Fred Ferber Oral History

Fred Ferber Oral History

An interview with Fred Ferber, a Holocaust survivor, conducted by Dr. Sidney Bolkosky, Professor of History at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. Mr. Ferber was born in 1930 in Swietchlowice, Poland. In 1933, the Ferber family re-located to Chorzów, Poland and then to Kraków, Poland, ca. 1936. Following the German invasion, the Ferbers were forced into the Kraków Ghetto located in Podgórze. In 1943, the family was rounded-up and sent to the Plaszów forced labor camp. While in Plaszów, Fred's father was murdered by the camp's Kommandant, Amon Goethe. Fred worked in the metal and fabric shops in the camp while his mother worked in a labor detail. Fred's brother was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau where he died. Fred was separated from his mother when he was transferred with a number of other prisoners to the Mauthausen forced labor camp in Austria. From there, Fred was transferred to Gusen II and then to Gunskirchen (both sub-camps of Mauthausen). He was liberated by the American Army in May 1945. Following liberation and a short stay in a DP camp where he recuperated from typhus and dysentery, Fred returned to Poland to find his family. He was reunited with his mother in Sopot, Poland. He moved around Europe until the late 1940s, when he emigrated to America. In the United States, he stayed in an orphanage in San Francisco, while attending school and college

Bolkosky, Sidney M

Ferber, Fred

2001-01-09