Herman Frankel

Born: 1927

Place of Birth: Nowy Sacz

Arrived in Britain: 01/07/1946

Interview Number: 67 (N)

Interview Summary

Date of interview: 25/07/2004

Herman was born in 1927 in Nowy Sacz, Poland. His father was born there. He attended University in Vienna to study engineering and plumbing and became a Master Plumber in Nowy Sacz. He was also a Member of Parliament. He had a brother in Cracow and a sister in Lvov. She owned a perfume factory which is now run by the government. His father’s mother was a descendant of the Sanz Rebbe, called Halberstam. His mother was from Vienna. She had 3 brothers and 2 sisters. They were an orthodox family. One brother went to New York, one brother married a Dane and another, Uncle Alfred married a Countess of the Habsburg family she had to renounce her religion and become Jewish. They were hidden during the war by Habsburg cousins and lived until the age of 90 in 1969. They had no children. His mother’s father had a furnishing business in Vienna. His parents met in Vienna and married in 1907. They had Stella born 1912 and Jozef born 1920. They lived in the East of the town in Ul.Sobieskigo 22/3. It was an apartment on the first floor and they had the use of cellars and the loft. 

Herman was sent to school in Vienna, where he stayed with family. He was there 4 years and left when Germany annexed Austria. He was put on a train and sent home. He attended a Catholic School for 18 months and Cheder. He belonged to Hashomer Hatzair. He mixed with the Jewish children at that school. He got on well with the non-Jewish children who were neighbours and they were delighted to see him on his return to Poland in 1997. When the Nazis occupied Poland, the shuls and schools closed, they remained in their home and were given work permits to continue working in the plumbing trade. Thereafter he endured great hardships: most of his family were murdered and he spent the war in slave labour camps in Mielec and Dachau.

In 1947 Herman came to Manchester, where he had been told there were other Polish boys. He joined the 45 Aid Society. He worked for the Urban Development Company as a plumber but after an accident at work he became a baker. 

Place of Birth

In Flossenbürg, the people in charge were the air force personnel. They only called us out to go to work and nothing else. It was less than five minutes to walk to the workshop. We were 12 hours a day 7 days a week. There was no time off at all, because the work was [the] aluminium part, that built an aeroplane. Eventually they built the aeroplane further away, the Luftwaffe themselves.

conditions in Flossenbürg camp

One time, I don’t know what happened, the Gestapo came running after me, because I was late for roll call, they hit me with a rubber truncheon filled with lead, even today I have got a dent in my head. And you can see, you can feel that, you can feel that dinch yourself, here…

Brutality in Dachau

The 16 of us were in like an enclosed room, as big as this, there were 8 rows on each side and there were two tables to the workshops, two workshops to two boys at that time, and 16 of us in an enclosed place. The only thing that we had is open windows on top for the smell of the gas to go, the smell of the aluminium as well, we used to wear goggles and on some welding we used to have masks as well, on the faces, but the job, for me the job was easy because I was used to welding and I helped as many boys as I could with the welding, and they appreciated it.

Working conditions at Flossenbürg

We got on very well, because we knew each other, we knew everybody from home, and those people who came from other places, we got to know them as well, a Yid is a Yid, so we carried on together… and those who could help, helped, for instance, with me being what I was trained at, by my firm, tools were known to me, I knew how to use them, and I used to show other people how to use them at the beginning. Afterwards they all knew, they got used to it, but the main thing is, like myself, and quite a few besides me that knew how to use tools, they used to help others if they got behind with the work. We would finish our place, our things quicker and then would help them finish theirs, so we always helped each other, we were one group all the time.

Helping each other in Mielec

We didn’t meet any anti-Semitism at school, just once or twice that I can remember one of the boys started something but the other boys quietened him down. We never fought with them, we didn’t have to, because the other boys that knew us were very, very kind, were very supportive of the Jewish boys.

no anti semitism at school

The conditions were very, very strict. We had an order to fulfil. Eight frames every week, we had to do them, and there was only 1,000 boys and 500 girls in that camp, and that is why I have got the KL [Koncentration Lager tattoo], that is what we got in Mielic, instead of a number we got that…we were living in barracks, on three tier, what its names, and, we were divided into shifts, we were working 12 shifts at day and 12 shifts at night, and those working days they were in one barrack, and those working nights were in another barrack. The girls never worked at nights, they only worked days, and what the girls used to do was the job that we were doing, they used to smooth it off, with the sand paper, all done by hand, and we had to do it and we had done it and every week there was a big transport plane, eight engine, and we used to carry on taking the frames into the plane and the Germans, soldiers that were with the plane, air force I would say, not soldiers, they were stacking them. They were taking them from us, they were stacking them in the plane, so they won’t fall down, they won’t break. They used to come every week, regular, and we had to have eight frames done, if there were only seven done, not eight, we used to get beaten about it.

