Irwin Goldstein was born the youngest of eight children on June 10,1926 in vlachovo, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech republic). Irwin's father, David came to the united states in 1927 to find work. He went from job to job but never failed to send money home.when the war began, he could not return to Czechoslovakia.he died of a heart attack in the u.s in 1943. Following the German seizure of Czechoslovakia in 1938. Vlachos was given to Germanys ally , Hungary. As a Jew, Irwin could no longer attend school, and his older brothers who served in the Czech army were transferred to the Hungarian army and demoted to forced labor.when Germany invaded the soviet union in June 1941, they became mine sweepers locating and detonating bombs. All three were killed. In
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When a call went out for carpenters, Irwin volunteered even though he had no experience. He was transferred from Auschwitz to a succession of camps in germany.as the front neared, Irwin was among the prisoners sent on a two week death march before being loaded onto a cattle car and sent to Bergen-Belsen.
The camp had no food or water, disease was rampant, and corpses were everywhere.the indeterminable roll calls drained Irwin of his remaining strenth.when he collapsed, the guards tossed him onto a heap of corpses.somehow he found the strength to stand and join the prisoners assigned to drag the bodies into ditches, douse them with kerosene ,and set them on fire .his act of nearly superhuman will saved his life.
Irwin was liberated on April 15,1945. He was 18 years old, weighed 75 pounds, and had typhoid fever and tuberculosis.he spent two weeks in a makeshift British hospital before being evacuated to a Swedish hospital where he learned that his only sister Gilda had
When a call went out for carpenters, Irwin volunteered even though he had no experience. He was transferred from Auschwitz to a succession of camps in germany.as the front neared, Irwin was among the prisoners sent on a two week death march before being loaded onto a cattle car and sent to Bergen-Belsen.
The camp had no food or water, disease was rampant, and corpses were everywhere.the indeterminable roll calls drained Irwin of his remaining strenth.when he collapsed, the guards tossed him onto a heap of corpses.somehow he found the strength to stand and join the prisoners assigned to drag the bodies into ditches, douse them with kerosene ,and set them on fire .his act of nearly superhuman will saved his life.
Irwin was liberated on April 15,1945. He was 18 years old, weighed 75 pounds, and had typhoid fever and tuberculosis.he spent two weeks in a makeshift British hospital before being evacuated to a Swedish hospital where he learned that his only sister Gilda had