Treblinka Survivor: The Life and Death of Hershl Sperling (40 page)

Dachau – aerial view of the camp where Hershl was imprisoned from 17 November 1944 until the camp’s liberation by the US Army.

Dachau – gates at the main entrance, 1945.

Dachau – prisoners celebrate liberation.

Hershl just a few months after liberation in Germany.

Hershl and Yaja Sperling’s wedding picture, taken in Tirschenreuth, Germany, in 1947.

Hershl and Yaja Sperling’s wedding party.

Hershl in Scotland in the 1950s.

Hershl with his son Alan in the early 1950s.

 

 

The Caledonian Rail Bridge.

Hershl Sperling in the months after liberation. He is only eighteen years of age but already has the air of an older man.

The front and back cover of
From the Last
Extermination
.

Nazi document marking Hershl’s arrival in
Konzentrationslager
Dachau – where he was given another number, 127871, with the word ‘
Jude
’ above it. The document also draws attention to his ‘attached’ earlobe, which in the pseudoscience of Nazi racial theory was regarded as a Jewish trait.

Hershl’s name on Birkenau’s
strafkompanie
register. The length of his detention suggests that he had probably committed the worst possible crime in Auschwitz – attempted escape.