Survivor Testimony #1- Coy Draheim

Survivor Testimony 1
Coy Draheim

WWII changed many things for the Jewish people including the birth name of Joseph Morton. Born Joseph Markowitz in Lodz, Poland, Joseph wanted to leave behind any trace or reminder of the war. Joseph’s story like many other Jew’s was one of growing up in a smaller town in Europe and doing many ordinary things as a child. Joseph had five brothers and one sister, a father working as a tailor, and a stay at home mother. Joseph like many others had suffered small instances of anti-Semitism early on and even heard little bits of Hitler’s rise to power. He never knew how bad it would truly get. “One ear in, the other one out,” is a quote from Joseph when he describes hearing about Hitler’s rise. It was true that many Jews never knew how bad it would get and simply brushed off the news about the Nazis. Joseph’s town was one of the earliest towns in Poland to be occupied, with the war starting on a Wednesday and the Germans invading their town two days later on Friday. Things got bad quickly for Joseph and the Jews in Lodz. They were put to work early as kids cleaning floors and shortly after the occupation a ghetto was established. Life in the ghetto was miserable as one would imagine with starvation rampant. Jews were killed and hung in the market to give a warning to others that their invaders were serious. School was cancelled and wire walls were built to keep them in. This was paradise in fact for Joseph though; he had no idea of what his future would hold. Auschwitz did not exist in his world but it would soon become a reality. “We would kill ourselves before getting to the place,” is what Joseph had to say about his time right before Auschwitz if he would have known how bad it would become. Like many others after him Joseph was loaded onto a cattle car with around fifty other Jews and shipped to Auschwitz. He went through selection like many others and this would be the last time he would see his mother and most siblings. Joseph, his father, and one brother were chosen as acceptable to work and the rest of his family he would never see again as they were taken to their deaths by gas or furnace. Auschwitz was a short stay for Joseph as he was shipped to a German work camp Darkow. He was in good physical shape and could work which allowed him to stay alive. Near the end of his stay he fell ill with typhus and luckily for him the camp was liberated shortly after. Joseph said that if he would have had to go a few more days he would not be here today. Joseph’s experience not only shook his faith in people but his faith in God also. His faith has never gotten back to how it was before the war and probably never will. He moved to the U.S. where he works as a barber and enjoys his life with his wife and 3 kids.