Joseph Morton was born as Joseph Mortkowitz. He was born on
July 24, 1924. His place of birth was Lodz, Poland. Joseph had four brothers
and one sister. They were all about 2-3 years apart. The Mortkowitz family
lived in a one-bedroom apartment in Lodz Poland. Joseph’s mother stayed at home
as a homemaker while his dad worked to support the family. They lived in an
all-Jewish neighborhood, which later became a ghetto since it was already
concentrated with all the Jews. The children all went to a public school.
Joseph only got to the 7th grade before the war started. They
enclosed the ghetto in 1940. After that is when Joseph started to see trouble happening.
Starvation was a major issue. People were very malnourished and starving on the
streets. He noticed that the Germans were taking people away and they never
returned.
After a
while, his family was loaded onto a cattle train. They were packed into it like
animals. No one knew where they were going. They were only told that they were
going to a place to work. The Jews were
on their way to Auschwitz Poland, which was a death camp. When they finally
reached their destination they were rushed out and separated from each other.
His father, brother Abe, and his cousin Jacob along with himself were together
but the rest were taken elsewhere. Later on, he found out that his mother,
sister and aunts were all killed as soon as they were taken away. The men were
all put in striped uniforms and placed in huge barracks, which were very
crowded. Each Jew had a number given to them. Joseph’s number was
71324-VII-13526. It was too late in the war to have them tattooed on their arm
so it was on their uniform. Him and his brother and cousin were shipped off to
Germany to work only after arriving in Auschwitz for 2weeks. Shortly after they
got to Germany, they were liberated. From there he moved to Canada and 3 months
later moved to the States . In Canada he met his now wife and they have
children together.
“… Do
the best you can, enjoy it and live it up. “ ~Joseph
Morton
“they
made us wear yellow bands to tell us apart from the rest” ~Joseph Morton
No comments:
Post a Comment