[Kyt]

Continued:

Although still weak from his wound, Mr. Weinstein was determined to live. The Germans running the camp were totally capricious and workers were pulled daily from the ranks and killed for no reason. On two occasions Mr. Weinstein was selected to be murdered, but on both occasions managed to elude his captors.
Soon, Mr. Weinstein was back loading bundles of victims' clothing onto the empty trains.

"We knew that the goods were going to be shipped to the central warehouse in Warsaw, or perhaps to Germany," he wrote. "Several times I tried to enter a car and hide under the suitcases, but the loaders working in the train did not let me in. ... When the car was partially filled, I carried a bundle inside. But instead of going back out, I hid in a corner near the window. When the car filled up halfway, Michael Fischmann and Gedalia Rosenzweig climbed in and joined me ... . Michael was the oldest of us, about 24. Evidently anticipating our future needs, he had concealed several belts filled with gold coins that he had taken from corpses."

The boys lay there, anxious and tense, while their comrades added more bundles. At the end, the SS men inspected the car, rummaging through the bundles. "[Finally,] he said, 'in Ordnung'-everything's OK-and jumped onto the platform. ... Some time later, we heard the heavy door being slammed shut and locked. We lay in total darkness for about half an hour more until the locomotive lurched into action and the cars began to move. I climbed up a bit and peered through the slats of the grate. The platform began to fade into the distance. .... Suddenly I realized that I was outside. I had escaped from Treblinka."
The boys later jumped from the moving train and made their way back to Losice. The people in the small ghetto could not believe the tale they told of mass deaths. "How could they believe that-especially from Germany, the most civilized country in Europe?" he asked.

He did not know where to go, but eventually decided the safest thing to do would be to join his father in the forced labor camp. "I was with my father in one day."
The two escaped together and went into hiding for the next two years. "We made a hiding place in a pig sty," he recalled. "After about three weeks the poor farmer was afraid and chased us out. My father sent me to a friend who was head of fish hatcheries on big estates. ..."

Father and son hid out at the hatchery for 17 months, living the last few months in the forest where Szczebunskis and Helena Biernacki supplied them with food and shelter until their liberation. "I was very lucky," he concluded. "Later I fought the Germans with the Polish Army."

Mr. Weinstein immigrated to the United States in 1949, assisted by his paternal uncle who had come here before World War I. He worked in the garment business, forming his own successful company. "I saved some money and took a chance going into business. I worked a lot of hours and made good. I was 45 years in business [before closing the business several years ago]. My oldest son came into my business later, but it was a dying business because you can't compete with China."

"I have been very lucky," he concluded. "I have two sons-my older son is a biochemist, and my younger is a professor of mathematics at Columbia. I have seven grandchildren-one grandson is a graduate student in biophysics at Stamford and another granddaughter is a senior at Columbia. This is the best country in the world."

The talk is free to the public and refreshments will be served. Signed copies of Mr. Weinstein's book will be for sale. For more information, call the library at 860-927-3761 or visit the Web site at kentmemoriallibrary.org.