The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz: A True Story of Family and Survival

by Jeremy Dronfield

To Fritz, Robert Siewert was a hero, representing the spirit of resistance and the essence of human kindness. The young were his greatest concern, and he did all he could to equip them with skills and knowledge that could save their lives. “He spoke to us like a father,” Fritz would recall, “with patience and kindness.”26 Fritz wondered where he got the strength, at his age and after so many years of imprisonment. When winter began to set in, Siewert got permission to set up oil drums as braziers on the building site, on the pretext that the plaster and mortar were liable to crack in freezing conditions. His real purpose was the welfare of his workers, who had only their thin prison uniforms to protect them. A humane and courageous man from heart to backbone, Robert Siewert never failed in his duty, knowingly putting himself at risk by interceding with the SS on behalf of Jews, Roma, and Poles.