This is a continuation of the testimony of Yacov Drummer as recorded on video-tape by Yishayahu Perry for the Survivors of the Shoa, Visual History Foundation, on 10 November 1996 in the town of Azor, Israel. This part of the testimony describes the period from Yacov's arrival at Auschwitz in the month of May 1944 thru July 1945 when he was considered to be healthy enough to be released from an Allied military hospital.
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AUSCHWITZ Many of the train guards were Bavarian - as part of the train had come from Bavaria. There were also Hungarian and German soldiers. We were in a cargo car - the small window hole was covered with wire-mesh to keep us from crawling out. We were packed like sardines in a can - along with old people, sick people and children. By good fortune, I found a place near the window and it was not long before I realized that we were not going to Germany. We were crossing Czechoslovakia and traveling towards Poland. When the train finally arrived at its destination I saw a sign saying Auschwitz. It was the first time I encountered the name. To my sorrow, I was to learn a great deal about that cursed place. We arrived at Auschwitz on Saturday night, 20 May 1944 (I observe Yahr-Zeit for my family who were murdered in Auschwitz on that day - the 28th of Iyar). I was almost 20 years old . Through the window I could see German soldiers with dogs and machine-guns, bundles and suitcases lying about and people dressed in pajama-like clothing with blue and white stripes. SS soldiers, with skull insignia on their caps, opened the car doors shouting 'Raus! Raus!' and drove us out of the cars; two dead women and a dead man were found in our car. We were told to leave our suitcases and not to bring anything with us. Outside - we saw suitcases with Amsterdam written on them - a 'transport' from Holland had arrived earlier. They separated males and females and started the 'selection'. They asked everyone to give his profession. My father and one of my brothers were in line ahead of me; they were sent together to the left. When my turn came I said I was a mechanic - they sent me to the right and I joined a group of mostly young men who were waiting. It was dark when armed SS soldiers with dogs began to herd us forward. I began to notice the smell of burning flesh. We passed smoldering trenches to which they were bringing human corpses. I shook with fright - I thought they were going to throw us into the trenches too. I had no idea where we were (later I learned the name of the place was Birkenau). We were led to a large hut and told to strip off our clothes, put our valuables on a table and tie our shoes together and take them with us. We were run from place to place by other prisoners called 'helfingen'. I asked one of them, in Yiddish, when I could see my family. He asked me if I had seen the big smoke-stacks with flames coming out of them: 'That was your family leaving for heaven - you're lucky you're still alive'. They shaved off all the hair on our bodies then we were given a piece of soap and a towel, led to a shower-room and told to wash ourselves. After the showers they gave us striped clothing and led us to a smll wooden shed. About a dozen of us were left alone inside the shed. It was late at night - there were no beds so we curled up on the floor and went to sleep. The next morning they burst in on us shouting and cursing and drove us outside. We were fed thick soup in red bowls and after eating we stood outside. I saw quite a few sheds and some people - but no real buildings. I looked around hoping to spot some of my family. I asked someone if he had any idea where my sisters could be. He said that there were no females about - my sisters would have been taken to some other place. I was in Birkenau for two days. It was raining when we left and we walked in the rain for hours, only to arrive back at Auschwitz. When we got there we were left to stand in the rain - cold, wet and miserable - people fell, fainted and died. SS soldiers and more helfingen came and we were brought to a hot sauna shower. One of helfingen asked if I spoke German - I said I did. He told me he was a Jew from Holland and that he had noticed the wound on my shoulder. He told me that there was to be a medical inspection and said that I should tell them that I did not get the wound in the camp but that I got it a long time ago - then he hurried off. When we finished showering we went straight to a medical examination. One of doctors who examined us asked me when I got that wound on my shoulder. I told him that it was some time ago, in my house in the ghetto - he consulted another doctor and then told me to get dressed. The Jew from Holland had saved my life - others who had sores were sent back to Birkenau - to their death. There had been an epidemic in Birkenau and the sores were taken as a sign of infection. They burned the entire camp including its inhabitants. We were brought to a 'block', where beds stacked one over the other like shelves and fed, but not permitted to go outside. We were taken to have numbers tattood on us (my number, 3330, is still on my arm). We were told that from then on we would be called by that number only. I returned to the block, took off my shoes and climbed into my bunk. When I got down from the bunk I found that someone had stolen my shoes. I was so miserable and frightened that I began to cry. Someone came by and told me to be calm - he said he would get me a different pair of shoes, and he did. |
