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Holocaust survivor speaks to base audience

  • Published
  • By Carl Bergquist
  • Air University Public Affairs
The number 7441 could be a telephone extension or the last four digits of a Social Security number, but for Max Steinmetz, it was his identity from June 1941 to May 1945.

As a Romanian Jew during World War II, Mr. Steinmetz was a "guest" of the Nazis in several of their infamous concentration camps, often referred to as death camps.

"I never heard my name again for almost four years," he told an audience that, as part of the National Days of Remembrance week, gathered to hear his presentation, "Perspectives," Tuesday at the Officer Training School's Boyd Auditorium.

"We were not allowed by the Germans to use names, just our numbers, and the penalty for failing to abide by their rules was death."

Mr. Steinmetz told the largely military audience it was a pleasure to speak to them because "if not for your kind of people, I would not be alive today," referring to the American military who rescued him. He said he was the oldest child in a five-member family, and he was the only family member to survive the "horrendous treatment" at the hands of the Germans. He said upon arrival at Auschwitz, his sister and parents were immediately exterminated, and his brother would later die of starvation.

"A couple of days after arriving at Auschwitz, I came out of a building and saw people hanging on the barbed wire fence. I asked one of the men there what was going on and he told me they had committed suicide," Mr. Steinmetz said. "I also asked what the smoke and awful smell was, and he asked me if I had come into the camp with anyone. I told him I came with my family, but my sister and parents were taken away. He said, 'That's what you are smelling, your sister and parents.' I was horrified, but sadly, he was right."

Mr. Steinmetz said the trip to Auschwitz took three days and four nights and about 30 percent of those being transported in crowded cattle cars didn't make it to the camp alive. He said on arrival they met Dr. Joseph Mengele, also known as the "Angel of Death," and it was he who directed Jews coming off the cattle cars to go either right or left. He and his brother were told to go right, but those told to go left, to include the rest of his family, had been marked for immediate extermination.

Mr. Steinmetz said he was soon transferred to Auschwitz II, or Birkenau, then to Dachau and finally to the Landsberg/Kaufering camp. It was at the last camp that he became involved in building Messerschmitt aircraft, roads and tunnels and clearing debris from the railroad station at Munich, which was bombed by the Allies almost daily.

"We were taken each day to the work place then brought back each night to the camp. When we would arrive back, the factory owners and other employers would pay the Germans for our labor," he said. "The Germans had no respect for human life. We also were given oxcarts and had to pick up the people who had died. If you weren't strong enough to work, you were considered dead, and we often had to pick up people still alive and treat them as dead or be shot ourselves. We would take them to be buried or burned."

Mr. Steinmetz said one day his brother told him he couldn't move. He said his legs wouldn't work.

"I told him I would see what I could do, so I took him to a friend from back home who was a doctor. The doctor said I should leave my brother with him and go to work," he said. "My brother told me, 'I won't be here when you return tonight,' but I told him, 'Sure you will.' Unfortunately, my brother was right. He died of starvation and was taken away to be buried or burned by the time I returned."

Mr. Steinmetz said the daily ration amounted to one meal a day of maybe a third of a pound of bread and some water, and he survived by eating out of garbage cans. He said many simply gave up, feeling there was no hope for them.

"The Germans had us so indoctrinated that we didn't feel we could be liberated," he said. "Eventually, as the American Army was approaching, we were taken to the mountains to dig trenches and were told we were going to keep the Americans from advancing. Can you imagine? We are so sick and weak we can hardly move, but the Germans are telling us we are going to stop the American advance. We continued to work because if you couldn't work or fell down, someone came up from behind and shot you, and the Germans always moved us around at night because they didn't want German citizens to see our condition."

Mr. Steinmetz said one day he finally gave up and walked away from his work assignment, fully expecting to be shot. He said nothing happened, and he eventually arrived at a farmhouse and knocked on the door.

"I was filthy and my hair was long, and the lady who came to the door looked at me and said, 'Who are you?'" Mr. Steinmetz said. "I told her I was a political prisoner, and she took me in and fed me, all I could eat. I ate so much I was throwing up, but I continued to eat until she finally made me stop. It turned out her husband was a German soldier away at the front."

He said the lady cleaned him up, shaved him and gave him a suit to wear. A few days later, she said she wanted to introduce him to someone.

"I told her no, please no, not the SS, but she introduced me to an American soldier," Mr. Steinmetz said. "The Americans wanted to make sure I wasn't a German soldier posing as a refugee, so they asked me to speak Jewish. When I did, they took me to an Army field hospital to attend to my condition."

Mr. Steinmetz immigrated in 1948 to the United States, first living in New York and working for 24 cents an hour. He later moved to Denver, Colo., and Albuquerque, N.M., then in 1955 to Birmingham, where he lives today.

In response to a question about prisoner numbers being tattooed on prisoners, Mr. Steinmetz said that was a common misconception.

"At first they did tattoo the numbers on, but it was causing sickness and fever in just about everyone," he said. "If you were sick, you couldn't work, and that was a no-no. So they stopped tattooing prisoners early on. I was number 7441 and did not receive a tattoo."