Heroic bullet proof Jews

Jankiel Wiernik who escaped from Treblinka, wrote this in 1944:

"The pursuer was gaining and I heard his running feet close behind me.

Then I heard a shot and in the same instant felt a severe pain in my left shoulder blade.

I turned around and saw a guard from the Treblinka Penal Camp. He again aimed his pistol at me. I knew about firearms and I noticed that the weapon had jammed. I took advantage of this and intentionally slowed down pulling the axe out of my belt. The guard, a Ukrainian, ran up to me yelling, in the Ukrainian language: “Halt or I’ll shoot!” I came up close to him and hit him savagely with my axe across the left side of his chest. He collapsed at my feet with a vile oath.

I was free and ran into the woods. After penetrating a little deeper into the thicket, I sat down among the bushes. From the distance I heard a lot of shooting. Believe it or not, the bullet did not wound me. It went through all of my clothing and stopped at my shoulder, leaving a mark. I was alone, resting."

A Year In Treblinka

By Jankiel Wiernik Y Y

Bullet proof holocaust survivor number 2

Murray Goldfinger, a Jewish survivor of Auschwitz recounts his experiences there to the GM News in 2007:

Despite Goldfinger's efforts to preserve the shovel with a cracked handle he was given to work with, it broke one day. A Nazi in charge accused him of "sabotage" and ordered him executed.

As he had so many times before, Goldfinger prayed to his mother, Giza, for protection. He was told to turn away to be executed. The bullet was fired at his head, but did not penetrate his skull.

"When he shot me, I went to the ground," Goldfinger said. "I was fully conscious, but I said [to myself], 'Don't move.' "

Thinking back, Goldfinger said he wonders if the shooter spared him on purpose. He was moved to a different area to work by a prisoner in charge, and the Nazis went unaware of his survival.

The bullet had strayed and hit Goldfinger near the shoulder, and the wound became badly infected. A doctor who was a non-Jewish prisoner treated him in a tiny hospital for the wound Goldfinger told him was work-related. Though the doctor mistreated the other Jews there, it was not the case with Goldfinger.

"He told me, 'You don't look Jewish, I'm going to save you,'" Goldfinger said.

Mengele paid regular visits to the hospital to oversee its activities. The doctor who was treating Goldfinger told Mengele he was given special orders from the coal mine to operate on his wound.

When the time came for his operation, the doctor told him he would be put to sleep, unlike other Jews, who were not given any type of anesthesia.

"I looked at him and said, 'For good?' " Goldfinger said.

The doctor kept the promise to save Goldfinger's life,

and Mengele even came to check on his condition several times.

Source: Lone Wolf @ Thy Weapon of War