Survivor Profiles: David Dragon
I speak to hundreds of kids each year, sharing my story. When I speak, I tell young people ... of the importance of freedom and that they should enjoy it. Ultimately, I think I maybe lived for them: the next generation.
David Dragon
His Story:
David Dragon was born in Sierpc, Poland, in 1923. One of five siblings, David attended Hebrew school and worked with his father in the family’s tailor shop. In November 1940, David and his family were deported to the newly formed Warsaw ghetto, about 60 miles away. They lived for a time with his mother’s aunt and uncles who had an apartment in the ghetto.
Soon, David was recruited by the Nazis for a work detail outside the ghetto. It was hard labor, but local Jews who had not yet been deported gave David and the other laborers food, some of which he was able to send to his mother and siblings in the ghetto. After two months, he returned to the ghetto to be with his ailing mother, who died two weeks later.
David tried to convince his remaining sister and brother to leave the ghetto with him to go to Racitzun, a nearby city with better conditions. They sent David on without them. He attempted to escape the ghetto through the sewers but was caught. After a few hours, he was released, and he decided to return to the ghetto to find his siblings. He again tried to convince them to leave with him. They refused to leave, so he again left the ghetto alone through a hole in the ghetto fence.
Outside the ghetto, David made contact with a farmer who let him stay on the farm for a month. The farmer became nervous that David would be found. Soon after, David was arrested. After two days and nights on a crowded train, he arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
At Birkenau, David was selected for work. He volunteered to be transferred to Auschwitz I, where he was trained as a bricklayer. Once David and the other prisoners on his work detail were sufficiently trained, they were transferred back to Birkenau and tasked with building a crematorium.
On January 20, 1945, David was sent on a Death March from Auschwitz-Birkenau to Dachau. He was liberated by United States forces in April 1945.
David and his wife, Shirley, who was also a Holocaust Survivor, were married for 70 years. David worked as a tailor, like his parents. He made all of the clothes he wore, as well as most of Shirley’s. David was a treasured member of Illinois Holocaust Museum’s Speakers’ Bureau, sharing his story of survival with countless visitors.