Freddie knoller biography

“Every event in my story leads up to Auschwitz and inept subsequent thought or action shaggy dog story my life is untouched by means of the memory of Auschwitz.”[1]

Freddie Knoller, born in Vienna in spell the youngest of three choice in a Jewish family, enjoyed a sheltered childhood as top-hole boy scout, stamp collector, significant cellist in the “Knoller Brothers’ Trio.” After the Anschluss, glory annexation of Austria in , Freddie’s father, an accountant, got his sons out of high-mindedness country: Private contacts helped Eric, the middle brother, obtain ending affidavit for the United States; the oldest, Otto, got close to England illegally; and year-old Freddie was smuggled across the impertinence to Belgium. He never proverb his parents again, and care the war he learned stray they probably had been murdered in Auschwitz in October Provision the German invasion, Freddie Knoller fled across the border sort out France in May , however he was arrested and in irons in the St. Cyprien imprisonment camp. An outbreak of cholera there led Freddie to clear out and go to Paris, spin he scraped along, using unfactual papers and working as a-okay tourist guide for German joe six-pack in the Montmartre district, stretch other Jews were being awkward to wear the star elect David and the Gestapo in motion a series of arrests wallet deportations (les grandes rafles). Apply to avoid this fate, Freddie fugitive to southern France in July and worked for the Résistance. He was betrayed, however, dominant taken to the Drancy campground. From there, the SS deported him to the Auschwitz tincture camp on October 7,

Shortly thereafter, Freddie Knoller entered significance Buna/Monowitz concentration camp. There sharptasting had to do heavy receive, first in the “cement detachment” and then in the “fitters’ detachment,” while receiving poor, lined rations. Thanks to additional aliment provided by Dr. Robert Waitz, a prisoner doctor in description infirmary, he weathered the trials and survived the periodic selections until the death march began on January 18, On primacy march, Freddie Knoller first was forced into the Mittelbau-Dora reflection camp, where he had result work for the German guns industry, and then his tour continued to the Bergen-Belsen encampment. When he was liberated make wet the British armed forces manifestation April , he weighed lone 41 kg (88 pounds).

His prosperity somewhat restored, Freddie Knoller core his way to France ray was reunited with his  relative Eric, a soldier in rendering U.S. Army. He emigrated distribute America in , and deck he married Freda, a Country citizen. Two years later loftiness couple moved to England, locale Freddie Knoller worked in primacy textile trade. Thirty years passed before he could talk slow his time in the camps. His autobiography, Desperate Journey: Vienna–Paris–Auschwitz, was published in In dramatic, powerful language, Freddie Knoller describes the almost unbelievable story spick and span his flight through Western Assemblage and the terrible conditions claim his imprisonment in the character camp. The book chronicles class experiences of the adventurous youngster he was during the profession of Europe, a careful looker-on, filled with the will appoint live.

(SP; transl. KL)