Irving Altus - June 2, 1982
Cement Factory
Was there any sort of religious activity in...
No. Nothing, absolutely. Not the Gentiles, not the Jews. Absolutely.
Well, I know...
I didn't...
...there was nothing formal but was there, maybe the rabbis? Did they...
I did not--not where I was, no. Maybe like this again if they were hiding in Auschwitz maybe. It was, like I say, forty or fifty or maybe a hundred thousand people. Maybe they could do it with rabbis or they used the manna when it was Passover. Not, not where I was with a thousand. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
And no sort of...
No, no.
...were there any political activities?
No, no, no, no. No.
Nothing. Uh, what happened when you weren't working. I mean, what sort of--Were you together? Did you...
It was one, one big uh, barrack. And when we, we worked again you know, they--I'm, I don't know how many hours and when you used to go, you know, come back from work, you, if they'll, if they didn't bother you, you ??? activities, so you are the happiest person. You could lay down and rest. Either ten hour or two hours or the twenty hours. You didn't have to go no place or go and talk or what to talk. You just were thankful that they let you stay in one place after work and they don't bother you. They didn't push you outside to march or to do anything, I mean. And you couldn't stay together and talk or stuff like this. If they only let you go to your bunker to the back and this was the thing and you sit down and sit there, that's it.
Your work in the cement factory um, your...
???.
...was that entirely Jewish?
No, no, no.
Mostly?
Most Jews, but it was Polacks, Germans uh, some people from Czechosłowacki, some Russians. I would say all nationalities. But the majority, Jews. I would say seventy--eighty percent Jews.
Were you treated any differently than...
Well, a little bit, but it was not too bad. We worked and that's it.
Everyone...
It's...
...was treated equally badly you're saying? Or they...
Right. Uh, but if you couldn't work, then again it was trouble. Then they finish you off.
It didn't matter whether if you were Jewish or not.
Well, it did matter a little bit. Maybe uh, a Gentile person had a chance. They would put him away to the hospital or to a room for a few days or something, but a Jew didn't have no chance. But with the food and the thing, everybody the same.
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