“It was hell. It was terrible. They woke us up at 3:00 in the morning to count us because people were dying. They needed to know how many pieces of bread they need to give us in the daytime. They had to know how many died. 3:00 they started to count us.”
Sara 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 where Sara worked as a welder and Dora polished ammunition. 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. Sara, Dora and their younger brother Zelik were left behind until December 1944, when Sara herself faced deportation. Although Dora was not selected for deportation, she and Sara were inseparable. Despite Sara’s pleas to Dora to stay and possibly save herself, Dora made the decision to go with her. They were squeezed into a cattle car and traveled for five grueling days to Ravensbrück. Living amidst the filth, sickness, and death, Sara and Dora endured horrifying conditions. After three months in Ravensbrück, Sara and Dora were selected for one last transport – this time a fifteen-day cattle car journey to Dachau, that nearly killed them. When they arrived, they could barely walk, holding on to each other in groups of five for support.
In Dachau they simply waited. With the advancing Allied forces liberating camps across Europe, the gates to the camp were now open and unmanned. Sara and Dora ran to the nearby forest and eventually found out that they were officially liberated.
After liberation Sara, Dora, Joseph, and his wife Rosa lived in Stuttgart, Germany for two years. Sara took ORT-sponsored sewing classes and in September 1949, she came to America to join her brother and sister. Settling with Joseph, Rosa, and Dora in Houston, Sara worked as a seamstress and alterations expert and married Meyer Hurwitz in April 1951. Together, they had two children, Marsha and Steve. Sara lovingly devoted her time to her family – siblings, children, and grandchildren – but also held tightly to the memory of her parents and brothers Abram and Zelik for the rest of her life.