Steve Karmeinsky

Rudy Kennedy

Holocaust Memorial Day Trust

Rudy Kennedy (born Rudi Karmeinsky) was born in Rosenberg, Germany (now Olesno, Poland) a small town of around 6,000 people including around 50 Jews. Most Jews lived in the town centre next to the Synagogue which was very large for the small population and only had a local cantor, Rudy's family lived on the outskirts next to the railway sidings as his dad (Ewalt) was an expert in import and export legals and so helped Germans export goods to Poland and help Poles export goods to Germany. In 1933 he went to school where the headmaster happened to be an early member of the Nazi party, the blackboard in his classroom said 12 boys, 11 girls, 1 jew.

He was often attacked by boys from the school as they would have their Nazi indoctrination/Hitler youth on a Saturday when he attended Synagogue. He was expelled in 1937 after being attacked, but this time he fought back and broke the teeth of the Headmaster's son (this could have been a major offence, but his father paid off the headmaster and surely he didn't want the town knowing that an good Aryan had been beaten by a Jew). He was then sent to Breslau (now Wroclaw) and attended an orthodox Jewish boarding school. His father would regularly travel to Breslau and his driver would pick Rudy up and he'd have lunch or dinner with him, however the driver noticed that he was getting thin and he was unhappy there so gave him some sausages (which were pork) to take back to school and he was expelled from there too. He was then put in lodgings and went to the Jewish Gymnasium (grammar school), which he loved. In 1940 Rosenberg was cleared of all Jews and Rudy's parents and sister joined him in Breslau. A year later the school was closed, though he had his Bar Mitzvah in 1941 and was given a (English) book from a teacher which survives to this day (it was purchased in Belgium from a rare bookshop by a man living in Luxembourg and eventually returned to the family).

His father was 'working' in a local factory and Rudy went with him and vigorously studied all the engineering books there. In 1942 they were rounded up, but sent home as his father was helping the war effort, by this time they'd been put in the ghetto by the smaller synagogue where they shared a 2 bedroom flat with another family.

In 1943 they were rounded up, put in cattle trucks and sent to Auschwitz, his sister had a bladder infection and constantly needed to go to the toilet, with very limited modesty and through a slit between the wooden slats on the floor. On arrival au Auschwitz his mother and sister were immediately sent to the left to the gas chambers. They arrived at the selection point and the SS officer asked whether he wanted to work and Rudy mumbled something, he then asked his dad if Rudy (now 15) was his son who answered "yes and we want to work", they were sent to the right and bundled into an open truck and selected for work at Auschwitz-III Monowitz/Buna.

They arrived at the barracks and were sent to a shower block (real showers but many knew that showers might be the end). They then had their heads shaved and were bundled into some temporary barracks. Next morning they were tattooed with their numbers, with the needle of the tattoo gun dripping with blood from the previous person. Rudy was put on road works (outside, life expectancy was 6 weeks), his father got a job inside with the Electrical Kommando (squad) working for Siemens in the I.G. Farben factory. Some days later his father managed to persuade his Kappo (squad chief) that Rudy was a good electrician and after a potentially deathly test (which he passed as he hadn't electrocuted himself), he was accepted into the Electricians.

A few weeks later his father got ill but kept saying "Remember Bloomsbury" and was taken off to the KB (hospital) in Auschwitz-I where he died. Rudy was now alone, but developed a survival instinct. One morning at the Appelplatz (assembly area) his name was called and a package appeared with his or his father's name on it, obviously Jews weren't allowed packages and it was confiscated by the Kappo, but he was given an extra ration of bread and margarine and a small piece of chocolate from the package. Some weeks later while working on a new project he found a fault with an electrical schematic telling the Kappo that it would never work, immediately the Kappo took him to the Siemens' civilian bosses based there and they agreed it was a genuine fault. He was then given a job examining all schematics to ensure there weren't faults. He worked in an office and had a lockable desk and was given food with the Kappos at lunchtime. He was a "semi-prominent" (a VIP, Jews could never be real "prominents" as they were all destined to die), but that meant at least some form of protection against other prisoners and slightly better food.

