Surviving a Nazi concentration camp did not guarantee safety. Many prisoners were moved again and again as the SS sent forced laborers across occupied Europe. Each transfer meant new guards, new work, new conditions, and more danger.
Some Holocaust survivors made it through several camps by using practical skills, getting help from others, staying physically strong, making quick choices, and sometimes just luck. Simon Ruder’s story shows how unpredictable survival was.
Why Prisoners Were Moved Between Concentration Camps
The Nazis operated an extensive network of prisons, concentration camps, forced-labor camps, and subcamps. Prisoners were moved when factories, quarries, railways, and military construction projects needed workers.
Camp officials usually wrote down each prisoner’s job. Tailors fixed uniforms. Carpenters worked on building projects. Mechanics and metalworkers went to arms factories. Those without a trade were often given the hardest manual labor.
Transfers became more common in the last months of World War II. As Soviet troops moved through Poland and American and British forces entered Germany, the SS cleared camps near the front lines and forced prisoners to move west.
Many prisoners were moved in crowded trains or on deadly marches. Reaching another camp meant surviving the journey itself.
Simon Ruder’s Route Through Multiple Concentration Camps
Simon Ruder, a Jewish tailor from Lvov, Poland, was first imprisoned at Loncki Prison and then sent to several Nazi camps. Researchers traced his path using prisoner cards, transfer lists, work records, family papers, and survivor stories.
| Place | Period | What Simon experienced |
| Loncki Prison | 1941–1944 | Imprisonment and forced work making SS uniforms |
| Płaszów | Spring 1944 | Quarry labour, starvation, and violence |
| Auschwitz-Birkenau | May 1944–January 1945 | Arrival selection, factory work, and uniform repair |
| Gross-Rosen | January 1945 | A brief stay following the Auschwitz evacuation |
| Dachau | January 1945 | Registration under a new prisoner number |
| Thalheim and Waldlager V | Early 1945 | Carpentry followed by heavy construction work |
| Ampfing | April–May 1945 | Munitions work, collapse, and liberation |
Rudolf Ruder’s book, The Long Journey to Cleveland, tells the true story of his father’s survival and later life, with this journey at its heart.
How Simon’s Tailoring Skills Helped Him Survive
Before the war, Simon owned a tailor shop in Lvov. After his arrest, that profession became important to his survival.
At Loncki Prison, he was assigned to make SS uniforms. When Simon reached Auschwitz-Birkenau in May 1944, an SS officer asked about his occupation during the arrival selection. Simon explained that he was a tailor who had already produced German uniforms.
According to the family account, his answer caused the officer to change his direction during selection. Simon entered the camp as prisoner B-6867 and was initially assigned to an arms factory.
Months of hunger, beatings, and hard labor eventually left him unable to work. He was sent to a hospital barrack where prisoners rarely recovered. Someone secretly brought him broth and bread. Simon later identified the man as Johann Lichtner, an SS guard he had known at Loncki Prison.
After recovering enough to stand, Simon received sewing work. He repaired worn uniforms and completed occasional carpentry jobs. Indoor work demanded less physical effort than road construction or quarry labor, allowing him to preserve some strength.
A useful trade offered a temporary advantage. It never provided protection. Camp officials could change a work assignment at any time.
The Deadly Transfer From Auschwitz to Dachau
By January 1945, Soviet troops were approaching Auschwitz. The SS began evacuating the camp before the Red Army arrived.
Simon left Auschwitz on January 18 as part of a forced march toward Gleiwitz. Prisoners walked through deep snow with little food and inadequate clothing. Guards shot those who slowed down or fell behind.
Simon focused on the prisoner ahead of him and kept moving. Others died from exhaustion, exposure, starvation, or gunfire. David Weiss, a fellow prisoner from Loncki, did not survive the march.
At Gleiwitz, the remaining prisoners were divided into transport groups. Simon was sent in an open freight car to Gross-Rosen. The freezing journey killed more prisoners. After a short stay, he was transported again and reached Dachau on January 28.
Dachau officials replaced his Auschwitz identity with a new prisoner number: 140258. The transfer had not improved his position. It had placed him inside another branch of the same camp system.
Forced Labour at Waldlager V and Ampfing
Simon spent a short period doing carpentry work at Thalheim before he was transferred to Waldlager V, part of the Mühldorf camp complex.
The Nazis had established the complex to supply labor for an underground aircraft-production project called Weingut I. Prisoners worked on a huge concrete bunker intended to support the production of Messerschmitt Me 262 jet aircraft.
Simon’s records listed him as a carpenter, but he was assigned to carry heavy cement sacks at the construction site. The work quickly drained his remaining strength. Prisoners faced cold weather, starvation, beatings, disease, and long shifts. Anyone unable to continue could be killed or sent away to die.
In April 1945, Simon was moved to Ampfing. Work at its munitions facility was less physically demanding than hauling cement, but he was already severely weakened. He collapsed at his worktable after two weeks.
Kapos attacked him and left him badly injured. They fled as American forces entered the area. The US Army’s 14th Armored Division liberated camps near Ampfing and Mühldorf in early May 1945.
Simon weighed about 69 pounds when rescuers found him. Liberation ended his imprisonment, but doctors remained unsure whether he would survive his injuries.
What Simon’s Story Shows About Holocaust Survival
Simon’s profession helped him receive work that was sometimes less punishing. Another person gave him food when he was close to death. His judgment helped him answer questions during selection and recognize when volunteering might improve his chances. He also survived several moments that could easily have ended differently.
These things help explain how Simon survived, but there is no simple formula. Many skilled, determined, and resourceful prisoners were killed.
We understand the stories of survivors of many camps best by looking at the details. Simon’s records show where he was sent and what work he did. His own story shows the uncertainty behind those facts.
Each transfer forced Simon to start over in new conditions. Every time, surviving meant making it through another selection, work shift, march, or night.