Marian Zelman

On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. While Marian was out with his mother, he noticed the local police station had been abandoned. A sign encouraged all men over 18 years old to report to Warsaw to defend Poland. Marian and three of his brothers answered the call, but by the time they reached Warsaw, the city had already been heavily bombed. They returned to Lodz, only to find it occupied by German forces.

Soon after, Jewish families were forced from their homes and moved into the Lodz Ghetto, sealed off in April 1940.  Life in the ghetto was crowded and harsh. Multiple families shared small rooms with little food, poor water, no electricity, and almost no heat. Marian worked first tearing down abandoned buildings for fuel and later cutting leather for horse harnesses used by German wagons. He and other workers secretly saved small scraps to burn in stoves to keep warm. 

On September 7, 1942, during the mass deportation known as the Sperre, the Nazis ordered all children, elderly people, and those unable to work to report for deportation. Marian’s mother, who had a heart condition, hid in their room because she feared she would be taken away. When Marian and his father returned home, they found her dead. 

In August 1944, after nearly four years in the ghetto, Marian and other forced laborers were told they were being relocated to a factory in the mountains. Instead, they arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Believing they had been taken to the wrong place, the workers tried to explain that they had been producing supplies for the German war effort. The guards ignored their explanations and began the selection process. During selection, Marian was chosen for forced labor while his father was sent in another direction. Marian never saw him again. 

After a week in Birkenau, Marian was loaded onto a truck to Gleiwitz. From August 1944 to January 1945, he was forced to live and work under brutal conditions. He spent most of his time drilling deep holes for building foundations and helping construct a fence around the concentration camp to prevent prisoners from escaping. 

In late January 1945, as the Soviet army advanced, the Germans began evacuating the camps. Marian was forced to march from Gleiwitz to Blechhammer. One night, an air raid caused a fire in the barrack. Because of the chaos, a roll call was ordered. During this assembly, Marian noticed that a gate had been left open. In that moment, he and two fellow prisoners seized the opportunity and escaped into the forest, running through deep snow without looking back. 

In early February 1945, Marian made his way back to Lodz. He returned home hoping to find his family, but only one brother had survived. Most of his family was gone, leaving behind only his father’s tallis bag and a few hidden family photographs. 

After the war, Marian rebuilt his life. He married Maya Mirski on June 6, 1946. She had survived the war in Russia. Together they had two daughters, Gabriella and Helina. Maya later died in 1964 at the age of 37. 

Marian served in the Polish Army and worked in Warsaw in the coal and energy sector. Life in postwar Poland was difficult for Jewish survivors, and repeated efforts to emigrate were denied. 

Finally, in 1968, he left Poland with his children and traveled to Vienna, Austria, where he waited for a visa. Eventually, he was able to immigrate to the United States, settling in Buffalo, New York. Later, he volunteered to drive a fellow survivor nearly 2,850 miles to Seattle, Washington. After completing the journey, he decided to stay. In Seattle, he found work and attended college to learn English. 

Marian Zelman passed away on July 25, 2004. 

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