Bronislaw Honig Research Paper
When the Germans occupied Cracow, Bronislaw, the son of Rose and David Honig , was four years old. His father David was a hardware store salesman and his mother Rose was a dressmaker. With his parents working, Bronislaw’s grandmother stayed home to take care of him.
Bronislaw was a well-mannered, bright, good-looking and happy little boy who lived in the large industrial city of Cracow. During the two world wars, Jewish social and cultural life flourished there. Cracow was the third largest city having 60,000 Jewish citizens by 1939.
On September 6th 1939, Cracow was taken by the Germans and they began to immediately persecute the Jews, burn down several synagogues, and loot Jewish properties. 40,000 Jews lost their property due to confiscation and were kicked out to neighboring towns. As this was going on, a isolated ghetto was established with many problems including hunger, overcrowding, and terrible sanitary conditions. In the ghetto, factories were set up and Jews were forced into slave labor. Due to these changes of environment, many Jews died due to starvation, disease, and exposure.
Germans began gathering Jews and sending them to the Belzec death camp on in May of 1942, while many strong and healthy Jews were sent to Plaszow to do slave labor. In January of 1943, Bronislaw’s parents were sent to Plaszow and Bronislaw was arranged to stay with a friendly Jewish policeman. While his father was working in a warehouse outside of the camp, the ghetto was about to be emptied so the police send him a letter informing him of that. Bronislaw’s father snuck out of the camp and back to the ghetto at night and took him hidden in a suitcase piled on a cart filled with clothes left behind from the deported ghetto residents back into Plaszow with him. But several days later Mr. Honig tried to find safety for Bronislaw because another child was discovered living in the camp and was shot. A young Christian woman offered to take the child so Bronislaw was smuggled
Bronislaw was a well-mannered, bright, good-looking and happy little boy who lived in the large industrial city of Cracow. During the two world wars, Jewish social and cultural life flourished there. Cracow was the third largest city having 60,000 Jewish citizens by 1939.
On September 6th 1939, Cracow was taken by the Germans and they began to immediately persecute the Jews, burn down several synagogues, and loot Jewish properties. 40,000 Jews lost their property due to confiscation and were kicked out to neighboring towns. As this was going on, a isolated ghetto was established with many problems including hunger, overcrowding, and terrible sanitary conditions. In the ghetto, factories were set up and Jews were forced into slave labor. Due to these changes of environment, many Jews died due to starvation, disease, and exposure.
Germans began gathering Jews and sending them to the Belzec death camp on in May of 1942, while many strong and healthy Jews were sent to Plaszow to do slave labor. In January of 1943, Bronislaw’s parents were sent to Plaszow and Bronislaw was arranged to stay with a friendly Jewish policeman. While his father was working in a warehouse outside of the camp, the ghetto was about to be emptied so the police send him a letter informing him of that. Bronislaw’s father snuck out of the camp and back to the ghetto at night and took him hidden in a suitcase piled on a cart filled with clothes left behind from the deported ghetto residents back into Plaszow with him. But several days later Mr. Honig tried to find safety for Bronislaw because another child was discovered living in the camp and was shot. A young Christian woman offered to take the child so Bronislaw was smuggled