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The following photos were taken by Jack Fields during his trip
to Przemyśl in the summer of 1999.
Jack is a Holocaust Survivor
and a former resident of Przemyśl.
The following is his story.
We thank Jack for sharing these memories with us.
Please note that Mr. Fields' testimony, together with the testimonies
of other Przemyśl Survivors,
as well as non-Jewish residents of
Przemyśl, has been published recently in:
Hartman, John. I Remember Every Day... The Fate of the Jews
of Przemyśl During World War II,
Towarzystwo Przyjaciol Nauk,
Przemyśl.
Published in Polish and in English language versions.
My name was Izio (Izak) Felder and it is now Jack Fields.
I was born in Przemyśl before World War II and we lived in
our own one family house in the centre of the city.
My
father's name was Hersz, my mothers name was Dina.
I had a younger
sister Feiga (but she was called Dziunia) and a brother Marek
(called Munio).
Life at home was very good and we were not poor and not rich
but
somewhere in the middle. Every year we have travelled
to the country
for one month school holidays.
When war started in 1939, our life changed drastically. I
was still a child then.
Within a week, the Germans entered
our city and after about a week they withdrew
to the western side
of the city and the river San became the border.
We lived
on the Eastern side of the river San which became part of the
Soviet Union.
Life returned almost back to normal until the time when Germany
attacked the Soviet Union in June, 1941.
The Germans entered the Eastern part of the city again and
the Jewish people
were herded into ghettos and later into concentration
camps and so called
(in German) Vernichtungslager — the killing
camps.
In 1941 I was in the Przemyśl Ghetto, followed by P.Z.L. (PolskieZaklady
Lotnicze –Polish Aircraft Manufacture)
in Rzeszów, which
the Germans turned into a forced labour camp. It was called "Flug
Motoren Vork Reichshof"
in German (translation: Aircraft
Motor Works in Rzeszów).
Then I was in the ghetto in Rzeszów,
forced labour camp in Pustkow, Auschwitz (Birkenau) concentration
camp,
forced labour camp in Gleiwitz3, from where we were forced
to go on a big long march, concentration camp
Blechhamer, concentration
camp Gross-Rosen, concentration camp Buchenwald. From Buchenwald,
I was
transported to Commando Flosberg and after that we were
transported to Concentration Camp Mauthausen.
The camp was liberated by the Americans but later taken over by the Russians in a territory exchange.
I have luckily survived all the concentration camps and returned to Poland in 1945. Eventually, I migrated to Australia in 1950.
I was always very interested to find out more details about Przemyśl and I visited Przemyśl several times. The last visit was in 1999.
— Jack Fields (Izio Felder)
