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My Voice: Jack Aizenberg
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29 April 2025

Jack Aizenberg was born into a Jewish family in 1928 in Staszow, Poland. On 1 September 1939, Nazi Germany attacked Poland and soon began targeting Poland’s 3.5 million Jews, looting homes, burning properties, publicly humiliating them and sending many to forced labour camps. In 1942, living in the last Polish town to be evacuated of all its Jews, Jack went into hiding; parting reluctantly from his parents and brother.
Upon discovery of Jack’s hiding place, he was sent to work in a German munitions factory in Kielce and later experienced the harrowing conditions of Buchenwald and Colditz.
By February 1945, Jack, along with 600 other concentration camp inmates, was forced on a 200 mile death march, towards Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia.
Jack was finally liberated in Theresienstadt on 27 April 1945 and was brought to England to recuperate in Windermere. He later settled in Manchester, creating a thriving business and loving family.
Jack's book is part of the My Voice book collection, a stand-alone project of The Fed, the leading Jewish social care charity in Manchester, dedicated to preserving the life stories of Holocaust survivors and refugees from Nazi persecution who settled in the UK. The oral history, which is recorded and transcribed, captures their entire lives from before, during and after the war years. The books are written in the words of the survivor so that future generations can always hear their voice. The My Voice book collection is a valuable resource for Holocaust awareness and education.
HISTORY / Jewish, The Holocaust, Autobiography: historical, political and military
1 My family in Poland
2 Café Isaac
3 My Jewish education
4 The Jewish religion anchored our lives
5 The outbreak of war
6 Escaping to Staszów
7 Increased restrictions on Jews
8 Hiding during the evacuation of Staszów
9 Working in the ammunition factory in Kielce
10 A missed liberation in Czestochowa
11 Learning to survive in Buchenwald
12 Working in Colditz
13 The death march
14 Liberation at Theresienstadt
15 Freedom in beautiful Windermere
16 Living in a hostel in Manchester
17 England was paradise
18 My first job and lodgings
19 Marvellous America and my return to
Manchester
20 We worked day and night
21 Marriage and children
22 My surviving family
23 Returning to Poland
24 Chairman of the ’45 Aid Society
25 My reflections
26 Postscript
Glossary
Transcript sources
My Voice volunteers
About The Fed