• Contents
• Map
• Audio

Emerich Grinbaum - January 8, 2001

B...u...s...c...h.

Yeah. Busch is a German name though.

Yeah. I know.

A small guy, he was a-I don't know his rank. I don't know hisrank. And he came and he changed the whole environment. Most of the Kapos,whether he did or somebody else, most of the Kapos they were sent to anotherplace, I don't know. We had different Kapos also, but they were milder, milder.Even those who stayed there, they were behaving more correctly.

Busch was just in charge of Allach.

Yes. Only, everything in Allach.

Not at Dachau. Okay.

That was, I don't know, thousand people. It was a small enoughcamp. And he changed the environment, you know. That was approximately endof November or beginning of December, which is the, the winter came and itwas terrible, you know. We were not clothing and didn't have enough food.The food was deteriorating already. And-but people were dying, especiallythose who were going out to this Kommando, a lot of people died. Well we weregood. We-you know, we were still working in the kitchen. And the Zählappellsthey were very short, usually the Zählappells lasted several hours. Thisguy, in ten minutes did the whole thing up there. He wasn't cruel, he didn'tdo anything, just counted, bye. It happened unheard thing during this Buschadministration. [laughs] I quote and unquote. We had, sometimes it was verycold, he did the Zählappell in the barracks-which was unheard-in thebarracks. He counted, we stayed in the line in barracks, he counted us, hewent to the next barrack.

Why do you suppose this...

I don't know, I don't know, you know. And everybody here, hewas some kind of, you know-I'm looking, I'm going ahead, I'll tell you, theJewish uh, service it was very, very later on they were very thankful to him.So that was Busch. That's his name. Simple guy. I don't know, he-so, and hechanged the whole environment. We had a lot of uh, uh, he changed uh, they-hein...installed weekly disinfection because the, the lo...lice, lices, everybody,we had plenty of lice. The Germans were afraid because of the typh...uh, typhus.But before that was not taken seriously. This guy took seriously the wholething. And every Sunday we had to take off everything you know, we were youknow, and for half a day until they disinfected. So they still uh, lice remained,but not as, it, it, it was much better, because the lice we have all licein, in uh, uh, lice and scratching and all that stuff. But it improved. Sothe whole situation end of November-beginning December changed for the better.I mean-he couldn't do much, but he was much huma, humane than, than I'm tellingyou, I have to be, be very, very honest uh, uh, to tell him. So, so...

Let me stop you for a second. W...w...during the recent campaign,the presidential campaign, when you hear the name Bush does that...

Always association. Always, Bush, Bush. Uh, that was a very,very nice guy, a very nice guy. We didn't see he beating up during the Zählappell.You didn't see any, any-he was very, very, hm, very correct, very correct.So that lasted until February and then I don't know what happened. They kickedus out from the kitchen. So then we went to work in certain other places,but we didn't go back to that uh, other uh, other uh, big uh, Kommandos.

Kommando. You're still in Allach though.

Everything is in Allach. And then they were coming every monthor twice a month, they were uh, they were, some people they were uh, uh, uh,shifted uh, uh, to other camps. Uh, Kaufering and Mühldorf. But somepeople wanted to go because the food was so bad he...already here. Uh, thework, we didn't work too much because there was not much work. Beginning ofFebruary-March, everyday bombing, everyday bombing, you know uh, of the, ofthe whole thing. So, even-I, I remember, we were working in the rail, railstation uh, to do something, repairing uh, the rails and all that stuff. Butas the, as the uh, alarm came, so we had to just to lie down. The SS escapedto the b...bunkers. They left us alone. We could escape, but nowhere to escapethere.