And I think January 26 or something, there was a transport.
1080 people.
My brother in law, my sister and I, we went in that same wagon.
I had some food with me and I didn't want to touch it
because I thought I would meet my parents and give them that food,
and my brother in law said, "we will give them food! Eat",
and I said, "no I won't eat, I'll give it to my father and mother"
and at fourteen or fifteen or sixteen or whatever, sixteen,
you have that feeling.
Your parents, you know,
you want to give it to them and you still believe.
And the three of us always together.
My brother in law,
at that time not my brother in law, but a friend of my sister, said,
"I'll tell them we are married"
and we thought we were going to find some work.
Who knew what was there?
We didn't believe it like people today don't believe it.
Anyway we were in that cattle car and closed
and no facilities and no water.
And we were three days there, many people died already.
How many people do you think were in the car?
I have no idea. It was full.
Could you lie down?
No.
And then we arrived...
I think it was the 28th or something or 27th, who knows?
It doesn't mean a thing.
We arrived in Auschwitz.
And there was Aus der Fuenten well dressed with the big boots, everything shining.
And from Paradise we were all of a sudden some place which was incomprehensible,
especially to the Dutch Jews, who had never had any inkling
what it meant to be, you know, we had an inkling from during the war,
but we still were so green that we couldn't imagine what was going on.
Describe for me what happened once they opened the doors.
We saw that railroad station and we saw the Germans with the dogs.
And we saw...
the trucks, big trucks.
And he said, "this way, that way, this way, that way"
and the people in the trucks,
they were the older people and the children
and they went straight to the gas chambers.
Did you know that at the time?
Of course not.
Who knew? We didn't know anything.
We were standing there,
a group of maybe sixty thousand,
1080, sixty men, sixty women.
The men were there, the women were there.
And my sister and I huddled together,
and I'm still with my food, I should have eaten it.
And we were walking and we saw all these naked people,
all these things that we saw.
Gypsies, what are these people?
So the couples would say, "oh, and what is that fire?"
Oh, that's Himmel-Commando.
What's Himmel-Commando? We didn't know.
And we saw all these people and we were walking and said,
"maybe one day you will be in hemocommando".
And it didn't dawn on us.