My name is Robert Bennett, I was born Beno Benczkowski in the Free City of Danzig on March 15, 1933. I lived there with my parents and my sister and in 1939 Mr. Chamberlain gave Danzig to Hitler and it became very uncomfortable for us so we moved to Lodz where my family was from originally.
My father started his business in Lodz and was doing pretty well for about a few months when the Germans came in and we were forced to move in the Lodz Ghetto, where we all lived in one room with my father, my mother, my sister and my grandmother. In the Ghetto we worked in a factory that made uniforms for the Germans. I was at the time 7 years old and I worked on a buttonhole machine.
We didn't have much food, but the whole family was together. Every so often they would clean out the Ghetto. My aunt was a pharmacist, so she had a special pass, and she was able to get in and out. She sometimes would put a lock on our door from outside. That's how we survived many of those clean-outs-the Germans thought that there was no one inside the room, since it was locked from outside.
The life went on, we managed somehow. But in 1944 we decided that we can't keep on living like this and the Ghetto was almost empty, so we went to a meeting with this German officer, who gave us a German word of honor that we are going to this other place that will be much nicer, where they will give us clothing, better food, we'd be getting a new job...
And that's how we wound up going to Auschwitz-Birkenau. When we got off the train they separated us-men to one side and women and children to the other. They told us we'd be getting in a shower and getting new clothes, which I thought was a shame because I had this really nice coat on. I figured they wouldn't let me take a shower with my mother, so I stayed with my father.
Finally we got to this man, who I later found out was Mr. Josef Mengele himself. He asked me how old was I and I for some reason said - twenty-one. I didn't look anything close to twenty-one obviously, but I did speak perfect German and maybe that's why he let me go by. Then everyone needed to be examined by a doctor and by that time we were all completely naked. Out of a sudden a Capo pulled me from the line to the right, to the other side where the people who already went through the doctor were standing. I never found out who this person was but he saved my life; I'd never make it through the doctor, as they were looking for the strong, able men for labor - all others were sent to the other side.
Of course, we didn't know anything at that point. In fact, when we were going through all that mess I smelled something in the air and to me it smelled like, you know, when my mother used to clean out the chickens and she would burn up the feathers. I asked my father, "What's that?" and he said, "Ah, they're probably cleaning up the chickens to cook." But it was burning hair from the chimneys.
Then the night came, we wound up in this hangar. And every few minutes we heard "Whoever has gold, diamonds, whatever hidden - drop it, because we will x-ray you and find it". And sure enough, there was stuff laying on the ground. That went on all night long. Finally they gave us uniforms and we went to the barracks.
On that morning, they lined us up. I was in the first line because I was the smallest kid. The officer that was doing the count had it in for me. When he got close to me he swiped me with his hand, and he broke my nose.
My father applied for all kinds of jobs because we knew that if we didn't get out of Birkenau we would end up in the ovens. But they didn't want to take me. Finally came a guy from BMW, and my father told him, "Yes, I'm a mechanic"-which wasn't true-"and my son has golden hands." I guess that man was a nice guy, and he accepted us together.
On the way to the train we passed... We passed the women camp and someone recognized my father and called my mother. That was the day I saw my mother and my sister for the last time. It took me a long time to find out what happened to them. Eventually I discovered that they were sent to Stutthof concentration camp and that's all I know.
We were on a train and ended up in Gorlitz, Germany. And same thing - there was a camp and the officer who was in charge was this little Czech guy. From the signs on his uniform we could tell he was a criminal, but he was in charge of the camp. Anyway, they lined us up and he was walking along the line and once he approached me, he looked at me and guess what, he hit me in my nose. Again!
In our camp we were working at the Messerschmitt factory, and I was working on the landing gear. Particularly on the pump, my job was to put a leather sleeve on the pump. This pump would close up on me, so in order to avoid that I would put a wrench inside to hold the pump and then take it out. One day I forgot to take it out.
