One of the first things you might notice about this box is that there is a hand holding a letter sticking out of the side. It shows that Marc Berkowitz was a messenger to the notorious Dr. Mengele. Mengele used Marc as his personal guinea pig so I added a syringe, medicine bottle, and sample via are included in the box. The barbed wire Star of David represents Marc being a prisoner because of his religion. The sheet music and Marc's childhood photo tell that he had a love of music as a child in his home in Slovenia, Czechoslovakia which is shown on the map in the bottom of the box. Lastly,i there is a wind up flashlight that Marc talked about in one of his vivid memories from the Yasim lumber yard.
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Marc followed Mengele’s orders and walked down the dirt path towards the crematorium. With every step he took, more smoke filled his lungs. Little did he know what awaited him when he got there. He grabbed skeletal corpse after corpse and placed them in the ovens. And as if this scene wasn’t horrific enough, what he saw next he would never forget. He reached down for the next victim and was beyond surprised when he noticed the body’s face was that of his own mother.
Twelve years earlier, Marc Berkowitz was born in Slovenia, Czechoslovakia, in 1932, and was raised with his six siblings including a twin sister, Francesca. He went to a small school with Francesca in their quiet town and spent a lot of time playing with his older brothers. Even though Marc feels that he was robbed of his childhood, he says if there is one thing he remembers it’s that his parents simply taught him to be a good citizen with a love of the arts, music, and all human beings. So Marc was very shocked when he and his whole family were taken to the Yasim lumber yard and put to work in the spring of 1941.
The work was grueling, and because they were given so little to eat, the slave laborers began to become weak. They were transported out in trucks with black roofs to be killed. And finally it was the Berkowitz family’s turn. They were driven to a deep pit in the middle of nowhere and instructed to get out and stand on the edge of it. When Marc looked over the edge, he couldn’t believe his eyes. The pit contained nothing but skeletal bodies. The Nazis began to load their guns with ammunition until they decided the pit was too full of rotting corpses. They loaded Marc, his family, and fifty others back into the trucks and drove the prisoners deep into the woods. There they shot many of them, and once they ran out of ammunition, left the others to find their way out of the deep woods.
Luckily the Berkowitz family was spared and spent the next three days seeking shelter. They eventually found it in a small Ukrainian ghetto run by the Gestapo. There was little to eat, but the family found shelter in the basement of a large apartment building. They lived there for nearly a year until the Gestapo decided to practice their sharp shooting on some of the townspeople, and Marc’s father was chosen as a target. Marc’s brother couldn’t bear to watch his father die alone like this and bravely stood beside his father until the shots were fired, and they both collapsed to the ground right in front of eleven year old Marc.
Ten months after their passing, Marc, Francesca, their mother, and remaining siblings were transported in crammed cattle cars to Auschwitz. As they were standing in a line waiting to be chosen for labor or immediate death, Mark and Francesca were singled out by a man in a green coat calling,”Zwillinge, Zwillinge,” meaning, “Twins, Twins!” His name was Josef Mengele.
Dr. Mengele took a special interest in Marc and personally tattooed his number. He gave Marc candy and told Marc to call him “Uncle Pepi.” Soon Marc unwillingly become Mengele's messenger relaying important messages from Mengele to other Nazi officials. When he wasn’t busy running throughout the camp delivering messages, he and Francesca served as Mengele’s guinea pigs in his series of inhumane experiments. Marc recalls, “They put us in freezing baths, smeared chemicals on our skin, but it was the needles we were most afraid of. We were strapped to the marble slabs. I felt a needle digging into my back. My entire body was burning and the next thing I knew I was fighting from fainting. After the first 150 I stopped counting…” Forty years later, Marc still suffers from pains due to these injections.
Throughout all of the torture, Marc and Francesca managed to stay together. The rest of their siblings were most likely gassed or died of starvation before the camp was liberated in 1945. After liberation, Marc and Francesca were sent over to America as part of a sponsored displaced persons program and were given proper medical attention after the repeated abuse they suffered while in Auschwitz.
