FRIMIT BURSZTYN
Frimit was born in April 1918, one of eight children born to a religious Jewish couple. She was born and raised in Warsaw, Poland, and this is her story:
'By 1939 six of my brothers and sisters had already moved out. Only my younger brother and I were left at home, and we were enjoying our parents' undivided attention. I had finished school and had lots of friends. My father had given up his business and was working at Warsaw's excellent Kagan Bakery. Nothing could have prepared us for the German invasion in September 1939. Our city was surrendered on September 28.
Our apartment was in the heart of the Warsaw ghetto, which was closed off by the Germans in November 1940. I was deported on May 1, 1943, to the Majdanek concentration camp. There, smoke from the crematoria clouded the skies and hung over the prisoners. My fingers became broken and disfigured as, day after day, I and five other women pushed a heavy wagon filled with manure across the fields surrounding the camp. If we worked too slowly, we were flogged with a bullwhip. We fertilized those fields with our bare hands.' 1
Our apartment was in the heart of the Warsaw ghetto, which was closed off by the Germans in November 1940. I was deported on May 1, 1943, to the Majdanek concentration camp. There, smoke from the crematoria clouded the skies and hung over the prisoners. My fingers became broken and disfigured as, day after day, I and five other women pushed a heavy wagon filled with manure across the fields surrounding the camp. If we worked too slowly, we were flogged with a bullwhip. We fertilized those fields with our bare hands.' 1
Frimit survived deportation to seven more Nazi camps, before being liberated in 1945.
1 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “Frimit Bursztyn.” Holocaust Encyclopedia. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/idcard.php?ModuleId=10006663. Accessed on 13/09/14.
2 Portrait of Frimit Bursztyn. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
2 Portrait of Frimit Bursztyn. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Copyright of United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.