Itzik Weinberg (M / Poland, 1938), Holocaust survivor
Itzik Weinberg (M / Poland, 1938), Holocaust survivor
- KEYWORDS : <Kastner Train> <Bergen-Belsen> <Switzerland> -- <Israel>
Biography
Izhak Weinberg was born in 1938 in Krakow, Poland to Mordechai and Minda Weinberg. In 1941 the family was deported to the Krakow ghetto. In 1942 the parents were sent to die at Belzec. Izhac and his brother Avner were smuggled out of the ghetto and for two years they were hidden among the local gentiles.
In February 1944, they were smuggled through Czechoslovakia to Hungary. In June 1944 the two children were aboard the Kastner Train. They are not in any official list of passengers as they were smuggled secretly in the transport. They arrived in Switzerland in December 1944, after spending some months in Bergen-Belsen.
After the war, they reached Palestine thru Italy.
USHMM
Izhak Weinberg was born in 1938 in Krakow, Poland to Jewish family. His parents names were Mordechai and Minda Weinberg. In 1941 the family was deported to the Krakow ghetto. In June 1942, there was a large aktion in the ghetto, and the entire family of 60 people was sent to the extermination camp in Belzec. At the same day the whole family was killed in the gas chambers of the camp. Weinberg and his brother Avner were smuggled out of the ghetto by his aunt, Avin's sister Malka, and his uncle Yitzhak to Shatil's house, and for two years they were hidden among the local gentiles.
In February 1944, they were smuggled through Czechoslovakia to Hungary, but only one month later, in March 1944, Nazi Germany entered Budapest and the demonic dance began again.
In June 1944, the aunt who smuggled them to Hungary brought the brothers as hidden passengers to the Kasztner train, assuming that this was a rescue train intended to reach Palestine. Due to short negotiations between Kasztner and Eichmann, the rescue train was transferred to Germany and all its passengers 1684 + the two hidden children, ended in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
As their language was Polish, while the other passengers were Hungarian-speaking, they found themselves again in the heart of hell alone, without any relatives. Weinberg was five and a half years old then, left to care for his younger brother. A 20 year old young woman adopted them in camp for 180 days. Their native language was changed from Polish to Hungarian.
In December 1944, the rest of the surviving group was released and transferred under the agreement between Kasztner and Eichmann to Switzerland. In Switzerland, they are slowly recovering and gradually returning to normal life, but now Naomi, the girl who adopted them and became a loving and devoted mother in the camp, committed suicide.
In September 1945, they were transferred to the port of Bari in Italy and from there sailed on the illegal immigrant ship "Will Duran" to Palestine. As soon as they arrived in Palestine, they were transferred by the British to the Atlit detention camp. They stayed in the camp for several weeks.
On October 11, 1944, The day after the night of the break-in to Atlit, they are transferred to Agudat Israel's Sanhedria institution in Jerusalem, and study in the "cheder" Torah and mitzvot. Here the Hungarian language is replaced by Yiddish. After a few months, as a result of a lack of accommodation, they are smuggled from there and transferred to the Tehiya Bnei Akiva youth center in Petah Tikva for three years. Here, for the fourth time, their language of Yiddish is changed to Hebrew and studied at the Netzach Yisrael boys' school.