here.
"My father's brother and two of his sisters came in the 1920s. His brother and a sister lived in Brooklyn, 1085 Eastern Parkway," he rattled off without a moment's hesitation, "and one sister in Detroit."
Abe and Sala lived in Mittenwald, Germany, on the Austrian border. The town was a winter resort in the Alps. That's where they were living when Herb was born. They spent 5 1/2 years waiting to come to America.
"We had to go through all sorts of physical and mental checkups. The U.S. didn't want any Communists coming here," he said.
Abe and Sala arrived in America on May 5, 1951. It was Herb's fifth birthday. "We came here with two suitcases [steamer trunks] and Herb."
They lived in Goshen for seven years where Abe worked first in a woodworking factory and then a steel factory. Then he spent five years running the slicing and wrapping machine at a commercial bakery. The Prices went on to South Bend where he managed a shoe store for 24 years. They lived in South Bend 35 years before retiring and moving to Naples.
Although Herb was born in Germany, his brothers were born in the United States. One of his brothers is an attorney in northern California and the other is an orthodontist in Columbus, Ohio. Abe has seven grandchildren, five of whom have graduated college and two more who are in dental school and university. He also has four great-grandchildren in Logansport.
"Ours," Abe says, "was a success story."
Since moving to Naples, Abe has volunteered at its schools and often speaks to classes of students in Collier and Lee counties about his own Holocaust experience.
"When I talk to the students, I do get emotional," he freely admitted.
"I have to do it."
A few years ago, Abe spoke to students at a Naples middle school who were researching the Holocaust. The students and their teachers created a Holocaust exhibit, which, in 2001, was transformed into the Holocaust Museum of Southwest Florida.
"I get wonderful reactions. I get asked if I saw Hitler," he said. "I say, 'I saw many vicious dogs in my life but not that one.' They asked me if I prayed a lot. I tell them, 'I don't believe in miracles, but if you help yourself, then God will help you save yourself.'
"Many times, I've talked to 500 students and you can hear a pin drop as I'm speaking. I get standing ovations many times.
One thing he tries to make the students -- he will only speak to middle and high school students -- is realize is how lucky they are to live in America.
"I tell them the United states is the greatest country in the world. They don't know the difference," Abe stated. "I know the difference. There is room for improvement here, yes, but, this is the greatest country.
As for his own children, he and Sala agreed to wait until they were in high school.
"We didn't want to scare them, or to make them hate the world."
Now 86, Abe knows he's one of the few Holocaust survivors who is alive.
"There are not too many survivors left. I was one of the youngest."
He is grateful for the live he has lived in America.
"This is the best country, the best people in the world."
It's not what he would have imagined in the dark days of World War II.
"Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would live in United States, get married, have children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I couldn't imagine that."
Dempsey is the Pharos-Tribune associate editor. He may be contacted at john.dempsey@pharostribune.com or by calling (574) 732-5150.
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