Herman Sachnowitz (born 13 June 1921 in

Larvik Larvik () is a List of cities in Norway, town and Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestfold in Vestfold og Telemark Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Larvik. The municipality ...

, - 5 March 1978 in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

) was a Norwegian merchant. He was one of the few

Norwegian Jews The history of Jews in Norway dates back to the 1400s. Although there were very likely Jewish merchants, sailors and others who entered Norway during the Middle Ages, no efforts were made to establish a Jewish community. Through the early mod ...

who survived deportation to a concentration camp. He was son of Israel Leib Sachnowitz (born 31 March 1880 in Russia, died 1 December 1942 in

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

, Poland) and Sara Sachnowitz (born 15 June 1882 in

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

, died 16 October 1939 in

, Norway). Sachnowitz was one of 772 Jews to be deported to

. He was arrested together with other men in the family on 26 October 1942. Sheriff Gran in

Stokke Stokke is a town in Sandefjord municipality in Vestfold County, Norway. It lies in-between Sandefjord and Tønsberg, two of Vestfold's largest cities. It was a municipality from 1838 to 2016. The administrative centre of the municipality was the ...

arrested them and sent them to

Berg concentration camp Berg interneringsleir (Berg internment camp) was a concentration camp near Tønsberg in Norway that served as an internment and transit center for political prisoners and Jews during the Nazi occupation of Norway. Establishment The camp at Berg ...

. The deportation to Germany happened on the German transport ship in November 1942. Only 34 of the deported Jews survived the stay in Auschwitz and the other concentration camps. Sachnowitz attended the

death march A death march is a forced march of prisoners of war or other captives or deportees in which individuals are left to die along the way. It is distinguished in this way from simple prisoner transport via foot march. Article 19 of the Geneva Convent ...

from the camp in Buna on 18 January 1945, and they walked 80 km the first day. He estimated that his group consisted of up to 100,000 prisoners, most of whom died under the march. From

Gliwice Gliwice (; german: Gleiwitz) is a city in Upper Silesia, in southern Poland. The city is located in the Silesian Highlands, on the Kłodnica river (a tributary of the Oder). It lies approximately 25 km west from Katowice, the regional cap ...

they were sent with train which went all over the present-day

Czech republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

and

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

and finally arrived in the camp at Dora at

Nordhausen Nordhausen may refer to: * Nordhausen (district), a district in Thuringia, Germany ** Nordhausen, Thuringia, a city in the district **Nordhausen station, the railway station in the city * Nordhouse, a commune in Alsace (German: Nordhausen) * Narost ...

after approximately 10 days. The prisoners at Dora and

Buchenwald Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or su ...

worked in underground factories with building

V-1 flying bomb The V-1 flying bomb (german: Vergeltungswaffe 1 "Vengeance Weapon 1") was an early cruise missile. Its official Ministry of Aviation (Nazi Germany), Reich Aviation Ministry () designation was Fi 103. It was also known to the Allies as the buz ...

s and

V-2 rocket The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed ...

s. Sachnowitz was a witness of the many bodies, which each only weighed 35–40 kg, which were burnt outside the camp in huge fires or sent to the crematorium at Buchenwald. From Dora Sachnowitz and his comrades were sent by foot to

Bergen-Belsen Bergen-Belsen , or Belsen, was a Nazi concentration camp in what is today Lower Saxony in northern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle. Originally established as a prisoner of war camp, in 1943, parts of it became a concentrati ...

. Sachnowitz was at the end of the war transferred to Bergen-Belsen, which was freed by British forces. Sachnowitz was the only surviving Norwegian in Bergen-Belsen and he was on 28 April 1945 evacuated together with other prisoners to a hospital in

Eindhoven Eindhoven () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant of which it is its largest. With a population of 238,326 on 1 January 2022,Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, Denmark, and received proper treatment. He lost his father, three sisters and four brothers in

. His mother died when they were younger. Sachnowitz told about his stay as a Jewish slave in Auschwitz in the book ''Det angår også deg'' (It concerns you too). It was written by the author Arnold Jacoby. His brother Elias Sachnowitz and later Herman owned the ladies' clothing store "Ekko" (Prinsegata 8) in

. His wife was named Paula Sachnowitz.

References

Sources

* Sachnowitz, Herman and Arnold Jacoby (1976).
Det angår også deg
'. Oslo: Cappelen. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Sachnowitz, Herman 1921 births 1978 deaths People from Larvik Norwegian Jews Berg concentration camp survivors Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp survivors Bergen-Belsen concentration camp survivors Auschwitz concentration camp survivors