Holocaust Survivor Eva Schloss on her Imprisonment in Auschwitz — Transcript

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1. 0:06We went to the headquarters of the Nazi's
2. 0:08and they took me into a little interrogation room
3. 0:12and they wanted from me to find out who had helped us
4. 0:15for those 2 years
5. 0:16so they really beat me really very very badly
6. 0:19luckily I knew the people but I didn't know their name
7. 0:24so couldn't betray anybody
8. 0:26then they threatened that they would kill my brother if I wouldn't talk
9. 0:30again I didn't talk because I had nothing to say
10. 0:34but then I realised that all 4 of us had been betrayed
11. 0:38Um as I say it was only Tuesday
12. 0:41on Wednesday we were taken to prisons and we were taken to a holding camp
13. 0:46and on Friday morning in Westerbork, that was the big holding camp,
14. 0:50where people went and from there were transported out,
15. 0:54um, in the morning we were called up
16. 0:58we were on a list to be transported eastwards
17. 1:02we knew that Poland is the most western country
18. 1:05so east is Germany or Poland
19. 1:09there were camps in Germany
20. 1:11over 300 concentration and death camps
21. 1:19it was a terrible journey
22. 1:20you might have heard about ...trains, cattle karts
23. 1:24not meant for humans whatsoever
24. 1:26there was just a slight little opening on one side
25. 1:30there were just floorboards, nothing in it
26. 1:33apart from two buckets, one with clean water and one which could be used for toilets
27. 1:40people had to stand
28. 1:43there was no air
29. 1:45it was horrible
30. 1:46it was metal
31. 1:48and got unbearably hot on hot days
32. 1:52people fainted
33. 1:54people were pushed together, few people could sit on the floor
34. 1:59once a day the doors were swung open
35. 2:01and bread was thrown in like you would feed wild animals
36. 2:06the buckets were changed
37. 2:08and so we travelled several days
38. 2:11eventually the train stopped again
39. 2:13and the doors were swung open and we heard shouting and dogs barking
40. 2:22and in German "Rausch! Rausch!"
41. 2:26so we jumped down and we looked around
42. 2:28we were on a platform
43. 2:31and we looked and we saw a big station that said Auschwitz
44. 2:36and Oświęcim in Polish
45. 2:40and we knew what it was
46. 2:42because while we were in hiding
47. 2:44you were not allowed to listen to foreign broadcasts
48. 2:48but people did
49. 2:49hidden in a cupboard very softly
50. 2:52we listened to the radio with the people who hid us
51. 2:55because they wanted as well to know what was going on in the world
52. 2:59and the BBC, I remember it very very clearly,
53. 3:02started with "da da da da, da da da da, The BBC from London"
54. 3:07in every language and the Dutch was at 9:00
55. 3:11and they told about the progress of the war
56. 3:14but as well always the terrible things that happened in German, Austria and Poland
57. 3:23300 camps, many death camps and Auschwitz was the biggest
58. 3:30and they said very clearly, "where Jewish people are systematically being gassed"
59. 3:37you know, I've never ever met a German
60. 3:39who, and I've met many over the years,
61. 3:42who says and knew anything about it
62. 3:45and that is deffinitely a lie
63. 3:47everybody knew about it
64. 3:49because, like I said, thousands and thousands of people were active in
65. 3:54constructing and transporting
66. 3:57and there was ... from the guards in the camps
67. 3:59who exchanged all the pictures that you know
68. 4:03many many famous pictures of the camps
69. 4:05are taken by the Germans themselves
70. 4:07they were proud of what they did, they thought it was a thing you had to do
71. 4:11and they showed it to their family
72. 4:15but they just deny it
73. 4:18so...
74. 4:20at that time
75. 4:23everybody really thought that this was the end of their life on Earth
76. 4:27can you imagine how we felt? I was 15, my brother 17 and my mother 40
77. 4:33my father 45
78. 4:35the next command was men and women to different sides
79. 4:39so that was, as you can imagine, horrible
80. 4:43because fathers and daughters, husbands and wives
81. 4:48mothers and sons cling to each other
82. 4:50and didn't want to let go
83. 4:52never going to see each other again
84. 4:55but you know they beat us apart and the men walked away
85. 4:59because that was Birkenau
86. 5:00if ever you go to visit Auschwitz
87. 5:03Auschwitz is a big man camp
88. 5:06Birkenau, well it was actually bigger,
89. 5:09but it is not so well known, the name Birkenau
90. 5:12but that is where the train station was and where you came in
91. 5:17and that was where the gas chambers were
92. 5:21but that we didn't really know, I must admit
93. 5:25the next command was rows of 5
94. 5:27so we stood rows of 5
95. 5:29like you sit now
96. 5:30and then appeared a
97. 5:34very good looking, clean man
98. 5:38and everybody stood around
99. 5:42we spent .......
