Ellis Lewin | Holocaust Survivor | USC Shoah Foundation

Ellis Lewin was born May 22, 1932, in Lodz, Poland, to Josef and Chana Lewin. He had an older sister, Mariym. He attended public school for two years before being withdrawn and tutored at home. Since the Lewin family already lived in the area designated as the Lodz ghetto, they did not have to leave their third floor apartment. As a ghetto policeman, Ellis’ father, Josef, managed to keep the family together until the summer of 1944. During the liquidation of the ghetto, the family was deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, where his mother and sister perished in the gas chamber. Ellis was also selected to be sent to the gas chamber, but his father saved him by bribing a Ukrainian guard with diamonds, and they lived together in a barracks for five weeks. In early 1945, Ellis was evacuated from Auschwitz with other prisoners as the Germans tried to flee from the Soviet armed forces’ advance. He was interned at Kaufbeuren in Bavaria, then transferred to various work camps and eventually sent on a death march to Dachau in the spring of 1945. He was liberated by American armed forces in April 1945, contracted typhoid fever, and was hospitalized and lived in a displaced persons’ camp in Bavaria for several months. In May 1946, Ellis immigrated to the United States. He fought in the Korean War and met his wife Joan following his discharge. They had three children: Dennis, Debra, and Richard. At the time of his interview in 1996, he and Joan had two grandchildren, Adam and Andrew. Ellis was interviewed December 4, 1996, in Solon, Ohio, USA.
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