Acknowledgements

While researching for and writing this book I was helped by number of people whose contribution I would like to acknowledge. My apology if I have mistakenly omitted someone’s name.

To Reneta Urban, Director, Regional Museum of Pinczów, Poland, for a guided visit of the museum and synagogue and for helping me trace my family ancestry in that town.

To the staff of the Ośrodek Edukacyjno-Muzealny “Świętokrzyski Sztetl” museum, in Chmielnik, Poland, for expanding my knowledge about Jewish life in Chmielnik, a guided visit of the museum and for helping me trace my family ancestry in that town.

To Jakub Czupryński, Genealogist at Insider and researcher, for expanding my knowledge of Jewish life in Pinczów, Chmielnik and Sandomierz, Poland, and visiting these three towns with me.

To Piotr Setkiewicz, PhD, Director of the Centre for Research at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum for sharing his knowledge about and touring with me the former Monowitz labour camp (Auschwitz III).

To Karolina Jakowenko, Director of the Muzeun w Gliwcaca Museum in Gliwice, Poland, for sharing her knowledge about the forced labour camps in Gliwice and pointing me to the mass grave for its victims.

To Bartłomiej Żyłka, for helping me locate and taking me to the sites and memorials of the Gliwice’s two sub-camps and the radio station’s tower.

To the staff at the Polish State Archives, Town of Sandomierz, Poland, for helping me trace my ancestors’ addresses.

To Joanna Podolska, Director, The Marek Edelman Dialogue Center, City of Łódź, Poland, for meeting me to discuss Jewish life in Łódź and arranging the planting of a tree in honour of my father in the Center’s Survivors’ Park.

To the staff of the Polish State Archive, City of Łódź, Poland and in particular to Ava Alex for helping me obtain birth records of my late family members.

To the staff of City of Łódź Archive, Poland, for helping me trace Ghetto records and my father’s birth certificate.

To Andrzej Grzegorczyk, Custodian, Acting Head Division, Director of the Muzeum Tradycji Niepodległościowych w Łodzi, Radegast Train Station and Archive, City of Łódź, Poland for showing me the station and museum and helping me find transport records of my relatives to the Kulmhof killing centre.

To Kamil Janicki from the Muzeum byłego niemieckiego Obozu Zagłady Kulmhof w Chełmnie nad Nerem o. Muzeum Martyrologicznego w Żabikowie Museum of the Former German Kulmhof Death Camp in Chełmno on Ner for guiding me on a visit to the campground as well as Towns of Dąbie and Koło and the villages of Chełmno, Powiercie and Zawadka.

To Bolek Rosinski, Director of the 28th Kaniowski Regiment Association, City of Łódź, Poland, for expanding my knowledge about the regiment and for a guided visit of the display rooms.

To researcher and author Milena Wicepolska for a field tour of the Bałuty District and the cemetery in Łodz, Poland.

To Amadeus Neumann, Archivist at Flossenbürg concentration camp and archive for showing me the camp and for helping me trace my father’s and mother’s forced labour records.

To Lucas Lebrenz, Archivist at the Sachbearbeiter Kreisarchiv Liegenschafts- und Schulverwaltungsamt Kreisarchiv Landkreis Barnim Eberswalde, Germany, for helping me retrieve documents about the site of the Märkisches-Metallformwerk factory, and a visit to the factory’s former site and the site of the former synagogue in Eberswalde.

To Camron Monro, Director of Tiergarten 4 Association e.V., Research Center, Berlin, Germany, for an online meeting to clarify the T-4 killing process in Kulmhof, and to researcher Roberto Pantaleo, for meeting us in person in Berlin and sharing with us valuable documents about the SS.

To the staff of Plattling City Hall’s Planning Department and Archive, Germany, for directing me to the sites of the former sub camps.

To the staff of the Dachau concentration camp and museum, Dachau, Germany, for a highly informative tour of the site.

To Jewish Records Indexing (JRI)-Poland, and in particular to Judy Golan in Israel, Stanley M. Diamond in Montreal, and Petje Schroder in Łódź who helped me retrieve birth and marriage records and certificates and trace my family roots in Poland’s Kielce region and Łódź. Special thanks to Petje for meeting me in Łódź and helping trace Ghetto records of Chaja Frydman, her husband and child.

To the staff at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, for helping me trace Ghetto records of my family and giving me access to recorded testimonies.

To Diana Nigmatullina in Canada and Petje Schroder in Poland for translating birth, marriage and death certificates and other documents.

To the staff of the Jewish Public Library and McGill University’s library in Montreal for helping me trace sources needed for my research.

Sean Remz was vital in proofreading the first draft, compiling and elaborating the endnotes and bibliography, helping me with background research and assisting me with collecting some of the images.

To Carla Burstein for reading and commenting on an early version of the manuscript.

David Winch did a much-appreciated copyediting of the manuscript. I thank him for his thoughtful comments and attention to the accuracy of the terms and sources.

Danna Nishmas was instrumental in drawing all the maps with great care and laying out the book proposal.

To the University of Calgary Press acquisition, editorial and production team, including Brian Scrivener, Helen Hajnoczky, Alison Cobra, and Melina Cusano, many thanks.

This book could not have been written without the support and encouragement of my son Ben. He laboured hard to trace original documents, construct timelines and find links to oral testimonies. He joined me on trips to Poland and Germany to visit archives and record the places at which events took place.

To my sister Rachel Friedman-Rozenberg for helping track down information about our father that I had forgotten.

My gratitude to my family in Israel and Canada for their love and support. Finally, to my late parents that despite the hardship that they endured gave me and my sister the best upbringing they could and sheltered us from the horror they had been through.