Asher Aud
Asher Aud
HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR'S
LEGACY
June 14, 1928 – August 29, 2016
A Survivor's Story
A Holocaust survivor who acted to commemorate and preserve the memory of the Holocaust in Israel among students, teachers, armed forces, foreign visitors, and others.
For about 20 years, Aud used to accompany delegations visiting the extermination camps in Poland as a witness while serving as a professor at the International School for Holocaust Studies of Yad Vashem. Aud was extremely active for the benefit of retired Holocaust survivors in Israel. For his life work, he received, among others, the title Yakir Yerushalaim (award for accomplishments in honor of Jerusalem) and the Life Work Award from Yad Vashem.
Asher Aud was born in 1928 as Anschel Sieradzki to a religious family in the town of Zdunska Wola, Poland, a town of 32,000 citizens, out of which 12,000 were Jewish. His father, Shmuel-Hirsh Sieradzki, was a tailor and his mother, Yocheved, assisted in sawing. Aud had two brothers, an older brother – Berl, and a younger brother –Gabriel.
Surviving the Holocaust as a Child
When the German army invaded Poland by surprise, Zdunska Wola was bombarded and a week later, the Germans conquered the town. Between March and May 1940, Jews were forced to move to the ghetto [1]. Aud’s father was sent to the Chełmno extermination camp where he was murdered together with over 320,000 Jews. His mother and his brother Gabriel were murdered during one of the “Actions” the Germans held at the ghetto. Aud survived the Action because he was separated from them during a “Selection” and was forced to join a workgroup. Berl, his older brother, was loaded into a crowded cattle cart and disappeared. At the young age of 11, Aud remained completely alone, with no family or relatives.
In Lodz Ghetto Aud managed to survive for two years under inconceivable conditions. He caught typhus and almost died, but somehow managed to survive [2]. In 1944, when the Lodz ghetto was dissolved, he was transferred to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp in a Cattle Cart and shortly after that he met his brother Berl, who arrived at Auschwitz in 1942 and was considered a respected figure for managing to survive for so long. Berl took care of Aud, smuggling food to him using friends. He also helped him to evade and hide – twice – when the Germans emptied the block where Aud stayed together with 1,200 children, and sent them to the gas chambers and crematorium [3]. Aud was one of only 2 kids who survived that “cleanup”. Nearing the end of 1944, the soviet cannons’ sound was heard in Auschwitz.
The Germans, wanting to continue using the workforce of those remaining in the camp, marched 58,000 prisoners to the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. This horrific march of skeletons walking in the harsh winter with only rags to their bodies and stumbling foot in freezing temperatures, when those who fell behind or became too exhausted to walk were shot on the spot, was known as the “Death March”. Aud was among the few who managed to arrive at Mauthausen [4]. Mauthausen concentration camp was filled with Jews deported mainly from Hungary. Aud used to tell that the Hungarian Jews looked only for themselves and even took the bread given to the children. When the Soviet army approached, the Germans moved the Jews once more to the Gunskirchen concentration camp in Austria. Hunger, infected disease, and unbearable conditions took the life of many. On May 4, 1945, the Germans disappeared leaving the camp gates open [5][6].
Public and Volunteer Activity
Sixteen years old, Aud arrived in Israel nearing the end of 1945 and following 48 years of remaining silent about his life experience and surviving the Holocaust, he started telling his story. Ever since, he dedicated his life for the preservation and commemoration of the memory of the Holocaust and taking care of pensioner Holocaust survivors. In addition to his activity in Yad Vashem, Aud was active in additional organizations, where he held the following positions:
Preservation and Commemoration of the Memory of the Holocaust
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Chairman of the Forum of Holocaust Survivors Organizations Aud was among the initiators and leaders of the “The Year of Exercising the Rights of Holocaust Survivors in Jerusalem” project (2013-14), headed by the Jerusalem municipality. As part of this project, 1,400 volunteers contacted 19,000 Holocaust survivors living in Jerusalem, visited them and assisted those eligible in filing claims against the relevant authorities for exercising their rights, following up with them until completion [10].
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Chairman of the Yesh Organization – Holocaust children survivor in Israel, Jerusalem branch,
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Assistant to the Minister of Pensioner Affairs Rafi Eitan for Holocaust survivor issues.and afterwards Vice National Chairman of the organization.
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Member of the Organization of Former Residents of Zdunska Wola in Israel between 1997-2003 and between 2004-2005.
