"...a tiny piece of soap, you kept that and carried it, like a golden bracelet..“
With us, there were nearly only Jews, it was a real Jewish block, Block 26. But at work, (later, I worked at Siemens), there were Russians, Ukrainians, Polish women. But you couldn’t talk to them at all. Firstly, you didn’t speak the languages, and secondly, you didn’t get a chance to chat with them. Except on Sunday on the camp street, when you went for a walk. Sometimes, there were rats in the food, but you ate it anyway. What were you to do?
It was only turnips anyway, „Runken“ the Germans called them, chopped, a little piece of bread, and from time to time maybe a potato. There wasn’t any more. Two, three days before they dissolved the camp, Berlin was already burning, and the gas chambers and crematorium ovens were running day and night. Cleaning up what they could. If you were in the sick quarters and couldn’t get up any more, you didn’t stand a chance, anyway. There was cholera, and abdominal typhoid. Someone who couldn’t get up any more knew it was over for her.
Interviewer: You’ve been in the sick quarters, too..?
Yes, for an appendicitis. I was in there maybe eight days, and then the Polish lady doctor said I should go, and I did. That was a good thing. She probably knew that some would be selected the next day. I had a high temperature for eight days, nearly 41°C, I wouldn’t have noticed if they had taken me away. The Polish doctor saved my life, then. That’s the way it was.
The political prisoners always had it easier than the Jewish women, that’s obvious, we can talk about it as long as we like to, we’ll always get to the same point. We were outside all the time, cutting peat and unloading ships full of briquettes coated with ice, holding them in our bare hands.
