The daughter of a Holocaust survivor has shared her father’s harrowing story of how he went from a boy to a man during some of the darkest moments in history, in hopes that lessons can be learned on Holocaust Memorial Day.
More than six million Jewish people from all over Europe were killed in concentration camps during the Holocaust between 1941-1945, with one million of them at Auschwitz alone.
Today marks the date that the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated in Nazi occupied Poland in 1945.
Other people were also murdered during the Holocaust, including people with disabilities, non-Jewish Polish people, travellers, Roma people and gypsies.
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Leah Burman shared the agonising details of how her father Ziggy Landschaft was able to survive by the kindness of some Czech friends who shared some food with him, but how he would also wake up and roll dead bodies out.
Mr Landschaft was only able to go to secondary school for a year because in September 1939 when he was only 14, Poland was invaded by Nazis.
@heidimcteapot This Holocaust Memorial Day, we spoke to the daughter of Holocaust survivor Ziggy Landschaft about the importance of never forgetting. #holocaustmemorialday #shoah ♬ original sound - Heidi
He was in a ghetto and three different concentration camps and forced into a death march, where anyone who fell was shot.
During the death march Ziggy had no shoes on and had wrapped cloths around his feet, and he was shot and woke up in a hospital.
Leah said: “The ghetto at the beginning was very crowded, and they only had one room to a family.
“There was little food, and people started to get very hungry, and if you didn’t work you had to eat less food.
“My father worked in printing in the ghetto, and he had tokens to help for food.
"He was a slave labourer in the concentration camps.
“There were lots of rules about what Jews could and couldn’t do, and it was very difficult.”
Mr Landschaft was just 15 when his mum Liba was shot in the ghetto for just going out for some shopping.
Leah said: “My father to this day is in regret, and obviously very sad.
“At the time they couldn’t mourn her death, because at the time he was in survival mode, and your head goes into a different place.
“And they had to pull themselves together and just get on with it.”
She added: “Most of my father’s close family were murdered.
“He was the only survivor of his nuclear family, and I find it very hard to use that word ‘murdered’, and I find that even harder to use it about my own family.
“It’s a family I never knew, but it’s the truth.”
Mr Landschaft has still managed to remain positive throughout his life, and his motto has been Le Chayim, a Jewish toast meaning “To Life”.
Leah added: “My father has always been very positive, and he has never looked backwards, and he’s not been angry, and I have not been brought up with those feelings.
She was speaking at Bolton Library as part of events to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day.
Leah said: “My mother who was also a Holocaust survivor said, ‘don’t say anything’, and my father didn’t talk about it, and I think that’s in common with a lot of people who have been through war experiences.
“It’s only through the years that I’ve managed to get more of a story out of him.”
Leah added: “We kind of feel responsibility for carrying the mantle.
“We as the children of the survivors who know about our parents lives who can vouch for what happened to them.
“We have learned so much from our parents' experiences and we want to make it a better world.”
Mr Landschaft spent some years thinking about what he wanted to do in his life and where to live.
He travelled to a few countries, and eventually met Renia, another Holocaust survivor.
They married in 1951, had three daughters, five grandchildren, and eight great grandchildren.
If you have a story and something you would like to highlight in the community, please email me at jasmine.jackson@newsquest.co.uk or DM me on Twitter @JournoJasmine.
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