Arthur Gelbart

Prepared by the Witnesses of War team

Arthur Gelbart was born Abram Gelbart on 25 March 1929 in Kłobuck, Poland, one of four children of Mordechai and Liba Gelbart. His father was a kosher butcher, and Arthur grew up alongside three sisters. The German invasion of Poland in September 1939 brought their childhood to an abrupt end.

In 1941, his father was arrested for slaughtering a cow and deported to Auschwitz, where he was murdered. His mother was killed in 1942. Arthur and his siblings were sent to Zagórze forced-labor camp, where prisoners had to demolish buildings and desecrate Jewish cemeteries. While carrying gravestones to be used in road construction, Arthur recognized the name of his own grandfather, Wolf Gelbart, on one of the stones.

Arthur was subsequently imprisoned at Blechhammer, which became a subcamp of Auschwitz. Assigned prisoner number 177191, he endured hunger, beatings and exhausting construction work. His sisters were transferred to Langenbielau, a subcamp of Gross-Rosen. In January 1945, Arthur was forced onto a death march to Gross-Rosen, followed by a train transport to Buchenwald. During an air attack on the transport, fellow prisoners pulled him from the wreckage.

He was liberated at Buchenwald on 11 April 1945, shortly after his sixteenth birthday, weighing approximately 70 pounds. His three sisters also survived and eventually found him in postwar Germany. Arthur later immigrated to the United States and settled in Cleveland, Ohio. Grateful to the American soldiers who had liberated him, he subsequently served in the U.S. Army.

In 1955, he married Rose Grosman, herself a Holocaust survivor. Together they raised two sons, Jerry and Michael. Both shared their experiences with younger generations.