Gena Turgel by Olivia Braunshausen

Interview with Gena Turgel

oliviabraunshausen — 2023-12-14 20:13:22 UTC

Background Information

oliviabraunshausen — 2023-12-14 20:19:13 UTC

Gena Turgel was born on the first of February, 1923, to her parents, Estera and Samuel Goldfinger. She was born in Krakow, Poland, and is the youngest of nine siblings. When she was 16 her hometown got bombed forcing the Turgels to move to Borek. In 1941 Gena and her family had to move to the ghetto where one of her brothers would be shot by the SS. One of her other brothers, Janek, fled the ghetto, and his family never saw him again.

Gena at the camp's

oliviabraunshausen — 2023-12-14 20:20:18 UTC

Eventually, Gena was sent to her first camp with her surviving family, Plaszow, a labor camp at the edge of Krakow. while trying to smuggle food into the camps Gena's sister was caught by the Nazis and was shot. Later in the winter of 1944, this camp was liquidated, so Gena with her family went to Auschwitz. In 1945 Gena and her mother, without her sister Hela, were sent on the death march from Auschwitz. Gena and her mother never saw Hela again. Gena and her mother survived the death march and ended up arriving at Buchenwald, they then got on cattle trucks and were sent to Bergen-Belsen. At this concentration camp, Gena did her best to support her mother by working in the hospital. In April of 1945, the camp was liberated by the British soldiers, one of them who would become her future husband. (Norman Turgel)

Testing at Auschwitz

oliviabraunshausen — 2023-12-14 20:21:08 UTC

At Auschwitz Gena Turgel experienced terrible things. While imprisoned at Auschwitz Gena was medically tested by Josef Mengele as well as her sister. Gena was injected with petrol, to draw out her blood.

Quote 1

oliviabraunshausen — 2023-12-14 20:22:31 UTC

"I wear a lot of perfume. The stench of the camps will always stay with me and I try to block it out"

Quote 2

oliviabraunshausen — 2023-12-14 20:22:45 UTC

“To cry in Auschwitz could have you shot,we had to be strong, to block out everything.”

Quote 3

oliviabraunshausen — 2023-12-14 20:23:52 UTC

“Those people were real. They were mothers and fathers, uncles and aunts, doctors and teachers, poets, wonderful people. Composers. And now they scream in silence, My story is only one story, but it is the story six million others cannot tell. I was, and always shall be, the witness to ... mass murder."

Portrait of Gena Turgel

oliviabraunshausen — 2023-12-14 20:28:10 UTC

"Work sets you free" sign at Auschwitz concentration camp

oliviabraunshausen — 2023-12-14 20:29:40 UTC

Bergen-Belsen concentration camp

oliviabraunshausen — 2023-12-14 20:31:20 UTC

Plaszow concentration camp

oliviabraunshausen — 2023-12-14 20:32:26 UTC

Gena Turgel and her husband

oliviabraunshausen — 2023-12-14 20:34:01 UTC

Auschwitz gas chamber today

oliviabraunshausen — 2023-12-14 20:37:32 UTC

Norman Turgel

oliviabraunshausen — 2023-12-18 19:41:32 UTC

Norman Turgel was a soldier in the British army. He was one of the soliders who liberated Belsen, the concentration camp Gena was at. When Norman met Gena he knew he was going to marry her. On October 7, 1945 Gena and Norman got married.

Gas Chamber in Auschwitz

oliviabraunshausen — 2023-12-18 19:45:14 UTC

While at Auschwitz Gena was sent into a gas chamber naked with hundreds of others, But she managed to walk out alive. At only twenty-one years old many people would think her life was over but Gena never even knew she was in a gas chamber until someone told her that she just walked out of an Auschwitz gas chamber alive! Gena had no idea the Nazis were trying to kill her.