Julius Feldman

Julius Feldman was born on 24 December 1923, in Kraków, Poland. His family lived in the Podgórze district of the city.

When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, Julius and his family were immediately in danger.

Julius as a young child. NHCM copyright

Julius was acutely aware of the increasing anti-Jewish measures all around him. As the war, and persecution of Polish Jews, continued, he would feel the impact of both every day, sometimes walking home through deserted streets if there had been a deportation while he’d been at work.

Every day was high risk for the Feldman family, and their resistance was only effective for so long. One morning in 1943, when he was 19, Julius went to work after hiding his mother within the shop that they owned, and when he returned, she was gone. After searching for his father, Julius realised that he, too, had been taken. Julius ran to the next town to try and see the train he knew they would be on pass through, desperate to catch one last glimpse of his beloved parents. Sadly, by the time he arrived, the train had already gone.

1923

Julius went to work after hiding his mother within the shop they owned. When he returned, she was gone

Eventually, Julius, too, was captured and imprisoned at Płaszów concentration camp. He did not survive the Holocaust, and it is believed he was murdered in or around 1943, meaning he was just 19 years old.

1943

KK 11136
Work permit number: 175
Name: Julius Feldman
Date of birth: 24.12.22
Place of birth: Krakow
In the Jewish skilled worker community
Work unit: Glazier

Inside left
Photograph of Julius Feldman
Julius’ signature
Official signature

Inside right
Date: 30.11.1942
Stamp reads: Skilled workers
Krakow address and telephone number
Official signature

This Ausweis card was issued to Julius in 1942 and had been applied for as his family were seeking permission to remain in Kraków.

In his diary, which documents events from 1939 to 1943, Julius writes: “In order to stay in Kraków, you had to submit a petition requesting permission. Those who were accepted received an Ausweis (permit) but those who were rejected had to present themselves for deportation, with a 25-kilogramme parcel.

Things worked out well somehow and my father was among the first to receive an Ausweis. My mother, brother and I got ours some two weeks later.”

Diary and ID card are on display at The National Holocaust Centre and Museum

en_GBEnglish

Ausweis Card

A residence permit. The permits were granted to those required to stay in Krakow to work. From 30 May 1942, the Nazis implemented systematic deportations from the ghetto for people who did not have an Ausweis card.

Plaszow Concentration Camp

Originally a forced labour camp created in 1942, it was expanded over time until eventually it held 20,000 people. Oskar Schindler tried to protect some of these Jewish people from being deported and from the brutality of the camp commandant, Amon Goeth.

Buchenwald Concentration Camp

Buchenwald Concentration Camp was established by the Nazis in 1937 and was one of the largest camps in Germany. Jews, Roma people, political prisoners, gay men Jehovah’s Witnesses and prisoners of war were imprisoned at Buchenwald, as well as ‘asocial’ prisoners who were incarcerated due to their inability to find work. Between 1937 and 1945 approximately 250,000 people were imprisoned at Buchenwald, over 56,000 of whom were killed. Many prisoners died due to illness, malnutrition, executions, medical experimentation, and the hardships of slave labour. In January 1945 approximately 10,000 prisoners – mostly Jewish – arrived at the camp after being forced to endure death marches. In early April, as US forces approached the camp, the Nazi paramilitary group SS began to force inmates on further marches out of Buchenwald. The US Army liberated 21,000 prisoners from Buchenwald on 11 April 1945.

Ravensbrück

Ravensbrück Concentration Camp was built in 1939 and was the largest women’s concentration camp. A small men’s camp was added in April 1941 and a youth camp, Uckermark, became part of Ravensbrück in June 1942. In total around 120,000 women and children and 20,000 men from over 30 different countries were imprisoned at Ravensbrück, including Jewish and Sinti and Roma people. Around 20,000 to 30,000 prisoners died in Ravensbrück, through starvation, from having been experimented on, from being worked to death, or selected for death for being considered too weak to work. A gas chamber was built in January 1945 and approximately 6,000 prisoners were gassed here. Shortly before the end of the war, the International, Danish and Swedish Red Cross evacuated around 7,500 prisoners to Sweden, Switzerland and France. Around 20,000 prisoners were taken on death marches. The Soviet Troops liberated the camp on 30 April 1945 and found around 2,000 prisoners who had been too sick to go on the death marches. 

Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration and Death Camp

Auschwitz-Birkenau is the most infamous of all Nazi camps and consisted of three main camps, known as Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II – Birkenau and Auschwitz III – Monowitz-Buna. There were also around 45 sub-camps around these sites. Over 1.1 million people were murdered at this site, and over 90% of them were Jewish.

Hartheim Castle Euthanasia Centre

In early 1940, Hartheim Castle in Austria was converted to be used as a killing centre for those with physical or mental disabilities (or those perceived to have these). From May 1940, people were killed using carbon dioxide in gas chambers. It is estimated that around 30,000 people were murdered in Hartheim Castle. 

Ongoing, state-organised persecution of Roma people

Historians estimate that between 200,000 and 500,000 Roma and Sinti (historically often labelled as ‘Gypsies’) people were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators in what is now called the Roma genocide. Many more were imprisoned, used for forced labour or subject to forced sterilisation and medical experimentation. Roma and Sinti men, women and children were already being targeted for persecution and imprisonment before the Second World War. As the Second World War began, the genocide of Roma and Sinti people intensified – including in occupied territories such as Austria. The persecution of Roma and Sinti and the Roma genocide took place alongside the Holocaust that saw the murder of six million Jews.

Dachau Concentration Camp

Dachau Concentration Camp was established in March 1933, initially to house political opponents. Dachau was used as a model for all later concentration camps. In the 12 years of its existence, over 200,000 people from all over Europe were imprisoned in Dachau, including gay men, Sinti and Roma, ‘asocials’, criminals, Jews and, later, Soviet prisoners of war. Once the Second World War started, living conditions in Dachau drastically worsened. Approximately 41,500 people were murdered in Dachau; one third of these died in the final six months of the war.  Approximately 25,000 prisoners were sent on death marches as Allied troops approached. The camp was liberated by American troops in April 1945. 

Deportation

The Nazis planned the mass-deporation of European Jews to extermination camps in German-occupied Poland. The Jews were forced to gather at local sites, such as a synagogue or town square, and then crammed onto freight or passenger trains, with limited or no food or sanitary conditions. Journeys often lasted several days, and sometimes they took a few weeks. Many of those packed onto these trains died during the journey to the camps through starvation or overcrowding.