Today Marc lives in Brooklyn, New York and owns a furniture store with his wife. He is happily married with three children and six grandchildren, and he lives a pretty normal life considering all he has been through.
Despite all the brutality and cruelty he suffered during the Holocaust, Marc still managed to find a place in his heart for ideas of forgiveness and equality. He was eventually able to forgive the Nazis and Dr. Mengele, and find peace in his life.
Twelve years earlier, Marc Berkowitz was born in Slovenia, Czechoslovakia, in 1932, and was raised with his six siblings including a twin sister, Francesca. He went to a small school with Francesca in their quiet town and spent a lot of time playing with his older brothers. Even though Marc feels that he was robbed of his childhood, he says if there is one thing he remembers it’s that his parents simply taught him to be a good citizen with a love of the arts, music, and all human beings. So Marc was very shocked when he and his whole family were taken to the Yasim lumber yard and put to work in the spring of 1941.
The work was grueling, and because they were given so little to eat, the slave laborers began to become weak. They were transported out in trucks with black roofs to be killed. And finally it was the Berkowitz family’s turn. They were driven to a deep pit in the middle of nowhere and instructed to get out and stand on the edge of it. When Marc looked over the edge, he couldn’t believe his eyes. The pit contained nothing but skeletal bodies. The Nazis began to load their guns with ammunition until they decided the pit was too full of rotting corpses. They loaded Marc, his family, and fifty others back into the trucks and drove the prisoners deep into the woods. There they shot many of them, and once they ran out of ammunition, left the others to find their way out of the deep woods.
Luckily the Berkowitz family was spared and spent the next three days seeking shelter. They eventually found it in a small Ukrainian ghetto run by the Gestapo. There was little to eat, but the family found shelter in the basement of a large apartment building. They lived there for nearly a year until the Gestapo decided to practice their sharp shooting on some of the townspeople, and Marc’s father was chosen as a target. Marc’s brother couldn’t bear to watch his father die alone like this and bravely stood beside his father until the shots were fired, and they both collapsed to the ground right in front of eleven year old Marc.
Ten months after their passing, Marc, Francesca, their mother, and remaining siblings were transported in crammed cattle cars to Auschwitz. As they were standing in a line waiting to be chosen for labor or immediate death, Mark and Francesca were singled out by a man in a green coat calling,”Zwillinge, Zwillinge,” meaning, “Twins, Twins!” His name was Josef Mengele.
Dr. Mengele took a special interest in Marc and personally tattooed his number. He gave Marc candy and told Marc to call him “Uncle Pepi.” Soon Marc unwillingly become Mengele's messenger relaying important messages from Mengele to other Nazi officials. When he wasn’t busy running throughout the camp delivering messages, he and Francesca served as Mengele’s guinea pigs in his series of inhumane experiments. Marc recalls, “They put us in freezing baths, smeared chemicals on our skin, but it was the needles we were most afraid of. We were strapped to the marble slabs. I felt a needle digging into my back. My entire body was burning and the next thing I knew I was fighting from fainting. After the first 150 I stopped counting…” Forty years later, Marc still suffers from pains due to these injections.
Throughout all of the torture, Marc and Francesca managed to stay together. The rest of their siblings were most likely gassed or died of starvation before the camp was liberated in 1945. After liberation, Marc and Francesca were sent over to America as part of a sponsored displaced persons program and were given proper medical attention after the repeated abuse they suffered while in Auschwitz.
Today Marc lives in Brooklyn, New York and owns a furniture store with his wife. He is happily married with three children and six grandchildren, and he lives a pretty normal life considering all he has been through.
Despite all the brutality and cruelty he suffered during the Holocaust, Marc still managed to find a place in his heart for ideas of forgiveness and equality. He was eventually able to forgive the Nazis and Dr. Mengele, and find peace in his life.