Life in Mielec

We were fortunate; we had an Austrian engineer who was very good to us. Actually there were two of them supervising us, and every morning when we came to our benches when you pulled the drawer out for the tools we used to find a packet of sandwiches, every day in somebody else’s drawer the sandwiches were there from the two Austrian gentlemen. They were engineers, they were supervising, not only supervising, at the beginning they taught us what we had to do, but they were gentlemen, very, very few those years, but those two, every day we came into our benches and we pulled our drawer out to get the tools, every day somebody else had the sandwiches, for the two people, they were very, very good.

Help in Flossenbürg

We were segregated, men & women. We were taken down to where the two rivers joined together & we were separated.Boys from 14 to 35 were sent back to the ghetto & the rest were stuck there. Though we were sent back you were not sent back to your own house. You were sent back anywhere, they put you in any building at all that they could there. We stayed there two nights. During the 2 days & 2 nights we heard shooting, we didn’t know what was happening. After 2 days we were called out: “Stand Up”. In groups of 10 we were told to go to certain places. All we saw were big ditches, we didn’t know what the ditches were for. The ditch that I was sent to, I was sent with people that were older than myself, there were a couple of 14, 15, 16 year olds. The rest were older people, 35, they knew me, they knew my family. We stopped. The wagons came in towards us. When they dropped the flap down the 1st person that came out was my mother & my sister with a 3-month old baby still alive. I wanted to jump into the grave with them. They were shot. They grabbed me, the people that I knew, they grabbed me by the collar & 2 of them sat on me all the time until they were buried. That memory I have got with me until this day. Thanks to my beloved wife, she helped me, for many many years of suffering to get through it so I can talk about it now. That was my misfortune: seeing my mother shot & my sister with the baby still alive. I can remember that for many years my wife helped me, to get the dreams that I had, crying, night after night, for many years, thanks to my wife I can speak to it now.

Atrocity in Nowy Sacz, 1942

And in the morning we got the first march from Dachau, towards the end of January, towards the middle of January, we were going towards the Swiss border and as we were marching, whoever dropped out in the snow, they were shot and left there behind, that was day or night. At night we were told to lay down and they stood watching over us in the snow. And we heard artillery shooting from a distance where the multi explosions, away in the distance, we heard explosions so we thought maybe the Russians are coming because we didn’t know America was still there, coming through, and the British, but on the 1st of April when we got to a certain place, we woke up in the morning and there was no guards, nobody at all, and then we heard an engine which we didn’t recognise the sound, and we saw a small car coming up and soldiers sitting on top. We didn’t recognise the soldiers, and we stood up with our hands in the air thinking they had come to shoot us and fortunately they were Americans and that is how we were liberated.

Leaving Dachau and liberation

English people didn’t understand anything about the camps. Whatever you said they didn’t believe it. So that [showing his KL tattoo], I used to say was King’s Loyalty, KL. It stands for Koncentration Lager. That was put on in Mielic, the only camp that had that put on. I haven’t got a number on my arm. When I came to Manchester I met Moshe Besserman. He was in Mielic, we got very friendly. After 5 years of marriage he committed suicide. So in England I am the only one with with KL.

KL tattoo

One time while I was in Dachau, the Gestapo came running after me, because I was late for roll call, they hit me with a rubber truncheon filled with lead, even today I have got a dent in my head. You can feel that dinch yourself, here. They hid me for 3 weeks, somebody else from another barrack came in for the roll call. I was bleeding, unconscious for 2 or 3 days, when I became conscious I slowly managed to come to the roll call. They hide me, behind the sleeping compartments, right in the corner. I was half laying, half sitting, against the wall, covered with straw. I was hit in the head, afterwards sleeping on the straw I lost my hearing. Perforated drum in the right ear with the straw, I found out when I came to England. That's why I've got a hearing aid. When I got to Flossenberg they saw the crack in my head & put a bandage on it. The same bandage all week without changing over. I still get big headaches from it, after so many years. Every time I go here to hospital for x-ray they think I have got a plate put in my head.

A dent in the head in Dachau