Roman Ziegler

Roman Ziegler was born in Dombrowa Gor, Poland, the youngest of eight children. He was the only member of his family to have survived the Holocaust.

He spent 31 months in four labour and concentration camps. The harshest and most cruel labour camp that he experienced was the Brande Concentration Camp in western Upper Silesia. The commandant, Kurt Bruno Pompe had a reputation for being cruel and sadistic.

Most of Roman’s family members were killed at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp. Roman was liberated by the army of the Soviet Union on May 8, 1945.

In 1948, Roman immigrated to Canada to start a new life. It was here that he met his future wife Miriam, and they got married in 1958. His full testimony is part of the Canadian Collection of Holocaust survivor testimonies. It is preserved in the USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive and accessible through the Ekstein Library.

Roman Ziegler

Without answering him, I put the ration card on his counter. He grabbed the ration card and the next question was “Where did you steal them?”