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WORKING IN THE MINES We remained in that block for another day or two and then were taken in trucks to a camp called Furstengruber, near the city of Katowics. There was a coal mine there, about 350 meters underground - they said it supplied coal to I G Farben factories. There I learned what a 'Kapo' was. They were in charge of us and most of them were brutally vicious; they beat us, screamed at us and cursed us. When we arrived at the camp they took our shoes and our passports. For two or three days we were given very little food. We had to fill carts from a pile of sand, bring it to another pile, upend it and then put it back in the cart and return it to the original pile - also, we were barefoot and began to develop sores on our feet. Everyday was like that - they were trying to break us. After a few days I was given shoes (with frabric tops and wooden soles) assigned to Block 5, and put on the second shift (there were three shifts, two during the day and one at night). We stood in formation twice a day; they counted us when we left for work and when we returned. They took us to work in the mines in groups of five There was also a large group that were taken to do construction work, building a factory for I G Farben. When we went to the mines they made us sing a miner's hymn - I still remember most of it. We were told to sing out, loudly and anyone who didn't sing or didn't sing loud enough was beaten. When we got to the mine office everyone was given an emergency light and then we got on an elevator that took us down to the mine and we went to work. When we returned from the mines we had to shower and clean ourselves. We had to rush to wash and there was a great deal of pushing. They checked the ears and nostrils - if there was any dirt they would not let you eat until you were clean. There wasn't much food and if you did not return in time the food would run out and you did not get to eat at all. I was given a shovel and had to load coal into coal-carts. I almost gave out on the first day - I had never done such hard work in my life. The result of the brutally hard work and the little food we were given was that many men were so thin and weak they found it difficult to move. I made friends with a Russian who had a ship tattood on his chest; two days later he was gone. There was another one - he was half Jewish - from Prague. He talked all the time and did no work but he gave me some bread and a piece of soap and then, he too was gone. I went to the work supervisor and told him that I couldn't continue, that I was about to collapse. He said he would move me to different work. I had hoped to get easier work but what I got was much worse. He gave me a torn rubber suit and, in a place where water was seeping from the walls, I had to drag wooden supports and force them into place to prop up the walls. It was hard work, and dangerous - there were many cave-ins and quite a few men were injured and a few were killed, but I was lucky and survived. Once, I was taken in the middle of the night to unload trucks with sacks of cement. It was raining hard. At first, they loaded me with a 50 kg sack and later they put two sacks - I could feel my bones cracking, it almost broke my back. I began to weaken, there was not enough food and I had reached the point where I knew I couldn't survive more than a few days longer. |
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THE LOCOMOTIVE SHOP Then I got lucky. One day in formation they said they were looking for a mechanic. I volunteered - there were18 volunteers. The next day they brought us to a shop where the Electric Engines which pulled the coal-carts were maintained. The shop supervisor, a Pole named Lukatchek was an older man (about 40) who spoke German. He began to test us and almost immediately most of the candidates were eliminated until only two of us remained. For some reasonn Lukatchek favored me and helped me with parts of the test - so I succeeded and was given the work. From then until January 1945 I stayed in the locomotive shop. Lukatchek would bring two sandwiches every day - one for himself and one for me (which wasn't easy for him because he was also very poor). He also brought a jar of coffee (ersatz coffee) and gave me half and sometimes he would bring a potato and we would eat it together. We talked