Item Information
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| Title | Jewish Heritage Collection: Oral history interview with Joe Engel
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| Interviewee | Engel, Joe, 1927-
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| Interviewer | Grossman, Michael Samuel (interviewer)
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| Date Recorded | 1997-04-30 |
| Source | Jewish Heritage Collection Oral Histories
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| Subject | Engel, Joe, 1927- -- Interviews
Engel family
Jews -- South Carolina -- Interviews
Jews -- Poland -- Zakroczym -- Social life and customs
Jews -- Poland -- Zakroczym -- History
World War, 1939-1945 -- Poland -- Zakroczym
Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
Birkenau (Death camp)
Buna (Forced labor camp)
Death march -- Germany -- Auschwitz
Jewish ghetto -- Poland -- Plonsk
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Personal narratives -- Jewish
Holocaust survivors -- South Carolina -- Charleston -- History
Jewish merchants -- South Carolina -- Charleston -- History
Holocaust memorial -- South Carolina -- Charleston. [note related collection, Mss 2004]
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| Description | Joe Engel, who was twelve years old when the Nazis occupied Poland in 1939, describes life in his home town of Zakroczym, Poland, before and after the invasion. His family fled to Warsaw and then Plonsk, the ghetto from which they were transported to concentration camps. Joe was imprisoned at Birkenau, Buna, and, Auschwitz. He made a daring escape from a train after surviving a death march. After the war ended, he immigrated to Charleston, South Carolina, where decades later his vision led to the construction of the Holocaust Memorial. |
| Holding Instution | College of Charleston Libraries
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| Rights | Digital resource copyright 2011, The College of Charleston. All rights reserved. For more information contact The College of Charleston Library, Charleston, SC 29424. |
| SC County | Charleston County (S.C.)
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| SC Region | Lowcountry
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| Language | English
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| Date Digital | 2011-05 |
| Type | text
sound
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| Format | application/pdf; audio/mpeg |
| Resource Identifier | Engel_Joe_Tapes1_2_147.pdf |
| Media Type | Audio |
| Digitization Specifications | Mp3 derivative audio created with Audacity software. Archival masters are wav files. |
| Abstract | Tape 1: Mr.Engel talks about growing up in Zakroczym, Poland, in the 1930s. He attended Polish schools and played with both Jews and non-Jews. Mr. Engel describes the living conditions and occupations of the Jewish residents and the languages they spoke. He provides details about his immediate and extended family members, and the Jewish way of life, including marketing, food habits, Hebrew school, bar mitzvahs, the mikvah, synagogues, arranged marriages, and the holiday Lag bOmer. Twelve years old when the Germans invaded Poland, Mr. Engel describes the city, its destruction by the Germans, and how it appeared to him on two visits he made many years after the war. Tape 2: This is the second of three tapes recorded on this date. Mr. Engel provides more descriptions of his familys customs, growing up in Zakroczym, Poland, including celebrating Passover and food habits in general. Although he remembers being treated well by some gentiles, he and his fellow Jews routinely experienced anti-Semitism. The invasion of Zakroczym by the Germans in 1939 led to the destruction of the town and forced the Engels to take refuge. Mr. Engel recalls the invasion and occupation of the town, during which time the Jewish residents were forced to wear the Star of David. The family found shelter first in Warsaw, and later in Plonsk, which was turned into a Jewish ghetto. He describes life in the ghetto, run by the Judenrat, or council of Jewish elders, under the supervision of the Germans. Mr. Engel lived in Plonsk until 1942 and was among the last to be transported to a concentration camp. Four days and nights on the cattle car with no food or water resulted in the deaths of about half the occupants by the time they reached Auschwitz-Birkenau. Mr. Engel remembers seeing Dr. Joseph Mengele, the so-called Angel of Death, upon arrival. Those the doctor did not select to live were sent immediately to their deaths. The methods the Nazis used to kill the inmates are described. Mr. Engel was incarcerated first in Birkenau, then Buna, and finally Auschwitz, where he was sent to bricklaying school. He offers a picture of life in the camp, including relations among the prisoners. Mr. Engel mentions a visit to Zakroczym in the 1980s with a companion and their encounter with the police. Tape 3: In the last of three taped interviews, Mr. Engel continues his description of the conditions at Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Buna. Upon arrival at Auschwitz in November 1942, he was tattooed with an identification number and forced to trade his clothing for prisoners garb. He recalls, without going into detail, the cruelty of the SS guards and the inhumane experiments and killing that were a part of daily life. Three months after arriving, he became ill and was transferred to Buna from Birkenau. A month later, he was assigned to the bricklayers school in Auschwitz. He was aware that his sister was in the womens camp, but never saw her. Two of his brothers were in Auschwitz-Birkenau, but the siblings had little contact with one another. In January 1945, with the Allies closing in, the Germans evacuated the camp, forcing the inmates on a death march. Those who survived were loaded onto an open cattle car bound for Germany. As soon as night fell, Mr. Engel jumped from the train and hid in a snow drift. After a tense eight hours, the guards gave up their search for him and the train pulled away. Mr. Engel joined a Czech resistance group and, for the next three months, took part in missions to destroy police stations. When Slovakia was liberated by the Russians in March 1945, he returned to Poland, hoping to find other surviving family members. Six months later, he left Poland to avoid being drafted into the army. In Germany, he learned of his sisters whereabouts and that his two brothers survived. He lived in a DP camp while waiting to immigrate to the United States. In 1949 he joined his sister and brother-in-law in New York. The three ended up in Charleston, South Carolina, where an aunt lived, and opened Glamour Cleaners on King Street. Finally, Mr. Engel talks about his campaign to erect a Holocaust Memorial in Charleston and what the realization of the project means to him. |
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Filename
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698.pdf
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audio available