Severin Fayerman was born shortly after World War 1 in an area that had been under German occupation for several hundred years. Poland lost its independence in the 1700s. After World War 1, the Allies redrew the map of Europe and recreated some countries that had disappeared. They restored others. He only spoke Polish in school. His father hired a French teacher for him. In high school, he took English which he thinks is the best decision he made. It possibly saved his life. He joined a military organization in high school. When World War 2 broke out, he joined the Polish Army which was no match for Germany. Russia declared war on Poland as well [Annotator's Note: on 17 September 1939]. His commanding officer told them to go home. His home was in Silesia [Annotator's Note: Silesia Province, Southern Poland] and was highly industrialized. He comes from a line of blacksmiths. His grandfather started manufacturing hardware and made it a family business. The Germans had closed the schools, so he joined this business. He wanted to learn the rudiments and worked directly with his grandfather. Fayerman later ran the tool room and learned tool and die making. Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] reincorporated the area and they became part of the German Reich [Annotator's Note: the German Empire]. They were no longer allowed to operate the factory without a German overseer. Hitler declared Germany free of Jews and deported nearly all of the Jews in his city.

[Annotator's Note: Severin Fayerman left the defeated Polish Army to work in his family’s factory in Bedzin, Silesia, Poland.] The Americans had entered the war and began bombing Germany. Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] resettled the Germans in this area. The Germans wanted the homes of the former Jews cleaned and livable. They needed labor so they created a forced labor camp. In Bedzin [Annotator's Note: Bedzin (Bendzin), Poland; renamed Bendsburg in German], one was started named Kamionka. The police closed off the streets and arrested people who were not German or working in a war capacity. Their German supervisor had learned to run his family's factory and was looking for a way to get rid of Fayerman and his family members. His family was arrested and taken to Kamionka [Annotator's Note: Kamionka slave labor camp]. The work was not difficult and the German police were relatively friendly. Once the work was finished, they were informed that they were now under control of the Germans and were being sent to another camp. They were moved to Auschwitz [Annotator's Note: Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp complex in German occupied Oswiecim, Poland] in railroad boxcars. The men were separated from the women there. Fayerman noticed a medical officer motioning him, his father and uncle off to the side. The older or unhealthy people were loaded onto trucks. He learned later that they were taken directly to the gas chambers. Only healthy individuals entered the camp.

[Annotator's Note: Severin Fayerman will never forget entering the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp complex in German occupied Oswiecim, Poland.] It was dark. It had rained. Poland is a cold country. The roads were slippery and had barbed wire on both sides. Chimneys were belching fire and smoke and the smell of burning flesh was in the air. He was taken to a large hall and told to lay on the floor. He embraced his father and his uncle. His father told him to remember that if he survived this, his grandmother was in Austria. They were awakened and told to put all of their belongings on a table. They stripped naked and then were shaved and tattooed with a number. He was then told to shower. They got their striped pajamas, metal bowl, spoon, and cup. They went into a quarantine camp. They got very little food. Every six to eight weeks there was a selection day. That morning SS [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel; German paramilitary organization] and guards would come in, tell the men to strip, and form a line. Fayerman was told to go to the right and get dressed. Other men showed signs of malnutrition were told to go to the left. About ten days later, the guards arrived with a list. The father of a close friend of Fayerman's, had his number called. He stopped and told Fayerman to avenge his innocent death. He was killed that day. After Fayerman survived, he wondered how to avenge his death. He decided the only way to do that was to talk about what happened there in the camps.

[Annotator's Note: Severin Fayerman was sent to the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp complex in German occupied Oswiecim, Poland.] They slept in long buildings. They laid on wooden shelves with straw mattresses. They were awakened at daybreak. They got lukewarm tea and then went to the work brigades. Fayerman was assigned to digging trenches where the ashes from the crematoriums were put. The work was hard. They were surrounded by guards who kicked and pushed them. They worked until 12 o'clock and got watery soup that was not hot. They would get lucky and get a vegetable from time to time. The afternoons were worse. In the evenings they marched in military fashion to music. They could not enter the barracks until the camps were counted. Auschwitz consisted of five camps and it took a long time. They often sttod for hours in the rain or snow. Once inside, they got dinner which was a piece of bread. They had to find ways to get more food. A lucky coincidence occurred in his barracks. Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] emptied his prisons and sent the prisoners to concentration camps to be supervisors, kapos [Annotator's Note: kapos were prisoner trustees who worked for the Germans in the concentration camp system as guards or disciplinarians for the promise of better treatment]. Theirs was a petty thief from Frankfurt [Annotator's Note: Frankfurt, Germany]. He wanted to learn English so Fayerman proposed to teach him. That changed his life. The kapo had plenty of food. Most of the people sent to Auschwitz brought food. As they entered, they were told to leave everything on the trains. The food was then distributed among the kapos. Siemens [Annotator's Note: then Siemens-Schuckert; now Siemens AG, German conglomerate] electric company came looking for tool and die makers. Fayerman applied and was taken to a factory several miles from Auschwitz. Life there changed entirely. This was not an extermination camp. He was guarded by SS [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel; German paramilitary organization], but the supervisors were civilians and nice. By that time, the war came to a close.

