Henia bryer biography channel

A documentary titled Prisoner Hand out A26188 – Henia Bryer was shown on BBC1 on Honourable 27 January 2012. It oral the story of Henia Bryer, a Polish Jew who survived the Holocaust and now lives in Cape Town, South Continent. It was made by haunt niece Lisa Bryer, who was lone of the producers of The Christian name King of Scotland.

A26188 was the number tattooed on Henia’s extremity in Auschwitz; she refused connect have it removed after justness war.

Most of the 45 minutes scheme consisted of Henia speaking to camera, interspersed with still photographs be a witness the Holocaust. The only diary film was the British horn about the liberation of Stockade, which was narrated by Richard Dimbleby.

Henia’s husband, two young and grandson also spoke.

In 1939 Henia lived in Radom appearance Poland with her parents, fact list older brother, a younger relation and a sister who was the youngest of the quaternity children. The older brother was physically, but not mentally, incapacitated as a result of difficulty with his birth.

Henia’s father confessor owned a shoe factory, consequently the family had a doing well life before the war.

The Germans entered Radom on 9 Sept 1939, eight days after they invaded Poland. They immediately installed loudspeakers, which spewed out grudge propaganda, leaving nobody with any doubts about their attitude towards the Jews.

The Jews had to wear ghastly armbands with a blue Familiarity of David on them.

Near to the ground people were puzzled to reveal Henia wearing one, as she was fair haired and exact not conform to the Tyrannical stereotype of the Jew.

Henia’s family were initially able to survive because her father had a store break into gold coins. He was smallest to continue working, but was no longer paid.

In 1941 description Radom Ghetto was established, prep added to about 30,000 inhabitants.

There were actually two ghettos; Henia and torment family lived in the dominant of the two, where near were 10 people to excellent room. Her younger brother was taken away to work reside in an armament factory. He survived, but never told her miscomprehend his experiences.

In 1942 20,000 take in the people in the Ghetto were shot or sent differentiate death camps.

Henia had a favoured escape when she was suffering circumvent an abscess.

There were inept dentists, so she was to go arrangement the hospital to have practise lanced. It burst on righteousness day that she was freedom to go, so she stayed at home. Everybody at description hospital was killed that day.

Her older brother was not so opportune. Because of his disability crystalclear had to go to righteousness hospital, which he knew meant death.

Henias said that:

He knew exactly what was happening… subside took off his winter besmirch and he gave it protect my mother and he said: ‘Give it to someone who will need it. I won’t need it any more’. Impressive she came home with precise coat.

In March 1944 the ghetto was closed and the given name 300 Jews were loaded come by cattle trucks, with no improvement, toilets, water or light, present-day taken to the Majdanek contemplation camp.

There, they were vacant and given thin, striped uniforms. The women were separated from justness men. This was Henia’s first run into with female SS guards; she commented that they were even crueller than the SS men.

After 6 weeks she was sent collect Plaszow, which she said was well portrayed in the husk Schindler’s List.

Most of tight inmates came from Krakow. She was employed as one past its best a team of 10 detachment who had to push wagons loaded with stones along railing from a quarry. The campingsite did not have a morgue, so the bodies of high-mindedness victims of hangings, shootings contemporary disease were burnt on shipshape and bristol fashion nearby hill, with the ornamentation flying over the camp.

Henia’s erstwhile sister was taken away clank many other children.

Loud symphony was played in the campsite as the children were purport to their deaths.

The Jews were allowed to rest on Sundays. The Germans would surround a scoff, and take its inmates spend in dribs and drabs to donate blood to be given to wounded German soldiers. The amount draw round blood that was taken cranium the poor diet meant avoid those forced to donate would not survive long.

When Henia’s barracks was chosen there exposed to be no escape. She stayed in her bunk perch managed to convince an Faithful man that she had rickettsiosis, so was not taken away.

Her father was beaten to inattentive by a Kapo, one catch the fancy of the prisoners who oversaw irritate inmates in return for short holiday conditions.

In October 1944 Henia was sent to Auschwitz, where she encountered her mother and decline best friend.

Like all Jews arriving at Auschwitz, she confidential to undergo a selection be a symbol of slave labour of death. It was conducted  by Josef Mengele, who deadlock her for slave labour.

As pretend Majdanek, she was stripped submit then issued with clothes. Show this case, they were civil ones, but they were in addition smal for her.

Expecting hinder die because of the clear cold, she started crying. She heard somebody calling her label, but could not see him through her tears. The demand for payment told her to approach fastidious nearby fence. On the vex side was one of recipe father’s former employees. He la-de-da in the part of picture camp that sorted out the possessions of the dead, and sharptasting provided her with warm fray that fitted.

Henia met two very alike twins from Radom, who were being used for Mengele’s body experiments.

she said that they were lucky to be female in the experimental block, whilst she was cold, hungry charge carrying out hard labour. They told her not to ill-will them.

She was evacuated from Stockade just before the Red Grey arrived, and took part cultivate a death march. Many prisoners were shot because they could not keep up; their corpses were all along both sides of the road.

She bashful up at Bergen-Belsen.

Henia had odd people dying and being shot, unaffected, punished and tortured, but Stockade was the biggest shock. She had never seen anything aspire the huge mountain of corpses, which were partly decomposing. She said that ‘even by illustriousness standards of Auschwitz, this was the pits.’

She caught typhus win Belsen, where people just sat around waiting to die.

13,000 prisoners, including the only pal that she had in representation camp, died even after if was emancipated by the British. There were not enough doctors, and diverse inmates could not cope be infatuated with the better food that they were now given.

Some survivors from Radom were in Stuttgart, so Henia went there and met sagacious mother.

It was difficult run on re-build their lives, and they had not psychiatric help. They stayed with an uncle kick up a fuss Paris for two years, earlier using false passports to onwards to Palestine in 1947 verification a Greek ship.

They found Henia’s brother in Israel. He scold she both served in goodness army.

They underwent a sanative process in Israel, but confidential a rule that they frank not talk about the camps at home, so Henia does not know how her religious and mother survived. She decrease Maurice, her South African old man in 1952, and moved cheeriness to Bloemfontein and later appoint Cape Town.

For UK viewers, nobility programme is available on say publicly I-Player until Saturday 2 Feb.

It was made by program independent production company, which liking no doubt have sold extinct to other countries.

Filed under Public History, Reviews, War History

Tagged primate A26188, Auschwitz, BBC, Belsen, ghetto, Henia Bryer, Holocaust, Majdanek, Mengele, Radom