Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Shlomo Robszyc

MAIL: lynn & tamar
Survivor: Code: RelatioNet SH RO 24 ZA PO
Family Name: Robszyc
First Name: Shlomo
Father Name: Yaakov
Mother Name: Pola Hibsher
Brother Name: Haim
Brother Name: Wolf
Date of birth: 7th Februar 1924
Country of birth: Poland
City of Birth: Zawiercie








Shlomo Robszyc (1924 )-Interview


Shlomo was born in 1924 on the 7th of February in Zawiercie.
He was the son of Yaakov Robshich and Pola Hipsher.
He had one sister named Mina and two brothers named Haim and Volf. He was the eldest in the family. The spoken language at home was Polish, but his parents also spoke Yiddish.




     shlomo's family



They left Zawiercie and moved to Kattowitz.
He lived in a suburb of the city.He studied in the elementary school Berca-Ysloviche, which was a jewish school.He and his friend, Nathan Viner, drove together to school every morning by tram. Nathan's father was Shlomo's teacher in "Hedder".The "hedder" was near the synagogue where they spent their afternoons. They learned the weekly Pharasha(weekly Torah portion) every week, but he didn't understand it because he barely knew Hebrew.  Every week he went to the rabbi , to check his knowledge in the weekly Pharasha. On holidays, Shlomo and his family used to visit his grandmother from his mother's side , who lived in Zawiercie .He remembers that his father took him
to "pidyon haben" (The redemption of the first born).





Shlomo as a child


In Kattowitz,there was an impressive and big synagogu ( not far from the center of the city , near the market ), where his family used to go and pray. Shlomo defines it as a "temple".
Shlomo participated in the a Zionist youth movement.
Every Saturday they met in the movement and went out traveling and camping. Shlomo was younger than his friends. When they had to climb on a metal ladder, the responsible leaders of the movement didn’t let Shlomo climb on the ladders, but he insisted and even climbed first.
He celebrated his "Bar-Mizva" at home and the rabbi Fugelman came to his house to celebrate his "Bar-Mizva" .
 In the beginning of the war, Shlomo and his family moved to a new apartment out of the city to hide from the Germans. His uncle owned a factory of bricks that provided livelihood for them. The Germans locates their hiding place and his family moved to ghetto Zawiercie. In the same period , Poland was divided into two parts , one part was the German Reich's area and the other part was the Protectorate . Zawiercie was located on the Protectorate's border.Shlomo and his family got along In ghetto Zawiercie. He remembered that his Grandfather brought them potatoes.
When the Germans started to take youth to the Arbeitslager ( force labor camp work ) , his family refused to send Shlomo and they decided to smuggle him away to his uncle who lived beyond the border. He was a Council Chairman. The employers of his grandfather smuggled him back to the border. He stayed there for a long time ,but eventually the Germans reached them.
Finally, his uncle told him he should return to his parents.
On his way back with the person who smuggled him, he met two other people ,a brother and sister who joined them for the rest of the way . During their walk in the forest, they noticed a passing train and. on the other side of the railroad track, a German soldier stood with his bicycle. The soldier caught Shlomo and the girl that walked with him and they both were moved to Quaze ,one station before Zawiercie.
The girl and Shlomo were separated and he was transported to the Gestapo in Zawiercie.


In the Gestapo he was put in a basement which he had already known from his previous visits to his uncle, before the war where he and other boys worked. Shlomo had taken advantage of his familiarity with the place and got released with money and favoritism.
After Shlomo was released, he entered ghetto Zawiercie with his Parents in 1941. In the ghetto they worked in the factory for the Germans air force. It was a big factory for fabrics that fixed soldier's uniforms. In august 1943, when Shlomo was 19, he was told that he would
be sent to slave labor. Shlomo and his girlfriend got onto the train and his whole family was left behind. His family arrived with the next train. Shlomo came to Birkenau Auschwiiz in Poland. There he saw his mother for the last time when he was taken to carry rocks near the women's area. He didn't see his two young brothers and his father, because his father didn't want to be separated from his children and they were all sent together to the ovens.Shlomo was in Birkenau for two months, until October 1943 and from there he was sent again to slave labor. One day, the Germans asked who knew to turn on metal. Shlomo was with two people that were his father's friends sons who worked as welders. They offered him to accept the Germans request. He and the other two people were sent to Phinftaichen ,which was a factory of turning. Shlomo worked on barrels of cannon, all the machines were automatic which make it easy.


He worked there for one year until he got hurt by the metals that came out of the lathe and was moved back to work at the concentration camp. Then, the Germans looked for volunteers to work at the air force. Shlome volunteered and believed that it would be a better place for him.Instead of the air force, he was sent to Gros -Rozen. Since Gros Rozen was bombed , he and the other people in Gros Rozen, were sent to Terite next to Broungshwig. There he worked in the factory of Ermengery Drinke and making grenades.
One day, when the Germans took everyone to the train ,the British bombed the train and everyone escaped to the forst.Shlomo remembered that there was bread in the caravan next to the one which was bombed.Despite the bombs ,Shlomo came back to the caravan and took two loafs of bread, put them under his clothes and came back to the forest. After some time , the Germans gathered all the Jews, including shlomo. They walked on foot to Berger Belzen .
Shlomo described the slave labor as the worst labor he had had.
There were lots of corpses and the food was poisoned,Shlomo was lucky that he had taken the loafs of bread, because he could eat that instead of the poisoned food that was served.Shlomo was there for two weeks. All the people there were sick from Dysentery and Typhus.

