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The persons in question have given us the following information: Before they entrained us
and
deported us to
Auschwitz-Birkenau we stayed for around five weeks in the brick factory of
Munkács. At the
station they separated us from our
parents, whom we never saw again. We went into
Camp A,
from where we were led to
Brezinka 5 days later. We
worked
here till December.
Brezinka was constructed in the middle, surrounded by 5
crematoria. We received and sorted out all the
clothes and the
luggage that
deported people had brought. We also found our own stuff, and we
wanted to put on our
sweaters because we were very
cold.
However, when they noticed it they gave us 25 blows and seized all that we had. The only
thing we could save was a
photo of our
father
that we found also in
Brezinka among the several thousands of other
photos. We hid it in
our
shoes and that was how we kept it for a year, which was quite a thing because they
searched us all the time and more than once they took our old
clothes
and gave us new ones. We still have the
photo even if it is
torn and tattered. It is the only memory that remained of our
parents.
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Day by day we saw the long queues that led to the
crematoria but we never saw anyone returning from there. Around half of the
women
who had
worked for three months in
Krakow and came back here were
singled
out although those were young and fit for work. Once every four weeks we had a day
off, when we had to go to a concert. Jewish boys and girls had to play instruments, sing and
dance while a few metres away endless queues of innocent people headed towards their
horrible
end. Yet, a boy could not speak with a girl because they would immediately send you
to a punishment
kommando to shovel coal or do some other kind of difficult job. In
December, when no new
transports arrived and
when they made disappear all traces of this horrible
extermination of people, and burnt also the men whom they had forced to assist
with burning, we were also transferred from this place to
Reichenbach.
We
worked for the radio factory Telefunken. The
SS
supervised us but we had a relatively good
life.
We got 300 grams of
bread and twice a day cooked warm
food.
We stayed here till the middle of February, when they made us depart on foot, and we did
around 150 kilometres. For the whole time we got a kilo of
bread
each. The journey lasted for four days, and we spent the nights in school buildings. There
were 1,000 of us, and we were always lodged in such a small place that we could hardly sit
down, so every morning we stood up more tired and worn. We arrived in
Trautenau, and spent there
three days. We did not get any
bread
only some warm water with a few
potato
peels. They put us here in open
wagons
and we travelled for 7 days. Meanwhile, the rail system was
bombed
at several points and we travelled back and forth; they did know where to go. It was a
horrible journey. We arrived in
Bergen-
Belsen and thought our journey had finally ended and we could have a rest at
least for a night even if on the floor. But they did not receive us either here. The
train
stood still 24 hours before we departed again. We arrived in
Porta and
remained there. This was a new
camp.
We got 100 grams of
bread and some watery
soup a
day but had to work 12 hours without a break. We
worked
in an underground
factory. We had to
cross a high hill to get to the
factory. Our
wooden
clogs were torn to pieces and we remained barefoot. Our weak bodies could not cope
with the steep slope. Girls fainted one after the other, girls who had earlier got on so
well despite the scarcity. We got down into the
factory, which was not
fully finished yet. Everything was perfectly new and shiny; but it was
dark and
airless. The lack of sunshine and fresh air was horrible. Again and again we felt
as though we would not get any fresh air and drown.
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5 weeks later, we left for
Fallersleben. The journey lasted for 2 days. We got not even a bite of
food or
a
drop of
water during these two days, and were not allowed to go to the
toilet.
On the first day we arrived, we still did not get anything to
eat,
and we believed we were to
starve
to
death. The following day, finally we got some
soup
and
bread. We stayed here for 5 days before they newly entrained us and the next day
we arrived in
Salzwedel. The first day we got nothing to
eat,
the second day 50 grams of
bread
and a plate of
soup. There were already a lot of people kept here when we arrived
and there were no places for us, not even a little straw, so we
slept
on bare floor. In the last days we did not get
bread
either here and we could not see any
water.
We got only the usual dried
potatoes. The
squalor that was in the
camp is unimaginable.
Germans wanted to set
fire to the
camp together with us but the ca. 150
French
prisoners
of war, who stayed here,
saved our
lives with composure and courage. Our
parents, two younger
brothers, our elder
brother
and elder
sister with her two little
children all
died in
Auschwitz. All that we desire is
to get to
Palestine.