Holocaust Survivor Talk: Phil Raucher

Phil was born in 1927 in Czeladz, Poland. Aware of impending danger, Phil’s parents sent him and his brother to relatives in Wolbrom, Poland. When the war started in September 1939, the Jews of Wolbrom were attacked in the streets. Afraid for their safety and for their parents, Phil and his brother secretly took a train back to Czeladz. In 1942, Phil was deported to Markstadt, a subcamp of the Gross Rosen complex in Germany, where he was enslaved in a munitions factory. As the Russians approached Germany from the East, the camp authorities ordered all inmates to evacuate. Phil hid in a pile of bodies and stayed in the camp until liberation. After liberation, he returned to Poland and reunited with his sister and uncle. They crossed the border to Munich, and Phil settled in the United States in 1950. He met his wife Virginia in Cleveland, and  they moved to Los Angeles where he worked as an air conditioning engineer.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER