Abby Weiner was born December 22, 1929, the only son of Chaim and Gisela “Gitel” (Lebowicz) Weiner, from Sziget (Sighet), Transylvania, Romania. His father, a veteran of the First World War, maintained a small tannery in the home. Chaim was from Sziget and Gitel was from a small town near Borszav. They lived on the main street in Sziget, which fell under Hungarian rule in 1939.

In April 1944, after the Germans took over Hungary and installed a collaborationist Hungarian regime, the residents of Sziget were interned in a large ghetto that held approximately 11,000 people. One month later, beginning on May 17, 1944, the Hungarians pushed the people of Sziget onto a series of transports – the Weiners were on the final transport of May 21 with the family of Elie Wiesel, which took them to Auschwitz-Birkenau. After three days, the transport arrived in the middle of the night at Birkenau, where all were driven off the transport by SS men with guns and dogs, entering a new and unknown world. Abby was separated from his mother whom he would never see again but was with his father as they were inducted into Birkenau.

After a few days, they were moved to Auschwitz I where they were tattooed. Abby and his father were A7705-7706; Elie Wiesel was A7713. Abby was separated from his father and sent to the Jawiszowice subcamp, while his father was sent with the others from Sziget to Auschwitz III-Monowitz, or Buna. In Jawiszowice, Abby was put to work for seven months sorting rocks from coal on a conveyer belt and pushing carts for the mining operation.

When Jawiszowice was evacuated, Abby was forced on a death march, walking with a group and also occasionally hidden on a sled that other boys pulled. They were later put in an open car transport that brought them to Buchenwald, arriving on January 22, 1945. He recalls being placed in quarantine in a large wooden barrack in the kleines Lager (small camp) and then being moved to Block 8, the children’s block, in the grosse Lager (main camp). In Buchenwald, Abby miraculously saw his father again.

Chaim arrived on the open car transport from Buna, which arrived January 26, 1945; this is also the transport that carried Elie Wiesel to Buchenwald, as well as Abby’s friend Armin Rosenberg, who informed him his father was there. Chaim was in a weakened state and Abby conspired to see him four times that week. They spent time together but Chaim, who was beaten for his food in the barracks, perished. The last time Abby came to see him, he was gone.

Abby stayed in Block 8 during the final days of the camp, which was liberated by American troops on April 11, 1945. After liberation, Abby remained inside the grosse lager; while many of the Buchenwald boys, including Elie Wiesel and Armin Rosenberg later went to France for rehabilitation in group homes run by the OSE. Abby left Buchenwald early and went with Otto Exinger to his home in Wurzberg. Otto took him to Frankfurt where he was reunited with Idy and George Weiner, his father’s brother’s children, who were from Kisvarda and Budapest. Ultimately, an American officer from Brooklyn, Harry Silver, who later married Idy, found them a house to take refuge in. Harry arranged for Abby’s illegal entry into England, dressing him in an American military uniform.

In London, Abby studied to be a tool and die maker and lived in a group hostel. He was part of the 1945 Aid Society, joining a number of the boys who had come to England from Buchenwald and Theresienstadt after liberation. Abby eventually left for the United States, where he met with an uncle in Brooklyn. He came to live in the Bronx and worked in textiles on the Lower East Side. Later, he was drafted into the army during the Korean War, became an American citizen, and went to school on the G.I. Bill®. Abby met and married the love of his life, Bonnie, with whom he had two children–Howard and Gayle. He was immensely proud of his children, and his four grandchildren.

Abby passed away on January 23, 2019. May his memory be a blessing.