My Voice: Jack Aizenberg

Jack Aizenberg was born into a Jewish family in 1928 in Staszow, Poland. On 1 September 1939, Nazi Germany attacked Poland and soon began targeting Poland's 3.5 million Jews, looting homes, burning properties, publicly humiliating them and sending many to forced labour camps. In 1942, living in the last Polish town to be evacuated of all its Jews, Jack went into hiding; parting reluctantly from his parents and brother. Upon discovery of Jack's hiding place, he was sent to work in a German munitions factory in Kielce and later experienced the harrowing conditions of Buchenwald and Colditz. By February 1945, Jack, along with 600 other concentration camp inmates, was forced on a 200 mile death march, towards Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia. Jack was finally liberated in Theresienstadt on 27 April 1945 and was brought to England to recuperate in Windermere. He later settled in Manchester, creating a thriving business and loving family. Jack's book is part of the My Voice book collection, a stand-alone project of The Fed, the leading Jewish social care charity in Manchester, dedicated to preserving the life stories of Holocaust survivors and refugees from Nazi persecution who settled in the UK. The oral history, which is recorded and transcribed, captures their entire lives from before, during and after the war years. The books are written in the words of the survivor so that future generations can always hear their voice. The My Voice book collection is a valuable resource for Holocaust awareness and education.