Manfred Goldberg and Zigi Shipper: 'If it wasn't for Manfred I wouldn't be alive today'

[Behind the Aegis]

Manfred Goldberg BEM and Zigi Shipper BEM both survived the Nazi death camps. They are both 92 years old — and have been friends for 78 years.

I met Zigi at Stolp concentration camp in 1944, where we were slave labourers on the railways. Because Zigi and I were the only youngsters — we were 14 —we became friends. I was a German speaker and Zigi was a Polish speaker, but we had Yiddish in common.

We were together for four or five months, but became separated when I was sent back to Stutthof concentration camp at the end of 1944. I had no idea if Zigi was still alive.

One morning, at the end of April, 1945, several thousand of us were each given a chunk of bread and under the watch of armed SS guards, were marched out of Stutthof. This was the beginning of the death march. My mother had been in the women’s camp in Stutthof and now the women were marching with the men. I began winding my way through the long column, searching for my mother and it was then that I met Zigi again, who had also been sent back to Stutthof. I’d had no idea.

During the march, Zigi was in a pretty awful state and kept saying: “I must sit down. I can’t walk another step.” I said: “Zigi, if you sit down, you’re dead” because the moment anyone traipsed behind, the guards would put a bullet in their head. I, my mother, whom I had found, and a few other people dragged Zigi along. The one friend I had made in all those years was Zigi and I was determined that if I could possibly assist him in saving himself, then I would do so.

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