Philip's Biography

Philip Gans was born in the Netherlands in 1928 and lived with his family in Amsterdam until 1942, when his father received a notice of deportation. The family went into hiding and Gans was separated from his parents and siblings for a year. In 1943, when Gans was fifteen, his family was captured by the Nazis and sent to Auschwitz, where most of them died. Gans was a prisoner at Auschwitz for two years, until it was closed in 1945; after that he was moved to several different camps, ending up at Flossenbürg, where he stayed until it was liberated in April, 1945. Gans describes his experiences in hiding, as a prisoner at Auschwitz and other camps, on the death marches from one camp to another, and after liberation.