100. 5:46he was the one deciding who was going to live and who was going to die
101. 5:51well, we didn't know, we didn't want to know
102. 5:54and he came, looked at everybody in the face
103. 5:57and decided this side of this side
104. 6:00so about half of our transport went to a different side
105. 6:04my mother and me, we were taken to the right side
106. 6:10and about half our transport walked into the camp
107. 6:15the next thing, into a big barrack
108. 6:19next thing, everything that we had on, throw down
109. 6:23and undress completely naked
110. 6:26and the Nazi's were walking around laughing at our embarrassment
111. 6:31then all our hair was shaved
112. 6:33then we had to appear in front of a table
113. 6:37and they told us to forget that we were a human being
114. 6:41you are like a piece of cattle
115. 6:43you are going to be tattooed with a number
116. 6:45like an animal
117. 6:47and if ever you are going to be called, you will be called by this number
118. 6:52so I got my number
119. 6:55my mother got a number
120. 6:56and while this, you know we were hundreds of people in this barrack
121. 7:01while this was going on, they told us
122. 7:03with much pleasure, and that is what I resent the most
123. 7:08they said it was their duties, they had no choice, they had to do things
124. 7:12ok perhaps I can accept that
125. 7:14but that had so much pleasure to do extra work
126. 7:18to hurt us in many many ways
127. 7:21and to tel us things which was not neccessary
128. 7:23and they told us with much much pleasure, laughing
129. 7:31we are taken to a shower
130. 7:33but ha ha it wasn't a shower
131. 7:36and they expected water to come but nothing came
132. 7:40they became dizzy, couldn't breathe and within 15 minutes
133. 7:46they all had fallen on the floor
134. 7:47because of poisonous gas, Zyklon B
135. 7:51it's made here in the camp
136. 7:56so you will never ever see your families again
137. 7:59can you imagine to tell that to people?
138. 8:02and laughing about it?
139. 8:03to mothers who have just been separated from their babies or child
140. 8:08again I started to cry, it was awful
141. 8:11then we were taken out, still naked
142. 8:14there were huge heaps of clothes
143. 8:16and we were shown one garment
144. 8:18which could have been a night dress or a winter coat, that was it
145. 8:22and then next heap, shoes
146. 8:24big whole heap of shoes
147. 8:26we were shows two shoes, never repaired, never anything much fitted
148. 8:30that was all the belonging we ever had
149. 8:33we were lucky if we ever had a piece of toilet paper
150. 8:36then we were taken to our barracks
151. 8:38you might have seen pictures
152. 8:41long big barracks with sort of a chimney in the middle
153. 8:44on both side, bunks 3 high like cages
154. 8:51wood and floor boards
155. 8:53and nothing in it
156. 8:54and about 8 to 10 people had to sleep there
157. 8:59later, we experienced bed bugs and lice
158. 9:04within a few days we were covered in bed bugs and lice
159. 9:07and not just head lice but body lice
160. 9:11and um so we were scratching all the time
161. 9:13it was really terrible
162. 9:15we got boils
163. 9:16washing was something that never ever happened
164. 9:20usually once a week we had a shower,
165. 9:23which was a delicing shower
166. 9:25but washing was impossible
167. 9:27toilets, going to toilet was another problem
168. 9:30you could not go alone, only as a group
169. 9:33and only in the morning and the evening
170. 9:36eventually people got cholera, ... , typhoids
171. 9:41and you know, the basic thing to let people go to the toilet was forbidden
172. 9:50well, it's not very nice to talk about it
173. 9:53but you know it was basic and it was terrible
174. 9:56and food you got in the morning a little bit of liquid
175. 10:01in the evening a chunk of bread
176. 10:03from morning to night, you worked heavy physical work
177. 10:09that anybody could survive is a miracle
178. 10:13but by luck there were many instances which helped us through
179. 10:19by luck my mother and me made it until january
180. 10:23and at that time in the winter it was very very cold
181. 10:26one of the coldest winter on record
182. 10:30the Germans are already ... in November
183. 10:33we didn't know
184. 10:33you know every day was the same
185. 10:35we only knew the different seasons
186. 10:37so it could have been november, perhaps even december
187. 10:40they started to evacuate people from Auschwitz to Birkenau
188. 10:45and later, after the war, it was called the Death March
189. 10:50because most people perished
190. 10:53we didn't know this but it took people away from camp
191. 10:57somehow by fluke, my mother and me didn't go
192. 11:01staying in Auschwitz - that is why we survived
193. 11:06so in January, there were very few people left
194. 11:10one day, I woke up and it was very very quiet
195. 11:14and we went outside and it was deserted
196. 11:17all the Nazi's had taken a lot of inmates with them in the night and had disappeared
197. 11:24and um the snow was set high
198. 11:28the gates were open
199. 11:30some of the Polish people left
200. 11:35but we didn't dare
201. 11:36we were very very weak
202. 11:39we didn't know what was going to happen outside
203. 11:42you know, so we stayed
