David Schaecter Presented by The Foundation of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation
I was born in Czechoslovakia in a very small “hamlet,” not even the size of a town, in the Tokai Mountains area close to the Czech/Hungarian border. In April 1940, my father was taken away from our family and one year later, they came for the rest of us. I was eleven years old at the time.
My mother, two younger sisters, my older brother and I were taken by cattle car to Auschwitz. After we arrived, my mother and sisters were pushed away and I never saw them again. My brother, who was 4 years my senior, told me to stand on his feet so I looked older. Miraculously we were taken together and stayed together for 1 ½ years before we were again taken together, this time to Buchenwald. We were in Buchenwald for close to two years when my brother gave up and was shot to death. I remained in Buchenwald for several more months until I was again put on a train as the Germans were clearing out the camps with allied troops approaching. This time the train was not a cattle car but some type of supply train. I escaped into the woods during the confusion of the moment when the train was bombed by the allied troops. After hiding by day, and traveling
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