Joseph (Yossl) Dittman was born in Kłobucko, a town in southern Poland not far from the city of Częstochowa. Although Kłobucko was a small town, it had a large Jewish population. The Dittman family was comprised of parents Mindel and Gittman, six children and their grandmother, Mary. They kept a kosher home, practiced Jewish ritual and joyously celebrated the holidays. As a shoemaker, Gittman earned a modest living so that no one was ever hungry and the children had a wonderful childhood.
Aware that it was becoming more difficult to make a living, the family moved to nearby Częstochowa in 1937. For two years, they lived peacefully and relatively well. The siblings found jobs and supported each other. In 1939, everything changed.
The Nazi invasion of Poland was immediately felt in Częstochowa as the city was very close to the German border. Residents were forced to wear armbands with Stars of David marking them as Jews and in 1941, they were crammed into the newly established Częstochowa ghetto. The Dittman family managed to stay together in a one-room flat despite the entire Jewish community being subjected to hunger and degradation. In 1942, the Częstochowa ghetto was liquidated. The Dittman siblings were deemed strong enough to work at the ammunitions plant called Hasag, but Mindel and Gittman were deported and murdered at Treblinka.
Meanwhile, Hasag workers were moved to a smaller ghetto in Częstochowa. Each morning, with pistols pointed at them, the workers were marched to the Hasag munitions factory. Each evening, they were marched in the same manner back to the ghetto. Eventually the small ghetto was dissolved, and all workers were moved inside the factory.
After some time, Joseph and his older brother Abram were deported. Throughout the war, Joseph and his older brother Abram managed to stay together the entire time. They endured horrifying conditions in Mauthausen and Buchenwald. After the war, Joseph did not speak much about his experiences, but shared only small glimpses into his memory. He remembered a man on his work detail in one of the camps where he was imprisoned trying to escape, only to be shot. Then, the remaining men in the group were lined up and every other man was shot on the spot. Zelik did not survive the Holocaust, having perished in a death march from Buchenwald. Abram, too, perished – his fate is unknown to the family. Joseph was eventually liberated from Buchenwald in 1945.
After the war, Joseph married Rosa Freilich, another survivor. They lived in a DP camp in Stuttgart, where their first child, Shirley, was born in 1948. In 1949, they came to the United States where Joseph’s Uncle Leo lived and settled there. They had another child, Gary, three years later. Joseph became a tailor and learned English as quickly as he could. He assimilated to life in America, trying to leave his pain behind in Europe. His first job at Battlestein’s prepared him for a life of hard work as a tailor in other Houston department stores, such as Walter Pye’s in Meyerland. He was a dedicated family man and took care of others before he thought of himself. He worked his whole life and did not retire until shortly before his death in 1997, but is remembered as a devoted, loving, and hardworking member of his family and community.