204. 11:44there were about 300/400/500 women - most were quite ill
205. 11:49and could hardly walk
206. 11:51and one day I walked around with some people
207. 11:54we always looked to see if something was happening
208. 11:58and at the gate, we saw a huge creature
209. 12:04with icicles all in his fur
210. 12:06like how the Russians were those big fur hats
211. 12:09and from the distance I thought it was a bear
212. 12:12but when I look closer it was a person
213. 12:16it was the first Russian soldier to come to the camp
214. 12:20and he came into the camp
215. 12:21Polish people could talk to him
216. 12:24he said he was a scout to investigate if the Germans are still there
217. 12:29or if they can just follow the army
218. 12:32or the army can just come
219. 12:34so the Germans had left
220. 12:38and a few days later, the real Russian army came
221. 12:42with tanks and horses
222. 12:46and they stayed overnight
223. 12:49an they cooked for themselves and for us
224. 12:51a wonderful meal: cabbage soup
225. 12:54very greasy and the smell nearly drove us mad
226. 12:58and they gave us big metal bowls
227. 13:02and we could have as much as we liked
228. 13:04and we ate and ate and ate
229. 13:06but I've never spent such a terrible night on a bucket
230. 13:09because the food went right through me
231. 13:12and I had terrible tummy cramps
232. 13:15so we realised we had to be very very careful of how much and what we eat
233. 13:20but in the morning people had died
234. 13:23because the energy just wasn't there for them to digest the food
235. 13:30so the russians left again
236. 13:34and so I decided I would go to the mens camp
237. 13:37to try to find my father and brother
238. 13:40so I went there
239. 13:41and I found 2 people who I had known in Amsterdam
240. 13:46and one of them was Otto Frank
241. 13:48we barely recognised each other
242. 13:50he looked terrible and I looked terrible
243. 13:53and he asked "are you not Anne Frank's friend?"
244. 13:59I said "yes and you are her father"
245. 14:02the first question, as you can image:
246. 14:04"have you seen my family?"
247. 14:07"have you seen my girls or my wife?"
248. 14:09I had never seen them
249. 14:10but he had seen my father and brother
250. 14:12he said "yes they were here but they left with the Germans"
251. 14:17so at that time, we didn't know about the Death March
252. 14:20so we had great hope that they would still be alive
253. 14:24so eventually the Russians decided that they wouldn't leave us there
254. 14:28because there was fierce fighting in Poland
255. 14:32because the Germans didn't want the Russians to come into Germany
256. 14:37so they decided they would take up away from there
257. 14:41we couldn't get back the west as the war wasn't finished
258. 14:46so we had to go eastwards
259. 14:49and we travelled for 4 months with the Russians
260. 14:52very interesting story
261. 14:55still in cattle karts, even the army went that way
262. 15:00they went eastwards, we went westwards
263. 15:04and they fed us, they were open
264. 15:06we could come down when we were on the sidelines
265. 15:10waiting for group transports to go the other direction
266. 15:12they gave us Russian uniforms
267. 15:16no complaints whatsoever
268. 15:18there was never raping or anything
269. 15:20they respected us and really looked after us very well
270. 15:23while they were still pursuing the Nazi's and fighting
271. 15:29many other transports joined us
272. 15:31from other camps that had been liberated
273. 15:33prisoner of war camps
274. 15:35eventually we ended up in Odessa
275. 15:38but through this journey we saw unbelievable devastations
276. 15:42the Germans had burned down every town, every village
277. 15:46and there was nothing standing
278. 15:48and of course the Russains
279. 15:50they had murdered many many Russians
280. 15:52the Russians had lost 30 million of their people
281. 15:56because the war was mainly fought on Russian soil
282. 16:00until of course the invasion in 1944
283. 16:03from 40, it was really all fought with the Russians
284. 16:07so I am not a communist but I am very very grateful for the Russians
285. 16:12because without them, me and many many hundreds and thousands of people
286. 16:18would not have survived
287. 16:19when I speak in America which I do very often
288. 16:22you know, Russia is just completely taboo for them
289. 16:25they don't want to know
290. 16:27once I even got asked "where the Russians fighting on our side or the Germans side?"
291. 16:33they have no clue about it
292. 16:35the sacrifice of the Russian people
293. 16:37so I tell them and they are quite amazed by it
294. 16:41so in Odessa we waited for the end of the war
295. 16:44and of course when that came, it was great jubilation that we had survived
296. 16:51and then again, Otto Frank was with us all this journey
297. 16:55a long journey through the Mediterranean
298. 16:58to Marseilles and up through France
299. 17:01it took so long because everything was destroyed
300. 17:05we went on the border from Belgium to Netherlands
301. 17:09we couldn't go because the bridge going over the river had been destroyed
302. 17:14so they had to rebuild this first
303. 17:16and eventually we got into Amsterdam