"At the end of the war, I was in a labor commando in a concentration camp. We had to lay down the steel train tracks. I was the youngest and the shortest in the group. At first, there were 30 of us. At the end of 1944, two people were still alive. How did I make it? I was lucky. I had red, bright red hair. The Germans called me “Rotkopf”, “redhead”. I was given the easiest work"
Fishel Rabinowicz was born in Sosnowiec, Poland, in 1924. In 1943, his 42-year-old mother Sara and his six siblings Esther (16 years old), Jacob (12), Frimetta (10), Benjamin (8), Mania (6), and Beracha (3) were killed at Auschwitz. His 18-year-old brother Jeheskiel perished at the Faulbrück concentration camp. His 46-year-old father Israel Josef was shot dead in Flossenbürg. Fishel Rabinowicz, who spent four years in concentration camps and in various forced labor camps, was liberated in Buchenwald. In 1947, he came to Switzerland with a group of survivors in need of recovery. He stayed in Switzerland and became chief decorator of a large department store in the Canton of Ticino. Since his retirement, he has told his life story with graphic images. Fishel Rabinowicz is a widower and has a son.