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Joseph Gringlas - January 14, 1993

Mm-hm.

He was in Buna. After, after a year and a half I saw-we met eachother again. And Buna was-in Buna was barracks, like, it was, but, Buna wasa camp but they took you in with guarded SS. But they took you out to workto the factory. You had to march out from the, from the camp to the factory,march out with the SS guarding you. And I was assigned to Kommand...KommandoZwölf. Okay the Kapo was a J...in, in, in Buna there was a lot of Germans.German Gentile, Germans. Not only Jewish, Germans, were criminals. Like theyhad a red triangle on that uniform and green triangle. The green were theymurderers. For killing somebody in Germany they were sent to be and the redone was like...

Communist.

Communist, sent to that camp. I, I was assigned to a Kapo witha green, green badge. And what happened, I was, the Kommando was in the bar...theKommando, every Kommando had a number, I had-because when the commander marchedout they a...and they, they told the SS from the, from the, going out fromthe barracks going to factory, Kommando Zwölf. Not, the Kapo had to sayto SS, "Kommando Zwölf, Abteilung..."how many people, so they countedus, getting out going to the factory. So that Kapo was uh, was our Kapo. Anduh, and one time he, he said, "Who needs," he needed, he had probably hissocks were so worn out with holes and he said, "Who can knit socks?" So Iwas-I don't know, in school I was very handy, so I work...we learned how toknit. I said, "Yes I can do it." And I and I took the socks and he let, sohe didn't take me out of order. You see he had power, he could do somethingbecause he was the Kapo. That green eh uh, Kapo, with the green insignia.So he took me and had and he had a little, I don't know you call it, a littlehatke, you know what a hatke is? A little building, a little small room andhe stayed there and he sleep there. He didn't sleep with us, they had. Hecould do everything, like food because he had, was a German and he could organizehimself. And he-and they call that Pipel, he need somebody to help and dosome work for him. And when he told me about, he asked about the knittinghis socks and I said, "Yes I can do." I knitted socks. So he took me out ofwork and, and told me to stay there and clean the inside and help and cook.So I would-it was a little bit better and I had more food too because he waseating where he left off. And one time he came back from work and that Kapogot sick, like. I couldn't recognize the same guy. He came in and was screaminghelp. "Raus, raus!" to me, I should get out of his little place where he wasstaying and he and I wa...and I was and I was ??? I got sick a temperature,a temperature at time, I remember, high temperature and he sent me out inwintertime and then suddenly done. He knew I did some work for him, but triedto, he was so happy I was making his socks, he went out and he got me thehardest work to carry long woods, long, those, those woods uh, from the wood,from tar ??? you know and make the wood?