Gabriele Boccaccini at 22:53, 21 June 2021

2021-06-21T22:53:31Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:53, 21 June 2021
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			[[File:Four Windermere Children.jpg\|thumb\|300px\|Four [[Windermere Children]] pose with a Union Jack soon after their arrival in England: (left to right) [[Fischel Berger\|Felix Berger]], [[Jerry Herszberg]], unidentified, and [[Polek Gastfreund]]]]

	'''Polek Gastfreund / Paul Gast''' (M / Poland, 1926), Holocaust survivor		'''Polek Gastfreund / Paul Gast''' (M / Poland, 1926), Holocaust survivor

Gabriele Boccaccini: Created page with "'''Polek Gastfreund / Paul Gast''' (M / Poland, 1926), Holocaust survivor * KEYWORDS : ..."

2021-06-21T22:52:19Z

Created page with "'''Polek Gastfreund / Paul Gast''' (M / Poland, 1926), Holocaust survivor * KEYWORDS : <Lodz Ghetto> <Auschwitz> <Braunschweig> <Watenstedt> <Ravensbruck>..."

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'''Polek Gastfreund / Paul Gast''' (M / Poland, 1926), Holocaust survivor

* KEYWORDS : <[[Lodz Ghetto]]> <[[Auschwitz]]> <[[Braunschweig]]> <[[Watenstedt]]> <[[Ravensbruck]]> <[[Ludwigslust]]> -- <[[Windermere Children]]> <England> <United States>

== Biography ==

Polek Israel Gastfreund was born in 1926 in Lodz, Germany, to Schlama and Mina.

When the Germans occupied Poland, his father was immediately shot. The rest of the family was forced to live in the [[Lodz Ghetto]]. In August 1944 they were deported to [[Auschwitz]]. Polek was transferred to [[Braunschweig]] and in early 1945 to [[Ravensbruck]] and [[Ludwigslust]], where he was liberated.

After the war he fled to Prague to avoid antisemitism and joined the [[Windermere Children]] in their journey to England. In 1952 he emigrated to the United States.

== USHMM Profile ==

Paul Gast (born Polek Gastfreund) is the son of Szlama and Mina Gastfreund. He was born on November 16, 1929 in Lodz, where his father owned a textile factory. During the German occupation the family was forced into the ghetto, where Polek's father was killed soon after it was sealed off in the winter of 1940. Polek worked in a ghetto metal shop almost until the liquidation of the ghetto. In August 1944 Polek and his mother were deported to Auschwitz, where Mina perished. Polek remained in Auschwitz for two or three months before being transferred to Braunschweig, where he was put to work at the Büssing Werke trucking factory. From there he was taken to Watenstedt, and later to Ravensbrück and Wöbbelin. Polek was liberated in Wöbbelin on May 2, 1945 at the age of 16. Soon after the end of the war he returned to Lodz to look for surviving family members, but found no one. Polek then decided to go to Palestine and proceeded to Prague on the first leg of his journey. In Prague he learned that England had agreed to admit a large group of child survivors and that such a group was forming in Theresienstadt. Polek changed his plans and proceeded to Theresienstadt, where he joined the first group of Jewish orphans leaving for Britain. He arrived in Windermere on August 14, 1945.

== Sources ==

* USHMM Database (Israel Gasterfreund, 10 [18] Nov 1930) -- YES
* 45aid.org (Israel Gasfreund, 1926) -- YES

== External links ==

[[Category:Holocaust Children, 1926 (subject)|1926 Gastfreund]]
[[Category:Holocaust Children, Czechia (subject)|1926 Gastfreund]]

[[Category:Lodz Ghetto (subject)|1926 Gastfreund]]
[[Category:Auschwitz (subject)|1926 Gastfreund]]
[[Category:Ravensbruck (subject)|1926 Gastfreund]]

[[Category:Windermere Children (subject)|1926 Gastfreund]]

[[Category:Holocaust Children's Photos (subject)|1926 Gastfreund]]

Polek Gastfreund - Revision history

Gabriele Boccaccini at 22:53, 21 June 2021

Gabriele Boccaccini: Created page with "'''Polek Gastfreund / Paul Gast''' (M / Poland, 1926), Holocaust survivor * KEYWORDS : ..."