Gluecklich

Polly Slaven As a Nazi guards wife I feel alone and afraid. I feel alone because my husband has left me and most of the time I don't even know what he is doing. When he is gone I'm afraid. I 'm afraid because of 3 reasons. One he might get killed by one of the Jews. Another reason is I really don't believe what he is doing killing is not right. They are killing people for what they believe in its just not right. The other reason is if he is living with another family and starts to fall in love with some other woman and decides not to come back. I 'm a very worred wife I don't want to see him get hurt.

Crystal Shull. I am the dad. I watched the Nazi come and invade my town. I watched them tear innocent families apart. I am very terrified but I must be strong for my boy.

Crystal Shull The Germans say that we cant own anything valuable. So I buried all our savings in the cellar. They are also making all of us wear the yellow star of David so everyone can see it.

Jon Daigle Today we started to show our hatred for the Jew's, we took all of their valuables and forced them to wear yellow stars on their arms.

Polly slaven I don't believe it! I can't! My husband is forcing people out of their houses and for what? Just because we don't believe in what they believe is no reason to take them away from their homes and take them to horrible camps where they will have very hard work to do and i believe the work they have to do is pointless. They have to leave their homes and their valuables and happness and for what nothing. I hope this is over soon and there will be no more killings,

Jon Daigle A while ago, we went out and gathered the rest of the jews in that town and put them on the train. while we were separating them I heard them complaining about this old senile lady yelling about a nonexistent fire.

Nina Bacchi 13-10-2008 Summary Pages 3-46 Perspective: Author I spent my childhood in Sighet where I met Moishe the Beadle, a strange man who made people smile. We became friends. I asked my father to look for a master who could guide me to the studies of Kabbalah, but my father refused. I kept up trying to find a master, and spoke to Moishe. Moishe told me about the Kabbalah’s revolutions and its mysteries. So we started to read over and over again the same page of the Zohar. One day all foreign Jews were expelled from Sighet and under it, Moishe the Beadle. I was sad, but the normal life was there again quickly. I met Moishe the Beadle and he told me what he was supposed to do while living under the Gestapo, it was horrible, but he escaped. He also changed. He did not longer sing, neither he mentioned god or Kabbalah again. We heard of the bombing of Germany and hoped of better days coming soon. I continued to do my studies. In spring 1944 we heard news from the Russian front, that Germany will be defeated. But then we heard of German troops who had penetrated Hungarian territory. Now we started to worry about our future. Other Jews are living in fear and terror, the Germans were attacking Jewish stores every day and more and more Jews were being deported. Later the Germans even have gone through our streets. Families were hosting them and had a positive impression of them. They were wondering where their cruelty was. But when the Germans began to arrest some Jewish people, the whole situation changed. We were forced to leave our houses; even the Hungarian police came and forbid to own any values. A few days later we got to wear the yellow star and to live in Ghettos. People thought it would not be that bad, because we had our own little community. Life was to get normal again, until we had to be transported to Hungary. Now we lived in small ghetto, it was not guarded. The Germans were about finding all our buried value things; nobody wished the night to pass by quickly, because we had to collect new strength for the next day. We have been transported to any further places. We couldn’t lay down, we couldn’t drink, and we never ate enough to satisfy our hunger. Our cattle cars stopped in Czechoslovakia and we were given to the authority of the Germans. They said their rules clearly and the journey went on. Some people have gone crazy because of too less water. Our first stop was in Auschwitz. We were told to work in factories and in the fields. Our arrival was at a camp in Birkenau. We had to leave our cattle cars quickly, the camp was over with fire, it was smelling after burned flesh. Here I got separated from my mother and my sisters; just my father was there, holding my hand. The Germans were yelling orders and asking questions even though they would not believe our answers. They told us that we came here to be burned. My father and I were ordered to go to the crematorium. But, when I just to accepted my coming death, we were ordered to turn left, away from the crematorium. When I was at the barbers I met a friend from my home city, crying. I was expelled from the barrack. The Germans hit us but I didn’t feel any hurt anymore. When we went to a new camp we were getting a shower, a disinfection shower, each time and after this we got our new clothes. I changed, I knew it. My look and my past has disappeared. And all this in such a short time. The work was hard, I dreamt about nice things to survive the whole day at all. If I didn’t work I could go burned in the crematorium. A next day we went to another camp in Auschwitz. They seemed to treat us more human-like there. We all got a number tattooed in our skin. This number was supposed to be our new name. We met a friend of our family, but my father did not recognize him. We were sent to another camp the other day. It was called Buna.

