Timeline: Solomon Radasky

Period: Sep 2, 1940 to Sep 2, 2002

The Life of Solomon Radasky

Jan 2, 1941

Captured

In 1941, Solomon Radasky was captured by S.S. men and forced to clean snow off of railroads.

Jan 25, 1941

Mother and Oldest Sister Killed

His mother and oldest sister were killed in the last week of January in 1941. He returned from shoveling snow and found them both shot. He found out it was because the S.S. men were going around collecting jewelry andfurs and his mother said she had none.
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Apr 2, 1942

Father Killed

His father went to buy bread from children who smuggled it into the ghetto and a Jewish policeman who saw it happen told a German about it. The German shot his father in the back. "Smuggling began at the very moment that the Jewish area of residence was established; its inhabitants were forced to live on 180 grams of bread a day, 220 grams of sugar a month, 1 kg. of jam and 1 kg. of honey, etc. " (http://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/resource/document/DocRing1.htm).

Jul 22, 1942

Deportations Begin

Deportations began and all of his siblings were sent to Treblinka. That was the last time he saw anyone from his family again. "When I came to Treblinka the camp commandant was a doctor named Dr. Eberl. He was very ambitious. It was said that he ordered more transports than could be "processed" in the camp. That meant that trains had to wait outside the camp because the occupants of the previous transport had not yet all been killed." (http://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/resource/document/DocTreb.htm)

Apr 19, 1943

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

He stayed in the ghetto and ran his family's coat shop up until this date, when the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began. He was in the uprising until May 1. "The uprising lasted from April 19th to May 16th. The Nazis were able to overcome the vastly outnumbered and poorly armed Jewish resistance fighters." (http://www.historycentral.com/ww2/events/WarsawGhettoUprising.html)

May 1, 1943

Shot in the Ankle

He got shot in the right ankle and was sent to Majdanek. This was another death camp. There a man operated on his ankle for him. He spent 9 weeks here before he went through another deportation.

Jul 3, 1943

Auschwitz

He was transferred to Auschwitz. There he survived the selection and got tattooed his identification number. "The basic principle behind everything is: conserve all manpower for work. The previous type of "resettlement action" has been thoroughly rejected, since it is too costly to destroy precious work energy on a continual basis. " (http://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/resource/document/DocAusch.htm).

May 2, 1944

Working

He got out of working in the coal mines thanks to a couple of the guys he made friends with. Instead he worked for over a year with the same guys digging sand. The sand was for covering the ashes of the crematoria. He saw all the people going in.

Aug 2, 1944

Living Children

In August and Sptember of 1944, he saw them throw living children into the crematioria. They would grab them by an arm and a leg and throw them in.

Jan 18, 1945

Liquidation

They began liquidating Auschwitz. Solomon left the day the began. Then 7 days later the Russians liberated it.

Jan 21, 1945

Gross-Rosen

They walked for a night until they got to a stable, where they stayed the night. Then they got on a train and a train brought them to Gross-Rosen in two days. There he was put in a shed with 2 thousand men and was fed a slice of bread and cup of coffee each day.

Jan 24, 1945

Dachau

They walked them to a railroad station and in three days they were in Dachau. On the train ride up they ate snow for water. A man was on the train with his son who went insane and choked his father to death.

Apr 26, 1945

Left Dachau

He left Dachau on this day.

May 1, 1945

Liberated

At 4 a.m. one morning they heard heavy traffic outside the train. "Everybody started hollering and crying. The American soldiers said we were free. They arrested the Germans and the Germans got scared. It was May 1, 1945." (http://www.holocaustsurvivors.org/cgi-bin/data.show.pl?di=record&da=survivors&ke=7).