Surviving Mengele

featured:
Ike Feiges, Holocaust Survivor
november  13, 2020

Ike Feiges was born on May 20, 1935 in Czernowitz, Buccovi in Eastern Romania. The Feiges family was detained in Niolajew, and from there they were assigned to the Ukraine’s Obodowka camp, where few inmates survived the harsh conditions. Then, the family was taken by train to Auschwitz, where Ike had an experience with Josef Mengele. While at Auschwitz, Ike survived by blending in at all times. Always hiding, Ike would stay in the back of kitchens, where food was in short supply. Between 1941 and 1945, most Auschwitz survivors eventually succumbed to disease or were shot by the Nazis. When the Russians liberated Auschwitz in December 1944, Ike was just nine years old.

Ike worked for the United States Army Corps of engineers, followed by his tenure at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. He then transferred to the Department of Defense in Phoenix, Arizona.