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This is a brief account of the story of Marco Di
Teodoro’s great grandfather, Leo Zelikowski, a survivor
of two world wars and the Auschwitz concentration
camps.
In 1914, the First World War erupted and
lasted until late 1918. The Second World
War began in 1939, with the invasion of
Poland by Germany, and lasted until late
1945. During the Second World War, there
was the incomprehensible extermination
of approximately 6 million European Jews
by Nazi Germany, lead by the dictator
Adolf Hitler. This genocide is referred to
as The Holocaust.
Adolf Hitler and the Nazis believed that Germans
were a superior race and that they were entitled
to world domination. They considered everyone
else to be inferior. At the very bottom of his
racial policy were the Jewish people who he
considered to be the biggest threat to their
nation. Hitler instituted racial laws that took
away the rights of Jewish people, preventing
them from working, using hospitals, going to
public schools, etc. His hate for the Jewish
people was so great that he felt that they were
basically unworthy of life and decided that Nazi
Germany’s “Final Solution” was to exterminate
all Jews.
Leo happened to be Jewish. He was a child
during the First World War and was 29
when the Second World War began. He
had lived in Poland until 1929 and then
went to France to finish his studies and
became an Electrical Engineer.
In 1936 he became extremely ill as
a result of a hemorrhage and was
hospitalized in Paris. Because of
his illness, he had to be in a
different climate and went to
northern Italy in 1937, settling in
the town of Arco. It was there that
he met Marco’s great grandmother,
Maria, a widow, and her two
children. Maria rented the rooms
of her villa and Marco’s great
grandfather stayed there as a
boarder. He grew fond of Maria,
who was Catholic, and her family.
Hitler & Mussolini
The situation at that time was already
extremely difficult for Jews. In 1938 Italy
unfortunately allied itself with Germany
and, as a result of this alliance, Italy also
adopted the racial laws against the Jews.
Many Italians were against this, but were
forced to accept the laws.
From one day to the next, Leo found
himself denied of his Polish citizenship and
watched by the secret police. In 1939 he
found out that his brother had died in
combat, fighting for Poland. Sadly, since
that year, he never received any news of
his parents or any other family members
(cousins, aunts, uncles, etc). His entire
family was killed during the war and to
this day, except for the details on his
brother, he still does not know when or
where they died.
In 1940, Leo was denied the
right to leave the city he was
living in. It was declared that
Jews would be deported to the
Nazi concentration camps. On
December 21, 1943, Leo was
arrested by the Germans and
jailed (in Trento, Italy). His
friends and city officials could do
nothing to help him despite their
efforts.
On February 21, 1944, the
“prisoners”, including Leo, were
told that the following day they
were going to be sent to “work”.
The next day, the 550 prisoners
were loaded onto a freight train
consisting of 12 freight cars. The
prisoners were crammed one on
top of the other and there was
no straw or anything to sit on. At
the beginning of the trip, the
prisoners were given a bit of
bread with some jam to eat, but
no water to drink. They were on
the train for 5 days and 4 nights.
It was a nightmare. If the people
pleaded for some water, they
were answered with machine gun
shots. The train stopped only
twice to let them go outside to
the bathroom, all together, with
no privacy.
When they arrived at the concentration camp (Auschwitz II, Auschwitz-Birkenau), that is
when the real nightmare began. The German soldiers got everyone off the convoy. Leo
and another prisoner were told to unload all the suitcases. While they were unloading the
suitcases, they found two older women, still huddled together, that did not survive the
trip. They were told by the German soldiers to put them on top of the suitcases. All the
prisoners were separated, the women and children on one side and the men on another
side. Then they went through a selection process where they each had to state, to a
German SS officer, their name, age and profession. Depending on what they answered,
they were told to go to the right or to the left. When they asked Marco’s great grandfather
the questions, he told them he was an electrician instead of an Electrical Engineer as he
hoped they would find that more useful. He was told to go to the right and they put him
onto a truck. After the selection process was over, there were only 95 men and 29 women
that were chosen for work and put on the trucks.
