Sam Pivnik

[2] After a period of approximately two weeks in the 'Quarantine' area of Birkenau, he was assigned to the Rampkommando where he worked unloading newly arrived trains after the prisoners had been taken away for entry to the camp or gassing.

[citation needed] On 27 December 1943, Pivnik was admitted to the prisoner infirmary in the Quarantine area KL Auschwitz II-Birkenau, B IIa, Block 9, with suspected typhus.

[citation needed] On 19 January 1945 the camp at Fürstengrube was evacuated in the face of the advancing Red Army and prisoners who were fit enough to move were, initially, marched to a railhead at Gleiwitz.

[3] He spent the next three months on construction work before he – together with approximately 200 other former Fürstengrube prisoners – were evacuated by barge along the River Elbe to Holstein in northern Germany.

Within hours of Pivnik boarding, the flotilla was attacked by fighter-bombers of the Royal Air Force and both Cap Arcona and Thielbek were set on fire and sunk.