Martin Aaron
Biography
Martin was born in the Czechoslovakian village of Tereshva in 1927, but home was across the Tisa River in Sapinta, Romania, a town with about 100 Jewish families. In 1940, Romania was forced to cede northern Transylvania to Hungary, and conditions for the Jews deteriorated rapidly: public school was forbidden, businesses confiscated, travel restricted, and, ultimately, forced labor.
Martin was 15 in 1944 when the Jews were taken by wagon to Tyachev. This was a ghetto in every sense of the word. After several weeks, Martin’s family was put on a train for two days and nights, arriving at Auschwitz II (Birkenau). This was the last time Martin and his older brother, Moshe, would ever see his parents, two sisters, and two younger brothers again.
The boys were settled into deplorable barracks, when guards came looking for prisoners with skills. Anxious to get out, Martin and Moshe called themselves mechanics, and after a week, were transferred to a labor camp in Bunzlau, Germany. It was here that Martin was given the number 46006 as his identity. The boys worked mixing cement to build foundations for factory walls. Had he remained at Bunzlau, Martin would have been freed by the Soviets in a few days. Instead, Martin was marched for five or six weeks through Germany to Gurlitz, Leipsig, then Nordhausen. Of the 100 men who began the journey, fewer than 25 survived. Moshe stayed at Bunzlau and was liberated from there, eventually immigrating to Israel, but died shortly thereafter, succumbing to the ravages of his concentration camp hardships.
Skeletally thin and so weak that he could hardly stand, Martin was put on a train to Bergen-Belsen. Several days later, on April 15, 1945, the British liberated the camp. Martin is certain that he would not have survived another day. He was taken by medical truck to Celle for recuperation and then brought back to Bergen-Belsen, which had been organized into a Displaced Persons (DP) Camp.
An aunt and uncle in New York saw a notice in the Jewish paper about Martin’s search for relatives; they sponsored his immigration. On March 3, 1948, Martin arrived in New York City. He was drafted by the U. S. Army during the Korean conflict and after discharge, settled in Birmingham, married Sylvia Gerber, and had one son. Sylvia died suddenly in 1967. In 1974, Martin met and married Shirley Beck Zalla, also widowed with one son. Together they became a family. Martin worked at Berman Brothers Iron and Metal Company for 35 years.
Darkness Into Life
This online exhibit of photography and art offers a special glimpse into the private memories of 20 Alabama Holocaust survivors, revealing stories of childhoods past, lost family and friends, despair and sadness, cruelty beyond belief, bravery, the joys of liberation, and new lives in Alabama.
Online ExhibitPhotos & Documents
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Leah Cig and Mendl Baer Aron
Săpînţa [Rom], Szaploncza [Hun], Spinka ספינקא [Yid], Sapunka [Slov], Szaplonca, Săpânta
Bailah Aron
(1922-1944)
Moshe Shmuel Aron
(1916-2004 Israel)
Rochel Ecca Aron
(? – 1944)
Pinchas Aron
(? – 1944)
Dovid Baruch Aron
(1938-1944)
Sylvia Gerber
(August 3, 1921 – May 11, 1967)
Lt. Isadore Gepner (1920-2002), Married 1941-1950
– Child: Patricia Joyce Gepner
Martin Aaron, Married January 1953
– Child: Marvin Barry Aaron
Shirley A. Beck
(March 1942- )
Alvin B. Zalla (1931-1970), Married 1953-1970
– Child: David Harold Zalla (Aaron)
Martin Aaron, Married June 9, 1974, Birmingham
Patricia Joyce Gepner Aaron (Israel Pancer)
Born 1944
Marvin Barry Aaron (Jennifer Schenker)
Born 1965
David Harold Zalla Aaron
Born 1966
Tyachev
Alternate names: Tiacheva, Tesco (Yiddish), Tachovo, Tetsh (German), Tech (Hungarian), Tacovo (Czech), Tachovo, Tiaczovo (Polish), Tiachevo (Russian) and Tiachev (Ukraine)
Auschwitz II – Birkenau
(May 29, 1944 – Early June 1944)
Bunzlau / Sub-camp of Gross-Rosen
(Early June 1944 – circa March 1944)
Nordhausen
(circa March 1944 – circa April 8-11, 1945)
Bergen-Belsen
(circa April 8-11, 1945 – April 15, 1945)
Bunzlau (February 11, 1945) to Görlitz to Leipzig to Nordhausen (March 15, 1945) to Bergen-Belsen
Bergen-Belsen / Germany
Bergen-Belsen (British Zone)
(1945-46)
Camp Herzog, Hessisch-Lichtenau, near Kassel, Germany (US Zone)
(1947)
Served in the US Army / Camp McClellan, Anniston, AL
(December 1950-December 1952)