Nina Bacchi 22.10.2008 Summery p. 47-64 Perspective: Author In our new camp Buna was it dead and empty. But the head of the camp seemed more kind, especially to children. The leader, a German, took us first in quarantine. I wished to stay and work with my father, and this happened. During the medical check the dentist noticed my gold crown; I knew I would not longer keep it. After a few days the Kapos appeared and chose the men they liked the way one chooses cattle or etc. Well, we were not more than that for them. I was ordered to work in the warehouse where I met some other Jews. One told me about Idek, he was the apparently madest Kapo here, because in fact, this camp is a good one. Next to me worked some French women, too, but we never spoke to them. One day we had a Jewish leader for the block and that made me feel good. Later I had to visit the dentist, I knew why. But I mentioned that I didn’t feel good to keep my gold crowns. I may need them to buy some food or else. The dentist excused me for two times and when I came for the third try, the dentist’s office was closed. As Idek hit me one day the French woman helped me with my bleeding wounds. I happened to encounter her again a few years later in Paris. Another time I was working in the warehouse and Idek was hitting my father very bad. I did absolutely nothing to help him…is this it what the camp made of me? Franek, the foreman, one day noticed my gold crown in my mouth and of course he wanted it. I refused to give it to him and used many excuses. But he didn’t stop asking me and after all he paid the doctor with my ratio of food to break out my gold crown. My father was way back behind with his ability to march, so I decided to give him some lessons. But it didn’t make any sense, he couldn’t learn it. The only thing we gained was laughing by the inmates. I also gained a punishment, because I left my working place and saw Idek having fun with a girl. One Sunday the sirens started to go off. Nobody was allowed to stay outside the block, because it is very easy to escape then. But one guy just went out and screamed very loud. He got shot immediately. In this moment the planes were coming and bombing the Buna factory. We did not fear the death; every bomb just filled us with joy, raising every hope to escape. But the bombing lasted not longer than one hour and all the Kapos were on their place again quickly. One week later they started hanging several humans and among them even children. The Kapos made us watching them, every time. Believing in God was not longer easy.

