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Mein kampf
Hilter wrote the book Mein Kampf while in prison. He blamed the Jews for WWI and all of Germany's troubles. Isak Borenstein was just a kid at this time; he was 7 years living in Radom, Poland. He had 3 sisters and 3 brothers. -
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Isak Borenstein
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The Nazi Party
The National Socialist Party is established in Germany. Isak Borenstein was 12 years old. His dad was a livestock dealer, Isak would walk the cattle from the country to their house. They would fatten the animals up and sold them to Jewish Butchers. -
Hitler
In 1933 Hilter was elected Chancellor. Posters were all over Germany saying "Germans defend yourselves! Don't buy from Jews." This may have affected Isak's family. Butchers may not have bought from them because they were Jewish, Isak lived on the farm with his family until the start of the war. -
WWI
The Germans invaded Poland and Borenstein ran away to Russia. He worked as a carpenter there. -
Russia
Germany invades Russia, so Isak joins the Russian Army. Before he and the other Jews had the chance to fight they were caught by the Germans. The 35 of them surrendered and only two of them survived the shootings. Isak changed his last name from Borenstein to Broniewski because it was a Polish name. He survived because of changing his name. -
France sends 17,000 Jews to Camps
Isak and thousands of men were being marched into a prisoners of war camp, but Isak escaped. He worked at hospital and joined the Partisians. Isak had a Russian teacher who drank too much one night and gave the name of 60 Jews who were with him. Isak was arrested and taken to a prison in Dnepropetrovsk. Someone in the prison told a guard that Isak looked Jewish. They took Isak down to the death chamber of the jail, where he stayed for 10 days. -
SS troops send Jews in Warsaw after revolt to camps
Isak Borenstein was put into a labor camp near Dnepropetrovsk, in 1943. The Russian Army was coming near Dnepropetrovsk, so Isak was put on the train to Auschwitz. There was no room in Auschwitz for them, so they were placed in Mauthausen. Borenstein had typhoid, so he was luckily placed in the camp hospial, where he could recover. -
Only 15,000 Jews left in Germany
In the Hospital Isak was located at, a Polish man recognized that he was Jewish, luckily the man wanted to help him. The Pole sent him to Schlier-Redl-Zipf, which was a sub-camp of Mauthausen. Isak was sent to work at a factory on the mountain, one day it exploded. Borenstein was moved to Linz III, which was another sub-camp. He worked for the Hermann Goring Works,cutting out tank wheels with a torch. -
Germans plan to breed an Aryan elite race by making unmarried womenbear SS troops’ children.
While working in Linz lll, Isak escaped death bmany times. A SS gaurd pointed his gun to Isak's head and told the other gaurds he wanted to shoot him so that the men would work harder. One SS gaurd told him not to because he was a soldier just like them wanting to see his family. -
46,000 Jews were gassed and burned in 1 DAY at Auschwitz
The SS gaurds debated on killing Isak and the others or returning them to Linz III; the gaurds decided to let them go back. Borenstein did not want to go back and fled to a field where he lived for 10 days. He decided to go back to Poland and on the way there he saw a Russian Soldier, who made him join the Army. He was with the Russian Army for 14 months. -
Warsaw Liberated-WWII ends
After Isak got out of the army, he went back to his house in Radom, Poland. Borenstein says his house was the same as when he left, but filled with strange people. He left and said "Out of 34,000 Jewish people I could not even find ten Jewish people left." Isak found a letter from his brother Abe, that he left to the neighbor. Abe was the only Borenstein to survive the War. Abe survived Buchenwald concentration camp and was sick. After Abe recovered, Isak and himself moved to New Orleans.
