labour, with Pivnik himself sent to work at Schmidt's parents' farm at Neuglasau, Segeberg, Schleswig-Holstein. At the beginning of May 1945, Pivnik and other former Fürstengrube prisoners, were marched to the port of Neustadt from where they were loaded, on 3 May 1945, aboard the former German cruise ship Cap Arcona which was being used as a prison ship for concentration camp inmates along with the Thielbek, Athen and Deutschland. Within hours of Pivnik boarding, the flotilla was attacked by fighter-bombers of the Royal Air Force and both Cap Arcona and Thielbek were set on fire and sunk. As one of the last to board, Pivnik was on an upper deck and able to jump from the ship and eventually swim ashore. Out of approximately 7,000 prisoners on board the two ships, no more than 500 survived. Pivnik was liberated by the British Army in Neustadt on 4 May 1945. Sam's memoir Survivor – Auschwitz, The Death March and My Fight for Freedom was published on 30 August 2012. He died exactly five years later in London on 30 August 2017, two days before his 91st birthday. References External links Interview, iwm.org.uk; accessed 2 September 2017. 1926 births 2017 deaths Będzin Ghetto inmates Auschwitz concentration camp survivors