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"She would protect me, she would cover me when we were marching, rain, snow, cold." | |||
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Madeline Deutsch Born 1930 Berehovo (Beregszasz), Czechoslovakia 
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My mother was an...an astonishing woman. She was 43 years old. I can thank her my survival because I didn't know when she took that piece of bread from me to...for safekeeping for the day, to give me a piece, you know, every few hours to sort of sustain me through all this, that not only did she give me the piece of bread that I was given, she was giving me a piece of her bread without me knowing so that I would have a little bit more food, so I could go on and survive. We didn't know for how long or what, or what's going to hap...to happen the very next day or the next hour. But she was giving me part of her bread, which I only found out later after the war was over what she was doing. She gave the last whatever she could come...she would protect me, she would cover me when we were marching, rain, snow, cold. All we had was...was this one grey dress. | ||
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Ruth Meyerowitz Born 1929 Frankfurt, Germany 
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When I came to Auschwitz, a few months later, I think almost everybody became very sick. My mother had malaria too, but she never had typhus. I was the one who came down with typhus, and I have very little memory of what went on, but my mother dressed me every morning, took me out to this "zellappell" which is the equivalent of roll call, and dragged me to work so that I wouldn't be beaten or sent into the hospital barracks which was...which was really a death barracks. So my mother dragged me around but of course I looked terrible and there was the selection for the gas chambers one time, and we were standing outside and an SS man told me to go in one direction and my mother into another because I looked so sick, and of course I was just wasting the food, this this two hundred calories worth of food that they gave us everyday. So my mother pleaded with him and said that, well, I'm her child and she, can't she come with, can't I come with her, and he said no, but if you're so concerned about your daughter, go with her. And she was just about to do this, and one of the women who was working in the barracks, I think she swept floors and whatever and maybe cleaned the chimney, the stoves, and whatever other menial work, but she had some kind of protected position whatever that was worth. She sort of grabbed me under one arm and my mother grabbed my other arm, and we managed to walk away. We were not even stopped, and I...I it was some kind of miracle that the SS man didn't notice that or... or pretended not to notice us, and just, and we just kept going and uh my life was saved that day. It was really the most amazing thing. I...I can't figure out, of course I was sick and I don't know exactly what went on, it was the excitement of the moment but my life was saved that way. | ||
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Cecilie Klein-Pollack Born 1925 Korosmezo, Czechoslovakia 
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[My mother was told] "Listen, if you have, uh, children, then give it away to, to either older people or, or the women with children, because women and children and, uh, anybody older is going to be killed. They are killing the same, uh, night, the same day. There is no chance...chance for these people to survive." I couldn't even believe it. And my mother had the presence of mind to, as soon as she heard that--she didn't know, this was my mother--when this man said it.... She ran down with me, and...and I ran after her, and she goes over to my sister, and, and she has the presence of mind to tell her, "Listen, darling, I just found out that women and children will have it very easy. All they will, all they are going to do is take care, is take care of the children. But, and, and if I don't have a child, then they will send me in hard labor. And you know I will never survive hard labor. But you are young, and you'll be able to survive." And before she has a chance to even, you know, to, before my sister had a chance, you know, to not to give the child, my mother moved the child from her arms. And, and, and as soon as she removed...she had the child in her arms, she was pushed to this other side, you know, with all the women and children. And me and my sister were, were pushed to the other side. And my mother still yelled out, she yelled out to me, not to my..."Celeke, take care of your sister!" Because she knew, she knew what my sister will suffer when she'll find out where she took her grandson. | ||
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Ruth Webber Born 1935 Ostrowiec, Poland 
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Well, when I was with her she was always pointing out the way that, uh, I could hide, or do certain things like go behind her when there might be shooting so I would not be shot. Uh, I think the, the stories and the pleasant, uh, memories that she kept telling me to, to keep me sane, because life was so cruel around me, uh, there was so much constant death and pain and, and, and suffering, uh, that she was trying to put little bits of good in my mind. I should, uh, not dwell on what is going around around me. By giving up of her food, constantly, making me believe that she's never hungry and never needs anything. By the way my mother was fasting two days a week in camp--not that she needed to do it--but she actually did not have any water or food. It was something that she promised herself to do so we should survive. My mother was a religious--is and was a religious woman, and she felt if she gives up food twice a week that her children will survive. And we did. So, uh, my mother's very, was a very, very strong woman to have been able to do the things that she had done to protect me, and to always be next to me, and, uh, just give me this, this extra little bit of, of, uh, desire to survive. That there is a better day, that there's, that things will be okay tomorrow, to just get through today. | ||
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