Given name: Natan (Jan) Family name: Żelechower (Kurczab)

Natan Zelichower was a dental technician. He begins the narrative in his diary in spring of 1943. In the ghetto, he was with his mother, wife and daughter. During the First Action, he hid with fourteen other people in the attic of the house adjacent to his own. After two weeks of the Action, the author managed to get a job and accommodation in the area of Gustaw Zygmunt's safety pins factory, where he moved with his family. The author had to leave his mother, who was shot in her bed. On 22 August 1942, when Zelichower was in the factory's workshop, the Germans took away in two hours about 160 people, including author's wife and daughter. During the selection, called the Round-up in Mila Street, it was clear that the factory in which Zelichower worked would be liquidated, so the author decided to hide. He found a hideout in Zamenhofa Street No. 29 and waited there for the end of the Action. After the Action, he hid with his companions in another hideout for some time, until he finally crossed to working brushmakers' shop and, after short period of time, he got papers and a job there. He fell ill with typhoid in the factory and was taken to hospital in Gesia Street No. 6. After nine weeks in the hospital, the author managed to go back to brushmakers' shop. A week before Christmas of 1942, the author learnt that his brother works in Raum Komando. The author left the brushmakers' shop and moved to his brother's. They worked together segregating the belongings left by the deported Jews. During the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the author with his commando lived in a place untouched by the fights and damage. Just before the end of the Uprising, the Zelichower’s commando was also put on the train. On the way, they noticed that the train is not heading towards Treblinka, but towards Lublin. After two-day journey, the author reached a selection camp, from which he was taken to Majdanek. There, he survived another selection and he was not assigned to the group gassed in a chamber, but the one appointed to works. Zelichower worked at Majdanek consecutively: filling the holes, digging up beetroots, cleaning the bricks recovered from the ruins, gathering turf and placing it as a lawn along the barracks, cleaning the cesspits. After the next selection the author was assigned to be transported to Auschwitz, where he was quarantined. He was surprised by the quarantine’s very good (compared to Majdanek) conditions. After the quarantine, the author went to a coal mine in Jawiszowice, about 10 kilometers from Auschwitz. Initially, the author worked there in enlarging the camp. In March 1944, he was assigned to work in the Brzeszczowce mine. In spring, he made for himself a hideout in the mine; he hid there for the whole day doing nothing, and came out to the surface with other workers when the work was over. He was disclosed after 14 days. He was beaten, but he escaped death. He was moved to a mine in Jawiszowice. When the death marches from Auschwitz began, the camp in which Zelichower stayed was liquidated as well. The prisoners were given food, then taken away from the camp and the camp was burnt. After a few days of the march, the prisoners were put on the train and deported to Buchenwald. After a short stay in Buchenwald, Zelichower was transported in uncovered trains to Ordurf, from where, after the selection, he was transported in car to Krähwinkel, where he worked in quarry. He lives there in bunkers for storing ammunition, which were adjusted as barracks. From the camp, he went to Zeltlager, where the prisoners were placed in linen tents. They worked in a quarry in Dora (Nordhausen). Around 20 March 1945, the prisoners were told to give the equipment back to the warehouse. The camp was liquidated and the author with other prisoners set off for another march. All the prisoners, after a few-day journey, landed in overpopulated Buchenwald. The author hid there with several friends, avoiding being put on trains. In April 1945, the Americans appear in the camp. Shortly after the liberation, the author went to hospital, gravely ill. After a few weeks, he recovered and headed back to Poland with his friend, Kon. They spent nights in chosen by themselves German households, they bluntly told the Germans what they thought about them; they locked themselves alone in the train compartments watching the Germans crowding outside. They humiliated the Germans everywhere they went for quite a long time. They had a mark that they came from Buchenwald and the Germans grinned and bore all they did. Four months later, Zelichower stepped on the ruins of Warsaw. He didn’t find anyone from his family. This is where his story ends.