Decades after this man survived the Holocaust his family discovered a distressing Nazi secret
Ernst Warren Stein's story of suffering at the hands of the Nazis during World War two
Was all too common for Jews living in Europe at the time but born Stein was one of the few who came through that almost
Unimaginable ordeal he managed to survive unlike some six million of his fellow Jews
Ernst Israel born Stein was born on the 26th of November
1922 in the Polish city of Zoar chief it had a substantial Jewish population at the outbreak of world war ii some
7,000 Jews lived in the city something like a quarter of sewer cheese population along with his three younger siblings
Hornstein had spent his childhood there
History records that shortly before born Stein's birth there had been pogroms vicious mobs targeting Jews in Sochi in
1919 and then again in 1921 three Jews were murdered during the violence with many others injured
Some of those who had participated in the pogrom x' were later imprisoned helena
But after these outbreaks of violence there seems to have been a peaceful coexistence between jews and their fellow citizens is aware
She had Jewish schools and Jews worked in a variety of industries including
printing manufacturing and clothing and in 1926 a certain a
Bornstein became the city's mayor although as far as we know he wasn't a relative of Ernst
First was educated at one of these Jewish schools apparently a quick minded student
He was able to speak Polish Yiddish and German in
His memoir the long night Warren Stein recalled we were a happy family before the night began which lasted five years and eight days
We for children. I was the eldest of two boys and two girls were cared for by good parents and a large circle of relatives
The ninth that born Stein refers to was of course heralded by the invasion of Poland in September 1939
By the Nazis from the West and the Russians from the East
So where she was in the part of Poland occupied by the Germans and the brutal consequences for the cities Jews?
Indeed for all Jews in Nazi occupied Poland were not long in coming
The Germans arrived in Sochi on September 4th
1939 when Borenstein was just 16
The city synagogue was closed down Jewish children were no longer allowed to attend schools and the Nazi started to abduct Jews for forced labor
Jewish businesses were requisitioned the following year and fines were levied on locals simply for being Jewish
Then in September 1941 the Germans ordered the Jewish population of zoo wear cheap into a ghetto and dragooned more Jews into forced labor
By that time Bornstein had already been taken by the Nazis and put in a labor camp
He later described the experience in his memoir. I barely got dressed and beating and pushing me with their rifles
They shoved me down the stairs. I still managed to behold my mother's crying eyes, which accompanied me into the deep dark night
I never saw my mother again
Borenstein was subsequently transported to Germany and set to work building a freeway in
1943 he ended up in a concentration camp at mark Stott where many other Jews rooms aware Chi were also incarcerated
Conditions in the camp were unremittingly harsh and Bornstein saw many of his friends die there
The brutality at this camp was grotesque
there were as many as 4,000 Jews there men and women from the Netherlands France and Czechoslovakia as well as Poland and
despite being forced to do hard labor for long hours the prisoners were not properly fed a
Normal day's food consisted of a helping of watery soup and slice of bread
Starving inmates caught stealing potatoes were executed
Selections were another fact of life at marks not
These involved the camps inmates being forced to parade well guards picked out the weak and ill for extermination
one such event occurred on November 25th
1943 some three thousand prisoners stood naked in the snow while these sadistic guards selected those who were to die in
His memoir Bornstein remembered a terrifying incident at one of the camps that he spent time in
Gross-rosen an SS. Man caught him carrying some bread and demanded an explanation
Orenstein wrote I struggled to maintain a calm appearance while I trembled with fear as I stared down the barrel of the pistol
The German didn't like my explanation however replying. You are lying. You stole it. You will be shot like a dog
But born Stein's presence of mind served him well
Instinctively I stood absolutely still and stared directly into his eyes
Hornstein explained suddenly the Germans smashed his pistol into Bernstein's face and yelled at him to disappear
Such were the dangers that he lived with day-in day-out
During his time in the camps
By the end of the war borne Stein had been in no less than seven different
Concentration camps every one of which in its own way was a living hell on earth
Bernstein's mother father and two of his siblings were all to die in Auschwitz
With the war drawing towards its end born Stein was sent on two forced marches as the Germans herded their prisoners across Europe with the
Soviet Union's Red Army at their heels these movements of concentration camp prisoners were known as death marches
Because anyone who fell behind was shot on the spot by the Nazis
It was at this point that Bornstein arrived at the camp's mentioned above gross-rosen
Foreign Stein's ordeal wasn't over yet
Though as the Germans now decided to move the prisoners yet again as they traveled by rail hour the advancing American forces
Captured the line the prisoners subsequently evacuated the train
But the SS killed many of those who ran yet somehow Orenstein managed to escape this final Massacre
In the years after the war born Stein studied at University in Munich
Qualifying as a doctor and setting up a thriving practice in the city
He later married a French woman called Rene who was 12 years as jr.. And they had three children together
however Borenstein died unexpectedly in 1978 at the age of 55
His death was caused by a heart attack, which it's more than likely was a legacy of the incredible hardships that he lived through
Before Bornstein died he'd written a memoir. He'd been motivated to do that not only by the intensity of his own suffering
But also because he felt that just a generation after the events
People had already started to forget the unspeakable horrors of the Holocaust
The memoir the
The memoir DeLonge knocked the long night was published in German in
1967 his good friend professor max McCrory a psychiatrist at Munich University
Who'd acted as a mentor to Bernstein wrote the preface?
Renee and her children later moved to England after Bernstein's death and in 2015 they had his book translated and published in English
This edition however did not contain the words of McCrory
Researched by Warren Stein's family wife Renee and daughter Naomi pictured here had revealed something appalling
McCoy had in fact been a senior Nazi
closely involved in the vile program of sterilizing Jews
He'd somehow hidden his past not only from Bornstein
But also from all those around him he died in 1977 without ever paying for his evil deeds
And that's a compelling reminder of how important it. Is that the true details of the Holocaust are uncovered and remembered