much, but we also worked because there were repairs to be made. I was very satisfied even though the food was not really sufficient for either of us. Lukatchek, a Polish non-Jew he was a like a father to me. After the war I tried to locate him. In 1949, when I was working in a telephone exchange in Israel, a student from Poland came and worked with me during the summer. I told him about Lukatchek and he said he would find the man. A month after he returned to Poland he wrote to me and gave me the man's address. I wrote to Lukatchek, and we corresponded for many years. Every year I sent him a crate of oranges and the first time that he received them he wrote to tell me that ' . . . in Poland we never see anything like what you sent me'. I still have his letters. About fifteen years ago I had sent a number of letters and did not receive a response, so I guess he died (he was about 20 years older than me) - he had previously written that he was not feeling too well, and that his wife had also passed away. However, In spite of my improved working conditions there were still dangers. At any time you could be stopped and beaten. The German guards included many who were prisoners (criminals as well as politicals and communists), the Kapos (mostly Jewish) were brutal and the block supervisors (most of whom were not Jews) were little better - but the worst were the Poles (I heard that they killed some of the Polish guards after the war). There was a young Polish guard who came every morning - he had a rubber hose filled with lead and with this he would beat us about the head. One time, I was pushing a wagon he began to beat me about the head and the neck. I fell and apparently fainted and he just stepped on me (it was November and snow had already started to fall). He screamed for two of the Helfingen to carry me to the infirmary because he was sure I was dead. The Heftlingen saw that I was alive and said to me: 'Yaneck, we are returning to the mines - if you can, come with us, otherwise they'll send you back to Auschwitz'. I was weak, but managed to return with them. When Lukatchek found out what had happened he brought me extra food and cared for me until I recovered. That was not the only time that I was beaten for no reason. At home, when I was about 16 I had read a book written by a doctor who had been a prisoner of war in Russia in WWI. He wrote that to survive as a prisoner he had followed a number of rules. I read his book and remembered the rules in the camp. His first rule was to stay clean, the second was not to eat salt, the third was to drink only water that had been boiled, the fourth was to shower with cold water even in the winter. Later, I remembered these rules and they helped to keep me alive. Once a month we were given a package, it was called a 'comfort package' with tobacco and cigarettes. I didn't smoke so I traded with other prisoners for their soap, which helped me to keep clean. I continued to shower with cold water, even in December, when the weather was so cold - I was the only one. I heard the guards talk about me (I understood Hungarian and also learned to speak Polish) and I heard that they told the Kapos. The Kapos (who had their own showers with plenty of warm water) came to watch me shower in cold water and were so impressed that they told the cook to give me additional soup every day. I made friends with a foreman, a Pole, who recommended me to the mine supervisors. Those who were recommended received pay - so every month I would get ttwo Marks. There was a canteen for the SS troops and the Kapos - not meant for prisoners - but my friend, the foreman, could buy two packs of cigarettes for me for the two Marks. Since I didn't smoke I was able to trade the cigarettes, which were in demand, for bread. We had a day off every second Sunday. On one such Sunday, the sun was shining and I didn't have to go to work so I washed myself and my clothes. I was all neat and clean when, by chance, they had a surprise inspection of our Block. The Inspector found me to be the cleanest one there and I received a reward - a note that said I could enter the canteen and get two pieces of bread with jam and a cup of tea. Since not everyone could enter the Canteen I showed the note to my friend the foreman. He told me not to worry - he would be there and keep an eye on me. When I went to the Canteen with the note I saw some men playing chess andI stopped to watch. One of them asked me if I knew how to play. I said I did and he told me to sit and play. I was afraid, but he told me not to worry. I played and defeated him, but after I finished another wanted to play against me. This man was a Kapo and known to be very mean so I made sure that he would defeat me. After the game he was very pleased and said 'Bravo, Bravo, you play chess well, but I beat you'. I was happy to let him beat me in chess and so maybe have my body suffer a few less beatings. Once I ran a high temperature - I don't know how or why - but they brought me to the dispensary. I had a pack of cigarettes with me and I told the doctor I'd give him two cigarettes if he'd release me quickly and not send me through the cold shower because I had a high temperature. He turned on the faucets as if I was showering, then told me to go and get dressed. They put me to bed and I asked to be given medication for the fever. The doctor, a Hungarian Jew with a humped back named Berger, gave me something but it was not strong enough. 