Public Positions
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General Secretary of The Umbrella Organization of Jerusalem Pensioners
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Chairman of the Holocaust Survivor Committee of the Jerusalem Pensioners Council
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Board Member of the Public Council for the Elderly
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Chairman of the IMI System Pensioners in Jerusalem
Immigrating to Israel
When the camp in Gunskirchen was deserted by the Germans, American soldiers gathered Aud with other children that walked around hungry and exhausted. They moved them to a place called Herrsching in Austria and made sure they ate and dressed properly. The Jewish Brigade soldiers, that were on a mission to locate and find Holocaust survivors in the countries they served at during their service in the British army, in order to bring them to Israel, found Aud together with hundreds of Jewish children and smuggled them in trucks to Bari in Italy and from there, via train, to the village of Santa Maria in southern Italy. Aud says that the starving kids used to over eat during these days, and many of them got sick and some died of over-eating. Following a six-months stay at Santa Maria, a group of 400 children, Aud among them, sailed to Israel with certificates (visas) obtained from the British authorities [7].
Joining the Haganah and the Palmach
As a Holocaust survivor that only recently arrived in Israel, completely alone, with no parents or family members, Aud was sent to the Mosenson Youth Educational Village in Magdiel, where he acquired basic tools and studied agriculture. Upon graduating, he joined the Haganah and served as a watchman as part of the Jewish Settlement Police, a department of the British Mandate (they were called Ghaffirs – guards in Arabic). As a ghaffir, he would guard the Jewish settlements in the Galilee during the nights and accompanied convoys and cleared blockades the Arabs put on the roads during the days. When the War of Independence started, he joined the Palmach and fought in the northern part of the country. Upon the Declaration of Independence and the establishment of the Israeli Army (Israeli Defense Forces – IDF), he was recruited but released a short while afterwards [8].
Career in IMI Systems
On February 1950, upon being released from the Army, Aud started studying in order to obtain a profession (mechanical welding) at one of the Ort schools (science and technology educational network). In 1957, upon graduation, he got a job at IMI Systems as a laborer. Aud worked for IMI Systems for 40 years until he retired at the position of Senior HR Manager. Along the way, he served in many positions, such as Manufacturing Manager, Deputy Factory Manager, Safety and Environment Manager, as well as the Headmaster of the Industrial High School. He was also elected as Chairman of the Organization of IMI Systems Pensioners in Jerusalem [9].
Community Centers
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Member of the Executive Committee of the Ziv Community Center at Beit Hakerem, Jerusalem
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Member of the Executive Committee of the Hebrew Youth House, the first Community Center in Jerusalem, established 1950.
Special Awards
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Yakir Yerushalaim, 2013-2014, Jerusalem municipality
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Lifetime Achievement Award, June 2015, Yad Vashem
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Lit the torch together with the Chief of Staff Benni Gantz at the memorial ceremony held at the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, in April 2013. Aud was selected to serve as Delegation Witness for the IDF delegation to Poland, headed by the Chief of Staff, together with IDF Major-Generals Orna Barbivai and Guy Tzur, the Chief Rabbi of IDF, bereaved parents, Witnesses in Uniform, IDF disabled, and more.
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Had the honor of lighting the torch of behalf of Yad Vashem during the Torchlighter Ceremony on Holocaust Remembrance Eve, 2014, held at Yad Vashem.
Family
On March 1953 Aud married Chaya Adler, Jerusalem born. Her mother, Sarah Rotter, immigrated to Israel as a pioneer from Hungary in the 1920’s. The young couple settled in Jerusalem and gave birth to two sons and a daughter, 10 grandchildren and one great-grandson. Chaya was a kindergarten master and managed a state kindergarten at the center of the city.
It was later discovered that Berl survived the labor camp and was released by the Soviets. Berl returned to Poland, got married and had two children, a son and a daughter.In 1961 the brothers met in Europe, but Berl chose to go back to Poland, but in 1967 the Comunists trialed him for his Jewdaism and put him in Jail. It took until 1984 that Aud and Berl were able to connect again, and Aud invited Berl to visit Israel. The brothers reunited in 1987. In 1990 Aud’s nephew immigrated to Israel with his family. Berl and his wife visited Israel on a few occasions, until he passed away in 2012.
ASHER AUD'S LIFE JOURNEY
1928 - Asher Aud was born in 1928 as Anschel Sieradzki in the town of Zdunska Wola, Ploand
1940 - Jews were forced to the ghetto
1942-44 - Aud survived living in two ghettos with under inconceivable conditions
1944 - Transferred to the Auachwitz-Birkenau extermination camp where he met his brother Berl. Survived the Death March to Austria.
1945 - Germans left the camps—American soldiers rescued Aud and other children where the immigration to Israel began
1945-1950 - Aud was educated and served in the Jewish Settlement Police; he also served in the War of Independence
1950 - Released from the Army and studied mechanical welding
1957-1997 - Worked with IMI Systems where he served in many positions