David Peterson

David Peterson -born Yisroel Dovid Piotrkowski in October 1927- was born in Ozorków, near Łódź, Poland, into a traditional Orthodox Jewish family with five brothers. He provides a detailed account of pre-war Jewish life in a provincial Polish town, emphasising the strength of family relationships and religious observance. Yiddish was the language of the home, while Polish was learnt at school and used with non-Jewish neighbours. His father was a master tailor who enjoyed good relations with both Jewish and non-Jewish customers. David recalled a childhood revolving around school, cheder, synagogue attendance and Jewish festivals, describing Shabbat and Pesach as central to family life.

David described Ozorków as a town in which Jews and Poles generally coexisted peacefully before the German occupation, although antisemitism was present. He remembered playing with Polish children, attending football matches, and visiting relatives in Łódź, Głowno and Stryków. He described his family as observant rather than Hasidic and regarded education, discipline and mutual responsibility as defining characteristics of their household.

The German invasion of Poland in September 1939 brought an abrupt end to this stable childhood. David recalled that German forces occupied Ozorków within days and that local Germans (Volksdeutsche) often collaborated with the occupiers by identifying Jewish property and forcing Jewish families from their homes. Although he also remembered a small number of German neighbours who remained friendly, the occupation rapidly transformed everyday life. Jewish businesses were confiscated, movement became increasingly restricted, Jews were compelled first to wear armbands and later the yellow Star of David, and the family was forced to leave its home and move into the small apartment of David’s grandmother.

The occupation also brought devastating losses to David’s family. His eldest brother was seized for forced labour and sent away, never to return. Another brother died after being forced to dig military bunkers in freezing water, contracting illness from which he did not recover. A third brother was deported to forced labour near Poznań. David’s father lost his tailoring business and, according to David, died from the emotional strain of persecution and the destruction of the family. Eventually, David, his mother and remaining relatives were forced into the Ozorków Ghetto, where overcrowding, insecurity and deportations became part of everyday existence.

David’s mother and remaining brothers were deported and murdered in Chelmno. David was taken to the Łódź Ghetto after the Ozorków Ghetto was closed and stayed with his aunt (his father’s sister) while doing forced labour in a glove and stocking factory. He remembers food shortage and starts singing a satirical song about Chaim Rumkowski, the Nazi-appointed head of the Jewish Council of Elders (Judenrat). When the Łódź Ghetto was liquidated he managed to hide with the help of his cousin Genia. However, he was eventually detained and taken to Birkenau- Auschwitz where he was forced to work in the Continental Gummi factory. He was sent to Hanover and then on a death march to Bergen Belsen, where he was liberated by the British Army. On 30 October 1945 he came to England “with the boys”. He lived in hostels and trained as a tailor, eventually starting his own business. He had two children with his first wife Belinda and two more with his second wife Anne. Looking back on a long and happy life, he ends the interview singing another Yiddish song “Vos geven is geven is nikht do”, meaning “what happened has happened, and it is no more.”