'Look', I said, 'I get money, I'll bring you cigarettes and I'll also get you apples, just save me'. ' Don't worry, I'm with you', he told me, 'I'll get what you need'. He did, and after a few days I was released. It was just a short time later that trucks came to take the sick ones away. I got to know another foreman - a Jew from Prague. He saw that I spoke German well - we conversed and I would help him with his paperwork. He asked the Kapo in charge of the kitchen (also a Jew - from Vienna) to give me work from the time I got up in the morning until noon, when we ate. The kitchen Kapo gave me work washing dishes and then gave me soup, better soup than we normally got, and bread. From time to time this foreman also assigned me to do clean-up outside the camp, in the huts where the SS troops lived. When I did the cleaning I would get the food that the cleaners (who were not prisdoners) got and sometimes I also got food from the troopers. One day I arrived and they were eating lunch. They gave me food - fatty soup and a large bone with meat on it. When I had eaten, they asked me if I enjoyed the food and I said I did. Then they told me that the bone belonged to their dog. The dog had been hit by a vehicle so they shot it, skinned it and ate it. I kept the bone, as a souvenir, for a long time. |
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BY TRAIN INTO GERMANY It was the beginning of January 1945 and though we were not aware of it, the Russian army was approaching. We heard cannon. One day Bokachik told me: 'Listen, but I don't know if we'll meet again. It seems that below they already know we are being attacked; but don't speak of it; I'm in danger'. I knew something was going to happen. The next day they woke us in the morning and told us: 'hurry, hurry. The sick, the weak can remain'. Those who couldn't walk remained. Later I heard that a squad of SS came and finished them off. We left and didn't know in which direction we went. The road was hard to walk and we grew tired. We walked for two days; we slept under lean-tos and were fed there. Those who couldn't keep up were left behind; then we would hear shots; they told us not to look back. They guarded us closely using dogs, until we arrived at Greiditz We left on Wednesday and arrived on Friday. They brought us into a factory which was not far from the railroad tracks. Each of us was given a can of sardines and a bit of bread. I finished mine on the spot, I didn't save any. In the evening they loaded us onto open trucks and brought us to railroad cars where we were crammed in like sardines, one pressing against the other. As it happened I stood along the side and had some support. The train left; I noticed a man standing in the corner, not far from me. He was an older man, he could have been 40 years old, but he was strange. He didn't have clothes like ours, he wore a long, heavy blue coat over a blue or a black suit; also his head was not shaved like ours were. I thought he must be a very important man. I asked in German what camp he was from but he didn't answer me. There were many camps in Greiditz and we were on the 'death train' that left from Greiditz. Since we went left I noticed that this man would put his hand into his pocket then bring it to his mouth. I knew he had food. I was hungry and asked him to give me some of what he had, but he didn't answer and wouldn't speak to me. Some time later I began to notice that people seemed to be disappearing. What happened was that they slid to the floor to sleep and were stepped on. At times, I felt that I too was standing on somebody. The next day we passed through a place where there was a great deal of snow and I had an idea. I had a small book that was encased in a box and also a spoon from the camp. I tore off pieces of the box and with this I caught snow as we traveled. I ate the snow which was important since we didn't have any water. There was another next to me, with whom I was later in a Kibbutz, and he said 'Yonk, give me a bit' and I did. Then the man in the corner suddenly started to speak and asked me to give him some also and I told him I would not because he refused to share his food with me. Later I said to him: 'give me some of your bread, or at least some crumbs and we'll make a ball with the water, and we can share it'. He agreed and that's what we did; he passed me crumbs from his pocket and I made moist balls with them and we ate and ate. I can still feel