[Annotator's Note: Severin Fayerman was sent to the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp complex in German occupied Oswiecim, Poland.] The Russians approached Auschwitz [Annotator's Note: Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp complex in German occupied Oswiecim, Poland]. The Germans destroyed the crematoriums [Annotator's Note: on 25 November 1944] and marched the prisoners out to a railhead several miles away [Annotator's Note: beginning 17 January 1945]. They marched for days then got on trains to Buchenwald [Annotator's Note: Buchenwald concentration camp, Weimar, Germany]. Most of the prisoners either froze to death or died of starvation. Fayerman was fortunate. He arrived hungry and cold. Buchenwald was a huge quarry, and dangerous. Fayerman was sent to clear rubble from bombed cities nearby. They were not guarded well so they did not work hard. They were also able to find food. Some Germans would leave some old bread for them. Siemens [Annotator's Note: then Siemens-Schuckert; now Siemens AG, German conglomerate] traced him to Buchenwald and had him transferred to Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany]. He worked there in Siemensstadt [Annotator's Note: a zone in the Spandau district on Berlin]. He was in a forced labor camp just blocks away. The Americans would bomb every day. Berlin became ruins. At night, the British bombed. They would prepare for the bombing and go to shelters. One night, the British destroyed the factory. Within a week, American bombers burned down his camp. Nobody was killed or burned. Smaller American planes came and began shooting the guards. Fayerman had never seen more excellent marksmanship. There were over 1,000 prisoners and not one was killed. Most of the guards were wounded or dead. Fayerman could have escaped but decided to wait. He went to another camp called Sachsenhausen [Annotator's Note: Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany; primarily political prisoner camp]. Mostly Germans, a lot of clergymen and civilians, were imprisoned there. Yakov Stalin [Annotator's Note: Yakov Iosifovich Dzhugashvili was the son of Soviet Premiere Josef Stalin] was there . They started hearing Russian artillery. They were marched out [Annotator's Note: on 20 and 21 April 1945]. The SS [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel; German paramilitary organization] fled and they were guarded by German boys who were frightened. Fayerman felt the war was ending. They marched all day long. The Americans came over to strafe but often flew away. They laid down at night and it was cold. They had no food. The Red Cross found them one day and he thought it was a miracle. He spent his last night as a prisoner in a quarry. In the morning, most of the guards were gone. He spoke German and he asked what was going on. The German told them they could go. It was a warm April day and they walked to the Americans. The American officers told them they would be taken to camps guarded by the United Nations.

[Annotator's Note: After liberation from a concentration camp, Severin Fayerman went to a United Nations displaced persons camp.] The camp was in Lubeck, Germany. There, people were being separated into groups to be sent to their countries. Fayerman speaks five languages and got a job working as an interpreter. He remembered his father had told him to go Salzburg [Annotator's Note: Salzburg, Austria] to see if his family had survived. There was no transportation and he had to walk. He hitchhiked and Americans picked him up. He was passed along and reached the Austrian border. He was told he could not enter. He went to a nearby farmhouse and spoke German to the farmer. The farmer said the Americans were only guarding the road and he would take him around it in the morning. He showed him a road not being guarded. Fayerman got a ride to Salzburg. His family was there and had survived the camps. His father returned to Poland, but his factory had been confiscated. Fayerman went to work for the United Nations in Vienna [Annotator's Note: Vienna, Austria] as an officer. He worked with Americans looking for children who had been taken and given to German families. They were successful in a few cases. President Truman [Annotator's Note: Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States] allowed displaced persons to go to America. His family applied and came to New York City [Annotator's Note: New York, New York]. The whole family had work within a week. Fayerman's father said he wanted to start their lives again in America. They bought Baldwin Tool and Die in New Jersey. They made a deal and opened on 2 January 1946 with 1,000 dollars. The rest of the story is an American dream. They built it to one of the most leading hardware companies in the world, Baldwin Hardware [Annotator's Note: Baldwin Hardware Manufacturing Company]. Fayerman no longer owns it but he remains as an advisor. His sad story ended happily and could only happen in America. He is most grateful and proud to have become an American citizen.

[Annotator's Note: Severin Fayerman survived concentration camps in Europe. The interviewer asks if the pendulum swings between self-preservation and the need to have dignity.] He is asked how he kept his sanity. The camps were like a jungle and it was survival of the fittest. You had to close into one's self. You could not make close friends. Fayerman closed into a bubble around himself when he was not working. He created a world in which he hid. He talked himself into surviving day to day. He looked death in the eye every day and ignored it. What was happening around him was too horrible to describe. Most survivors' stories are similar. They spoke the language, they were educated, or they had a skill the Germans needed. That is what forced labor did. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Fayerman if the theory of a super race, and not anti-Semitism was the real underpinning of the Holocaust.] That is partially true. They [Annotator's Note: the Germans] believed their own invincibility. Anti-Semitism was endemic in Europe and was very strong in Poland. Poland had the largest Jewish population at about 20 percent. Fayerman was not brought up Jewish. The Orthodox Jews were dressed differently, spoke bad Polish and Yiddish, and separated from the other people. In Russia, Jews were limited as to what they could do. Anything that happened bad was blamed on the Jews. What Hitler did was to depict Jews as inhuman. They did the same with the Poles and Russians, they are worthless. This helped the crimes be committed. Hitler and Goebbels [Annotator's Note: Paul Joseph Goebbels; Reich Minister of Propaganda] were wonderful propagandists. Everyone had a uniform and a title and paraded and marched and they thought they were a superior race. There was a seduction to the Nationalism. Hitler was smart and went to the children. Some children reported their parents to the authorities. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer compares the prewar Germans to white people in the South of the United States.] The Allies of World War 1 made an unbelievable mistake in bankrupting Germany. Hitler came in and blamed the Jews and Communists. He did what he said he would, so how could they not believe in him. The pieces of it still survive. He hopes the Europeans have a learned a lesson. World War 1 was to end all wars. Hitler took advantage of that.