Reuven Luwkowicz (Part V)

Did you return to your hometown?

In September, around the time of the Yamim Tovim, I was given a week off from work. I went back to Poland to see if I could find any of my relatives. I didn’t find anyone.

It was Yom Kippur and I was davening with a minyan in an area of the mikveh across the street from where I used to live. Suddenly we heard shots and we discovered that the Poles had shot a lovely couple, Mr. and Mrs. Krulix, who had come back.

After this episode I made up my mind to leave Poland immediately and return to Germany. I ran out, and when I hit the main street of the town I heard someone calling me from the window of a building. They asked me to come up to their apartment for a few minutes. I didn’t want to go because I was running to catch the train to Germany. They begged me that they had an orphaned girl staying with them who wanted to go to Germany but she didn’t want to travel alone. Could I possibly take her with me? I told them that I am Orthodox and I couldn’t just travel with a strange girl. So a day after Yom Kippur I married this girl with a regular chuppah and kiddushin, and we continued on our way to Germany. This is my wife today, baruch Hashem.

What was the food situation?

While we were in Blizin, we were given small rations of soup and bread. The soup was so hot that it wasn’t edible.

In Auschwitz we were given a specialty — salami twice a week.

In Dachau we ate soup made of grass.

You had mentioned that you clearly saw Yad Hashem in everything. Can you share some stories with us?

After I lost my whole family I really didn’t care to live. But it was obviously decreed that I should live. There were many times that I took tremendous risks but I wasn’t caught, or for some reason they let me go. The Germans planned to have me hung a few times and I miraculously escaped.

One day, while in Blizin, there was a civilian in charge of Shop 3, where I was working. To this day I’m not sure what his title was, but he had some sort of power. He claimed that I wasn’t doing my work. When they made tzell appell I was called out and I was going to be shot. Suddenly a Jewish kapo by the name of Ginzberg came over to me and began hitting me. He was screaming at me, “Du geist morgin tzu Steinbruch! Du geist morgin tzu Steinbruch!” (“Tomorrow we will take you to Steinbruch!”) When the Germans saw that I was being taken care of, they walked away. I never went to Steinbruch, but this man saved my life.

Can you share with us some examples of how you were able to help others during these terribly hard times?

I was nearby when they brought in transports full of clothing from the ghettos. I would steal different articles of clothing and distribute them to others. One time I got hold of a pair of pants. I took these pants and made it into a cap. Then I traded it for a loaf of bread which I divided up among all those around me. I never worried about myself, only about others.

When the terrible disease of typhus broke out, many of those around me became very ill. I snuck into the kitchen and tried to bring extra food and water back to the barracks to feed them.

Did you ever find out what happened to the rest of your family?

In 1945 I heard second-hand that my father was taken from the ghetto to a place called Kazusko and murdered there. My brother was wiped out in the underground escape.

How did you keep your emunah through the horrors of the Holocaust?

I saw quite a few times when I was sentenced to death and Hakadosh Baruch Hu saved me. In addition, I had so many terrible illnesses and yet I survived. It was so clear to me. There was no question that Hashem was watching over me.

What were Shabbos and Yom Tov like?

Most of the time we didn’t even know that it was Shabbos or Yom Tov.

What message can you leave us with?

Children, first and foremost, respect your parents and elders. Appreciate them. Secondly, thank Hashem every step of the way for the small things as well as the big.

For the past 25 years I have been working for the Bikur Cholim. When I got out from the gehinnom of the concentration camps I promised to help people whenever possible. Baruch Hashem, I was able to keep to my word. I say the whole Tehillim three times every day, and four times on Shabbos.

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