Nina Bacchi - 30.10.2008 Summery p.64-end The end of the summer was also the end of the Jewish year. We all were agitated and we all felt the tension in the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the last day of the cursed year. Matching with that “last” seemed to have so many meanings on that day. Some were to be feared… We had an assembly on the Appelplatz where we all were supposed to repeat the words being said by the Kapos and the bureaucrats. They were the words of God, to bless him. I felt guilty, because it didn’t feel right. Why should I bless God for that what he has made with us? Earlier in my Life I followed Rosh Hashanah, it filled my mind with faith and hope. But now, there is nothing left, nothing to believe in, and nothing to have faith in. Everything I knew was how it felt to be alone. This though made me think about my whole former life, and it happened that I felt stronger than the Almighty. I even refused to fast. They took me away from my father and transferred me to another commando. We knew selection day was coming, we all feared this day. I passed the selection and so did my father. As the days passed by we were no longer thinking about the selection. But then the Blockaelteste read aloud some numbers and those whose numbers has been called were supposed to stay in the camp and not to go to work. My father’s number has been called, so he was afraid to be selected for the crematorium. He gave me my inheritance containing of one knife and one spoon. It was not quite much, but I knew that these two things would be more worth than anything else in my life. They represented life – something that has been very difficult to keep in those times. First I couldn’t believe that my father was talking like that, even though I knew that this day would come. But my father survived the reselection and so I gave him back my inheritance. The work got harder after the winter has arrived. After work we went back to our blocks, but frozen. My foot got even swollen, so I needed to see doctor. He told me, he was going to operate it. Great! But in fact, it was not too bad to be in the infirmary. I was being treated much better than outside during working. Just my neighbor made me feel bad again. And all I could think of again was to try being alive. Of course there were more selections in the hospital than outside. Did I really need a dying person who tells me this? My surgery went well and all I had to do was waiting for two weeks. Soon our camp has been bombed by the red army. On the same day the Blockaelteste told us that the camp will be emptied. I did not know if that was good or bad. Me as a patient I had to stay in the infirmary, I first wondered why. Some patients offered their guesses and they all ended with our death. I ignored my pain in my foot and was about finding my father, the most important thing in that moment. When I found him he wasn’t right able to think. I rather wanted to be evacuated, even though my father was worried about my foot. - After the war I found out that the patients left behind in the camp had simply been rescued by the Russians two days after the evacuation.- The last night in Buna, what for a wonderful thought, even if I didn’t really know what would come next. That night was filled with noises of hope. The Russians were close. Never has a cannon fly sounded so good! The next morning everybody looked strange with all the layers of clothes. We were allowed to carry everything we wanted with us. Especially we all tried to find clothes to protect us from the cold. We were marching out of the camp, later it was running. Everybody who could not keep with us got simply shot. So in my mind all my thoughts were concentrated on one final thought: Why shouldn’t I simply die? No more pain, no more worries, cold, hunger, just all seemed to be so much easier if being dead. There was just my father running next to me, in form of love that killed this quiet horrible thought. We were still running and after over twenty kilometers we had our first halt. I fell asleep immediately. The white carpet was warm and I’d like to never leave it. I couldn’t believe it was snow. Outside were corpses everywhere. The sound of silence put me in trance. It was wrong, nobody paid attention to the people dying on the ground. We continued marching in the snow. Every step somebody fell down and it was determined they would never stand up again. They had found their ultimate confidence, now where they can sleep on the white warm carpet waiting for their release. When we arrived at a new camp in Gleiwitz I had a hard time to get in it without being hit and overrun. But I succeeded in entering the camp. We stayed in Gleiwitz for three days with neither food nor drink We even were forbidden to leave the barrack. On the third day we had selection. My father was sent to the group of the weak, I followed him, while SS officers were yelling after me. We switched to the group of the people who have been marching and running good, unseen. We entered the train which was taking us to the center of Germany. To extinguish our thirst we ate the snow off the people who stood next to each other. While we were staying in the train and the snow was falling upon us like a slowly death, I gazed over to my father. He was not moving. I screamed after him and he was still not moving. Panic arose in me. Suddenly the train stopped to get rid of all the corpses. They threw one after another out of the train. They almost did this with my father too, but I brought him back from his dream of dying. When he opened his glassy eyes I could see the death coming over his mind. Once our train passed a field of workers who threw some bread in our wagons everybody would have killed to get some of this bread, at least they were fighting. Amused by this spectacle more and more workers threw some bread in the wagons. Even in my wagon two Jews were killed. Since it was a son and his father, it reflected my own situation how it could end, and made me deeply uncomfortable. When we finally arrived in Buchenwald, twelve Jews out of hundred who entered our wagon survived the hunger and the snow and the cold, and were able to leave the train. I was trying to encourage my dying father. He wanted to rest right there in the snow, and I knew this was just an easier way for my father to say ‘I want to die, I can’t go on’. I was arguing with him like a little child and soon I recognized I was rather arguing with his arriving death. All of a sudden the sirens began to scream and I had to go inside and fell asleep. Just the next day I found my father. He got weaker and weaker over the days and he told me he wouldn’t get any food, because that would be a waste of food, an SS officer said. My father started to keep running away from me and when we once sat together he whispered a few words in my ear, something about gold and silver he had buried in the cellar. He seemed to become crazy I thought. I told him it was not over yet, but he wouldn’t hear. The try to let a doctor help him failed. Soon the Blockaelteste advised me to stop giving my rations of food to my father and to start living for myself. I continued though to give my food rations to my father, but once he was begging for more, an SS officer hit him hardly on his head and he died the very next day. Until April my life was just floating upon the time and my misty mind was moaning every morning. It didn’t matter if I die or live; now my father was dead. But one day changed everything. We were in our block to be counted, but not any officer arrived. Later the sirens turned on and we were supposed to meet at the Appelplatz. But I and a few others went back to our block since some prisoners told us that the officers are going to shoot us. The confusion was great, many Jews passed the gates as non-Jews and groups of thousands were being evacuated each day. The evening I was supposed to be evacuated with the rest of the children, the sirens began to scream again. The Nazis planned to blow up the entire camp in the evening and I would not be evacuated in time. SS officers were running confusingly to nowhere and elsewhere. There are they again, the noises of hope. Later many armed men from the resistance took charge of the camp. We were finally free! I got very ill a few days after the liberation and stayed at a hospital for two weeks. Once I felt strong enough to get up I went to a mirror and saw my face for the first time since the ghetto. I also saw that my look changed as much as my mind.

Crystal Shull Father

We arrived in Gleiwitz camp today. Everyone started rushing my son and I were pushed on the ground where we could hardly breathe. I was terrified my son was being crushed by a man on top of him. We had and to go onto the cattle cars and throw out the dead people. I was unconscious so they almost mistaken and thrown out with the dead. But thank goodness my son woke me up just in time. On the train my son was almost strangled to death. I was so scared and I didn’t know how to help so I called Meir Katz to come save him. I was so exhausted when we arrived in Buchenwald. I sat down in the snow and couldn’t move anymore. I couldn’t handle it anymore I heard my son begging me and pleading for me to move but I couldn’t do it. Eventually my son left me. I was scared to be alone. I didn’t know if my son would ever come back for me. What if he didn’t? I know I am going to die. Eli did come back. He brought me some soup. It was very nice for him to do that but I wish he would have kept it for himself. I am about to die and he needs to keep up his strength. I was put in a bed where I knew I was going to stay for a long while. I felt terrible. I was extremely thirsty but I knew that I could not have water. My son tried his hardest to find me medical help but I knew that it was impossible. The prisoners would come and take my food and beat me. I was ready to die. I couldn’t take this any longer. I would cry and cry for help even though I knew nothing could be done. With all of my desperate cries for help my son finally gave me some water. It felt so good running down my throat. I wanted more and more. I kept on crying for more when a SS guard beat me in the head.