the taste today. It was the best taste I can recall, the taste of life - bread crumbs and melted snow; I asked myself why we had never eaten such food at home. The next day the man suddenly disappeared. I looked for him and saw that he had fallen, and only his head was visible; he was dead. I told the one next to me to remove the food from his pocket. Only crumbs were left and we removed them secretly so that others wouldn't see. Night passed and suddenly I I realized that I had dozed or slipped down and I felt someone stepping on my belly. I was next to the wall. I didn't know what to do. I wanted to get up but I couldn't. Then I remembered the spoon, and I used it to stab at the legs of those who stood on me until I was able to pull myself out. Those I stabbed were almost ready to kill me but I began to swing about me with the spoon which I held like a knife, and they backed off. We came to a dirt road in the midst of the forest - there was a lot of snow - and the train stopped, I didn't know why. They said that anyone who needed toilet could get down and that we also had to remove the dead bodies. I didn't get down. I did not want to lose my place by the wall. It was mostly those in the center of the car fell because they had no support. After a while we moved on and soon we arrived at city - it was in Czechoslovakia. The train was halted in the middle of the city and above it was a steel bridge. People collected on the bridge and threw food into the cars until the SS soldiers began to shoot at them. Then the train began to move again. We passed through Austria, (I always tried to know where we were) and then entered Germany. I was getting weaker and weaker. Not long afterwards the train stopped. The doors opened and they shouted for us to get down. When I got down I saw a sign in the distance and what I thought were logs but it turned out to be corpses, many corpses. Then the SS took those who were able to walk straight to help remove the corpses. They said that 60% of those who left arrived at the destination. |
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THE LABOR CAMPS IN GERMANY We started to move ahead towards the camp and many fell along the way. I don't know what happened to them. We arrived at the Dora Camp. When we arrived I heard that the camp was underground. There were many factories there and there were 30,000 workers, Heftlingem, Germans and others and I was told that many of them were Communists. They brought us to a large hall. We lay down and I fell asleep. When I got up my companions said they thought I was dead and when they saw that I was alive they asked why I hadn't gone to get food. Food had been distributed and I missed it. Later in the day they distributed food again and after eating I regained a bit of strength. They wouldn't give us much and when I saw that I couldn't get more I went outside. The soles of my shoes had cracked and I walked through puddles and it was cold and my feet felt as though they had frozen. I heard that they were organizing a work group of a few hundred men. I heard this and thought first work - that means food. So the next day I showed up also. The group left in trucks in the direction of the forest. It was close to Magdenberg, and the camp was called Turmaline - they said that formerly there had been French prisoners there. They set up a kitchen - I remember beets and sugar and such things - and the next day they put us to work. Under the hill there was a complete city of army warehouses and there were older German soldiers working there. Our job was cleaning stones; there was a machine that collected the stones by means of cables. They spread them over the floor with a rake and we had to clean them. The Kapo would blow a whistle when we were to get out before the machine started up. Well, one time I didn't get out in time - I didn't hear the whistle. The machine started up and began to throw me about and I took a murderous beating from the cables. Then one day they woke us and we heard we were leaving. We all ran to the kitchen which was loaded with beets and potatoes and tins of oil and we stuffed ourselves as much as we could. Then we left running, and the SS troopers ran after us with their dogs. I don't remember how many kilometers we ran but those who fell were shot. We ran till we arrived at Magdenberg and they brought us to the river Elbe. We were loaded onto a ferry, brought to an opening and told to jump into the water. They had us sit with our legs apart so that the next one sat between them and then we were told to stand up and to wash ourselves. They left us in the hold of the ferry. It was dark and it stank - there was no air. We began to have diarrhea because of all thee food we had stuffed ourselves with. I dirtied myself and so did the others - I remember removing the laces from my shoes and tying them around my pants legs so that I wouldn't leak. Early in the morning I saw a door open and some men went