My name is Yechekzel and I live in Zürich, Switzerland.  I am a Holocaust survivor and a Kommando Spezialkräfte, one of the most elite soldiers in Switzerland.  My brother Yaniv, my sister Tovah, and my mother Minnah are the only other surviving members of my family.  I am happily married to a Swiss woman named Johanna.

One day while we were sitting at the Café Confiserie Sprüngli I heard a sound that I hadn’t heard since I was a child-The moaning and crying of a small child.  Suddenly my mind went back to the night that my family was taken to the Treblinka POW camp.
It was dark and cold that night in Sielce.  The wind sent chills down my spine and the icy, deep, snow was numbing the feet of my family and I.  Just like many other Jewish families in German-occupied-Poland, we had the dreaded, golden Star of David sewn to our shirts.  Every night the families in our apartment building were expecting a raid, but when one finally occurred my family was ready to run.  As soon as we saw the Nazis approaching the building we climbed down the fire escape and trudged through the snow as quickly and quietly as we could.  Out of nowhere we heard gunshots and screaming and started running faster.  My Father had to carry my little sister Cheftzibah and I was carrying my little brother Yehiel.  “Boom!” Another shot went off in the distance.  Then my father collapsed.  He had been shot in the back and could not get up.  At the time my little sister was only a baby and began to cry at the top of her lungs.  My twin, Yaniv, quickly picked her up and started running again.  Behind us the gun fire was getting louder and louder.  Yaniv and I both knew that if we couldn’t find somewhere to hide soon than we would all die.
“Yaniv,” I whispered, “We need to find shelter for the night Minnah cannot keep up the running for much longer.”
“I agree Yech, there’s a barn up ahead.  If we make a dash for it we can hide there.”  I quietly told my mother the plan and ran for the barn.  After we got inside Yaniv and I buried everyone under the hay stacks and then buried ourselves.  Before long we all fell fast asleep and were oblivious to the awaiting Nazis right outside the barn doors.
“Aufstehen. Alle. Jetzt,” yelled the Nazi officers.
“We do not speak German,” Yaniv answered softly.  In very bad English, an officer replied,
“Get up now!”
Then we all slowly rose out of the hay and reached our hands above our heads to show we had surrendered.  Then, before I knew it I was on my feet and charging at the nearest officer. 
“Crack!” went my skull as the butt of the officer’s gun connected with my forehead.  Then I blacked out. 
All I remember after that was the sound of screams and my mother crying.  What had happened was after I had blacked out the officers took Yehiel and Cheftzibah and killed them in front of my mother and Yaniv.  Yaniv had to hold my mother back to keep her from attacking the Nazis.  He knew that if she did she would be killed as well.  When my mother calmed down they took us to their truck and we were driven to some sort of headquarters. We spent three days at the headquarters and then, along with thousands of other families, were boarded onto a train.  While we were on the train, my mother became sick and there were no supplies to heal her.  Just as we felt she was going to die we arrived at the Treblinka POW camp.  The officers came into our train car and took my mother away.  Then they led everyone into a small courtyard.  The officers began separating the adults from the children.  The only sound I heard around me was the crying of children and the painful moaning of the adults as they were led into the gas chambers.
Because my mother was deathly ill they did not put her into the chambers.  They nurtured her back to health and let her live along with a few other women and men.  My family spent five years in that camp.  Every day the sound of children moaning in pain could be heard across the camp.
One day in the middle of winter, just as another train load of prisoners arrived, we all heard a loud, “Bang!” and saw one of the guard towers go up in flames.  All hell broke loose.  Prisoners were running everywhere and there was a fire fight at the front gate between the Nazis and some unknown army.  After an hour or so the gun shots and yelling stopped and we all came out of hiding to find the American army standing in front of us.  They had defeated the Nazis that were controlling the camp and were here to rescue us.  Everybody started cheering and then crying tears of joy.  They brought us to one of their safe houses in the woods and started to send us in small groups to Switzerland and England.  My family and I were sent to Switzerland and we soon found that everybody there was so humble and offered us a place to stay without question.  We stayed with the Kreiger family and as soon as I met there beautiful daughter Johanna we fell instantly in love.

 
Epilogue:

After living with the Krieger family for only a year Johanna and I were married.  I then joined the army and later the KSK.  I now have two children, a son named Yehiel after my younger brother, and a daughter named Shalom.  When my children grow up and are old enough to understand the Holocaust, I will tell this story to them and then their children and children’s children.  The story of my family’s survival will go on forever.  I hope that never again will the world be at war with itself and that there will never be another event so ridden with segregation that people feel the need to kill for it.

I wish to include my family in my will.  To my brother Yaniv I shall give my military uniform and medallions.  My wife will receive my life savings and my diaries from my time in the POW camp.