A Child in Auschwitz - The Story of Palo (Yaakov) Shelah
Published 2022-07-19
Palo (Yaakov) Shelah was born in Czechoslovakia in 1938, to Arthur and Jolan Schlezinger. With the beginning of deportations of Slovak Jews in 1942, his family moved to the city of Nitra, where his father worked in a brick factory which served as a labor camp. Later his parents were caught and taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Palo, then six years old, and brother Shmulik, aged ten, hid in the factory for a time. They then marched tens of miles until reaching a farm owned by their relatives. After remaining there on their own for a month, they were caught, sent to Sereď concentration camp and from there to Auschwitz-Birkenau in early November 1944. They were released in January 1945. Palo immigrated to Israel in 1949, settled in the Gan Shmuel kibbutz, married Nira, and started a family.
