Holocaust Survivor Testimony: Shaul Spielmann

Shaul Spielmann was born in 1931 in Vienna, Austria, the only son of Benno, an engineer at the Austrian Electric Company, and Jossefa, a pianist who ran the family-owned delicatessen.
"The day after the Anschluss in March 1938, the principal informed me and the other two Jewish students that because of the Nuremberg Laws we could not continue to study at the school," Shaul recalled. "I returned home in tears. My father told me he had been fired."
"Two days later, SA officers broke into our apartment. One put a gun to my head and told my father that if he did not hand over all the money, gold and valuables in the house, he would have to scrape my brain off the wall. Mother collapsed. Father gave them everything. I was terribly afraid the officer would accidentally shoot, because his finger was on the trigger."
The Germans confiscated the family's apartment and delicatessen. The family made a living from Benno's work in the Jewish community. They remained in Austria with Shaul's grandfather, who was too unwell to leave.
One night in September 1942, Shaul and his family were sent to a Jewish school that had been turned into a detention facility and from there were taken to the Terezin ghetto. About a year later, in November 1943, they were deported to Auschwitz.
"I wish I could forget the ramp at Birkenau. There, the gates of hell opened. We were surrounded by SS men with formidable dogs. Screams from the loudspeakers and bright spotlights on all sides." Elderly people, who fell onto the ramp as they exited, were trampled to death by those getting off the wagon. "It was freezing. Even the blood that had been shed froze."
Shaul's grandmother died in the camp. Jossefa became ill and was transferred to the Infirmary Block. "I knocked on the wall and called her name until she answered me. I managed to move a wooden board and looked inside. She was a skeleton and could not get out of bed. One morning, her body was taken out on a cart."
Shaul's name was on the list of prisoners destined for extermination, but his father Benno, who worked in the camp office as a registrar, moved it to a list of older boys, thus saving him from death. Benno was sent to another labor camp. "I saw my father among the marching prisoners. I managed to throw him a bag over the electric fence. He gestured with his fist: 'Hold on.' That was the last time I saw him." In August 1944, Shaul was selected for extermination. However, the Children's Block overseer, Viennese by birth, appealed the decision, arguing that Shaul was essential for work. Shaul was saved once more.
In January 1945, Shaul and the other prisoners were forced on a death march. "We walked in forests, on paths strewn with corpses. At night, the prisoners lay on the floor in the frost; by morning, some had frozen to death."
Shaul was liberated by the US Army in the Gunskirchen camp while suffering from typhus. After recovering, he immigrated to Eretz Israel (Mandatory Palestine) and volunteered for the Palmach. He fought and was wounded in the War of Independence. He fought in all the subsequent Israeli wars until the Yom Kippur War. He worked in Magen David Adom in the Negev area, saving many lives and training the younger generations.
Shaul and Myriam have seven children, 18 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

[@stjbananas]

I will never forget, Sir. Ever. Ever.

[@khursheedtuli729]

Feel too numb to cry ......if I CD go back in time, believe me ,Nothing would stop me from avenging these helpless souls.....

[@micheled6111]

And a beautiful family it appears. Thank you for your testimony

[@tamaramorton8812]

Amazing that he survived. Thank you for your testimony.

[@estebank4592]

So glad he survived and build a beautiful family

[@yonat-admoni]

חזק ואמץ איש יקר!! אנחנו אוהבים אותך

[@yaelelerner3544]

We understand this is extremely painful for you to give these horrible testimonies, but we thank you because it is absolutely necessary for us to know, and to pass it on to History.

[@audreymaqks]

🙏🕊

[@QuintTheSharker]

Such a beautiful and rich and vibrant ethno-religious group

[@ronentene5607]

What??????

[@jon780249]

The courage needed to go on living through such hellish memories never fails to move me. The inhumanity of mankind is unfathomable.

[@jaschahoff]

Never !!!🕎✡️💔🇮🇱🌻

[@carloshugogeib7961]

We never will gues where human bestiallity can reach.

[@DenoKeller]

🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@ciai7317]

How could so many German were deshumanized to do such horrible things.

[@ASHIR001]

That time Germans were like Zionists.

[@terrancenorris9992]

To this very day, many, many people STILL cannot grasp the magnitude of the horror of the nazis death camps.

[@yaelelerner3544]

And so many Ukrainians as well, so as people in Baltic countries. Let us NEVER forget that when the Einsatzgruppen entered Ukraine, Ukrainians zealously volonteered to help massacre 1 MILLION 800 000 JEWS in such a feroceous way that it left the Nazis astonished!

[@bel31670]

Remember Zechariah 8:23 This is what the LORD Almighty says: “In those days ten people from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, ‘Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.’” And again. Isaiah 41:11-12 Behold, all who are incensed against you shall be put to shame and confounded; those who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall perish. 12 You shall seek those who contend with you, but you shall not find them; those who war against you shall be as nothing at all.

[@1JamesMayToGoPlease]

These never get easier to watch. How this could happen and some *still* don't realize that bigotry is wrong, I'll never understand.

[@kathfletcher8765]

Amazing gentleman God bless him 🙏🏻🙏

[@MyMags8]

💖🌟🙏

[@adamuptzerk2982]

Never again!!✡️🇮🇱🌹🕯️

[@elisabethdakak878]

🇮🇱🙏🏻🇮🇱🙏🏻🇮🇱🌹🇮🇱🍓🇮🇱🌹

[@onlineactivity2349]

police can not protect people , we saw it again .

[@andrzejbiesiadecki9192]

You can not see this, the truth

[@annedahl7151]

😭⚘✒📕❤

[@carpediem19999]

Humans wouldn't even need to think about that of course take the gold and money 🤦🏻‍♂️

[@jacobweinstein9136]

And yet you support fascists murdering innocent men, women, and children, kidnapping babies and sending them to the homeland. You stand with Russia and dare come here at all? Punt yourself to Russia and go to the fieriest pits of hell where you belong.

[@frankcaciques1318]

For heaven's sake,, just go away and just leave us alone.. go away. !

[@carloshugogeib7961]

We never will gues where human bestiallity can reach.