Testimony 1-Cody Bareford

David Abrams is a Holocaust survivor from multiple Nazi concentration camps. Mr. Abrams was born on December 8, 1928 in Dej-Romania. Abrams led a fairly normal Jewish life for the most part until he was fifteen. Soon after his bar mitzvah his father passed away, and just a few months later he was taken to the Ghetto. His Ghetto was in a field and families were required to build their own shelter during their stay there. After a month the Jews were quickly rounded up and sent to Auschwitz where they began being separated. People were separated by their ability to work, if they weren’t able to work they were sent to the gas chambers. Mr. Abrams stayed in Auschwitz for approximately a month and was shipped to Mauthausen. He received the number 71,701 after steeping off the train, which was used to identify them. During his time in Mauthausen he began witnessing people stealing from one another and even witnessed a few eating the dead to survive. While being forced to work in Mauthausen David got an infection on the heel of his foot, at first he was skeptical to go get examined, but when he decided he was most likely going to die anyways he went and got checked out by an SS doctor. After seeing David was healthier than most he was admitted to the hospital where he spent two weeks eating and sleeping, which ultimately saved his life. David said he prayed every day at camp asking God that today be his last day at camp and stated, “That was the only thing that kept me going, my faith.”