Holocaust survivor Josef Herschel tells of the horrific events of World War II and how his parents provided for his future in the midst of the most murderous discrimination of modern times.
Josef’s parents were arrested in Holland and transported to the extermination camp of Sobibor in Eastern Poland. Unlike a concentration camp where some work was accomplished, Sobibor had only one function – to murder Jews. The Herschel family arrived at Sobibor without Josef who remained safely hidden in the Dutch town of Tswi. Four months before a prisoner escape closed the camp, the Germans murdered his parents.
Shortly before his parents were arrested, they gave him into the care of a non-Jewish Dutch family. Like many young Jewish children of those days Josef Herschel lived a life apart from the traditions and language he’d inherited. In his video, he tells of his youth and a life that selfless people gave him at risk to their own.
Written by Richard Paracka
