Reference code
ZA UCT BC1556_AG
Title
David Korzuch Collection
Date(s)
- 1930-1940 (Creation)
Level of description
Series
Extent and medium
2 items
Name of creator
Name of creator
Archival history
The Collection was donated to the Centre by David Korzuch, a Holocaust survivor, in the 1990s.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Scope and content
The collection contains two photographs of several members of the Korzuch family taken in Bedzin, Poland in the 1930s. Mr Korzuch was born in Shemyeshice, Poland, a town situated near the German border in 1930. He was the youngest of nine children. In 1941 Bedzin became one of the first towns outside of Germany in which the Nazi erected a ghetto for Jews. Mr Korzuch and all the other Jews in the town were forced to move there. Three of his sisters refused to move into the ghetto. Instead, they chose to move to another town. Two years later in 1943, the ghetto was liquidated. David and his brother Alteshima were moved to Markstadt, a sub-camp of Gross Rosen, Poland. There they were forced to help the Paul Klum Construction Company build the Finef Taichen concentration camp. Later when the construction of the camp was completed David and his fellow labourers were transferred to the camp. He remained at the camp until it was closed in 1944 to forestall the advancing Russian forces from liberating the prisoners. Thereafter they were forced to march for eight days back to Gross Rosen. After five days at the camp, they were loaded into cattle trucks and taken to Buchenwald where his brother Alteshima later perished. David remained at the camp until it was liberated by the American Army in April 1945. After liberation, David was discovered by his brother Max. The two decided to move to Argentina where he met his South African wife, Ettie. In 1958 he moved to South Africa. David and his brother Max were the sole survivors of their family.