Post by ๐ฅ๐ฐ๐๐ด๐ป๐ธ on Jan 9, 2023 0:31:21 GMT
Memories of My Childhood in the Holocaust
link
Interesting survivor account which aligns well with other accounts of other hรคftlinge such as Pierre Berg. Some interesting points will be quoted from the link above and commented on.
Judith was a Czech Jรผdin, about 12 years old when her and her family were sent to Terezin (Theresienstadt Ghetto). She along with the other children were put into a children's home.
I simply escaped from the childrenโs home and ran straight to Mama.
They had heard about the alleged gassing at Auschwitz. This is a common rumour in nearly all the testimonies from all over Europe, which no doubt put the fear of Christ into them all.
We were 16 months in Theresienstadt, when one day we heard that people were being sent to Auschwitz, where they were going to be gassed.
A railway employee reinforced this rumour.
โ Sure, to up there, through the chimney, which is burning 24 hours a day, that's where the โtransportsโ goโ.
This had an immediate emotional impact on her father.
I had overheard this conversation by chance and my poor Papa, upon hearing this, immediately got stomach cramps and diarrhoea. I immediately understood that we would be gassed. But how? How would they torture us until we die? I started shivering and so did Papa. He was very depressed from that moment on, when he got the reply with the thumb up.
The sexes were segregated but no one was gassed.
After we were given the clothes to wear, we had to stand in line again to be tattooed. 71502
She saw her dad again.
We saw Papa again after a couple of days and my heart was crying out when I saw him.
She assumes Hungarian Jews were taken to be gassed. Does not say how she knows this.
These were Hungarian Jews, who were taken straight away to be gassed.
She was 13 at the time.
We were herded into a huge hall and we had to undress completely. I was 13 years old and I felt probably more ashamed at this age than the adult women, who couldnโt care less.
The extermination of children in Auschwitz and their transfer to other camps, especially in the final stages, ensured that few of them survived until liberation.
The available records indicate that there were at least 700 children and youth prisoners, including about 500 under 15, in Auschwitz when the Soviet soldiers arrived. More than half of these children were Jewish....Auschwitz museum
Upon arrival at Auschwitz-Birkenau and other camps, the vast majority of young Jewish children were sent directly to the gas chambers....Greg Wilkinson
One can immediately see a discrepancy between these two statements.
The dreaded Dr Mengele makes another selection. Judith thinks that she and her mother are in for the chop.
After along time of uncertainly we have been led through the womenโscamp, called F.K.L. to the railway station.We arrived in Hamburg, where they accommodated us next to the port.
The Germans used "gassing" as a threat to force compliance. This threat is also a common theme amongst survivor stories read.
There was always the danger of being sent back to Birkenau, which would of course mean death by gas. With this the Germans used to threaten us all the time.
There was a lack of nutrition, which everyone suffered from. This caused issues. There was a shortage of disinfectants and anti-biotics.
The long period of undernourishment made us all suffer from furunculosis (boils). There was no hygienic care, such as disinfection
The camp get bombed by the British and Jews killed. They go to another camp, where she gets burned by some Jew hating nutter. The SS looked after her.
That same evening, when we came back from work, even camp commander Spiess ordered that I be given a second helping of soup. However I was so terrified and unhappy after the dayโs events, that I couldnโt eat it.
As the Soviets drew closer they had to evacuate, by train then by foot.
After many days of walking and after the house-shoes fell off from some swollen feet, we arrived in Bergen-Belsen.
The camp was full of emaciated prisoners with typhus. The camp was run by Hungarians or Ukrainians.
The very first sight of this ghastly camp, was a huge hill of naked, dead people, who were practically only skeletons. There was absolutely nothing to eat. There was no water whatsoever. It was a total chaos, because the Germans had all runaway.
We had been for approximately two weeks in this snakepit, without eating or drinking. People died like flies; they simply collapsed. Death was everywhere and everywhere death was anticipated.
We had been for approximately two weeks in this snakepit, without eating or drinking. People died like flies; they simply collapsed. Death was everywhere and everywhere death was anticipated.
She and her mother spent 3.5 years in the camps.
We told them that we had spent 3 1/2 years in concentration camps
This is very much how Pierre Berg and Schlomo Pivnik described their experiences, especially the total chaos at wars end.