Nazi Germany and its collaborators killed 1.5 million Jewish children during the Holocaust. Survivor Manny Gurowski has defied the odds and regularly speaks at public schools and Holocaust remembrance programs. When I visited Manny at his home, he shared his story of survival.
“I was born on August 13, 1931 in the province of East Prussia located in the northeast of Germany. East Prussia was the main part of the Prussian region located along the southeastern coast of the Baltic. My father’s name was Max Gurowski and my mother’s name was Elise Buckbesch. I have a younger sister who lives in New York. My parents owned a general store specializing in horse supplies. I experienced a life-changing event on my first day of public school when I was six years old. The teacher entered the class and announced: “There is a Jew in this class. Stand up, Jew, and identify yourself. When I didn’t get up, the teacher called my name. As I stood up from my desk, scared and crying, my teacher said to me, “The door you used to enter the classroom is the same door you will now exit through.” You’re done with this school. That would be the last day I would be allowed to go to school until the war ended seven years later. It was also the first time I realized that Jews were treated differently from others. My family was the only Jewish resident in town. We were going to the nearby town of Gumbinnen to attend High Holy Day services at the synagogue. On November 9 and 10, 1938, the Nazi regime coordinated a wave of anti-Semitic violence known as Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass. That night, Nazi sympathizers and supporters, acquaintances and customers of my family for years, threw stones at the windows of our house and stores and arrested my father. My father would survive, but we would not see him again until the end of the war.”
Manny remembers being transported to a ghetto
“After Kristallnacht, my mother was instructed to pack a suitcase and get us ready to leave our house at a specific time. My mother, my sister and I were put in an open truck and transferred to Gumbinnen. I remember seeing the synagogue engulfed in flames as we passed by. The city ghetto became our home. Signs posted throughout the ghetto read: “Anyone exceeding this threshold will be shot.” Food was scarce. People were falling dead on the ground from hunger and disease. Once a week, my mother used her ration card to buy us food. After spending some time in the Gumbinnen ghetto, our family was transferred first by passenger train and then by crowded cattle car to Königsberg. We spent the next three years in a forced labor camp in Königsberg, established on an abandoned military base. The Germans were known for counting prisoners. We were forced to stand for hours during roll call and tired prisoners would collapse and die in the process. It has become common to see bodies lying on the ground. My mother worked in the kitchen while I worked in the dual soap and munitions factory. In ghettos like Königsberg, Jewish children died of starvation, disease, and lack of adequate clothing and shelter. Young children in the ghetto were often considered unproductive, but at just eight years old, I worked in a soap factory. I saved my starving sister’s life by crawling under a fence and trading soap with a nearby bakery for a loaf of bread. The Battle of Königsberg, also known as the Königsberg Offensive, was one of the last operations of the East Prussian Offensive during World War II. As Soviet Allied forces carried out air raids against the Germans, my mother, sister and I ran to a nearby park to seek shelter. A German saved our lives by hiding in the basement of a building. Prisoners who could not escape the ghetto were transported onto barges and thrown into the water to drown. Those who could swim were killed by machine gun fire. After the Soviets liberated Königsberg, the city was renamed Kaliningrad, Russia.
Manny reflects on life after the war
“After the liberation, we found my father who had survived a forced labor camp. My family went to Berlin and I enrolled in a British-run ORT school. It was the first time in eight years that I had entered a classroom. The vocational school provided me with electronics training for half the day and general studies for the other half. I came to America with $5 to my name. After moving to the United States, my family settled in Rochester, New York. I was drafted into the United States Army and, through a twist of fate, was stationed in Germany. It was like living in paradise compared to what I had endured in the same country during the Holocaust. The difference was that this time I wore a US Army uniform and ate three meals a day. I met my wife, Sandy, on a blind date. We have three children, six grandchildren and one great-grandchild.”
Manny shared his words of wisdom
“It’s important to listen and have an open mind. I often talk to schoolchildren and remind them how lucky they are. I always thought someone was looking over my shoulder. That’s what got me through the darkest times.”
