Mosze Fuks

When Mosze was a baby his family moved from the small town of Klimontov to the industrial city of Lodz. The Fuks family owned a grocery store and in the early 30s they started manufacturing silk thread.

1933-39: In September 1939 Germany attacked Poland. Over the radio, appeals were broadcast calling Jewish youths to Warsaw to help defend the city. My brother and I, along with hundreds of others, set out for Warsaw. We walked for three days, but when we got to Warsaw, it was too late--the city had been destroyed. After two weeks we returned home to Lodz. As restrictions on Jews worsened, my father urged me to leave Lodz.

1940-44: In 1940 I left Lodz to stay with relatives in the countryside. I was active in the underground Zionist youth movement, Ha-Shomer ha-Za'ir. In 1942 I was deported to the Skarzysko Kamienna labor camp. I'd been there for three months when a friend and I were contacted by the underground and given an escape plan. Ten of us hid in the forest, where we built a bunker. For one and a half years we survived by stealing out at night to gather firewood and forage vegetables from nearby farms.

In 1944 Soviet troops reached the forest where Mosze was hiding. Mosze decided to leave Europe and emigrated to Palestine [Yishuv] via Egypt. He married and had three children.