Two Gestapo guys came and said "Sabotage". They took me to the head of the factory who happened to be the guy who interviewed my father in Aushwitz. So I explained the situation, thankfully being able to speak perfect German, I told him what happened and he said - Yes, he's right, it wasn't a sabotage, just a mistake. That only got me 10 lashes, which was better than being killed.
That headmaster saved my life twice. First when he took me and my father out of Birkenau, and this second time with the wrench. Later I was trying to locate him or his family, I wrote to BMW and they said that the factory was completely destroyed along with all of the records. So I never was able to thank him.
The guards at the camp were Ukrainians, some of them were nice to us, some of them weren't. We only got a piece of bread in the morning and soup during the day and sometimes the Ukrainian guards that didn't finish their soup would give it to us. But some would just throw it away. I used to be on the cleaning duties at the dining room and as a matter of fact, on the first day a Ukrainian soldier came to me, nodded and smiled, made some motions with his hands mimicking the mopping of the floor that I was doing and then later that soldier came to me and gave me his whole soup. There were also some Russian soldiers and some Russian women among the workers and a Russian woman would give me a potato once in a while. So there were some nice people.
One day in May we heard the noise and we saw silver planes zooming over. Someone said - Americans. Soon after that day, one morning we wake up and there is no one there, all the Germans are gone. We cut the wires, but were afraid to go outside because we didn't know what was outside. We finally decided to go outside of the barracks when the guards started to shoot at us. Got me right here, under my left arm, but I ended up escaping anyway.
When we were in town and Germans started inviting us in their houses, saying "Come on, we'll help you". At the same time Russian planes were flying very low, barely over the roofs of the houses. We stayed in the basement of a German who said that he was a communist. Out of a sudden, all Germans were communists.
Next morning the Russians entered Gorlitz and, oh boy, they were in a rough shape. The first Russian I saw was on a bicycle with no tires and he didn't have any boots on, just some rags tied around his feet.
Anyhow, my father, myself and two other guys took over a house and stayed there for couple of weeks until we were recuperated enough and then we started to march back to our home in Lodz.
There was no transportation so a lot of people were marching in every which direction. We had a little wagon on which we put a lot of scraps, food and stuff we took from the Germans and there were a lot of incidents along the way, as you can imagine. Everyone was afraid of the Russians now, because they were all crazy for 3 things - bicycles, motorcycles and women.
When we finally got back to Lodz we started looking for our relatives. We couldn't find nobody, except one cousin. There was only about 500 Jews that left out in the Ghetto. And those 500 were made to dig graves for themselves, I guess Germans didn't want any witnesses and wanted to clear the Ghetto. But the Russians came just in time. That grave is still open as far as I know, and those 500 were lucky not to be in it. Among those 500 there was a friend of mine. I saw him shortly I got back to Lodz, and what was funny - we were the same size when I left the Ghetto and now he was twice as big as me. But I gained weight and strength soon enough.
So we went back to Danzig for a little, but there was nothing there for us. We then went to Prague and from there we worked our way West to Paris. There my father got in touch with my aunt who was in America. She wasn't able to get us visa to the States but we arranged a Cuban visa. We were in France for about three months waiting for the visa to get approved and then we wound up going to Cuba. We actually went through New York and spent about a month here and what big mistake it was, not just staying here. But we couldn't think about doing something illegal like that, so after 30 days we went to Cuba.
It took us 5 years to get a visa to get to America and finally December 31, 1951 we arrived here The Korean War was going on, and five or six months later I was drafted into the American army. I was in the army for three years. I got back in May, and in September I got married to my wife. I was working as a cutter. Later I started my own business, Superior Pants. I started with making pants, then leisure suits, and later tuxedos.
I miss my work. I try to play some golf; I go to the gym every day and play with my dogs. I have my family: one son and three daughters. I got fourteen grandchildren, and as of yesterday I have my third great-grandchild. My family today is twenty-four people. Just imagine if out of these six million that were killed, an average person would have a half of that-how many Jews would there be today.
