In September 1939, the Soviets occupied Pruzhany and in June 1941, the Germans occupied it. A ghetto was established in August 1941 and in January 1943 began Pruzhany deportations to Auschwitz. "When they asked my age during the selection, I gave my year of birth as 1924 - making me one year older than I was at that time. I considered it advisable to claim that I was no child." Sioma, Avraham's brother, was murdered in the gas chambers month and a half after their arrival at Auschwitz. In June 1944, Avraham planned to escape from Auschwitz with two partners. "On the appointed day, having exchanged our prisoners' uniforms for civilian clothing, we gulped some liquor to boost our courage - and to reinforce our story about getting drunk in the event of geing captured. In the course of our escape preparations, I ran into Abraham Berski. As I passed by, I muttered: 'If you hear the alarm tonight that will tell you I've escaped". During the afternoon, we slipped out the camp. We entered the pit, and a friend covered us with the iron plate, strewing it with soil, and sprinkling tobacco to prevent the S.S. tracker dogs barking overhead. We held pur breath, not to be heard. Our situation wes, however, unbearable. The pit was narrow, and its air vents had apparently been blocked; remaining there was out of the question.
"Alive from the Ashes" is not just "another book of memories by a Holocaust surviver". This is a story of stubborn heroism in the Vale of Tears created in occupied Europe by the Nazi oppressor for the Jewish people - a tale of survival and miraculous rebirth.
Avraham (Frydberg) Harshalom, at 16 was the sole member of his family to survive the Nazi "death factory" at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Confronted by the diabolically murderous designs of the Nazis, Avraham made up his mind not to give in, not to die....
The home of Moshe Frydberg, his wife Tzira and their two sons, Sioma and Avraham was Pruzany, a community of 8000, including 6000 Jews. The Frydberg family decided to stay home when the Germans attacked the USSR on June 23d. 1941. Pruzany were about 20 miles from the border and were reached already the second day of the war by the tanks of the rapidly advancing German army. Because of the focus on the rapid advance eastward the Germans did not take time to deal with the Jews for two weeks at which time the SS and the Gestapo came to ...
