User Comment:
L.H. was transfered as following:
August 1944-To Auschwitz;and couple of days later to-Bomnitz near Hannover (forced labor).
November 1944-To Bergen-Belsen;
December 1944-To Elsnik forced labor in weapon factory;
April 1945-Toward Oranienburg,and in April 4th 1945 was liberated in Sedin near Berlin.
Expert Reviewer Comment:
I couldn't find anything in the online databases to cross-reference with your information. So, while I cannot offer any additional data toward confirmation, I certainly appreciate your contribution to the site!
Approver Comment:
Mr. Porat,
Thank you for sharing with us your personal knowledge of your mother's history.
A quick survey of our digitized archival holdings confirms much of what you have shared (though the records indicate about a month's difference in some cases between your mother's recollection and the German records).
From the research of Andrzej Strzelecki, compiled in "The Deportation of Jews from the Lodz Ghetto to KL Auschwitz and Their
Extermination," we know that in late August approximately 150 Jewish women from Lodz were routed through Auschwitz to be employed by the SS as forced laborers at the Bomlitz sub-camp. In mid-October 1944, SS authorities closed Bomlitz and transferred the surviving women back to the main Bergen-Belsen camp.
Records from Buchenwald indicate that your mother, a Polish Jew born January 29, 1926, was transferred October 19, 1944 from Bergen Belsen to Buchenwald, where she was assigned prisoner number 30315 (The number 38480 is crossed out on several forms; I don't know whether that might have been her number at Bergen-Belsen, or if it had a different meaning). Then, on November 1, 1944, your mother was sent to Elsnig/Elbe.
Strzelecki notes that in October 1944, the SS transferred more than 250 Lodz ghetto Jews to Buchenwald-Elsnig, where they were forced to work in an explosives factory. Of course, you indicate that your mother remembers it as being December, and the camp records say it was November 1st. However, Strzelecki goes on to write that despite starvation rations, 12-hour work shifts, and brutal treatment by guards, some prisoners reported conditions as being better than at Auschwitz. In April 1945, the SS evacuated the camp in a train carrying explosives and bound for Berlin. Near Potsdam, Allied planes bombed the transport, killing many of the prisoners. The Germans hunted down and murdered most of those who managed to escape the inferno. Few prisoners survived. Do you know if your mother was on this train? Did she ever talk about it?
Again, thank you so much for sharing your personal knowledge with the researchers on this site!
Leonia survived in the ghetto until it's liquidation in 1944, when at the age of 18, she was deported to Auschwitz in late August, where she was among approximately 150 Jewish women from Lodz who were routed through Auschwitz to be employed by the SS as forced laborers at the Bomlitz sub-camp. In mid-October 1944, SS authorities closed Bomlitz and transferred the surviving women back to the main Bergen-Belsen camp. Leonia Hasenberg's prisoner number at Bergen Belsen was 1002.
On October 19, 1944, Leonia was transferred from Bergen Belsen to Buchenwald, where she was assigned prisoner number 30315 and was transferred to Elsnig/Elbe on November 1, 1944. Leonia as among more than 250 Lodz ghetto Jews which the SS transferred to Buchenwald-Elsnig, where they were forced to work in an explosives factory. Leonia's son indicates that his mother remembers it as being December and secondary sources say that it was October, but the camp records say it was November 1st. The secondary sources say that despite starvation rations, 12-hour work shifts, and brutal treatment by guards, some prisoners reported conditions at Buchenwald-Elsnig as being better than at Auschwitz.
In April 1945, the SS evacuated the camp in a train carrying explosives and bound for Berlin. Near Potsdam, Allied planes bombed the transport, killing many of the prisoners. The Germans hunted down and murdered most of those who managed to escape the inferno. Few prisoners survived.
Leonia's son indicates that she was evacuated toward Oranienburg and was liberated on April 4, 1945 in Sedin, near Berlin.
I'd like to comment on the address information.
Previous to the war, family Hassenberg lived in:
Legionow 97.Lodz.
In the year 2002 I had visited the site and showed the pics. to my mom and my dad who new the place well since he had lived in the same street.
The address and the seroundings were identified above any doubt.
Sincerely yours,
Jechiel Porat
irvink@bigpond.net.au