Chaim Finkelstajn / Charles Finkel (M / Poland, 1929), Holocaust survivor

Chaim Finkelstajn / Charles Finkel (M / Poland, 1929), Holocaust survivor

Biography

Chaim Finkelstajn was born in Strzemieszyce, Poland in 1929. He and his younger brother (Jakub Finkelstajn) were deported to Auschwitz and ended up in Buchenwald, along with other children from the same ghetto: the Kalikstein brothers (Kalman Kalikstein and Hyman Kalikstein) and the Rybstajn brothers (Jacques Ribons & Bernard Ribons).

The political organization at Buchenwald was able to protect them and many other children at the camp, until liberation.

Chaim and Jakub were among the youngest child Holocaust survivors at Buchenwald.

USHMM Collections -- Escorted by American soldiers, a transport of child survivors of Buchenwald file out of the main gate of the camp (17 April 1945). Among the children pictured are Izio Rosenman (head of column), Jacques Finkel, Charles Finkel, Fredek Margolis, Lalek Russ, Salek Sandowski, George Goldbloom and ? Zylber. Misho Frailich, Willi Fogel, A. Grossman, Lotci Miller, Laiza Grynberg, Usha Grynberg, David Perlmutter, Marek Lodzinsky, Yankel Kapelush, Yosel Dziubak, Loyosh Hershkovitz, ? Yakubovitz, Reuven Wekselman, Stanley Weinstein, Herschek Zeit, Henryk Kolber, Jacques Werber and Philip Kaner. Mor Stern is the boy in the beret and white coat, with right arm hanging down straight just right of the two American soldiers.

USHMM Collections -- Among those pictured are first row (left to right): Lolek Blum, David Perlmutter, Birenbaum, Joseph Schleifstein, unidentified, and Yisrael Meir Lau (middle row, far right). Middle row: Nathan Szwarc, Jack Neeman, Berek Silber, Jakub Finkelstajn (Jacques Finkel), unidentified, Marek Milstein, and Salek Finkelstein. Back row: Elek Grinbaum [or Grinberg], Chaim Finkelstajn (Charles Finkel), Romek Wajsman (Wekselman), and Abe Chapnick. The boys are dressed in outfits made from German uniforms due to a clothing shortage.

Chaim and Jakub was brought to France in an OSE orphanage, together with other 476 children of Buchenwald.

A picture portrays the two brothers at the OSE orphanage:

They would settle in France.