All the other 426 men, women and children
were killed that night. They were told that
they would all be taking showers and that
then they would rejoin their family
members and be given their suitcases back.
Instead, once inside, the supposed “shower
chambers” became gas chambers and they
were all killed by the gas. Then, the bodies
were sent to the furnaces to be burned.
The balance of the prisoners was brought to
a concentration camp 20 minutes away
where they would stay (Auschwitz III).
There, they were told to shower, were
disinfected and then branded with their new
identity. They didn’t have a first or last
name anymore, only a number. Marco’s
great grandfather’s number was 174565,
which still appears on his arm today. They
were given their prisoner’s uniform and for
the next year they got up at 4 a.m. every
morning, did whatever work they were told
to do, suffered from constant hunger (as
they were given only a portion of bread in
the morning and a bowl of soup at supper),
cold, beatings, humiliation and desperation.
If they became weak or ill and did not
recover quickly, they were killed. They
never knew if they would live to see the
next horrible day. Only 25 out of the 95
men survived the first month.
Throughout the war, the Allied forces
fought against Germany and as a result
of the Allied effort, the Soviet Union’s
Red Army was able to breach the
German front in January of 1945. On
January 18, 1945, approximately
10,000 prisoners at Auschwitz III were
rounded up by the German soldiers. The
Germans were retreating and they were
trying to get rid of the evidence of the
concentration camps and their crimes
against humanity.
The prisoners, including Leo, were made to walk
40 kilometers during the night to another camp
in the intense cold, without stopping. Most
prisoners had no coats and some were without
their shoes. They were then loaded onto a train
which eventually stopped in a city called Stein
(January 22, 1945). Once the train stopped, the
German soldiers tell the prisoners that only the
weak and ill will continue by train. Those that
are well enough to walk must get off the train.
Leo got off the train. When the
prisoners that would continue by foot
had all gotten off the train and started
walking, they heard machine gun fire.
All the people that had stayed on the
train were immediately killed. The
balance of the prisoners continued on
foot through the forest and was being
lead to a clearing in the forest. They
could hear machine gun fire up ahead.
They realized that they would all be
killed once they reached the clearing.
When Leo realized this, he started running
and many other prisoners followed. Many
were shot but a number of them survived.
The German soldiers were afraid to be
captured by the Russians and were trying to
hurry up and save themselves. Because of
that, Leo was able to escape to the nearest
village where, through the kindness and
compassion of a villager, he was able to get
some food and rest that night.
From that point on, it was a
dangerous
and
tricky
situation
because the German militia was
hunting fugitives. Leo had to move
from place to place and had to rely on
the kindness and compassion of
others for clothing, food and help. It
was 8 months of traveling across
Poland, Romania, Russia and France.
In order to do that, Leo had to obtain
false documents with regard to his
identity
and
passage
through
Romania and Russia was particularly
difficult because of the ever present
danger of being arrested.
After a fierce battle in Berlin, the
Red Army, on April 30, 1945, was
able to conquer the parliament of
the German Empire. Before the
battle was over, Adolf Hitler and
many within his group killed
themselves. Germany gave its
unconditional surrender on May 7,
1945. The war in Europe officially
ended on May 8, 1945.
Finally, on September 9, 1945, Leo
returned to Arco, Italy. With the help
and affection of Maria and her family, he
began the process of healing and trying
to start over. On March 30, 1951 Leo
and Maria were married. They spent
most of their lives at Villa Lina in Arco,
Italy. In April of 1991 they came to
Canada to live with Maria’s daughter,
Carolina, Marco’s grandmother. Marco’s
great grandmother, Maria, died on
January 8, 2001 at the age of 92.
Leo will be turning 101 on April 10,
2011, a real life survivor and a true
hero!
World War II is described as the
deadliest conflict in human history. It
resulted in over 70 million fatalities
and included the Holocaust and the
only use of nuclear weapons. The
crimes against humanity should never
be forgotten.