(JEWISH GROUP) Holocaust survivor Leon Weintraub: "We were dehumanized"
The 100-year-old vividly recalls the hunger, death camps and cruelty of the guards. Thus, he tirelessly works to ensure that the Holocaust is never forgotten. Leon Weintraub can still remember the day the Nazis marched into his Polish hometown of Lodz on September 9, 1939.
"There they came, seemingly endless rows of tall, healthy young soldiers in green Wehrmacht uniforms. The thought of the sound of their hobnail boots on the cobblestones still sends a cold shiver down my spine," he tells DW. "They exuded so much power and would smash anything that stood in their way."
Weintraub was only 13 then and had no idea what horrors awaited him. He lived in a poor neighborhood with his four sisters and his mother, who ran a small laundry service. His father had died when he was barely two-years-old. The tight-knit family relied on each other for support. Leon was a bright boy.
"Reading books and watching movies were like a peephole for me, allowing me to get a glimpse at another world," he says.
Confined behind ghetto walls
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