Concentration Camp Liberators Oral History Project
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Interviewer
Michael Hirsh
Publication Date
March 2022
Date
May 2008
Abstract
Bernhard Storch was born in Poland in 1922 and was living in Upper Silesia with his uncle when Germany invaded in 1939. He went back to his hometown and then to L'viv, where he remained for several months. In May 1940 the Soviet government began deporting Poles who were originally from the German-occupied regions, and Storch was sent to a gulag in Siberia. He was a prisoner until November 1941, and he and his family made their way to Uzbekistan, where Storch enlisted in the Polish 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division, which was attached to the Soviet Army. In July 1944 he and his outfit found their first concentration camps, Sobibór and Majdanek, both of which were deserted by the time they arrived. Storch got to Sachsenhausen on April 19, 1945, the first camp where the prisoners were still present and alive, though the guards had already left. He spent no more than an hour or so at each camp, but he did walk around and see their buildings. After the war ended, Storch left Poland and spent some time in a German displaced persons camp before immigrating to the United States in 1947. He frequently lectures about the Holocaust at schools and museums and has been interviewed several times.
Keywords
World War II (1939-1945), Holocaust (1939-1945), Concentration camps, Concentration camps--Liberation, Jewish veterans, Veterans, Genocide, Crimes against humanity, Prisoners of war, Sobibór (Concentration camp), Majdanek (Concentration camp), Sachsenhausen (Concentration camp), Refugee camps
Extent
02:47:15; 69 page transcript
Subject: geographic
Upper Silesia (Germany); L'viv (Ukraine); Siberia (Russia); Uzbekistan; Oranienburg (Germany); Żłobek Duży (Poland); Lublin (Poland)
Language
English
Digital Date
2022
Media Type
Oral histories
Format
Digital Only
Identifier
C65-00132
Recommended Citation
Storch, Bernhard, "Bernhard Storch Oral History Interview" (2022). Concentration Camp Liberators Oral History Project. 116.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/concentration_OH/116
Rights Statement
