and I went to the door and I said to the
man at the gate I would like to speak to
the head of the factory and he said sure
wait here and so I went upstairs to see
him and there was a gentleman at the
desk and a black uniformed asmen was
standing in the room and I told him that
I'm working here and my mother was just
arrested and would like to get a piece
of paper from him saying that I'm so
necessary for the war effort so that she
can support me at home and cook for me
and so
on and the uh asmen turned around he
said you're under
arrest well I figured why am I under
rest I couldn't figure it out yet so
then I reached in my pocket and I had
some cigarettes in my pocket and that
was against the rules or law that juice
can't have cigarettes so I figured I
better i' get caught with those
cigarettes so they took me in another
room and there was another assessment
standing there standing guard over
me and I coughed a couple of times and I
got the cigarettes out of my pocket and
threw them on the
floor and then I was taken on a truck to
a uh
Armory and there uh we had to carry B
cats the coal pieces from one end to the
other of the building put them down pick
them up and bring them back and we did
this for three days approximately on the
third day excuse me on the third
day uh they set up some long tables card
tables and
shars and uh German gentlemen came in
and they had uh
white shirts and tie and hats on with a
swas stier uh
button and they sat down they look to me
like uh accountants you know
CPAs anyway they sat down a piece of
paper and you had to walk by that table
just like the way we vote here first
they ask you what's your name they found
you list and the next one where do you
live next one says uh do you have any
money on you the next one said uh do you
have any papers where the keys to your
house and so one after the other until
you know had nothing on you so the last
one said to
me sign here what am I signing I looked
at it and it said I the undersigned I'm
the enemy of the German
Reich and uh
sign this well fine and I'm losing my
German citizenship here with I all right
signed it and then we got on the
transport to aitz did you know you
that's where you were going did you have
any sense you just knew you were going
east and so I don't want to go into that
because everybody knows about it it took
three days in a in a railroad
car and we arrived in aitz was it was it
a was it a cattle car yes enclosed
cattle car and hundreds of people
hundreds of people people dying in there
and water and
and no sanitary condition the sanitary
it's terrible
yeah uh I found a little girl she was my
age and we were hanging on to each other
there comforting each other but it it
was very pretty bad so anyway when we
arrive in the train itself you're
talking about yeah when we arrived in
aitz it was in the morning we left
February
27th
1943 we arrived March 1st in
aitz and as we jumped off the
train
uh I didn't have a suitcase or anything
you know so anyway there were prisoners
there they took the suitcases out of the
train and separated men from
women and I looked up and I saw the
crematoriums and the fires coming out of
the
crematoriums and I turned to another guy
and I said boy there's going to be steel
mills hard work they lied to us he told
us we're going to go into a ghetto and
be with our families and we'll have to
work hard
but I didn't anticipate anything like
that so when I smelled the stink of the
Flesh and the and the hair and stuff I
thought there was burning steel so I was
standing in front of mangala and then
that moment it occurred to me that that
man said act like you were in your OTC
and I clicked my heels I stood there and
I said to
him uh he said to me uh how old are you
I said 21 I
lied and uh he said occupation I said
uh uh mechanic
he went like this and
so the other man in front of me said I
don't feel so good my bag hurts me maybe
you have a little light of work or
whatever he say yeah over there and he
went to the right and I went to the left
and at that moment as soon as he sent me
there I was grabbed by some people as in
in uh prison's uniform he was thrown on
a truck open truck
maybe 150
was and taken to
jaish