Victor Cynamon: " Children should know that prejudice is very wrong and could lead to disaster. Everyone should be vigilant to fight prejudice and oppression that exists in any shape or form". My family and I were living in Poland on September 1, 1939, when the Nazis marched into our homeland. We were stripped of all of our possessions and first moved to a ghetto. From there, I was conveyed to a number of labor camps and then to the Majdanek death camp. More people died at Majdanek than at Auschwitz. Only a few hundred people survived. I was one of them. From there, I went to labor at a munitions factory, then to Buchenwald, and on to another munitions factory. I was severely injured. A Belgian doctor, a righteous Gentile, saved my life, and I will always be grateful to him. I survived the allied bombing only to be sent to Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia from which I was liberated by the Russians. After liberation, I tried to return to my hometown, but found I was not welcome. There, I met my wife and we moved together to a displaced persons camp in Germany. We married, moved to the United States, and had a baby. After settling in the Bronx, I had a very successful building business. I am now retired and living in Florida. I am the vice president of the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center and chairman of the Holocaust Memorial committee. My brother and sister survived the Holocaust as well. I have dedicated my retirement years to the cause of remembrance. This series of portraits will serve as a witness after the survivors are gone and will teach the world that, if they are not vigilant, it can happen to anyone, anywhere. All through the camps, until I was separated from him in November 1942 for the last time, my father commanded me over and over to survive. He told me that when I survived, I should be willing to tell this story. According to the Jewish law, there are 613 commandments. I have a 614th—my father’s command “to survive.” In the portrait Dr. Siegel has placed a recent photo. It shows Victor’s current family of which he is proud.
