PRUZHANY YZKOR BOOK
1983
OUR TOWNSMAN
HAROLD MORROW
Among the
active people of the United Pruziner and Vicinity Relief Committee in New York
and Philadelphia is the striking personality of Harold MORROW, who won his
renown as a result of his good deeds for the benefit of his fellow-men.
Committee members marked his wonderful work for our townsfolk at a special
party held in New York on May 24, 1981 and awarded him a bronze, memorial
plaque. On that occasion, memories were recalled and evaluations of his
character, which are referred to in brief here.
At his parents' home, at the "Yavneh" school and the Zionist
youth associations, Harold completely absorbed the moral principles of aid to
his fellow men. He developed the enlightened characteristics of love of people,
loyalty, patience, good natured ness, keenness and love of the Jewish people
and its homeland. His distinguished qualities helped him in the Holocaust years
to aid his friends and acquaintances, as has been related by his friends who
were in the Pruzana ghetto, at Auschwitz and in the camps in Germany. Thus a
picture was built up of a man, who redeemed and rescued, who knew how to advise
himself and others in hours of mortal danger, encouraged and influenced those
being taken to death not to lose hope and continue to overcome all the terrible
things that befell them.
Inter alia, reference was made to the Ghetto period, when
the Germans confiscated the radios of the Jews and declared that the death
penalty would be imposed on anyone listening to news and disseminating it.
Harold got himself a wireless and despite the great risk to himself, he hid it
in the spiral staircase of the former "Tarbut" high school building. At night, he stole in,
listened to the news and in the morning the reports spread through the ghetto
and encouraged the Jews, when they heard about German defeat on the numerous
fronts. Only a few select people knew
Harold's secret and the origin of the good and reassuring news.
At Auschwitz,
Harold succeeded in maintaining contacts with non-Jewish prisoners, in order to
"organize" a little food, a loaf of bread, some margarine, a little
fat, sugar, etc. He did not "store" these treasures for himself
alone, but distributed them between close and remote sufferers like himself.
Others in his place would have bartered or been careful not to be caught for a
grave offence, whose punishment was 25 lashes until bleeding occurred. Harold
was not afraid of this. He was completely caught up in the work of organizing
goods to supply them to women in the special women’s quarters and the sick in
the camp hospitals.
During the
selections of the Muzzelmans (who were due to die), Harold noticed Mendel
BODGAS (Milton STEINBERG) standing in the row of prisoners selected by the
demon's henchmen to be sent to the furnace. Harold hastened to bribe the “kapo”
in charge of the unfortunate victims and saved Mendel from the clutches of
death. Together with other prisoners, he founded the bread bank in which every
participant contributed their daily bread portion once a week for their hapless
brethren in the hospitals in order to save them and prevent their transfer to
the furnaces.
Harold MORROW
behaved thus in the awful Auschwitz years, when every prisoner was wholly
concerned with saving his life hourly and daily. Harold cared for his
fellow-men and did wonders in almost impossible circumstances and out of the
greatest danger to himself on the Auschwitz planet. After the liberation,
Harold continued his work by organizing the survivors and assembling them at
Feldafing camp in Germany. His good natured ness and concern for our townsfolk,
which received expression in the conditions at Auschwitz, again operated for
the benefit of the few survivors.
In America, Harold
was active in the United Committee for many years and invested a lot of work in
planning and carrying out activities. One of these was organizing the memorial
meeting for the martyrs of our town, which is held annually, to remember the
community destroyed in the Holocaust and unite those of our town who came to
America both before and after the Second World War by continuing the chain of
our forefathers. Harold was an enthusiastic supporter of the Pruzana Jewry
memorial volume project in Hebrew and English.
He is married
to Leah AMIEL, who was expelled with her family from Bialystock to the Pruzana
ghetto. His wife studied at the Tarbut Hebrew high school in Bialystock and was
a Hebrew teacher for a few years in Canada and New York. They have a son and
daughter. Harold and Leah are active in the Bialystock Committee in New York.