up into a big room, and they were given pails of water cups tied to them to bring down into the hold. I saw this and then I started thinking to escape; we were on a river and I knew how to swim, I would jump. This way, I thought, I wouldn't survive; I had to do something. Since I was not far from the opening above, I watched carefully and when I felt they were about to open the passage I jumped forward in order to be among the first to get out - and I was the first or second one on deck. I was given a pail, and they gave me bread and a full dipper of water to bring down. It took more than half an hour, as I knew it would, before I was done. But I also saw that the ferry was full of SS soldiers with rifles and machine guns and dogs. I would not be able to get away unnoticed and if I did I would freeze to death in the water. I couldn't do as I had planned, but I did remove my filthy trousers and underpants and threw them into the river. I had often wondered why I kept my long coat but now I saw it was useful it could be. On the way, I took some water and cleaned the coat as well as I could. I had to return and when I went down I was beaten by those whom I had pushed aside. I pushed myself inside and they closed the hatch and I was able to avoid them in the dark. We passed through Hamburg and I saw a devastated city; there were no houses, only stairwells, without buildings around them. It was early in the morning and I didn't see any people. Then they took us to Arensberg. There they led us into freezing barn with a lot of chopped straw spread about on the ground. Then, they took 50 of us to work on an estate. Later I was told that the estate belonged to an officer of the SS called Schmidt. He was OK; he was a young man, and wealthy. He took 50 men to work for him because the estate was large. He never spoke to us but he also was never cruel; he only required us to be clean. But we didn't have enough food. It turned out that even the SS unit assigned to guard us did not have enough food. From day to day the situation worsened. We got food once a day, a cup of soup with pieces of potato in it, and a slice of bread. The kitchen was outside the estate; there were ten men who distributed the bread and the one who cut the bread got the crumbs - one day we got a spoon-full of jam and the next day a small piece of margarine. There was a man, he was older than me, who worked with me. One day he told me that he couldn't get up and that I should bring him his soup; later, I noticed that his teeth were chattering, his lips turned blue and he was breathing as if he was about to die, which he did. One day they asked if there were any of us who felt strong enough to go out cleaning the streets. I volunteered - again I thought to escape; my mind was always working on that. There were 30 of us who went, in groups of Five. I had the idea that as we crossed the town to clean, I'd look for cigarette butts and that's how it was. I collect them in the pail they gave us, as we crossed the city. the citizens had cut the trees and we had to drag them to the canal. When we returned we received two rubles. But the next day all of them took up my idea and they went to the city to collect cigarette butts. I broke up the cigarettes I had and removed the tobacco. Then I approached one of the Kapos that I knew and I asked him if he wanted a cigarette. He was surprised to learn that I had some. 'How much?' he asked, and I said one bread. He said that was too much. I wasn't in a position to argue with him so I finally agreed to half a bread. I gave him a cigarette wrapped in paper. And I figured that I had enough for about 10 days. I didn't tell him that the others had already displaced me. I continued to go out for three or four days; there was plenty of work. Then something strange happened. A woman riding a bicycle stopped, got off where we were and looked us over. She stopped in front of me and stared and I stared back at her. Our eyes met, as if we knew each other. She got back on her bicycle and when she rode off she looked backwards. After about half an hour I saw the bicycle return, but it was a young girl riding. She stopped and begin to search for someone. For some reason I suspected she might be looking for me so I stepped out into the road. When she saw me she threw me a package wrapped in newspaper. I took it. I opened it and found two rolls spread with butter or margarine. I ate them right there, in the street. To this day I can still clearly picture the woman and the young girl in my mind. We returned to the estate and that was the last time we went out for cleaning work. |