 In Bergen – Belzen Shlomo met his grandmother's brother – Shimon Fogel ,Who moved from there to Sweden and after that to USA. Shlomo also met his grandmother's sister's daughter – Rachel Rosenfeld, He met her after the war as well.The labor salve was burned and Shlomo and his friend Ariel Diamant moved to Bergen a brick camp , which was a labor camp of the German soldiers.
In winter 1945, Shlomo volunteered to divide charcoals which came to the Labor camp to be burned.Rivka who came to ask for charcoals, met Shlomo there and they fell in love. They traveled from Germany and came to Milan in Passover 1946. They came with the youth group. They lived there for three months.
Shlomo and Rivka sailed to Israel on the Katriel Yaffe's ship.
It was very crowded. They weren't able to go up to the deck of the ship, because they had to hide from the British people.The British eventually found them and moved them to Haifa.
From Haifa, the Britons took them to their battleships, that sailed to Cyprus. They were there for several months.On 31th of December 1946 they arrived to Atlit camp in Israel, where they stayed until February 1947. Certificates allowing exit of the camp were given to only 50% of the people who had been there.
Only Rivka got a certificate, because she had aunts in the country.
After a month , Shlomo exited too.




Rivka and Shlomo



From Atlit, he drove with his friend on Petah-Tikva's way to Tel Aviv.
Shlomo found Rivka in Tel Aviv.
His uncle had an upholstering store and Shlomo became his apprentice.
In the beginning, he rented a bed in Saphira's neighborhood and stayed there until Rivka's aunt wanted them to marry each other. She had an apartment, and in the highest floor she had a laundry room where Rivka and Shlomo stayed.
After two weeks, Shlomo who was 24 years old was taken to the army for The Independence's War. After his release, they moved to a housing complex for soldiers in Ramat Hahayal. Shlomo had a upholstery workshop in Jaffa. One day, there was a flood and Shlomo wasn't able to pass from Ramat Hahayal to Tel Aviv, so he decided to buy an apartment on Arlozorov street, in Tel Aviv.
Today, Shlomo and Rivka have two children, a daughter- Ettie who was born in 1950 and has been living in Canada for 30 years.a son- Yaakov,  was born in 1956 and lives in Alfei- Menashe.
They have five grand children- Danny and Debby, Ettie's children and Adi, Aviv and Amit, Yaakov's children's.They lived in Arlozorov until 2009, and then moved to "Bait Bakfar" a retirement home in Kfar Saba, where they live today.
 







 Zawiercie




Before war
Zavierche was founded in the 12'th century as a small village, named kromot'ow . Zavierche was developed in the 19'th century , and received town privileges in 1895. In 1847 , the Warsaw- Vienna railway was completed.It connected between Germany , Austria and Russia.
Zavierche was located less than one kilometer from the railroad , and it triggered the Settlement to develop rapidly.Twenty five years later , coal and iron ore mines  were discovered, and an industry was developed around those mines.The first factory to be opened was a glass factory around 1970 , and immediately other Industries followed ; a large cotton spinerry ,large weaving mills , iron minimaj , Cast iron, brick manufacturing, sawmill, chemical labatories, steam and water flour mills, machining , etc .The economy in Zaveirche improved, and accelerated the local population"s growth. In the end of the 19'th century , Jews were able to establish a Jewish- community.The population of Zavierchw was 29'507 in 1921, 6095 of them were Jews.





During the war
On 3 September 1939, Zawiercie was occupied by German troops. The residents had to present themselves at the textile factory in town. The Germans separated the Jews from the Poles, and arrested them in harsh conditions for two weeks. The Germans placed the factories in Zawiercie to the German armed forces. They obliged the young citizens to perform forced labor in the area and imposed restrictions on the Jews.  A “Judenrat” was created, and was responsible for implementing these orders among the Jewish population in Zawiercie.In the summer of 1940, some young Jews tried to escape the Soviet Union. Most of the refugees found there a shelter until the end of war in 1945. In October 1941, some of the young Jews were conscripted for forced labor in Germany. The first group was taken at that month, and the other in May.
In 1941, the Jewish streets were transformed to a Ghetto. The holders of work permits were the only people that were allowed to enter and exit. Jews from Silesia and Czechoslovakia who worked for the German army and Jews from small towns in Zawiercie were brought to the Ghetto.
The Ghetto was crowded, and the shortage of food spread sickness and disease among the people in the Ghetto. A hospital was set in the country yard of Kromolow Rabbi. In 1943, 600 Jews were left in the Ghetto. In August, most of them were sent to extermination camp in Auschwitz.
The last Rabbi of the town, Shlomo Elimelech Rabinowitz, was killed by the Germans when they moved him from Auschwitz to Dachau.


Today
Today Zawircie is part of the Silesian Voivodeship of southerm Poland.
There are 53,926 inhabitants. It's situated near the source of the Warta River.
The size of Zawircie territory is 85.24 km2. It's historical names were Zaveyurchy, Zavertse, Zavirtcha.










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