Transcript:
The day after we were taken to a place which is called Malines, also Mechelen. That was a sammellager where they gathered people together from all over Belgium and from there, after ten days working there, they had trains from Holland, from France and from Belgium, and we were put on the train. We were put on cattle trains. There were one hundred and ten people on a train. We were traveling for two days and two nights. The prayers and the cries on that train and babies crying, I just cannot finds words to tell you what a nightmare that was. And also the scare of not knowing what our fate would be. When we arrived finally, a place which we have learned the name was Auschwitz. We had never heard of that name. We didn’t even what that was.
When the doors opened on the train it was nighttime. And we were greeted by soldiers with barking dogs. It was nighttime but they had big flashlights and from a hundred and ten people on that train, forty came out alive. And we don’t know afterwards how many of those forty went immediately to the gas chambers and what others went to the camp. We were taken to a very very freezing cold room. We were told to take all our clothes off. We were checked if we were hiding anything on our body. We had our head shaved and we had a number put on our arm. We were taken to a shower. We were given the striped uniform and wooden shoes and taken to a shower. Finally we were taken to the barracks. There they had shelves where six people were lying and the shelves had straw, that was our mattresses. Our cries . . . and also, don’t forget we were all very young and so fearful not even knowing what the next moment is for us. Finally we got one blanket and after really trying . . . we all hugged each other and we finally fell asleep.
The next day we all had to line up and we were sent to different kinds of work. Our group was sent to a place where they were making ammunition. Little bombs and then the bombs were put in with powder, and this was what the Germans were using as explosives. The air was just unbelievable. The fumes and the air over there, and very very hard to work. From there when we came back to our barracks, we finally have learned that the people who are not with us, that they went to the gas chambers. And this is how I lost my mother, and not having seen her again.
The day after we were taken to a place which is called Malines, also Mechelen. That was a sammellager where they gathered people together from all over Belgium and from there, after ten days working there, they had trains from Holland, from France and from Belgium, and we were put on the train. We were put on cattle trains. There were one hundred and ten people on a train. We were traveling for two days and two nights. The prayers and the cries on that train and babies crying, I just cannot finds words to tell you what a nightmare that was. And also the scare of not knowing what our fate would be. When we arrived finally, a place which we have learned the name was Auschwitz. We had never heard of that name. We didn’t even what that was.
When the doors opened on the train it was nighttime. And we were greeted by soldiers with barking dogs. It was nighttime but they had big flashlights and from a hundred and ten people on that train, forty came out alive. And we don’t know afterwards how many of those forty went immediately to the gas chambers and what others went to the camp. We were taken to a very very freezing cold room. We were told to take all our clothes off. We were checked if we were hiding anything on our body. We had our head shaved and we had a number put on our arm. We were taken to a shower. We were given the striped uniform and wooden shoes and taken to a shower. Finally we were taken to the barracks. There they had shelves where six people were lying and the shelves had straw, that was our mattresses. Our cries . . . and also, don’t forget we were all very young and so fearful not even knowing what the next moment is for us. Finally we got one blanket and after really trying . . . we all hugged each other and we finally fell asleep.
The next day we all had to line up and we were sent to different kinds of work. Our group was sent to a place where they were making ammunition. Little bombs and then the bombs were put in with powder, and this was what the Germans were using as explosives. The air was just unbelievable. The fumes and the air over there, and very very hard to work. From there when we came back to our barracks, we finally have learned that the people who are not with us, that they went to the gas chambers. And this is how I lost my mother, and not having seen her again.