Kappos could issue KL-Auschwitz money which could be used to buy goods (there were between 20-30,000 labourers at the I.G. Farben plant, including Jewish slave labourers, Polish and Russian forced labourers and British PoWs.). He bought cigarettes which he traded with local farmers for tomatoes. At some point he had appendicitis and was operated on by a Polish doctor using 'key-hole' surgery, the wound was stitched shut and held together with Bulldog clamps. While recovering there was to be an inspection so the doctor threw him out (he wasn't meant to be there) and he was immediately put to work on latrine duty. Luckily he managed to find the Electrical Komando Kappo and was returned to work at I.G. Farben. He survived Auschwitz for 2 years and as the Russians advanced (they could hear the artillery guns), he was sent on a death march to Katowitz (Katowice)  One for the soldiers guarding the prisoners gave him his suitcase to carry, but Rudy knew he couldn't carry it very far, so threw it in to ditch at the edge of the road and ran into the marchers. The soldiers were short of bullets and rather than shooting he just grabbed another prisoner and made him take it. Rudy remembered the march lasting a day (but in reality was 3 days) and he slept under dead bodies to keep warm. He was then put on to cattle truck to Mittlebau-Dora/Mittelwerk (about 2.7Km from Nordhausen).

His first job was clearing the pathways of snow outside the entrance to the tunnel network, he had an infected cut on his foot and the ragged bandages he'd put on didn't last long so he urinated on it regularly to sterilise it. On returning to the work duty he was spotted by the firemen and was "adopted" (pink triangle labourers), he didn't realise at the time, but later he thought he was probably being groomed. They had warm heated barracks and better food than Jews. His luck ran out when he was found to have lice (usually a death sentence) and was sent to the doctor's and smothered head to foot in delousing powder and was sent to the Jewish camp. He said he was a skilled electrician but was put on final testing of V-2 turbines and was ordered to urinate or throw sand in them after the tests by the resistance (it also turned out that working on the electric systems was actually highly dangerous and many slave labours died from electrocution). After the war he found out that a V-2 turbine had been tested by the RAF and it ran for 2 YEARS (a V-2s journey from launch to blowing up was a maximum of 20 minutes so his efforts to sabotage them probably made little difference). As the Americans were advancing, the camp was cleared and he hid in the previously cleared out tunnels, but dogs were sent in and he was chased out. Most prisoners ran and headed up the hill, but he knew the paths didn't go anywhere, so he ran down the hill while being shot at by guards. One chased him but got bogged down in the mud and he managed to lose him and ran down to the Appelplatz where some Dutch PoWs were waiting to march out and they opened ranks and let him in. They were then marched to and through Nordhausen to the station and put on open trucks to Bergen-Belsen (it took over a week as they had to pull over and make room for retreating German troop trains). The was no food and they'd get water from rain or snow. There were guards on every truck, but by the end of the journey many were as sick as the prisoners themselves.

He remained with the Dutch for a short while until they were due to be sent home as PoWs, they were placed in brick barracks (probably former SS barracks) and had running (cold) water and electricity. He rigged up a heater so they could boil water. They found a buried supply of turnips, but the SS would shoot if many prisoners went at once so they'd have to sneak individually and carry a few at a time. Eventually the SS got bored and waited until a few prisoners were around and threw a hand grenade and blew up the supply and killing a few people at the same time. While there a British soldier, Colonel Kennedy, said he was going home on leave and would get his details to the Jewish Agency in Bloomsbury. As the Dutch were leaving an Auschwitz colleague then found him and told him and said they'd have to leave or they'd be sent to the Jewish camp (where thousands were dying daily). So that night he and 5 others walked to the gates, he grabbed the gun from the soldier guarding it and threw it on the ground knowing the soldier wasn't going to shoot them. It turned out his uncle Max (who'd left Rosenberg for England before the war) and was now a soldier was stationed near Bergen-Belsen, but was told by his commanding officer not to go anywhere near the diseased place.

They decided to go to Hannover, but Rudy collapsed on route and was sent to a military hospital, one of his colleagues said he'd be back to get him when he was better. No one at the hospital knew what to do with this starved diseased skeleton. Eventually a Russian doctor said he's seen similar conditions in Stalingrad and pumped him full of vitamins through huge needles. His colleague did return when he was better and took him to a nursing home they were staying at (which had been owned by a senior German Nazi), a few days later US troops arrived and they were arrested and put on trial in a Military Court. The Judge (a Colonel Ash) said they'd caused problems at the home and resisted arrest and several were sentenced to hard labour (and were never heard of again), He was given a short sentence as he was still a child. The jailers were embarrassed and fed him well and kept him warm. After 2 weeks he was released and tried to return to the nursing home where he was told that all their belongings (such as they were) had been given to more deserving people.

