Auschwitz Survivor Herman Shine DEAD @ 95

Born Mendel Scheingesicht in Berlin in 1922.

Conditions were brutal in 1939, Hitler had invaded Poland and world war had begun. As a teen Mr. Shine was taken to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp close to Berlin, along with other Jews including his friend, Max Drimmer.

By 1942, the two friends were sent to Auschwitz in a packed railroad livestock car. At the camp the two managed to stay together in line, some would stay alive and others would be killed. They both were spared. They stayed healthy enough to be kept alive in the work camp.

They were able to escape with the help a civilian that worked in the camp and helped smuggle them out to freedom. If caught, they all would have been killed.

There's a very detailed story published in the New York Times.  Read it here.