Stefan Wrocławski, born in 1928

Forced worker and camp prisoner

I was born in Będzin. Father was Gabriel Leitner, and Mother, Maria, née Kleinehot. Until the outbreak of the war in 1939, I lived with my parents. I had finished five grades of elementary school. At the beginning of 1940, because we were of Jewish descent, we were moved from 24 Kołłątaj Street to 6 Wilcza Street to the Jewish ghetto that was then being created.

In April of the same year, I was forcibly assigned to work in a firm that manufactured wooden toys. The owner of this firm was a German by the name of Zeilinger. Initially, the firm was located right near the ghetto, but later, when the area of the ghetto was enlarged, it was inside the ghetto itself. In 1942, after the requisition of Jewish carpentry shops, the firm was moved to Modrzejowska Street and thus was again outside the area of the ghetto.

Because of the total blockade of the ghetto, we left for work in groups under the escort of the police and German soldiers. I was then working at producing furniture for the army. From the time my job began, a work day in this factory lasted twelve hours.

On the twenty-second of June, 1943, during a partial liquidation of the ghetto, I was taken along with others to the concentration camp in Karwino. A few days later, I was transferred, together with a group of young Jews, to the concentration camp in Blechamer. This was a sub-camp of Auschwitz. From there, I have the tattooed prisoner number 177853. I worked at various jobs in the chemical works.

In January of 1945, prisoners of our camp were evacuated on foot to Gross-Rosen. From there, I was relocated to the camp in Buchenwald (from that camp, I have the prisoner number 124715). I was transported from Buchenwald, along with a group of others, to the camp in Cwiberg near Halberstadt, where I worked at constructing an underground airplane factory. Because of the Soviet Army offensive at the beginning of April 1945, the camp was evacuated on foot in the direction of Berlin-Hamburg. On May 2, 1945, we were liberated by the Soviet Army. About eighty prisoners remained from the entire camp, and more than half of them were seriously ill. Our liberation took place in a tiny town approximately four kilometers from Hamburg.

Cwiberg – it was undoubtedly Zwieberge. (Polish editor’s note)

After the liberation, I returned to Będzin. I did not find anyone from my family. My parents had perished. In June of the same year, together with an operations group, I departed for the Recovered Territories, to Świdnica, and then to Nowa Ruda. I worked at securing the establishments and factories that were taken over. After the operations group was dissolved in September 1946, I started working as a locksmith in the coal mine in Wałbrzych and then in the steelworks in the same city.

In May 1947, I transferred to become a driver at the Jelenia Góra Optical Works in the town of Jelenia Góra, where I worked until 1954. In June 1954, I began work in the Jelenia Góra Pharmaceutical Works as a master mechanic and foreman in the Chief Mechanic’s Department, and I remained in this position until the end of 1983. Because of the deteriorating condition of my health, I retired on January 1, 1984. In 1976, I became eligible for a Group III Disability Pension, and since June 4, 1985, a Group II Disability Pension (because of my stay in concentration camps). In the final months of the war, I changed my previous name, Feliks-Feiwel Leitner, in order not to be liquidated. During that period, German authorities  in  concentration  camps  tried  to  murder  any  Jews  who survived. After the war, I had the surname and first name that I presently bear legalized by the appropriate state authorities.

Jelenia Góra, May 6, 1992