Two US reporters appeared and said he should leave immediately or he'd likely be re-arrested and they took him to the Displaced Persons Camp at Zillsheim. He was meant to be one of "The Boys" but at the last moment his plane was cancelled and it took him over a year to get his papers to go to England (by which time he would no longer be a child, so like the Monarch of England he had 2 birthdays, the one on his passport which made him 2 years younger and his real birthday). While waiting he worked for the US Army as a trusted civilian ambulance driver.

Eventually he and some others were sent to Paris where they'd get a train to England, but on arrival were immediately put in a hostel and locked up for "their safety" - he thought another "Colonel Ash", but after a couple of weeks made it to England in 1947.

Rudy rapidly educated himself and got his matriculation after a year and then got a degree in Electrical Engineering. He had a "Look Forward" view of life and didn't reflect on his past. He lived with his Uncle Max and Frank and Aunt Lucie (who couldn't cope with the thought of her family being murdered and committed suicide). He lived in a room in the attic, but it was the first place he could call his own since the 30's.

In the 1950's he worked for English Electric on missile guidance systems, his managers knew his past (as he had to be security cleared) and when US rocket scientists were visiting, he'd be asked not to come in or make himself scarce as the British didn't want to embarrass their US counterparts as Rudy might recognise them from Mittelwerk or worse they'd recognise him (the US took in over 1,600 Nazi German scientists and technicians under Operation Paperclip). He was sent to the US on a fact finding mission to evaluate US missile systems and was given a higher security rating than the rest of the team because the US had his records from working as an ambulance driver while all the others in the team (including his managers) only had references from the UK security services (and UK spies had given the atomic secrets to the Soviets so the US was very wary of the UK). Though on their itinerary, only he was never given clearance to visit Huntsville (Alabama) where Wernher von Braun and team were based (though the rest of the team did).

He would go to the Cosmo café/restaurant on Finchley Road (Finchley Straße) were he met Rolf Schild and Peter Epstein. They had setup a new company SE Laboratories and though they couldn't afford to pay him, he'd help them with various designs. SE Laboratories then won a military contract and needed a security cleared manager, so they employed Rudy.  There he met the owner's sister Gitti and married her in 1959. In the 1970's he set-up his own company Digital Electronics Ltd making medical electronics (ECG type machines). He sold it to Röche Pharmaceuticals to become part of the medical electronics division and he was made a Director of Research and Development, had an office in Basle managing many R&D projects worldwide. He often travelled to the US on business and pleasure and no one would believe him about "those nice Germans in Huntsville who helped get man on the moon". He then worked on various consulting roles including Demon Internet and Entran.

In 1995 he took Steve (his son) and Nicky (his daughter) to Auschwitz for the 50th anniversary of when he was sent on the death march (there didn't seem to be anyone organising anything from the '45 Aid Society/etc and hotels and flights were fully booked for the official ceremony). He hired a guide (who was very much promoting the Polish resistance aspects), but after saying "I was here as a slave labourer 50 years ago" the guide went ashen faced and changed his story. After completing the tour the guide insisted that he should visit the Record's Office. He didn't see the point as his mother and sister had been murdered on the day of their arrival and his father had died from illness, but did go where he found his father's death certificate. The certificate stated he'd died of a "heart attack" which meant he'd been given a phenol injection into his heart and he'd been killed for being unfit for work. Something changed as he realised his father hadn't died of illness but had been murdered. On leaving the office someone came and asked if he was English and if so would he meet some people who were at another part of Auschwitz-I.

It turned out to be an ITN film crew and they wanted to interview him. After being silent for 50 years, he agreed to do the interview and appeared on ITN News at TEN. On returning to the UK, he set-up (with Roman Halter, Michael Etkind, Kopek Kendall, Freddy Knoller and others) the Association of "Claims for Slave-Labour Compensation" which campaigned for reparations and in part lead to the Claims Conference. His campaign was filmed by Luke Holland/ZEF Productions and was shown on BBC Storyville as "I was a Slave Labourer" (on Youtube as "I was Hitler's slave").

Unfortunately he got Alzheimer's and couldn't continue campaigning. Alzheimer's did what Nazi Germany never could and his personality completely changed and he got violent and aggressive (it's said you revert to childhood and during his childhood he was fighting for his life every day). He fell out of bed and got a brain haemorrhage and died on November 10th 2008. He is deeply missed by family and friends.

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Rudy Kennedy Obituary | Holocaust Memorial Day Trust