What I achieved – turning a tool of punishment into a tool of peace – gave my fellow Jews a rare chance to forget their pitiful circumstances for a while."
Elhanan Ejbuszyc, a talented craftsman, was deported from the Lodz ghetto to Auschwitz in the summer of 1944, where he was imprisoned in Block 20. The block leader was known for his cruelty, particularly for using his wooden club to beat prisoners. After hearing the block leader boast about his chess skills, Ejbuszyc offered to carve chess pieces for him from the club that was used to brutalize the prisoners. Shockingly, Ejbuszyc’s offer was accepted and he was given a pocket knife to carve the pieces, along with a warning: If Ejbuszyc didn't complete the task within four days, he would be put to death.
Before he completed the task, the prisoners were forced to undergo a selection, and Ejbuszyc, was sent to the Goerlitz labor camp, taking with him the knife, chess pieces, and remnants of the club. Once in the camp, Ejbuszyc shared his chess set with his fellow prisoners, offering them a temporary escape from their dire circumstances.
In his testimony Ejbuszyc recalls completing the pieces in the Goerlitz camp: "…I brought the chess pieces with me to Goerlitz and gave them a final touch-up... what I achieved – turning a tool of punishment into a tool of peace after breaking it into pieces and carving chess pieces from it – was to give my fellow Jews a rare chance to forget their pitiful circumstances for a while. That brief moment of solace that I managed to bring to my fellow sufferers filled me with such joy…"
Elhanan Ejbuszyc remained incarcerated at the Goerlitz camp until May 1945, when he was liberated by the Red Army. He donated his chess set to Yad Vashem where it is now preserved for future generations.
Yad Vashem is committed to its sacred mission of ensuring that his story – and those of millions of other victims and survivors of the Holocaust – can continue to be told. Holocaust remembrance doesn’t stop just because our museum doors are closed.
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