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NEUSTADT Towards the end of April a transport arrived with groups from Sweden and France. They said we were leaving early the next morning. We thought they were taking us out to kill us, but there was a Frenchman who said he heard them speaking of taking us to a boat. When we left one Kapos tied his suitcase to my shoulders with a rope. He followed and warned me that if I threw it off or let it fall he would kill me. I carried it, running, until we arrived at Neustadt early - on the morning of the 3rd of May 1945. When we got to Neustadt there was a boat waiting there. Some of the SS, Kapos and other important persons boarded it - when my Kapo boarded I went with him. They took us out, about 3 km, to a large ship - I saw it's name 'Cap Arcona' written on the hull. They began to board the ship and so did my Kapo, but half way up the ladder boat he took the suitcase and gave me a push that sent me tumbling back - luckily I landed in the boat. The boat returned to Neustadt where I was put on a small transfer boat and brought to another ship. I was pushed on until I got to the lowest deck and there was nowhere else to go. It was dark. Beside me I heard someone mumbling 'Shema Yisrael, Shema Yisrael'. I asked if he was Jewish and he said 'Yes, 'Shema Yisrael'. I asked him where he was from and he said 'Neugamin'. I didn't know where Neugamin was. I began to feel weak so I searched for a place to rest. I couldn't see so I just sat down. As soon as I sat I felt that I was on something soft - and I realized that I was sitting on dead bodies. Then I became infested with body lice. They ate me alive; they sucked my blood and made me itch until I couldn't stand it. I had been below for a few hours when I heard a series of explosions. I felt the ship moving again and then I heard shouting 'everybody out, out!'. I went up on deck and saw that they had already lowered the German flag and replaced it with a white cloth. The SS troops were gone. I began to look for food and found barrels of sauerkraut, sour beets and all manner of pickled vegetables. I tried to eat as much as I could as the ship moved towards shore and other people came on deck. There were no soldiers to be seen. The ship reached the dock and we started to get off. One of the Heftlingen saw that I was half naked and he sold me trousers for two slices of bread. I followed them the others off the boat. There were prisoners - German sailors (there was a school for submariners), marines and soldiers. I saw one soldier removing his coat. I asked him for it and he gave it to me. I washed my head seawater. Those below, meantime, began to organize and we move towards the camp, This was after noon on May 3rd 1945. We walked together and entered a large building. I turned out to be the barracks of the German Marines. I was the first ot enter and I began to look for a place to do something about the lice. I went down to the basement and there I undressed until I was almost naked. I was so infested with lice I didn't know what to do. There were Russian prisoners there who were in good shape, not skinny like us. They were opening doors and looking for things and feasting on the food they found. One of them asked me if I was Russian; I said 'no, I'm Czech'. He gave me a pack of cigarettes. I had to wash so I ran about trying to find some washing gear. I found the showers and there was soap there so I washed and I scraped as much as I could to get rid of the lice. Then I went upstairs and found a room with beds so I lay down on one, covered myself with blankets and fell asleep. I must have slept for a day or two, because when I awoke and found my group they asked me where I had been and I told them I fell asleep. They said they thought I had run off or had died because I didn't show up to eat. Then I began to have violent diarrhea, I bled . When they saw I couldn't walk two of my companions carried me to a nearby buildding that had been a hospital for German soldiers, and set t me down in the middle of a big room. I couldn't get up to walk so when someone came rushing past and I grabbed his leg. He sat me in a chair and then gave me a shot. There were English soldiers there who put me into a warm shower and the Germans who worked there scrubbed me down with soap then carried me to a room where soldiers sprayed me with delousing spray. They put me to bed in a big room. The diarrhea continued. They gave me lots of drink and pills and after a while brought me food that I knew I shouldn't eat it - white bread and margarine. I began to scream at the German doctors and nurses and they threatened to throw me out. Then one doctor gave an order to give me boiled rice and potatoes and after a few days the diarrhea stopped. I wanted to leave right away but the doctor said I shouldn't go because I was still very sick. I insisted so they let me go and I returned and found a group of companions who had been with me in Turmaline. My friends found a scale and weighed me - I weighed 37 kg. We stayed together in a hut and the English gave me civilian clothes because I was still dressed in German marine clothes (I remember the gold buttons and an iron cross). I remained there until July 1945. |
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