Boston North Inc.
Present Memories
William (Willy) Schick
I was born on December 16, 1920 to Mariska Steiner and Leopold Schick. I have a younger brother. My father was a representative for a textile company and our lives were comfortable. We had a beautiful apartment that was owned by the company where my father worked. Our large extended family usually met at our house for Passover.
3/15/1939: Everything changed when Hitler came to town. We would stay overnight with friends because we were not allowed out after 8PM.
1940: We moved to an apartment in the Prague Ghetto that we shared with 3 families. I was ready to go to college, but all colleges were temporarily closed then reopened for non Jews only. My father was Hungarian by birth and went to the Hungarian embassy to get papers to leave. He planned to send for us, but we never heard from him again. We learned after the war that when he was asked to drop his pants to see if he was a Jew, he ran and was shot in the back. His circumcision gave him away.
1941: I spent the next two years in Terezin. I went there first with 1000 others to covert the former military camp to a ghetto for Jews. The bunks were completed in about a month and then the transports began to come from all over Europe. My brother was working on a farm. My mother was still in Prague, but joined me in 1942. My brother joined us in 1943.
For 2 years I was a cook and server in Terezin. We usually had substitute coffee, soup from dried vegetables and potatoes, and bread. Everyone always wanted the soup from the bottom of the pot because it had the most vegetables. I always managed to get some extra food, sometimes even flour for my mother who lived in another house. One day I was caught by a Jewish policeman who asked me, “What do you have there?” I knew he would report me so I followed him to his barracks and beat him. Because of the fight, I was arrested and sent to Auschwitz with my brother.
12/1943: I was put in cattle cars with 500 other people. We traveled for 2-
I got a job in the kitchen though there was really nothing much to eat….maybe a slice of bread twice a day and some watery soup. The German over us was a murderer who had a black triangle on his shirt. He turned out to be better than most and was recognized by Israel after the war. He liked soccer and I joined him with 11 others on a team. The ball seemed so heavy because I was so weak. After the game, we all got sausage. I also played the trumpet in an orchestra until they realized I didn’t play too well.
Often we were assigned to remove the burnt bodies of those who had committed suicide by throwing themselves against the electrified fences that surrounded the camp.
One day my mother appeared in Auschwitz and we had a reunion for a day. Then there were selections in front of Mengele. We were nude. I guess he thought they could get a few more months out of me.
I cheated the gas chambers twice. The first time they malfunctioned and didn’t work. The second time I was in line when a transport of about 10,000 Hungarian Jews arrived. Since they had no place to put them, they marched us back to the barracks and those in the transport were gassed over the next 3 days.
Early 1945: We left Auschwitz by train for a small labor camp in Germany near Sashenhaussen.
I was put to work to clean up the coal that was often on fire as it was the target
of Allied bombs and the Germans guarding us wouldn’t go near the fires. When the
bombs fell, we had no where to hide except under the wooden bunks. The SS guards
there were a mean group. One always hit us with his stick. It was as bad there
as at Auschwitz, but with no gas chambers. We knew that the Allies were near because
of the nearby bombings. The Germans behavior told us that they were losing the war.
With the Russians close-
I always felt that as long as I worked I would make it. If it wasn’t for my brother who was so strong from working on the farm, I would have died. He held me up. Instead of going to Mauthausen, we found that we had walked in a circle and were back in Terezein at the train station about 4 miles away. Though we saw no Germans, we went into the cattle cars, stood on the dead bodies, to look out the window to make sure. I felt I could walk no further, but I made it back to Terezien where I was greeted by the International Red Cross. We didn’t know that the war was over. They gave us a little wine, chicken, and mashed potatoes because after so much starvation, we couldn’t eat too much. We knew of some survivors who ate sausage etc. and died because their systems couldn’t take the food. I spent several weeks in a sanitarium and when I could walk, I left for Prague. The Czech government was very nice to us. I chose a modern apartment that still had food on the table and clothes that fit me. The owner must have left quickly. I stayed there rent free for 1 year and ate at the food kitchens that were everywhere. My brother was with me the whole time. Every morning at 10:30, we would go to the bus station to see if we could find our parents. We learned from a woman that our mother had died from typhus 3 months before the end of the war.
I was able to get a job with the airlines because I spoke a few languages. In 1948 they asked me to join the Communist party. When I refused, they threw me out on the street. What would I do now? I knew that I had to get out. I had a girlfriend whose father was a famous comedian, who also wanted to leave with his wife and three daughters. At my favorite café I met a man who said he could get us out for $400 each which was a fortune in those days. I had no money, but my girlfriend’s father paid for me.
We soon left for the German border on an 11 o’clock train on Friday. Only those with legitimate reasons could travel to the border. The comedian said he had a show to put on. We wanted to remain unnoticed, but Yanek was so famous that everyone knew him. Two miles before the border we were met by a man with a horse and buggy that took us to a small house where it was warm and there was food. It was Oct. 2, 1948. The little ones, my girlfriend’s younger sisters, were given aspirin to keep them quiet. Because there were so many armed soldiers in our path, I was separated from them, but eventually we were reunited in Germany. I had nothing but what I was wearing. Since the others could only speak Czech, we went by train to Ravensberg with other refugees. We all stayed in one room. For several months I went with them to camps to put on shows for money. I was the straight man. Yanek and his family went to Paris and I went to Munich. I worked for the American army for 3 years before my papers for America came through. Since I was the only one on the boat who spoke English, I helped American immigration interview the 3000 other passengers though I did not really know their languages.
I was supposed to be met by the husband of a woman whom I had helped when they were visiting in Prague and who had said to contact them if I ever came to NY. I couldn’t find him and a very nice cab driver gave me a free two hour tour of NY city before taking me to the address I had. It was an apartment in a lovely neighborhood. When I rang the doorbell, Mr. Hannish greeted me and said he had been waiting for me at the docks for 3 hours. There was food waiting for me.
When I had been in Germany, one of the soldiers I worked for was from Marlboro, MA. Through him, I contacted a Jewish owner of a shoe factory there who brought me to MA. I worked for him for 11 years, but couldn’t make much money. I was lucky to find an ad for a car salesman in Waltham and was hired because I suggested that though I had never sold cars, I would call everyone in the phone book with Czech names to see if they needed a car. The Jewish owner was impressed and hired me. I eventually became the sales manager there before retiring.
I eventually helped a woman whom I had met in Munich come to the states. We married and have a daughter together, but the marriage ended after 11 years. I have been married to my second wife for 38 years.
I did return to Poland in 1991 with a channel 2 crew who were filming Auschwitz. My barrack and four or five others were the only ones standing. For a time until the government stopped them, Poles had stolen the wood from the other barracks. It was so hard to believe what had happened there in Birkenau. I also visited Auschwitz a few miles down the road for the first time. Some could survive there, but I was one of the few to be at the death camp Birkenau and live. It was a bad place.
Unfortunately, when I returned to my apartment in Czech, I found that all of the pictures and personal items had been thrown away. Though the Czech people did not show their antisemitism before the war, it came out with Germany’s invasion.
My daughter and grandsons live in Arizona
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