Shoes and

Survival

How important are shoes to you?

Holocaust Survivor Gilbert Metz says:

Shoes were vital for survival in the camp because they kept our feet warm and free of wounds and diseases. Shoes were also beneficial during the hours of labor we performed daily during my two years in concentration camps.

“One night, others thought I was dead and threw me out in the snow. When I woke up I went into the barracks and said, "Which one of you SOBs stole my shoes?" I went in and got them back.”

 

She wore those old wooden shoes. My mother’s toes were frostbitten – that’s why they were dropping like flies

Alex Bauer: he credits his survival to finding an egg-sized potato in a farmer's field during labor at Buchenwald and a friend's getting shoes for him so that his feet didn't split in the snow. If he couldn't walk, he would have been sent to the infirmary where others would steal his food. and he would have starved to death.