Sakura Anderson Mr. Neuburger English Comp.

101-130 March 23, 2012 Video Summary Anton Mason Anton Mason/Meisner was born on April 21, 1927 in Siget Town, in the land of present day Romania. His father was named Maximillion and his mother was named Sarah. Anton had only one younger brother who was named Samuel and was born in the year 1933. Antons grandparents lived in the same town his family did. His grandparents owned a store and manufactured soaps for a living. His father was a fur merchant at a warehouse in town. His mother had the only job of being a mother and all the work that applied to her status. Antons family was labeled as upper middle-class and lived in a large comfortable home. Before the mass segregation in the town, Anton lived on Main street with Jew and Christian neighbors. Anton went to school for the most part of each day and came home at one oclock to eat lunch, then went back to school. Antons social life in school was different than outside of school. In school there was anti-semitism among his fellow classmates and teachers. The antisemitism only got worse after 1940 and the school would only allow a small percentage of Jews to go to school. Anton would also attend another school where he would learn about the Talmud and get a better understanding of Jewishness. Learning this information was very important in his family and life-changing for Anton. Anton had a classmate by the name of Ellie Wiesel. The first memorable experience Anton had with the war and hatred toward Jews was in 1942, when anti-Jewish laws were passed and radios were confiscated from the Jews to eliminate new

information about the war to reach their ears. During this time, Antons father lost his job as a fur merchant and the economic security of his family was dwindling away. The year 1944 was an extremely hard time for Anton and his family. Early in the year the Germans had made their way into Hungary. They sent out new laws against the Jews consisting of a curfew, wearing the gold star at all times, and Jews were not able to leave. The Sighet ghetto was then established in March of 1944 and Antons family had to leave their home and move into a larger home with eight other families. About three months later in May, the Germans started to liquidate the Sighet Ghetto. Anton and his family were put on a train that headed Auschwitz. When they arrived to Auschwitz, Anton did not know it at the time, but it would have been the last time that he saw his little brother Samuel and his mother. They were both immediately sent to the gas chambers. Anton and his father were sent to Auschwitz I as a part of the labor force. There he was reunited with Ellie from Talmud class. The labor force had to work long hours with little food. In the first month of the year 1945, the Allied troops were closing in on the concentration camps. Anton and his father were forced into cattle cars the transfer to Buchenwald. The weakened health of Antons father was no match for the severe conditions within the cattle cars. Antons father died on the way to Buchenwald. In Buchenwald, Ellie and Anton were again reunited and together they were liberated by American troops. Quotes: The school formed my character because I became an independent thinking person. Obviously I didnt realize it at the time but that was the rabbis intention. To make his students

able to think independently So it was kind of, it was making you understand that you are a human being, independent, and individual that should think for himself, and you are equal to anybody in the world. There is no better person or worse person as long as you maintain yourself as a man that respects law. Learning was something that was very important in the family, we had to go to school, we had to learn Talmud. We didnt have to become Talmud scholars but we did have to understand what Jewishness was.