He was born on January 21, 1922 in Rome, Romania. When the war broke out Salomon was in Chernobyl. He was imprisoned in various ghettos and concentration camps and went through much suffering and disease, including typhus, one of the most deadly diseases of the time. As a prisoner he was taken to the forest daily and had to cut two cubic meters of firewood per day, otherwise he and his companions did not receive anything to eat or drink.
He escaped five times while he was a prisoner. On many occasions while he was free, hiding in the forest with five comrades, they had to eat grapes with garlic or even a little grass, it was the only thing they could get to eat.
On one occasion while he was detained by the Ukrainian army, as he was detained by several sides, he and other comrades were forced to open a mass grave with more than 600 corpses to remove clothes, jewelry, gold dentures and then they had to bury them again. He remembers it as one of the most unpleasant experiences of his life because of the terrible smell of putrefaction.
Testimony:
"On one occasion we were stowaways in the open with a group of people on a train, there was a lot of freezing current that came in front of us because of the speed it was going, we were poorly dressed and poorly eaten that one did not even notice when the people who were around us were dying. Then we had no choice but to cover ourselves with the corpses of those who died to try to withstand the bitter cold.
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Salomon Birbaum / Uruguay 2022
Nació el 21 de Enero de 1922 en Roma, Rumania. Cuando estalla la guerra Salomon se encontraba en Chernobyl. Estuvo prisionero en varios guetos y campos de concentración pasando por mucho sufrimiento y enfermedades, entre esas el tifus, una de las mas mortales de aquel entonces. Como prisionero era llevado al bosque diariamente y debía cortar el y sus compañeros dos metros cúbicos de leña por día, de lo contrario no recibían nada de comer ni beber.
Se escapó en cinco oportunidades mientras estuvo prisionero. En muchas ocasiones mientras estuvo libre escondiéndose en el bosque junto a cinco compañeros tuvieron que comer uva con ajo o hasta un poco de pasto, era lo único que conseguían para comer.
En una oportunidad mientras estuvo detenido por el ejército ucraniano, ya que estuvo detenido por varios de los bandos, a el y a otros compañeros los obligaron a abrir una fosa común con mas de 600 cadáveres para quitarles ropas, joyas, dentaduras de oro y luego tuvieron que enterrarlos nuevamente. Lo recuerda como una de las experiencias mas desagradables de su vida por el terrible olor a putrefacción.
Testimonio:
“En una oportunidad ibamos de polizontes a la imtemperie un grupo de personas en un tren, era mucha la corriente helada que nos venia de frente por la velocidad que iba, ibamos mal vestidos y mal comidos que uno no se daba cuenta ni de cuando se morían las personas que estaban alrededor. Luego no nos quedaba mas alternativa que cubrirnos con los cadáveres de los que fallecían para intentar soportar el frio tan inclemente”.